The Antlerette Volume 95 Issue 5

The Antlerette Volume 95

March 2021

Issue 5

Our School System is Outdated Greg Santos, Design Editor “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” - Albert Einstein. Our current education system has set many inquisitive minds up for failure. Each student has a different strength and the modern-day school doesn’t expose them to enough opportunities for success. The misconception of getting perfect grades and scoring well on tests has left students terrified and unsure of what to do with the rest of their life. We need reform, or else more will discover themselves wasting undiscovered potential.

School does not set kids up for the real world. Their knowledge of essential education has been the same, dating back to more than a century ago. Most schools require multiple years of subjects such as math, science, and history. However, there needs to be more of an emphasis on mental health, social interaction, finance, hygiene, etiquette, parenting, time management, etc. To give perspective, instead of learning intense mathematical equations that almost all students will never use in their adulthood, they should be learning about how the money system works. Instead of leaving high school with self-sufficiency and preparation for how the world genuinely works, we learn how to do y=mx+b and how the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

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The internet is a focal point that has ultimately caused schools to be outdated for years. It’s now as if we are being taught only to memorize information for a “test” or “quiz”. Why should students be learning about things that they can get from SIRI or ALEXA in seconds? It defeats the purpose of meaningful education, simply because there is none. It’s awfully unfair to students, and especially teachers to be exerting so much of their coveted time and energy that they will never get back into this overrated education system. It is also bizarre how teachers undeniably have one of the most important jobs in the world, yet they are underpaid and given a curriculum where students don’t experience much growth.

Tests are uncomfortably outdated. The big issue is that students are learning to memorize, and then evaluate their level of memorization on a quiz. Whether the information is logical or not doesn’t matter... as long as it’s correct. It’s like students are now being told what to think as opposed to how. This is a vital reason why Generation Z lacks a lot of critical thinking. There are so many critical thinking skills that students aren’t taught, and now they are trained to automatically side towards a certain claim that defends their bias, instead of reaching to discover the true credibility of the information they consume. This testing concept also ties back to the idea of memorization, and how it is meaningless due to the fact that we have valid information about everything we learn on websites and videos at the power of our fingertips.

Hundreds and hundreds of years. Nothing has changed. The creativity and intellect of these young students are being shot because they’re taught how to play within the same lines as every other kid. Throughout young adolescence, the objective is to build knowledge through memorization of information, which is distinctly not a logical trail to continue upon. Our current system is failing miserably, and offering the wrong type of education. We need to develop individual minds, not ordinary ones.

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Everything Wrong with SeaWorld Jaylie Gianatasio, Staff When SeaWorld first opened up in 1964, the park was loved by everyone. Parents would take their kids for a day out to see the new aquatic-life attractions with smiles on their faces. People continued to love SeaWorld and would visit year after year, encouraging the company to expand and build new parks. However, the customers were unintentionally ignorant of the mistreatment and abuse towards innocent marine animals happening right under their noses.

Not long after opening, a female orca named Shamu was captured from the wild at the young age of 3 and brought to SeaWorld. She was deprived of food when learning tricks, a common thing SeaWorld trainers still do, motivating her to earn fish rewards in order to become the park’s first performing orca. She performed in show after show until 1971, when Shamu finally reacted to her abuse. Annette Eckis, a secretary working at the park, was told to ride on the orca’s back for a trick during a performance. Eckis fell off Shamu’s back, and Shamu reacted by biting her leg hard and refusing to let go. Eckis ended up having to get 100 stitches and Shamu was retired from performing any more shows. On top of that, 9-year-old Shamu then died later that year from an uterine infection. Shamu wasn’t a carpet or a toy. She was a living, breathing mammal who was stolen from her home, starved, and exploited. Only then to die because of neglect and the inability of her trainers to properly take care of her. Shamu could have lived 40 more years, yet died at just 9 years old.

Shamu isn’t the only case of SeaWorld cutting a marine mammal’s life short.

