Matt Thomas

Student academic success center

• This was a great quiet place to get work done. I went here with my roommate who wanted to meet with his tutor and I read my environmental book while I waited. The only con about the SASC is that is is not very close to my dorm room and it was pouring rain when i walked there.

 

Common room of fetherman dorm

• This was not a great place to get work done. I was limited on where i could go because of the monsoon that was passing through but maybe walking in the rain would have been worth it. Too many people walk by and make noise for my liking and it was very easy to get distracted. The onlp pro to this location is that it is close to my dorm room.

Thesis:

Big data has the potential to positively influence the medical field through statistical analysis and predictive models. These  things would make the  medical field, specifically endocrinology, more efficient and precise when deciding treatment or predicting future events.

Sources:

• Big data analytics in health care: health care promise and potential (Medical journal) (Wullianallur Raghupathi, Viju Raghupathi)
  • shows uses ad application of big data
  • gives specific examples of how data is used
  • gives specific examples of the potential of specific data
  • shows pros ad cons
• The big data revolution in healthcare (medical journal)
  • application of big data in health care
  • specific examples of how big data is going to be used
• The role of big data In medicine (medical journal)
  • what we can use big data for in medicine
• Evidence based endocrinology ad clinical epidemiology (library database article)
  • specific medical field that uses big data
• The age of big data (online article)overview  
  • general overview of what big data is and its application/ potential

 

When thinking about how much data I put out I was a little bit frightened. Not only do I use my computer for school work, but I also watch Netflix, play music, shop, and play games on it. On the other side of this my phone is an even bigger emitter of data. Snapchat, Google, texting, calling, apps, Instagram, Facebook, email, Siri, and alarms are all things that I use on a daily basis. All of these things listed are part of big data. before learning about big data I was not aware that I had this much of a statistical presence, but after learning and doing research I would like to lessen my data footprint.

In this essay, it was important to me that I hit all the criteria for MLA format. When meeting with Linda, my tutor, this was one of our main focuses. SR year of high school my English class was primarily focused on learning all of the ins and outs of mlc format so there was only small details to tighten up on this essay such as including page numbers when needed, or wether or not to include the name of the speaker/author in the in text citation. Other than MLA I focused on surface level errors such as commas, apostrophes, and spelling. my strategy for this was to read my essay backwards one sentence at a time and find each error in hopes to catch as many as possible.

People are not getting the connection that they need from social media. Social media is changing how we interact with each other and form relationships. Before social media, our relationships were purely based on face to face interactions and real world connections. Since the emergence of different social media outlets, more and more relationships have been based purely off of what is said and done online. This does not allow for healthy thriving relationships because of the lack of personal connection. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is quoted by Susan Greenfield in her book titled Mind Change as saying “Relationships are the fundamental unit of our society (99). With this in mind, A 2008 long term medical study showed that “Women with fewer social relationships experience strokes at twice the rate of those with more, after adjusting for all other possible factors” (Greenfield 99). This overwhelming statistic not only supports the claim that the new way that we are forming connections is in fact bad for us, but it also raises the question of whether we can maintain healthy relationships by using a hybrid of personal and online forums. Equal parts of both on line and in person connection are necessary. If people do not participate in real world conversation and socialization, they will have less successful social connections leading to a decline in their health.

 

 

Susan Boyd makes many assumptions and claims throughout the first chapter of her book. I am aligned with almost all of her points and some are up to interpretation. There was nothing in this chapter that I disagreed with.  The first thing she introduces is the story of a student who was trying to escape the gang violence of his neighborhood and attend an ivy league school. This teen had many controversial posts on his my space page which liked him to gangs and corse language. the point she makes about this is that he did this as a “survival technique” (Boyd 29). I found this interesting and connected with it because I have witnessed this first hand as a teen on social media. If a teen is to break the social norms set by his peers he is ridiculed and thought of as weird or an outcast. The second point that she made that I agreed with was when she wrote that teens need to “understand how context, audience, and identity intersect (31).  I agree that this is important because of how people can interpret your social media pages differently. Take the excerpt about the teen trying to get into an Ivy League school as a prime example of what not understanding these things can do. He did not think of who would see his my space page or if his posts would ever be taken out of context. This ultimately came back to haunt him when it came time to get accepted to college. The last point that I made a connection with was when she talked about the complexity and sophistication of social media. Boyd makes the point that social media is a “cultural labyrinth” (53) and that “they (teens) are grappling with battles that adults face, but they are doing so while under constant surveillance and without a firm grasp of who they are” (53). This his could not be any more true. Teens do not understand what they are getting themselves into when signing themselves up for social media. They do not know the complexities or the dangers of having your life online. On top of all this they can not possibly navigate these profiles without a firm grasp of who they are.

The only social media that I use is Instagram. I was on twitter at one point and it began to take up too much of my life so I deleted it. I check Instagram frequently and post about every other week. I also have a Facebook but the only reason that I have that is to look at the pictures my family members post of me. I try to stay off of my phone as much as possible but I check Instagram if I have nothing to do or if I am just bored. I try to keep everything on my Instagram and Facebook appropriate because I know that my parents, coaches, or future employers will be able to see it. Overall I believe that I budget my time wisely between being in the real world and interacting with social media

Robert Waldinger made many good points on what it truly means to be happy. He opened up with some profound statistics about what millennials want in life and what they think will make them happy.  His survey shows that ”80% of millennials want to be rich, and 30% of the same millennials want to be famous”(Waldinger). This is unsettling because it is scientifically proven that neither of these things truly make you happy.  He then introduces His study known as The Harvard Study which watched well off and underprivileged kids from the Boston area grow from adolescence to late adulthood . At the end of this study the healthiest individuals were the ones who had the healthiest relationships throughout their life. Things like toxic relationships, divorce, alcoholism, and loneliness all contributed to the demise in some participants health. Robert emphasizes ” good relationships keep us happier and healthier” (Waldinger). He also supports the claim that “social connections are good for us and loneness kills” (waldinger). This not only supports his theory but also enforces the fact that the things that millennials want does not actually make you happy.  An important fact that he stated is that “it is not the number of friends or if you are in a relationship, it is the quality” (waldinger). This is a major problem for millennials. Most of us are more concerned with how many followers or likes we have and do not really focus on who is actually our real friends. He ends by saying that good life is brought about by food relationships  and the statistics are there to support his claim.