Week 6

Josh Omoletski

Section 3

For this week’s readings, I found them to be particularly interesting for a couple reasons. Firstly, two of the readings, “Is Wi-Fi in Schools Safe?” and “Wi-Fi in Schools,” delved into a topic that actually has scientific research and case studies pertaining to it. The topic of physiological effects caused by electromagnetic fields from wireless devices. This topic was actually a nice change from all the other readings we’ve had, which have focused on race and the socioeconomic and cultural struggles for minorities. This topic on EMFs pertains to all races (including whites) and is actually focused on fighting technology rather than a group of people or a conceived idea about a group of people. It actually surprised me that for all the case studies done on EMFs, I haven’t heard anything about it from unbiased news sources like BBC News.

Secondly, the other readings, which focused on the mental health of Asian American students, seemed to pertain more to the situation faced by many students here at Davis. The readings discussed how on average, Asian American students suffer more mental health related issues than any other ethnicity. This observation can be drawn back to what we talked about a few weeks ago: the model minority. Asian American students are under a ridiculous amount of pressure to academically succeed (especially if they are first generation Americans) and they basically grow up living by the motto “failure is not an option.” All this pressure amounts to stress building up and up as the students move on from high school to college and beyond. Yet, no matter how much stress and pressure they feel, these student refuse to ask for help. They feel embarrassed asking for help, as if they should feel ashamed of not being perfect or good enough. I’m sure that a lot of Asian American students here at Davis feel the same way; not only because this is a UC (which inadvertently makes it difficult enough), but this is also a STEM-heavy campus. STEM degrees are extremely stressful to earn (I would know, being a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major myself). All of these factors, pressure from home and stress from college itself, explain why suicide rates in Asian American college students are so much higher than any other ethnicity of the same age group.

I decided to add a meme just to give anyone reading this something to laugh about.

Question: Why do you think the media has not said anything about the case studies on effects of EMFs? Surely not all outlets of media are constrained by their sponsors right?

References:

Kam, K. (2013,September 13). On Some College Campuses, A Focus On Asian American Mental Health. Retrieved from http://newamericamedia.org/2013/09/on-some-college-campuses-a-focus-on-asian-american-mental-health.php?utm_source=Headlines+9%2F11%2F13&utm_campaign=Headlines+9%F11%2F13%utm_medium=email

Russell, C. (2015, March/April). Wi-Fi in Schools. The Bulletin, pp. 16-21

Spero, B. Is Wi-Fi in Schools Safe?. Retreived from http://bostonparentspaper.com/article/print.php?id=3009522