Category: Society& Culture
Reflecting on and challenging cultural norms, socialization, and commonly accepted truths
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“Is this AI?” I said into my phone with a dull, monotoned — and yes, irritated — voice, not wanting to get duped again, forcing my brain this time to not speak to this robot as if it were a human. It was the same tone of voice I had been using for the whole…
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It’s great we can connect with our grandparents. I remember one day vividly, it was autumn time, I was hanging out with my grandma and we ate lunch, a simple salad with chicken, together at her dining room table, and all was silent, mostly — no music or phones– and she pulls out her newspaper…
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There is a lot to get out of books. And different people pick up on different things depending on what resonates with them. I, for example, may underline and annotate in detail something that you merely skim past and vice versa. Books (a form of human connection) as well as relationships, when showing us a…
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When we think of social revolutions, political movements, we often think of sit ins, protests, and large scale policy changes. But what if social and political changes also involved spiritual change? In other words, a change in the consciousness of a person? Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash Personal Narrative As discussed in my posts…
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Just like how our bodies crave a balance, so too do social systems. We can see that systems will begin to revolt when the balance is thrown off. Expressing Emotions is a Tool for Maintaining Homeostasis In the previous post, I explain how the body craves a state of homeostasis and has tools to return…
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Have you ever tried to turn back downhill to your car during your hike, and then stopped yourself by saying, “No, let’s keep going, let’s make it to the top.” You want to get to the highest point offered on this hike with a satisfying end. You push through the last difficult moments and reach…
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I am viewing the mud on the tires of my car and remember how they got there. They got there from a trek into dirt on the side of the road. Not a regular business. I bought flowers from a woman on the side of the road. She needed money extended beyond a regular business.…
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“Something seems different, everyone seems happier,” my friend said to me as we walked with our senior class from the football field to our lunch period. My friend and I both had noticed a change in the general social atmosphere after attending school online for the past year and a half. “I think what it…
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Shame makes us feel like we are inherently flawed or inadequate in some way. It threatens our sense of connection, and therefore triggers the stress response, producing a felt sense, rather than mere cognitive thoughts, of unworthiness, brain fog, and a sense of being watched and in the spotlight (Firefly Therapy Austin). The feeling of…
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Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967 said, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.” And yet here we are with massive wealth inequalities and rampant materialism. When we focus more on things, we focus less on people. When we focus more on things, we focus less on the…