SeaWorld tried to claim that the life expectancy of their captive orcas is much

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longer than those in the wild, with their females living up to 30 years and males living up to 19 years. But SeaWorld critics attest to scientific data that actually shows killer whales in the wild living up to a minimum of 40-50 years with a maximum of 60-80 years for females, and a minimum of 30-40 years and maximum of 50-60 years for a male. SeaWorld willfully misinformed the public with information from an old article written in 2012, titled Population Biology of the Resident Ecotype of Killer Whales in British Columbia, to make their company seen as environmentally and animal friendly when they are anything but. Not to mention, the article they retrieved that information from states that the only time orcas were living 30 or 19 years was when the mortality rate for the mammals was increasing due to pattern and productivity changes. So yes, SeaWorld’s captive killer whales can live as long as ones in the wild, as long as these whales’ death tolls are rising and their productivity is low.

To make up for their animals’ shortened life expectancy, SeaWorld excessively breeds their animals, such as dolphins and orcas. They are often drugged and forcefully bred, much more than the animal can handle. They are drugged when they aren’t cooperative and show aggressive behavior, but can you blame them for not being compliant when they are forced to live their whole lives in a small pool?

One example of this is the life of Tilikum, one of SeaWorld’s main breeding orcas. Tilikum’s genes were found in 54% of SeaWorld’s other whales’ DNA. Just like Shamu, he was misused and exploited. Tilikum died in 2017, after being held captive for 33 years. Because of the way he was treated, Tilikum became angry and killed multiple people, but SeaWorld continued to use him for shows knowing of the danger that could come from the orca. Why would SeaWorld keep this animal who has killed 3 people in tanks too small instead of setting it free to where it belongs? The answer is they simply don’t care enough.

SeaWorld’s biggest concern seems to be keeping their company thriving, and they will do anything to make that happen, including putting animals and human lives at risk everyday.

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SeaWorld is a cruel company. For the past 56 years, they have purposefully endangered the lives of marine animals and even their customers. They have tried over and over to keep their controversial scandals away from the light of the media in order to continue profiting off of their captive animals’ innocence, giving us reason after reason to stop supporting them. It is time we stop buying tickets from them, and say no to the evil corporate conglomerate that is SeaWorld.

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Childhood Trauma Kyle Williams, Staff Some people look back at their childhoods and wish they could relive all the good memories they had. Other people wish they could just completely forget their childhood and wish to move on to adulthood. They may have had some bad memories that truly traumatized them and still do traumatize them to this day.

Throughout some people’s childhoods, they thought they were so cool and did all these things to make them feel great about themselves, not realizing the effect it may have on them when they grow older. These memories scar people and make them cringe to the extreme whenever the memory randomly pops up into their brain.

Whether it is PTSD from past experiences or something that triggers a memory from one of your five senses, whatever the case may be, you sit there and reminisce on if what you did at the time was going to be a good idea for your future or not. I have a lot of these memories from my childhood I wish I could completely erase from my head, but sadly I cannot. Looking back at these memories and thinking why I ever thought that was a good idea makes me question if I am doing anything in the present day that I am going to ever regret in the future. It makes me question everything I have ever done, and is going to make me continue to question anything I do in the present.

When it came to family gatherings, I was usually always the quiet one because my life wasn’t always filled with excitement and joy. Everyone else in my family is a lot older and has something going for them. I never really found a sport to pursue or a hobby I loved.

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Being the youngest, always wanting to go and try new things wasn’t my strong suit. So gathering around the dinner table and hearing everyone talk about what the newest thing just kind of brought me down. And if something new was happening with me, I never knew how to start the conversation because for some reason I was kind of socially awkward around my family.

Now, as I become older and sadly some family members have passed, I wish I wasn’t so quiet. I wish I talked and kept conversations going and tried to become closer with my family. And now it’s too late. Being socially awkward wasn’t the trauma, but realizing that older relatives don’t have much time left and wishing you had more time with them is the trauma. You wish you can go back and change it, but you can’t. Always think of the future to make the present perfect.

