[character is in bed. Phone buzzes, they look at it.]

OMG. I can’t believe it. Why would someone say I did this with Drake and Josh. I can’t with these rumors.  

[another buzz]

[Reading from phone} “Is this true?”

How could she! I can’t even…

[typing on phone] I can’t believe you are believing this Zoe. You are my best friend if anything I thought you would not believe this. I thought you were better than this believing these rumors. If I did something like this you would be the first to know.

[another buzz]

[Reading from phone} “I am sorry I should have not have believed the rumor. You are right I need to learn how to not believe these petty rumors. I am not sure who started this but I can try to figure out.”

OMG why is Zoe is even questioning me. I mean I am Britney.  

[typing on phone] Ok thank you Zoe. You really are a true friend. I hope that you know I never would do anything with Drake or Josh there both nerds. I have only had like one convo with them.  

[another buzz]

[Reading of off phone} “OFC I know you would never even get near them. This rumor is getting bigger it has hit most of everyone's finsta and snap stories. Idk where it started I am asking around no one knows. Have you read some of these comments.”

Omg I am so nervous...

[typing on phone] NO I am above all of that. But if I were to ask would you tell me what some people are saying. So what are Drake and Josh saying oh and Emma. She always hated me.

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “Yeah well Emma is certainly not being soft with her words she is saying that I can’t believe Britney would do something like this. Emma also said that you are a major hoe and used some harsh emojis. Drake is not denying that any of this happened and nether is Josh. They are feeding on this drama and it is helping them look cooler.”

Ughh this is awful

[typing on phone] What omg I can't with Emma tbh she has always had it out for me ever since freshman homecoming when her crush Dylan asked me out and not her hahah. Josh and Drake I mean that is not surprising they are guys why would they deny it. Well thanks anyway for reading those comments. I probably should have not asked I am only feeling bad about myself.  

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “Omg there is no need to feel bad about yourself block out those haters sister. No one else has commented anyway it is only those thirsty bitches out there looking for attention. I mean who cares what people think your Brittney your the most popular girl in our school.”

Well not anymore

[typing on phone] Yeah your right Zoe but I am not sure about my popularity come Monday. I bet people are going to look at me when I walk down the halls and start to gossip about me when I am there acting like I can’t hear you.

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “I've got you if anyone says anything I will stand up for you. But no one will say anything. Ok this might sound like I don't trust you but I do. You can tell me it is just you and me is this rumor actually true”   

Should I? Do I trust her?

[tying on phone] Ok I am going to be honest but only because I trust you completely and you are my best friend. The rumor is true I don't know how people found out though. It might be because Drake and Josh told people.

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “What omg why did you not tell me this is major tea I can't believe it. Only thought you would do it with someone different.”

I thought so to.

[typing on phone] Yeah it is major I just did not want you to judge me.

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “I would never judge you”

Really???

[left on read]

[the next morning phone buzzes an alert from instagram about the rumor Britney picks up the phone]

[typing on phone] Oh could you and I now assume that your the one who spread the rumor. You took a screenshot of are messages and posted them. You bitch. I thought we were best friends.

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “I thought we were to until you decided to start dating my crush Chad you knew how much I liked him yet you decided to hook up with him under the bleachers like some common whore. So I decided to spread a rumor that could be true knowing your history you whore. Turns out it was true. I also did not know the info until Drake told me.”

What omg Drake told her...

[typing on phone] Wow you want to go there. You are just a petty bitch cause you and I both knew that Chad did not want your ugly ass. So let’s not lie about that. What you did crossed the line.

[another buzz]

[reading of off phone} “Well what is done is done I hope you know that the whole thing was a rumor nothing to get dramatic about like you did. But you did so I started to wonder could this be true. I asked you and it was a rumor it is just a rumor till it is confirmed and you did that for me. So know the whole school will know that you has a threesome with Drake and Josh the ugliest boys in school.  HAHAHA”

[left on read]

OMG I am done...

Ever since I can remember I have been afraid of heights, this fear is also known as vertigo. I have never liked heights and always had anxiety over it. But what happened in Northern Ireland was a first. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. This was my first time having a panic attack and it was a complete shock.

