As children grow up, especially now in the age of technology they are exposed to a lot of information. While a lot of the media can help with their development and education, there is too much that is promoted on social media that can negatively affect a child and shape their mindset as they grow up. Social media and the internet is one of the first places that many children first encounter violence, just by tapping through videos on YouTube, or scrolling through an Instagram feed, violence is ingrained in most aspects of American life. Children who are exposed to violence through social media at a young age are very early desensitized and normalize violence making them less likely to interfere or stop violent acts as an adult.

In an article called “Does Social Media Induce Violence Among Youth”, by Shreesha Ghosh, she writes on the effect that exposure to social media has on children. The articles speaks on how social media is part of our everyday life and that it can’t be avoided. Yet, violence is embedded into our media and can have many effects on children, from violent behavior, increased feelings of hostility, and  antisocial behavior just as some of the few examples. In the article she quotes a paper by Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center at the University of Michigan that reads “Meta-analyses of the unhealthy effects of media-violence have shown that youth who view media-violence on a regular basis are more likely to exhibit... acceptance of violent behavior…  and desensitization toward violent behavior,” The society that we live in depicts violence so frequently that children create a “desensitization toward violent behavior”, this means that they begin the process of normalizing violence at a very young age, which can impede many other aspects of their life as they grow up. One of the the aspects that it can affect is feeling sympathy for victims of violent crimes such as bullying and abuse. This means they are less likely to try and stop a violent act when they see one, they would be “accepting violent behavior” because it’s something that they see everyday.

This normalization of violence from young children then creates what is known as the “Bystander Effect”.  The bystander effect as explained by an article titled “Understanding the Bystander Effect”, writer Kendra Cherry writes “The term bystander effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress.” She then begin to explain why the effect is so common amongst people. The first reason is people feel a diffusion of responsibility when there are many other people around and a violent crime is taking place because everyone expects someone else to make the call. The second reason Cherry explains, “The second reason is the need to behave in correct and socially acceptable ways. When other observers fail to react, individuals often take this as a signal that a response is not needed or not appropriate.” which leads back to the normalization of violence. When there is a large group of people and they all are witness to a violent act they do not react because they are waiting for someone else to tell them “this is wrong”. The problem is that no one can make the call because they see this act as unalarming; they feel like they have seen it too many times on social media to care. If a fight were to break out in front of a group of people more likely than not most people would just walk by; they would go about their day because no one else is taking action. No one is taking action because they see fights on social media and believe that it is a normal occurrence in their day. The bystander effect works hand in hand with the desensitization of violence that is developed as a child.

In a TED talk Philip Zimbardo tries to explain how people are able to commit these horrible acts and why people do not report or try to say anything about the situation. He says that when we are children we are not raised to interfere with things that seem unjust if they have nothing to do with us. He tells the audience “Most people are guilty of the evil of inaction, because your mother said, "Don't get involved. Mind your own business." from a young age children are told “mind your own business”, that is feeding into the role of being a bystander, now when children see violence on the media then are told that they should mind their own business, it makes sense to why no one seems to stand up and why most violent acts go unreported. The mix of being desensitized and then being told that it’s not your problem or issue, is the reason that so many adults now have a hard time knowing what needs to be done during acts of violence. Our society and media have made people grow up on the idea that not saying anything is better than intervening and that violence is a normal act. To combat this idea Zimbardo continued to say “Heroism as the antidote to evil, by promoting the heroic imagination, especially in our kids, in our educational system. We want kids to think, "I'm a hero in waiting, waiting for the right situation to come along, and I will act heroically,”. The same way that children are taught not to interfere and not to do anything, they need to be taught that they are capable of stopping any act of violence that they see, that they need to report and they need to help.

The only way to teach a child that violence is not normal is by teaching them the same way they first learned it; by putting more positive videos and censoring part of the violence then children will grow up knowing what is not okay. This will then translate to the way that the act as adults. If they are raised to learn how not to be a bystander then there will be less cases where violence goes unreported.

Our entire lives we’ve been told that we need to find our own identity and that all of our identities are unique. We always have heard identity as being a single thing, either you’re a boy or a girl, you’re an immigrant or citizen, many of the things we identify usually only connect to one idea. In this way no one really is unique. What makes every single person unique is the fact that every person has different layers to their identity that are more than the surface presents. Identity is a complex topic that can’t be summed up by one phrase.