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Confessions of an Unorthodox Girl Scout Jordan Ritchie, Editor-in-Chief Dealer. It’s what my clientele have been calling me for years. No, it wasn’t narcotics I was selling, but something potentially even more dangerous – Girl Scout cookies. For over a decade, I’ve been a Girl Scout, and now that I’m closing the high school chapter in my life, I’m also putting my Scouts life behind me. For my clientele (AKA family, friends, neighbors, and baristas), that means that they’ll have to find another girl to supply them their annual cookie stash… I guess, so will I, now. But truthfully, though there are things I’ll miss about being a Scout, I’m glad to leave the life behind. To everyone else, being a Girl Scout means selling cookies, going camping, preaching feminism, and doing community service – which are all true fact; those are all highlights of the typical Girl Scout experience. But in my 10+ years as a Scout, I learned and encountered many things that others may not know that made my experience less than ideal.

Disclaimer: Girl Scouts is a national organization with many different branches and councils all over the country that run differently, so my experience may be different from others’. I’m not seeking to discourage others from joining, only shed light on certain issues.

Before getting into dirty secrets, I’ll first summarize my unorthodox Girl Scout career. My French teacher once asked me what activities I liked in Girl Scouts. Of course, she asked me in French (which at the time, my word bank was limited).

“Singing songs? Going camping? Making crafts?” And I answered, “Cookies.”

While I could have elaborated had I known the words in French to do so, it was true. Selling cookies was my favorite part about being a Girl Scout. Not because I was greedy to earn money or was sugar-craved, but I liked doing business with

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people. Girl Scout cookies are and likely always will be a hot commodity. People love them. And as natural-born people pleaser, I like giving people what they want – what makes them happy. I’m also very goal-oriented and an overachiever. It gave me self-confidence to set a goal for so-and-so number of cookie boxes and to surpass that number. Not to mention, I picked up a lot of marketing and business tactics. However, I’m not very outdoorsy, so I never liked going camping. I’m a terrible singer and I always found the campfire repeat-after-me songs to be overly cheesy and especially cringey. And most other activities were held with other girls. It’s not that I was anti-social or couldn’t get along with others – I just simply couldn’t relate. Most of the girls in Scouts that I encountered were “girly-girls” and most of the activities offered catered to them. There were a few activities I did enjoy – a nature trip where we dissected owl pellets, a local hockey game. But the other girls were grossed out when they found mouse bones in the pellets and were easily spooked by the players crashing against the glass or the possibility of blood splattering the ice, so I was alone in enjoying those activities. As I grew older, I realized that Girl Scouts wasn’t made for girls. It was made for feminine girls. However, things are very different now in 2021 than they were when I first joined in 2010.

There’s a lot more options for little girls like me such as martial arts classes as an alternative to ballet dancing. But I would have liked those options when I was at the age to properly enjoy them.

Now, while these aren’t exactly dirty secrets, these facts might not be known to the public. In most regions, a box of Girl Scout cookies is $5. Of that $5, the Girl Scout that sells to you, only profits roughly a $1; the rest is distributed locally to fund local facilities and other Girl Scout-related activities. However, not all Girl Scouts make money from selling cookies. Younger girls instead receive incentives (such as stuffed animals and accessories) and have to wait until they reach a certain age and level until they are qualified to receive profit instead of prizes. With this point, I have a tip for all Girl Scout cookie buyers.

