Like our first essay, my topic for this essay will be related to homelessness. I felt inspired by the sources I read when composing my first essay and wanted to do even more research. I especially want to find sources that include the voices of homeless people, with words directly from them. I follow some youtube accounts that interview homeless people. I also follow homeless people on TikTok who spread awareness about the conditions they live in and their experiences being homeless in general. I know of a couple Instagram accounts that document work done to aid the homeless. Specifically, I want to know how I can further make a difference so I can do my part as well as inform others on how they can do their part. I think it is our duty as humans to be there for one another and improve the quality of life for people who are struggling. I also wanted to familiarize myself with facts about homelessness. My first idea for a research question was: How can one help solve the issue of homelessness? However, I feel my first idea cannot be easily debated against. It could also be too broad. This led me to think of the research question: What NYC laws further criminalize or improve the lives of the homeless population? This question may be too specific, however it can be disapproved and requires research to be done. I also thought of the question: How does being homeless affect students in NYC public schools? I feel like I can look at how the NYC public school makes it easier for the lives of homeless youth and also how it can make it harder. I am not sure how many sources are out there for this topic though. As of right now, I am leaning towards the questions of how can one help solve the issue of homelessness and how does homelessness affect the lives of students. I hope to get some help in figuring out which is better to use.

EDIT: While reading through other student’s topic reflections, I started to find interest in the topic of  the prison system. How does the prison system work? Does the prison system help or harm our society? Who does the prison system help or harm? Should prisons be more rehabilitating rather than punitive? I will probably stick with the topics I thought of above, however I hope I will get the chance to research this topic in a future essay for this class.

For this essay, I have chosen to go a little bit far to learn more about social issues currently happening and affecting us, and I, for some reason, did not know a lot or anything about it. Here are two social topics I would like to write for my second essay.

1. To what extent does national security interfere with the personal liberties of the citizens?

Social media has always been a widespread alternative for young adults and teenagers to get in touch with relatives and people worldwide. However, recently there has been one that has taken over the world. TikTok has reached to top in the list of popularities, with more than 2 billion downloads. In the last few months, the world’s largest markets have begun to ban the app for stealing and surreptitiously transmits unauthorized data to third parties. India banned the use of TikTok in June of 2020, while the US still face the hard choice to banned or not, the truth is that people still allegate that these allegations are not 100% truth. Therefore it should not be banned just because of incorrect and weak allegations.

Are girls married before the age of 18 more likely to suffer domestic violence?
Coming from a third world country full of stigmas makes me think a lot about social issues. A social issue that has been placed as one of the most controversial ones in all the tabloids is the child marriage of girls under 16 years old. This issue has the target of multiples comments worldwide, most of them blaming the parents or blaming the lack of education these poor girls received in their lives. In contrast, others refuse to see the other side of the coin, they preferred to ignore the poverty, misery, and suffering these poor girls lived. Countries with the highest percentage of child marriage are usually the ones with the highest percentage of domestic violence, being at the same time considered as the “third world countries” because of their outdated ideas and stigmas.

For my second essay I have decided to write about another social issue that has interested me, that is, the deforestation of national reserves in the Amazon. More specifically, how indigenous tribes have been affected by illegal logging, mining, and farming. Some of the research questions that have come to mind are: Why are people illegally logging, mining, and farming in national reserves in the Amazon? How are indigenous tribes being affected by this? What is the government doing to help indigenous tribes protect their land? These questions arose after I watched a documentary called “Guardians of the Amazon”. This documentary follows a group of indigenous people, from Brazil, in their hunt to stop illegal loggers from logging on their lands. It also points out the lack of response from the Brazilian government in aiding them in their fight. Unfortunately, many more tribes have also had to wage war against illegal loggers, miners and farmers who have, day by day, taken more of their lands. This topic is very important because it talks about how the deforestation of the Amazon threatens the lives of indigenous tribes. Some of these indigenous tribes still remain uncontacted from the world, making them more vulnerable and more likely to disappear if these illegal activities were to continue on in the future. The consequences will be devastating to these local indigenous communities. It saddens me to think that these indigenous people have been forced to take it upon themselves to fight to protect their lands from disappearing. This rainforest has been the home to thousands of generations of indigenous tribes. They shouldn’t have to fight to preserve their homes or their way of life. I plan to answer these questions by researching more on what is causing the deforestation of the Amazonian rainforest, the effects it’s had on indigenous communities, and in what ways has the government not/assisted in protecting these national reserves. I’m still not sure if I want to cover different parts of the Amazon, since it expands over a few countries, or just focus in one location specifically. This battle to protect the rainforest and the indigenous tribes inhabiting them, takes place in several locations.  Lastly, for my opposing point of view, I might research for interviews with loggers, miners, and farmers on their reasons for exploiting the rainforest’s resources.