In the book the Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald,  Jay Gatsby is a young man trying to win over his former love with extravagant parties and boasting his money. He tries to stand out as much as possible, yet no one even knows who the real Jay Gatsby is. “I suppose he'd had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” This quotes shows that Gatsby is trying to be known only through one piece of his identity. He wants to be known as the Oxford man, who is now very wealthy but, fails to realize that under the top layer of this identity there is more. The fact that he grew up on a farm and that his family was very poor, the fact that he does not make his money in the most respectable way. These are things that were ignored by Gatsby the entire story because he was so stuck on keeping this one idea for his identity, when in reality everyone has multiple layers to who they are.  

In the movie “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” a girl named Hushpuppy is living in the bathtub with her father. Due to icebergs and global warming the government is trying to evacuate the bathtub. This leads to Hushpuppy and her father being taken by the government and taken to a shelter. After being taken to the shelter Hushpuppy says, “I’m recording my story for the scientists in the future.” Hushpuppy unlike Gatsby realizes that there are different levels to her identity. Although she was raised in an environment that is completely different from the modern United States, she still acknowledges that they are apart of the reason she grew up the way she did, unlike Gatsby who completely ignores his past and only wants people to see one layer of his life, Hushpuppy is recording her entire life for the scientists so that they have a clear picture of the different layers of her identity.

“Don’t talk when we get inside, I don’t want them to know we’re not from around here. They’ll give us the discount if they think we live here.” We were waiting in the lobby, we wanted to go waterfall jumping. All of the male employees had buzz cuts, and close to no facial hair. I stood leaning against a wall, my hair grown out long enough to tie it back into a bun, and almost a full beard. I didn’t look anything like any of these men, and I felt their eyes glued on me every time as they walked past. They could tell I was Dominican like them but that my style said something different about me.  For the first time in my life I questioned my Dominican authenticity. I understand why she would tell my brother not to speak, he didn’t even speak spanish, but what was so different between me and them. I realized that giving off the impression that we were “authentic” and “regular” would work better in our favor. Saying that I only identify as a Dominican male would be wrong, as that is only one part of my identity, and in this case it was the identity that would work best in our favor, but I am more than just that. I had to accept the fact that I am also an American child and that it’s apart of who I am and how I should identify. We have different layers so that we can change based on our situation, we shouldn’t only be defined by one part of our identity.

People only tend to scrape the top layer when they are talking about their identity, and it’s because they only ever decided to identify with that top layer. Identity is more complex than just saying you are one thing or another, identity is made up of several pieces that fit together like a puzzle to make every single person unique.  Everyone can use the different layers of their identity depending on their situation. We saw Hushpuppy recognize the different layers of her identity in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” being stuck between the Bathtub and the modern US. I realized that part of my identity would disadvantage me in DR and I would need to hide that part. All of us have layered identities, it’s up to us if we want to start using all the layers.

Radon was discovered by Friedrich Ernst Dorn a german chemist. Radon was found when chemist realized a gas emitting from other radioactive elements. the residue left from the elements when they breakdown is radon. 86 is the atomic number, 222 is the atomic mass. For this element a lot of images immediately popped into mind with gas masks and explosions but that seemed too easy and unoriginal. I thought of a character named Radioactive Man from the Simpsons and realized that he fit perfectly with the properties of radon. It was a different and fun way to represent Radon.

The first step to make this print was to sketch out my image on a 4x6 rectangle. After we had the perfect sketch we laid tracing paper on top and traced the image onto the tracing paper. That is when we were given our plate to trace the image one last time onto to the plate. We had to make sure that we trcaed the image on the plate backwards so that when would print it, it would be right side up. We had paint on a tray and used the paint roller to evenly spread the paint onto our plate. We printed the image onto a sheet of paper and used a wooden spoon to smooth out the paint and details on the paper. Then we cut out the border and glued the image on.

If i were to make this print a second time I would make a more complex image so that it would be more visually pleasing and have the process be more precise. also i wish i would've had spread the paint evenly so that there wouldn't be all of those white lines. I enjoyed the painting and actual printing the most because it was really fun having our image come to life and printed onto the paper.

Negative space is all the empty space around an image or object. It doesn’t take interest away from the central drawing or idea, instead it adds on to the idea and compliments. On the right side the red in the background is the negative space because the black section is the main focus of the image. On the left side the black side of the image is the negative space because the red is the main purpose.