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Yes, little kids are cute and more amusing when they’re selling you cookies while jumping up and down and dancing, as opposed to mellow, lackluster teens. But those teens could be juggling Honors classes and college apps and they’re taking time out of their busy day to stand in front of a store for hours on end (more hours than younger girls) to make a profit to pay for trips and educational events – college tours, museum visits, etc. I once encountered a woman who refused to buy cookies from me because I wasn’t young. “I’ll go find some other little girls to buy from,” she said. Now, I’m not saying you should boycott buying cookies from young girls, but don’t forget that older Girl Scouts need your support just as much, even more. On the topic of sales though, there are a lot of rules that most people don’t know. Everyone knows about the girl that sold 300 boxes of cookies outside a marijuana dispensary. Smart tactic, right? Yes. Does it break the rules? Definitely. Girl Scout troops aren’t allowed to just pop up willy nilly in front of whatever store or restaurant they please.

Different Girl Scout councils (that host various troops in the area) are given permission from different shop locations and slots are first come, first serve.

Troops reserve slots ahead of time and are permitted to sell outside the location for a certain amount of time until another Troop takes over the next shift.

However, a specific troop may sell in front of an unauthorized shop if they have direct permission from that shop. While these rules are perfectly valid, there are others that I found highly questionable.

One of these rules is that boys cannot join Girl Scouts. Sure, it makes sense, I suppose – why would a boy join Girl Scouts when he can be a… Boy Scout? Now this was all very clear-cut and black and white until a few years ago when Boy Scouts began widely accepting girls. Boy Scouts then became a co-ed organization, now named simply Scouts. When Girl Scouts was questioned why they denied boys from entering, they argued that the lessons and programs are specifically created for girls, which also makes perfect sense. Lessons on how to become a strong young woman wouldn’t be beneficial to a boy. But if Boy Scouts could alter their objective to serve girls, Girl Scouts can expand their mission to include boys. It’s a commonly-mistaken belief that feminism is only for girls,

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when in truth, it’s about everyone. The values that we teach our young girls should be taught to young boys as well.

Now, the latest and my final scoop on the Girl Scouts organization is the tipping point of the scale for me. If I had found out about it sooner, I might have left the organization. Recently, it was discovered that Girl Scout cookies have ties to child labor. One of the ingredients that Girl Scout cookies contain is palm oil, which should be used sustainably, but it’s not. Rainforests are being destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations, and if that wasn’t bad enough, children are slaving away to harvest it. In Indonesia and Malaysia, thousands of children and their parents work on these plantations in hazardous conditions where they may be exposed to toxic chemicals or become victims to trafficking or abuse, for very little pay. An entire family could earn less than a box worth of Girl Scout cookies in a single day. This is unacceptable.

Now, I’m not saying that Boy Scouts is superior to Girl Scouts – they too have their controversies. Nor am I saying that Girl Scouts is a useless organization that needs to be taken down, or that my time spent as a Scout was wasted. As a Girl Scout, I learned responsibility, leadership, valuable life skills, and did a lot of good work for the community. I think it’s important not to forsake something that brought about a great deal of harm, when it’s also done a great deal of good.

The Girl Scout mission is to build “girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place”. And that is a beautiful objective that we have strayed from. But the solution isn’t to take to the streets and yell “DOWN WITH THE GIRL SCOUTS!” and burn down cookie-selling stands at Walmart.

What Girl Scouts needs is reform. A change. “Make the world a better place.”

I’m leaving my scouting life behind me. Will I help the reform in any way I can even after I’ve officially left? I’ll definitely try. But those who can make the biggest difference are current Girl Scouts and Girl Scouts to be. Girl Scouts isn’t perfect and it will never be. But we can strive to make it as good as we can. Make it a better place.

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Self-Driving Cars Are Not Safe Emily Corrales, Staff One of technology's greatest advances are self-driving cars. Even though these cars are a really cool thing to have, that does not mean they're the safest thing to drive. People say that having a self-driving car is safe because it can avoid car accidents, but that isn't the case. Self-driving cars may have trouble avoiding the same mistakes as we humans do, which could make it harder to eliminate most crashes.