While walking down the green path I was thinking to myself, “Should I cross this bridge or not? I am going to see it and then decide if I should.” I thought that seeing the bridge would help me get a better picture of it and how high of the ground it was. Decision time came. The bridge was a wooden rope bridge and I knew it was safe, but my head was too distracted by how high up it was. My family were looking at me and I could feel them pressuring me to cross. I did not want to disappoint my family. So I crossed the bridge. I did this with extreme caution and vigilance. When I got across, I felt very dizzy. Things were spinning and my breathing was irregular. I lay down and waited till the feeling passed. When I got up I was surrounded by amazing scenery. The grass on the island was freshly cut and I could hear the sound of the waves and  everything smelled so fresh. I looked at my family and they were so proud of me. I thought to myself that seeing this view was worth crossing the bridge.

Then came the way back and there was a line before you crossed the bridge. I thought I was going to be in this line forever. Only a certain amount of people could get on the bridge at one time. This helped me with my fear. I was waiting in line and then I saw this ignorant family crossing the bridge. The family started to jump on the bridge. I saw the bridge move up and down. It rattled and shook. The waves were crashing underneath. This immediately made me afraid and I started  overthinking. I was starting to regret crossing the bridge to begin with. I started to say things in my head, “I am not going to make it across”. I knew that none of this was true but I could not get it out of my head. Once the fear started, it took control of me. I got to the bridge and I was shaking. I stood at the bridge for 15 seconds thinking and trying to get myself to cross. I was so scared I could not get myself to do it. Suddenly everything started to get louder,the waves, the people in line, everything and  I could not focus. I started to get dizzy and things were starting to spin. I could feel my heart rate increase. I was having trouble breathing. I felt tears coming down my face.

My cousin started to help me regulate my breathing. She said, “Breathe in your  nose and out through your mouth to get your heart rate back at a normal pace.” I started to do this and it was working. I was not dizzy and I could breathe better. My heart was starting to get back to a regular pace. It took me some time but I got up. I started to walk to the bridge. I stared at it and I was completely frightened.  I decided not look down to see how high up I was. I was breathing in my nose and out through my mouth. This was really helping me zone out and not think about what was happening in the moment or the fear I was feeling. I finally got across and immediately tears started to come down my face. I could not stop myself from crying. The fear overwhelmed me and the relief that it was over made me cry.

I finally stopped and started to head back to the car. On the way back to the car my mind was blank. I was in shock. I could not believe what happened. I think I need to stop letting my family pressure me and worry less about other people’s expectations for me. To this day, when I look back on that time, I still get nervous and start to get anxious. I can't shake the feeling. I can’t shake the fear.

I have worked hard in trying to help fix the problem of social media and body image. I researched and wrote an essay about my research. In my research I found some shocking things about eating disorders and what magazines do to make there models look good. Then I did some of my own research, I watched this documentary called Straight/curve Redefining body image and I interviewed the creator of the documentary. I thought that it was eye opening to see how kids are influenced today and what the media can do.

Throughout my research I found only a few organizations that were helping to fix this problem. People are not just having fundraisers, I also saw tha some organizations were having ted talks. I watched one of the ted talks and it was wonderful, the person speaking talked about her own experiences and what she went through as a kid. She talked about loving to swim when she was younger just not loving the way her body looked in the swim suit. I also found this new organization that is dedicated to help people with eating disorders and people with body image issues in general. I believe that these are good ways to start change and that maybe there are other ways. I do think that having a ted talk was a good idea. I believe that this is affecting the kids the most and that if it is a video it is going to be on the internet so kids are bound to find it. So a ted talk is a good way to get the word out to the kids.

For my agent of change I decided to pick four magazines and write four different letters to the editors of the magazines. I decided to write letters to Teen vogue, Allure, Seventeen, and GQ. In these letters I wanted to talk about what I thought was a good way to show body image and what I thought they could have done better with. I decided to do this because I thought that is would be a good way to get the word out. I decided that instead of doing something big I could target four magazines. I thought this would make an impact on the problem. My experience was a good one while writing the letters I tried to look at the magazines closely and see what really needed to be changed and what I thought was something they needed to be complimented on. I was not that effective in making a change when I sent the letters out I only got one response.

