Posted by Jared Lawandales on July 21, 2010 at 3:51 am
I would argue that the mainstream media, and the education system, are far from truly diverse. While I would imagine that most companies attempt to hire the best candidate, I have personally managed a few companies that intentionally hire specific amounts of “minority” employees to receive federal tax breaks (EEOC Credits). I would imagine that this is no different in the large media organizations. Every large mainstream media organization has their slant and tends to maintain it’s political partisanship across the board. Consider for a moment the difference of opinions between MSNBC and Fox News. These fundamental differences can contribute to the perception of diversity in the media, but you will hardly ever get the whole story, usually just two sides.
On the other hand, when examining the vast resources available when referring to an Internet medium, you will see much more diversity. With online news organizations like BBC, OANA News, and Al Jazeera, as well as the wide diversity of blogging communities like WordPress, you are able to find a much higher level of diversity in the media. Although, I have noticed what I believe to be individuals who’s interests are vested in making controversial news virtually disappear on the web. It is quite common for me to read news articles that seem to be of the controversial nature, that are then quickly buried into the plethora of articles available in today’s search engines. Still, I believe that sorting through the diverse web media for the similarities between different opinions, could not only discern what is almost sure to be fact, but also what is simply different viewpoints on the same topic.
~ Jared Lawandales
Continue Reading
Posted by Jared Lawandales on July 15, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Here are some of my thoughts related to William Glasser’s Choice Theory.
Personally, I believe that we are consciously in control of our thinking, feeling and acting, while our subconscious is in control of the physiology. In support of the “all we do is behave” theory presented by William Glasser, I feel that our behaviors are based around the conscious decisions we make in our heads regarding how we feel, think and act. In a particular situation you could change the way you feel, take for instance people with phobias. There is no real need in most cases for unwarranted fears. The action of screaming when you see a roach is unwarranted, as the roach presents no real threat to your life, resolve to change how you feel about the roach and you will no longer need to change how you act in response to one. A similar approach could be used when considering any of your conscious behaviors. On the other hand, your physiology will be controlled by your subconscious until you introduce a substantial outside force. Chemicals, disfigurement and other large-scale introductions into the body do, however, have the potential to affect your physiology.
Here are some great references for learning about William Glasser’s Choice Theory and how you can apply them in your life.
William Glasser Institute
Wikipedia
~ Jared Lawandales
Continue Reading
Posted by Jared Lawandales on July 13, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I was very interested in the results of this particular assessment. I have always considered myself a highly optimistic person. The assessment I refer to in this article can be found at http://www.AuthenticHappiness.org, they do require you to register but the information can be very insightful. Please feel free to take this assessment and leave your feedback here.
My scores for the “Permanence – Good Events” category are intended to represent the level of permanence or longevity a good event represents in my life. My score for this assessment was a 6. Placing me in the 85th percentile for all the charted demographics, this represents a moderate level of optimism when regarding the long-term effects of a positive event. This is an accurate representation of self, as I never regard any success as permanent. One’s overall success is determined by a life long dedication to problem solving. I believe it is good to internalize positive events while remembering that there will always be an opportunity for improvement.
Following along quite the same lines, my score for the “Permanence –Bad Events” category was 1. Believing that there is always an opportunity to perform better, I naturally blame mistakes on external forces. Standing in the bottom 21st percentile for this assessment, I tend to let things go and not allow them to negatively affect the overall course of my life. I think this is an accurate portrayal of this aspect of my life because I view failures as simply an opportunity to learn and improve.
The “Pervasiveness – Good Events” category defines how likely a good incident is to permeate into other aspects of our lives. I received a score of 5 in this assessment. Coming in just under the 80th percentile according to the graphs depicted, one could say that I have an average tendency to allow good events to affect the other aspects of my life. I am inclined to say that this is related to a mild level of OCD, but the focus of an event tends to stay relevant to that particular incident. Any success can generally be related to the things we did correctly or well during the completed exercise.
Once again, the same is represented on the opposite side of the scale here. When examining the “Pervasiveness – Bad Events” topic, a score of 2 was assigned placing me in the bottom 30th percentile. Similar to my opinions regarding the affect of good events, bad events are products of the mistakes or miscommunications observed during a task. These aspects are to be identified, explained and then improved upon. Once identified, they need to be internalized and grown on to alleviate the possibility for negative infiltration into other aspects of our lives.
The final assessment regarding “Hopefulness” produced a score of 8. This seemingly mediocre score on a scale of -16, to 16, actually represents results in the 94th percentile for my demographic. The test refers to this as a moderate level of hopefulness. I would sincerely hope that my demographic represents the minority in this case, because if 95% of the world is less than moderately hopeful, we may be in trouble. I think this score accurately reflects my current state of hopefulness. I stated earlier in this discussion that I felt I had recently fell into the proverbial “rut.” With little time for self-reflection, I can really appreciate the ability to cover this subject matter in an attempt to better any current situation.
~ Jared Lawandales
Continue Reading