There are studies from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and they came to the conclusion that self-driving cars may not eliminate crashes completely and might only prevent about a third of crashes if the vehicle drives too much like humans. A third of these crashes were the result of mistakes since people thought the cars would be able to just simply avoid the stuff on the road since they have more accurate perception than a human driver since they aren’t vulnerable to things like alcohol or drugs, medical problems or falling asleep at the wheel. People misuse the autopilot feature; the feature is there to guide you to your destination safely, but some people use it as an excuse to not pay attention to the road. This is not good since there's a difference between a car driving itself and the person driving the car, meaning that people have fast reflexes, while the car takes the time to calculate its next move. This could be very dangerous when trying to avoid a collision on the road. People also have too much trust in a car that could have a malfunction at any point in time. They have an irrational amount of trust in the cars cameras and sensors because they expect to pick out any potential hazards anytime while the car is in motion.

Although many of the car features make driving easier for everybody that owns them, self-driving cars are constantly updating because they're not ready to be used in that way yet. Maybe in the future, but as for right now, we shouldn't have that much trust in them.

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What is a Hedge Fund?

Ryan O’Sullivan, Copy Editor Recently in the news you may have heard about a certain GameStop Stock Market fiasco. While it may be hard to understand the details of it, we can all admit it, it feels good to see greedy stock brokers get screwed by the system for once. They find themselves upset by the “unfair” uprising from members of the 99% that are keeping them from purchasing their third boat. The method of exploitation they have been getting away with comes in the form of a hedge fund. Of course, I would not expect the average person nor myself to know the first thing about the stock market.

Recently, a subreddit titled r/wallstreetbets, which now boasts a following of over 8.6 million members, made national news as they turned GameStop from a business on the verge of bankruptcy to a Fortune 500 company in all of what seemed like one night. The way the members did this was by exposing the hedge funds that certain elites on Wall Street held. The way a hedge fund works is it invests a client’s money in alternative investments to either beat the market or place a hedge that rivals unlikely market changes. This may not seem all that detrimental at face value, but what may go unnoticed to stock market newbies like myself is that hedge funds actually hurt the economy. Their purpose is to maximize the returns an investor gets and to completely eliminate risk. The stock market is all a game based off chance; when short-sellers acquire hedge funds, they crack the system. They do not have to play the field and they still bring in more money than most investors. The way that you lose money on a hedge fund is very complicated. Hedge Funds nearly guarantee a 0% risk, but when insane amounts of money are poured into certain companies that have hedge funds on them, the price of the stock goes up, which forces investors to

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purchase the stock at an extremely higher rate than what they bought the hedge fund for. This causes the investor and the hedge fund company to suffer. By Friday, January 29th, hedge fund owners lost a collective 19 billion. That number surged to around 41 billion in the week following.

To protect the 1%, news outlets tried to silence the uprising and certain apps that allow you to buy shares took away the ability for traders to buy stocks from GME. It remains a hot topic right now as some buyers are still trying to make the push.

They are encouraging others not to sell and to hold the line. Certain political figures such as Andrea Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz have scolded stock-selling sites for not allowing the people to freely trade. AOC stated in a tweet, “We now need to know more about @RobinHoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.” After that, she also said that she would support a court hearing regarding the actions that the Robin Hood app partook in. Shortly after she tweeted this, Republican Ted Cruz tweeted out a response to the tweet in which he stated his agreement. This caused an unexpected and exciting union, which lasted all of about 20 minutes. Thereafter, AOC would deny Ted Cruz’s support by saying, “You almost had me murdered.” Regardless, the exchange between the two showed that no matter your political affiliation, anyone should support a free market.

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How Minecraft Roleplay is Changing Entertainment Emma Thogmartin, Staff As social media and entertainment go on, they continue to evolve in many different ways. One that has appeared recently is a Minecraft Roleplay server titled Dream SMP, a survival multiplayer set up by popular minecraft YouTuber, Dream. This is a server currently consisting of 33 members, most of whom livestream the server’s activities and events. While livestreaming on Twitch or YouTube, the members act out a story based on a loose script essentially playing caricatures of themselves. What makes this server interesting though is how livestreaming affects the streamers’ and viewers’ interactions with the storyline, such as live communication and feedback to changing how the viewers see the story as a whole.

