Unleashing Readers

Negative Effects Because of Society

“Romance Has Been Destroyed by Society (and how books should be taken as an example for healthy relationships)” by Oscarie C., 7th grade

Romance is often seen as “cringe,” unrealistic, or just physical attraction, but romance in reality is gentle, sweet, and it’s supposed to make you happy. Social media and society have messed up the way people see love, most of the time romanticizing toxic traits in relationships and promoting unrealistic expectations. Now, many adults and teens struggle to understand what a healthy and sweet relationship looks like.

Society has made toxic behavior in relationships look normal. Instead of showing healthy things like communication, trust, and respect, social media makes jealousy, obsession, and controlling the other person’s life look healthy. It’s also seen as normal to be overly obsessed with your crush or partner, even when it looks uncomfortable.

People on the internet and in real life are always saying things like “if he wanted to, he would” or “never settle,” and just talking about the infinite red, beige, and green flags. Because of this people focus more on social media standards than actually focusing on who the person really is. Letting people on the internet decide if your relationship is healthy or not has messed up with what people can think what a healthy relationship looks like.

It’s not new that society has made people think that beauty matters in relationships more than personality. In fact for many many years, people (mostly women), have put so much time and dedication to try and look perfect, often as desirable objects for men to prove that they are unique or when they’re beautiful enough they are shown  as dumb or naive. Social media and the fashion and beauty industry make this worse by showing unrealistic images of what people should look like. People have taught us how to judge people on how they look and dress to determine if they are worthy of people dating them or not.

Some people also see their partners as property or something that they need to control, they often control who their partner talks to, where they go, and what they do. This usually comes from insecurity and control.

This is why books should be taken as a better example of healthy relationships. In many books, relationships are shown as something sweet and healthy. They show that romance is not corny or weird as people make it seem. Books often focus more on how to actually take care of a relationship and what to look for in one rather than just appearance or unrealistic expectations shown by social media and the beauty industry. Because of books like this, people can actually see how a relationship should actually be like, and not how social media and people think a relationship should be like.

Books like Honey So Sweet show how a healthy and non forceful relationship looks like. Taiga Onise was seen as a delinquent and a bad person, and when he first confessed his love to Nao she was driven by how Onise looks like and what other people say about him instead of focusing on how he is as a person. This book series also shows how you can’t force someone to like you, because in the first volume because after Onise had asked Nao to be his girlfriend she was afraid that she had to be his girlfriend or else, but Onise understood that she was afraid so he told her that it was fine if she didnt wanna date him,and they stayed as friends. But when they actually dated him they showed how much they trust each other and that they feel comfortable to be with each other.

In contrast, Nana is the perfect example to show you how toxic relationships actively damage your life and how a man can change you. At the start of the manga/series, Hachi is cheerful, caring and friendly, and by the end of the series, she’s more dry and less friendly, showing how Hachi is actively being manipulated and treated like property by Takumi, and he repeatedly harms her personal and social life, she even lost her bond with Nana because of him.

Sources: our conception of love is messed up. is it an outfit or is he just a man?

“The Damages of AI” by Rutva P., 7th grade

In this day and age, most people have heard of artificial intelligence or AI for short. Many people consider AI to be the thing of the future, but have you ever considered how AI has downsides? 

AI harms creativity

AI copies and steals all its information from real life works whether it’s an author’s writing format or a painter’s art style.

Below is an example of an AI copying an artist’s work from Megapencil.co.

There is also a class action lawsuit against OpenAI from a number of authors. They claim the AI has violated copyright laws and stolen their work and writing. And that isn’t the only lawsuit against AI,  according to theguardian.com, “Penguin Random House has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging its chatbot ChatGPT violated copyright by mimicking and reproducing the content of a popular series of German children’s books.”

With the rise of AI, many people are becoming too reliant on it. This kills people’s ability to think critically and be creative. Students are using AI to write their essays and do their school work already. Imagine the future where AI is developed enough to write full books from stealing authors’ work. 

 AI damages the environment

Generative AI, the artificial intelligence most commonly used among the masses, requires massive amounts of energy to function. According to Climateimpact.com, a large model like GPT-3 can use enough energy to power about 120 U.S homes for a year. This amount of energy releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

AI also requires lots of water to cool down their systems. This enormous portion of water being used harms ecosystems and lessens the water supply.

Animals like the polar bears have to pay the price for the deterioration of the planet due to AI. The global warming that AI uses plays a part in melting the ice caps polar bears call home. Polar bears are currently listed as a vulnerable species while people generate AI images and tell themselves that there is nothing they can do to help. The polar bears are just one example.

How can you help?

One simple way to help, is to try your best to avoid generative AI. Unfortunately, in this day and age, AI is used everywhere and is hard to avoid. If you want to use AI and also help the environment, ecosia.org is a good substitute for other sites where generative artificial intelligence is used. Ecosia’s AI models use less energy and all their profits go towards tree planting projects.

Another way to help is to support human creativity. You are human and you can be creative. Instead of using AI for an image, draw it yourself. Instead of using AI to write an essay, put in the work yourself to become a better writer.

Thank you so much to my student voices today and their look at negative effects caused by society and how to fight them!