Movember

Movember

Movember Slogan

Movember is an organization with the goal of raising money for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's mental health. This organization was created because of the generally shorter life expectancy among men because of these three health issue.

What the Movember organization does is has people create an online account and grow a mustache for the whole month of November. People then donate money to their individual account and then the organization spreads the money throughout different charity organizations. Movember acts as the middle man for collecting money, and shares it with different research groups and charity organizations. 

This is the first year since my sophomore year of high school that I have not taken part in the movement. In years past, I have raised over $500 towards the cause, but this year I simply became too busy to promote my account. 

Although I have slacked this year in my donation efforts, many of my friends have been passed the torch and are taking part this year. I have about eight kids on my team that are currently signed up through the Movember website and are raising money for the cause. 

I love this organization because it allows people to grow a creative, or even hideous mustache for one month of the year without people judging you. When you see someone with handlebars in July you may question their choices, but in November you can assume that they are doing it for a good cause. The organization sees the struggles that are apparent in men's health today, and aims to attack these issues head on. It is something that I would strongly suggest people take part in moving forward.

Movember Website

JUUL: My Personal Experience

JUUL: My Personal Experience

JUUL Logo

Vaping has quickly taken over the college and high school student bodies all throughout the United States. JUUL is one of the most popular vaping companies. The company claims that their electronic cigarettes are meant for adult smokers, but it is easy to read through that claim with them selling fruit flavored pods aimed at the younger generation. Flavors like mint, mango, fruit medley, cucumber, and creme brulee are extremely popular among the younger generations. 

When I came to High Point University from Canada I had never even heard of a Juul, but that quickly changed. Within the first couple weeks I saw most of my friends with one of the e-cigarettes, so like most curious college students would do I took a hit. It was my first time trying any form of nicotine because I never liked the idea of smoking cigarettes. Why did I feel like this device was better that an actual cigarette? I don't have a good answer for that question, but seeing my friends vaping made me feel like it was okay. 

I vaped for 2 years. I started my freshman year and stopped within the first couple weeks of my junior year. I always felt like it was bad for me, but when trying to quit before I had quickly realized I was addicted to nicotine. 

I always thought that quitting smoking would be an easy task, but I was very incorrect. I would see someone hit their vape and feel an itch. For the month while I was trying to quit I realized that I was noticeably more irritable and tired.

Today's issue is that both college and high school students are under the impression that vaping is cool, but are not thinking about the potential health risks. Lately, people have been getting sick and in some cases even dying from these devices, but kids continue to vape. The addictiveness of these vaping product is something that most people do not understand and is what is keeping people from stopping.

You would think that with all the research that is coming out about the negative effects of vaping that people would stop, but like smoking it is not that easy. My goal moving forward is to help kids quit. I now realize how hard it is, so I want to make it easier on other people.

JUUL Empire

Vaping Related Deaths

Total Information Awareness

Total Information Awareness

Total Information Awareness Diagram

The Total Information Awareness program was created by the United States Government in January of 2003 as a part of the Homeland Security Act. It was created to collect data from both public and private servers to detect any potential national security threats. It was also commonly referred to as Terrorism Information Awareness. 

In September of 2003, the same year that the program began, Congress officials voted to terminate the program and cease its funding. This stopped it for a while, but it was reported that the software used for the program shifted to the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2006. 

The issues that arise from this program is the amount of power that it gives the United States Government. While there are clear benefits in finding potential terrorist threats, there really are no boundaries on who they can spy on. This means that everyday citizens were, and still are, being spied on by the government.

This program gave the government access to some very private information that many may not realize. Things like bank deposits, credit card purchases, passport information, web browsing history, license registrations, etc., are now able to be seen by the U.S. government. 

This poses some very serious privacy issues. Should the government be allowed to access our personal information like this? Absolutely not, but to think that we could stop them would be very naive. While there are some clear benefits to this program, the negatives clearly outweigh the positives.

Total Information Awareness

Total Information Awareness (TIA)

My Online Presence

My Online Presence

Clarington Green Gaels

In today's class we discussed the power that private companies have in regards to our online information. It is scary to think that agreeing to most companies privacy policies allows them to have full access to your personal data. From there, these companies are allowed to share the information with whoever they want simply because you "voluntarily" gave them the information by agreeing to their privacy policy. 

Luckily for me, I am the opposite of a social media junkie. In honesty, I really hate the idea of social media and what it represents. I find that it is an escape for some people from their reality, but does not paint a true picture of what their life is really like. People are able to post pictures of their fancy vacations or extravagant parties, but in reality they probably do not live that type of life for most of their life. 

I express my hatred for social media because it helps understand why I have such a small presence when searched on the internet. I do not even have Facebook or Twitter. This makes my digital footprint a lot smaller than most peoples. 

When you search my name on the internet the first thing to come up is a UFC fighter, but secondly you will see pictures of me playing lacrosse. This is because over the years I have had articles posted about me from newspapers in my town or from organizations that I have played for. I do not necessarily love that these articles are so readily available online, but I would rather these types of articles be posted than ones talking about my personal and social life. 

When companies are looking to hire me in the future, I am now a lot less worried of what they may find. I have tried to keep my online profile very clean over the years because I was trying to be recruited for lacrosse, which I think will help me out in the hiring process. 

If I had advice for young people with social media it is to never post pictures with alcohol present. This is something that I have seen a lot over the years in both high school and in college. While it may not seem like a big deal to most, posting a picture with a beer in your hand while in high school is you giving proof of underage drinking. Legal repercussions never come of this, but it paints the wrong picture for yourself online. This is something that my high school coaches instilled into me and I have carried with me into college. Even though I am now 21, I still refrain from posting pictures at parties for the effects on my self-image. 

I left the ad industry because our use of data tracking terrified me
Clarington Green Gaels
Tyler Stinson Team Ontario