By having the story narrative being livestreamed with only a loose outline there is a lot of room for improv on the streamers part, but there is also the option for audience participation in the plot line. Whether that be by live polls set up by the streamer, asking questions to the live chat to wait to see their general response, or a large scale vote that happens in between streams. The biggest example happened when Wilbur Soot, the first lead writer on the server, asked for the audience to vote on which party they wanted to win the election he had set up. In this instance, Wilbur had written two outlines for which way the story was to go based on the results of the election. When it was revealed that the coalition of SWAG 2020 and Schlatt2020 won, the first storyline of Wilbur Soot’s banishment was put into play. Others on the server opt for smaller ways of including the audience asking yes or no questions on whether they should do something or not.

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The largest way livestreaming affects the story though is how there are multiple perspectives of the same events and the audience can view what characters are doing outside of the groups. Who the protagonist of a storyline is becomes less clear and more dependent on who the viewer deems to be in the right. While some are obvious, others completely depend on perspective. Take TommyInnit and Technoblade for example, two of the biggest streamers on the server. Both saw each other as enemies because of their opposing goals, but because of how both Tommy and Techno are able to explain and justify their ideologies and goals to the viewer on separate streams, they both end up portraying themselves as the protagonist of their story, claiming that the other had betrayed them. For viewers who watch only one perspective, the protagonist is clear, but for viewers who watch multiple perspectives it becomes muddied and almost morally gray. Unlike most media with a set protagonist, live streaming begins to mimic real life in how no one really is the protagonist or antagonist, rather they’re simply people with no set roles, going through the challenges they face in the ways they believe are right. With each perspective added to the server, the new streamer becomes their own main character just like how we experience our own lives and that is amplified by the ability to view and learn about each character individually.

While the use of Minecraft for roleplay and storytelling is not a new concept, it is interesting to watch how the Dream SMP uses livestreaming to create their story. By constantly engaging the audience it creates a fun and welcoming environment for viewers to experience the story. With the varying perspectives, it adds dimensions to the story that most entertainment won’t have. While the Dream SMP is nowhere near the quality of mainstream media, it is still an interesting story with an interesting format that creates opportunities for the streamer’s creativity to shine.

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Social Media Shouldn’t Be Used As a Primary News Source Caleb Castleberry, Staff All around the world, social media users either get or spread news from their social media platforms. Apps like Instagram and Twitter are great ways to spread information across the world, usually faster than other forms of media like news channels. This can be a good thing, with important information being easily accessible almost instantly, but without the fact checking and editing done by other news outlets, it is easy to spread misinformation and lies. Social media should not be used as a primary source of news without extensive outside research from other sources.

People have different reasons for getting their news from social media instead of from news outlets. On platforms like Twitter, news can spread to the entire world in seconds. People also prefer news on social media because you can sometimes avoid the political bias that is often found in some news stations.

While both of these reasons are valid, they do not constitute getting 100% of your news from social media. While platforms have made an effort to warn users of untrue or incorrect news being spread, things being said on social media don’t go through the same fact checks that are done on news outlets. While bias is an issue in major media, at least you can be confident that the facts went through a confirmation process. If you don’t want biased news, it is still better to find an unbiased news station instead of relying on information from social media, which may or may not be true.

While it may not be as reliable as far as facts go, the unparalleled speed of the spread of news on social media makes it an extremely important and useful tool.

In the case of an emergency, getting any sort of information to people quickly can be more important than the integrity of the information itself.