Link to letters:

Letter to teen vogue

Letter to Allure

Letter to Seventeen

Letter to GQ    

Link to Annotated bibliography

    In my first blog post I talked about social media and how it can affect what people think about themselves. I also talked about photoshopped pictures and non photoshopped pictures and how people today want to be something else but there not. For my original research I did an interview I interviewed Jenny Mcquaile. She directed and produced the documentary straight/curve redefining body image.  For my research I also watched the documentary.

In the documentary they talked about a lot of things that I mentioned in my last post. The documentary focused on a lot of things like teenagers and body image and there self esteem how it affects them today. It talks about what people are seeing on social media and in magazines and how people remember pictures faster than anything else. How that affects people thought process about how they look. In the documentary they use a diverse number of models to speak and model so people can see that you can look good in anything and it does not matter how much you weigh and how you look.   

I learned a lot from the interview that I did with Jenny Mcquaile. I learned that clothing sites are actually listening and that they pay people to read the comments. In the beginning I was not focused on eating disorders but when I did the interview I learned about eating disorders. Like how people associate that larger people are not healthy when it really is that people need fat to be healthy. Jenny also mentioned in the interview that social media was a cause for this problem but she also said that social media can be used for good. For example she said that social media can be used as a voice and we can know tell people what we want out there on the internet. In my last post I never really said that social media could be used for good but know that I am thinking about this it can be used for good. You can use social media to get your opinion out there and to make sure that people here you.   

The documentary is not focused on one thing it talks about eating disorders, and teens and how self conscious they are. I think the main thing though that they were trying to get across was that beauty can come in all shapes and sizes. To do this they used different models that were different ages and races and they model to show this. The models also got to tell their experiences like what it is like to be a model today. They talked about what the requirements are to be a model today.

After doing all this research I am starting to notice things that are affecting people self esteem and the way they look at themselves. Like on social media or billboards I am also starting to catch myself and notice when I judge myself because of the way I look. I believe that all these things are wrong and if people stop seeing just their body and the way they look then I think people can move on and stop focusing on the way they look. One thing I wish I focused on more is eating disorders. I believe that eating disorder are a major issue with this topic. I wish I looked into this problem more and discussed it more.

For my agent of change I think I might write letters to all the clothing companies that give the image that looking skinny is the right way to look. I believe that the interview I had with Jenny Mcquaile informed me on a lot of things I did not know before. I also believe that it helped me further my research on this topic and expand my thinking.   

   A psychologist found that the media’s portrayal of women and girls especially causes body image  issues and can cause dieting, wanting to be thin, and body surveillance. Body surveillance is when someone is constantly looking at the way there body appears and not always feeling comfortable with it.  Social media like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram images and reports can  cause this. I read this article and it was about a girl getting bullied for the way she looked. She even got rid of most of her social media friends because she was afraid of being made fun of. This is not just a teenage problem and this affects the adults. The article said that about 60% of the public feel ashamed about the way they look. Studies  show that girls are more vulnerable to what they see on social media. There are alot of statistics like 35% of them are worried about being tagged in a picture that is not attractive. There are 27% feel stressed about how they look in a picture that is already posted. There are 22% who feel bad about themselves if there picture is ignored. This needs to stop. Look at these 2 images and notice how one is photoshopped and one is not. His teeth are whiter and many of his face lines are gone. The media uses photoshopping a lot and Aerie is one of the few companies that has a promise to show people as they really are.

I am not saying that social media is a bad thing but I do think people but teenagers in general need to stop comparing themselves to other people or being worried about if  you looked good in that picture. I hope to learn a lot about this topic and also I hope to teach other people about this topic. I am curious about why there is not more research on how men and boys are shown in the media. I also want to learn about we can use the media for good. I am looking forward to helping the community.    

Fionn Hyland

11/16/17

Red Stream

The slide

    I made my slide the way it is because I put thought and research into it. In my slide there is a map in the background I decided to put the map in the background because people can look at the map just by looking at it it does not take time to look at it. I decided to say places I have been as the title was because I thought it was short and to the point but I also decided to do that because of my research. In the article presentation zen in the section glance media they mentioned that people will not slow down to look at something that takes time to read they will not slow down to read something that does not take forever to read. I decided to put the country’s I have been to in different colors because I thought that it made the country’s pop but I also did it because of my research. I research I used was presentation zen and it was in the same section of the article glance media in that section it said when people slow down they notice a few things but one of them was color so I put some color in there.