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The first reports of the Las Vegas Shooting were on social media, not a major news outlet. In this case, the people of Las Vegas were warned of the shooter, and were able to take steps to stay safe, like staying in their homes. News like this should be spread as quickly as possible to ensure people’s safety. Even if the reports were fake, it’s better to be prepared than to get hurt because you weren’t warned. After the emergency ended, rumors spread on social media, where people misidentified the shooter and came to believe that the whole thing was a conspiracy. This led to survivors receiving death threats and being accused of being hired actors. News like this is allowed to spread because people read things on social media and instantly assume they are true.

Social media is just as unreliable as major media outlets because of the rapid spread of misinformation, confirmation bias, and lack of integrity of information. While news spread on social media can be true, there is no way of knowing what kind of integrity the news holds without looking into it further.

The speed of information on social media allows for great things, like fundraising for victims of tragedies or spreading potentially life saving information in the case of an emergency, and that can’t be overlooked. Social media should be used as the tool that it is, but not as your only source of news.

People should watch an unbiased news station, or do extensive outside research into what they read on social media. Apart from news outlets or social media, books, articles, reports from professionals, and newspapers are a great way to get news, while being sure that it is the whole, unbiased story.

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Being in California vs. Being in Florida During the Pandemic Shayna Hawk, Staff Beginning in March of 2020, travel has been limited greatly due to the COVID19 pandemic. Two states that seem to constantly come up when discussing how each U.S. state is handling the pandemic are California and Florida, both of which have been hit hard with the pandemic, and both states are dealing with it in different ways, with California being more closed off and Florida being open.

As someone who lives in California, but has been to Florida during the pandemic for essential travel, it is interesting to see the differences between the attitudes of both states when it comes to living, interacting with others, and tourism.

In California, living is far more closed off. For example, there are more restaurants that are either closed or do take-out only, and when restaurants are open, it is for shorter periods of time between lockdowns and generally less packed. However in Florida, almost every restaurant I saw was open with very few closed or take-out only places and there were many restaurants that were packed with 30 minute wait times because people seemed more desperate to eat there. Apps like Postmates or Doordash have been extremely popular since the start of quarantine, but in Florida, there does not seem to be a high demand for Postmate or Doordash workers. As for working, very few people seemed to work from home or go to school completely online. In Florida, I knew teachers and students alike who went to school 4-5 days a week while in California, I have seen more online working and more online school, with many California students going to school 2-3 days a week or even being completely online, such as the Elk Grove Unified School District.

The way people interact with each other is also very different in both states.

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Many people in both states are eager to interact without masks. But personally, I saw more mask hatred in Florida. I saw a lot of people in Florida who have been generally less safe about the pandemic, wearing masks only when required (and more often, incorrectly) and gathering more often. This is prevalent in California too, however, I did see more consciousness about COVID-19 prevention, with many of my friends social distancing even when it wasn’t required and wearing masks.

Finally, tourism is currently very different in both states. California and Florida are both huge tourist destinations with beautiful beaches, Disney, Universal Studios, etc... but a lot more is open in Florida. Theme parks and beaches in Florida seem to generally be much less crowded, but theme parks in California are closed, as with many beaches. There does seem to be less tourism as a whole in both states, with most beaches in Florida being packed with locals.

Personally, I have not been going to tourist attractions because my travel to Florida was essential and I stayed with family, but many people I know live in Orlando, Miami, or other beach cities and have told me their experiences going to common tourist locations and they tend to all say that places like Universal Studios or Disney World feel less packed and most people there seem to be from Florida.

Given the differences between how each state has handled the pandemic, from my experience, it’s still disappointing how badly both states are currently affected. As time goes on, less and less people in both states have cared about the pandemic even though most cases and deaths have been in recent months.

California and Florida both have the potential to do better with governing themselves, but it’s disappointing to see responsible people stay inside for months while irresponsible governments and people don’t help with keeping numbers at bay.

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Joe Biden’s COVID Plan Kaitlin Rohaly, Staff In November 2020, Joe Biden was elected President of the United States, beating Donald Trump in the 2020 election. With the promise of new leadership, there was one question to be asked: How is Biden going to handle the COVID-19 pandemic?

When President Biden was sworn into office on January 20, 2021, he went right to work. During his first two weeks in office, he signed 28 executive orders as well as 10 presidential memos and 4 proclamations. Prior to him being in office, he was very adamant about his goal of tackling the virus. Since then he has set a strategy on how he will oversee the pandemic.

Many are doubting his ambitious COVID-19 plans. Biden and his team know that getting the virus under control could take months, but Biden is confident in his strategy. He plans to take action in many different strategies that he has shared with the American people. One of his first promises on gaining control of the virus is administering millions of vaccines in hopes of slowing the virus. So far over 40 million vaccines have been administered, only time will tell how his efforts will pay off. Biden's efforts are refreshing compared to the previous lack of initiative by the Trump administration. Donald Trump purposefully downplayed the virus for months, and caused division in the U.S. as well as the cases of COVID to soar unbelievably high.

Other than tackling the virus itself, Biden has provided COVID relief in many ways. Biden has ensured that free testing is available, as well as eliminating the cost of preventative care and treatment for COVID. He is also providing paid

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leave for people affected by the virus and providing help to workers, farmers and small businesses affected as well.

On the Joe Biden Website, Biden gives an explanation of his plans and goals for the pandemic. He has a list of his proposed steps for his strategy. Parts of his strategy include stopping the misinformation that has heightened confusion and discrimination towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities. He believes that scientists and public health leaders should communicate with the American people and that this can lead to less misinformation and less discrimination. Another strategy is ensuring that public health decisions are made by public health professionals, not politicians.

It has been evident that many politicians' opinions have affected progress of containing the virus greatly. Biden wants to make it clear that professionals are in charge of making decisions on public health and the virus. Because ultimately they are the ones who know more about the virus than a politician does.

Biden also plans on making testing widely available and free. He will do that by ensuring that each state has at least ten mobile testing centers as well as drive through facilities to speed testing.

Biden has many more plans for his strategy. Hopefully, his leadership can help control the spread of the virus and lead us back to our normal lives. His ambitious plans are what America needs to move forward from the debilitating COVID pandemic, and maybe his strong leadership can lead to other greater things.

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The Unfairness Between the Rich and Working Class During the Pandemic Grace Eki-Edo, Staff As we enter the second month of 2021, there has been a gross injustice in the world. This has to deal with some celebrities not doing their part in being safe and staying inside; celebrities don't take this pandemic seriously and act like it's the flu, that you can just buy medicine at the pharmacy and you're fine instead of respecting it as a deadly virus.

Since COVID-19 started, celebrities have been having parties and other events to promote their music or just to have fun and more have been happening as we go through this pandemic. The working class has to deal with unemployment, eviction, or having the virus, while celebrities are having the time of their lives. Social media has been our main source of exposing celebrities who are having parties or other events that are not socially-distanced or have masks.

Female rapper, Mulatto, decided that she wanted to celebrate her birthday in a pandemic. Even though the party was supposed to be only for “close friends”, those close friends turned out to be more than that. When it hit, social media people were disappointed and angry that all of this was happening when people are out trying to be safe and trying to make a living during this time, and all we see when we look at social media is celebrities enjoying life and not having a care in the world.

Influencers have also been tagged with celebrities who won’t listen to Covid guidelines. Influencers will go on social media and say “be safe out there” or

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“wear your masks” when they, on the other hand, are having parties, going out of the country, and having the time of their lives, and when they get called out for it, they will start saying they’re sorry and they will try better, but then a week passes and they’re at another party. Wow, way to stay on your word.

I feel like there should be more fairness when it comes to this pandemic. If police can come into a person’s party and shut it down, then they can do the same for celebrities because celebrities are human beings too. They should be treated the way we working class people are treated when we have an event that we are not supposed to have. Celebrities need to wake up and see past their fame and money and actually see the reality of what COVID is doing to us and start following the rules and guidelines so that we all can go back outside again.

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