How does age affect a person’s response to their parent’s divorce? In other words, how will a child’s reaction differ from a teenager or an adult? This question came to mind when I saw a large billboard that advertised divorce attorneys. At the time, I had thought that divorces were uncommon since the majority of people I knew had whole families, so I didn’t understand why such a large ad would be needed for what I thought would be a small number of people. However, when I got home and decided to search up how common divorce was in America, I was surprised to find that fifty percent of marriages end up in divorce. 

This is an important issue that may seem private at first, but upon closer inspection, can be seen as a public one. For one, it involves various institutions outside of the family, such as the state. It also raises policy issues that can include property division, custody, and child support. Beyond immediate consequences, I am also very interested in how this separation in the household will affect the children in both the short and long term. Since children are generally seen as the hope for the future, I believe that in order to really help them succeed, we need to understand the effects of private issues like divorce.

For a more objective view on this issue, I plan to go through web articles, magazine publications and news sites, as well as CCNY’s databases for scholarly articles regarding this topic. I could also possibly ask social workers if they’ve noticed any effects divorce may have had on people they know, or even just ask around for personal experiences, which can help me understand this topic on a more personal level. To start off, I could use social media platforms, like Instagram and Twitter, where minors and young adults tend to poke fun at these types of personal issues.

Although I would like to discuss the issue I previously wrote about, there are a few questions that I believe are also important to touch upon:

How does the sexualization of women in the media affect girls at a young age?

In today’s society, younger individuals as young as 11 years old struggle with confidence and being comfortable with their body because the media idolizes female celebrities and models that are overly sexualized and put pressure on girls to strive for that image. The advancement in technology and popularization of social media platforms such as instagram, snapchat, and tik tok has made it more accessible to young girls now, making them feel like they have to live up to those standards. To further expand on this question, I want to research topics that involve young girls who are given access to ideals like these and how that has impacted not only their mental health, but their self image.

How does the negligence of kids in the foster care system lead to drug abuse and homelessness?

Kids within the foster care system are placed in foster homes and become victims of child abuse, other kids age out and eventually are put out into the world with nothing to fall back on. Some of these individuals end up relying on drugs, prostitution or criminal activity to get by. The reason I want to address this topic is because I knew a girl who was a victim to these situations, she had a burn scar from an abusive foster father who burned her with a cigarette, although she eventually was blessed with a great family that adopted her, she went through some harsh times and she’s not the only one. Numerous kids are just placed in foster homes without a proper background check and are put through difficult, unbelievable situations which usually lead drug abuse and homelessness. I want to further research this topic by searching for connections between the neglect from foster care systems, the problems these children face, and the outcomes.

I want my research question to be based on rape as it’s one of the worst issues that societies face all around the world. Even though society is starting to give women the equal rights as men, a huge amount of the female population is not progressing because of the constant fear of being harassed, raped. Some of the question I have as far is now are-

Will there be a time when females will feel free to be out on their own without the fear of getting attacked?

What can parents do from a younger age for their children to learn about consent?

What will it take for society to learn to stop victim blaming?

I decided to write about this topic because of the recent incidents that happened in my country. A girl was raped by a group of guys while visiting a city with her husband for their honeymoon. Another one was also gang raped and a video of the incident was posted on Facebook about a month after by one of the rapists. These are only two girls who the whole country knows about. whereas at least 632 rape incidents took place between April to August this year. Many committed suicide after being raped and many were killed. A lot of the time the victim is blamed because of the clothes she was wearing, why she was alone, why were she out so late and many more. However, it is crystal clear that it is not the clothes, rather it clearly is the guy because there are also many little kids, elders and babies who are being a victim of rape. I have lived in my country for a very long time and I know the fear that was always stuck to my head. My sister and her family are still in my country which keeps my family and I in constant fear. I want to find different ways of self-defense, role of a family, ways to teach our society to stop victim blaming and many more from this research. Rape is an issue every country face. Few months ago, I read stories that girls from NYC posted about them getting raped which made me have fears again. This is important to me because I myself don’t feel safe going out at night even in America and I am sure no-one is supposed to feel this way.

When trying to choose my topic, I attempted to think about all of the topics that matter to me. For this essay, I wanted to branch out and speak about another social issue that I am passionate about besides gender inequality. The first topic I thought about was the Black Lives Matter movement. It was difficult trying to think of research questions but here are some I have in mind:

1. From 2013 (the year in which #BlackLivesMatter was founded) to now, how has the impact of the movement grown?
2. What changes have the movement brought into effect since 2013? (in America)
3. How has #BlackLivesMatter been influenced by different groups (meaning race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc) in America?

I believe all three questions have potential when writing my next essay. For the first two questions, I tried to base each on the more statistic point of view. However, in the third question, I tried to think of how the movement has been recently impacted and then form a question out of that. In my opinion, I think my third question would be the most interesting to learn and write about. I would like to incorporate more recent events and how the movement has reached so many people in such a short amount of time. I am planning on looking through my social media accounts and possibly finding many resources that could be useful for my essay. Although I was very young when #BlackLivesMatter was founded, I slowly began to realize why the issue of racial inequality was so important. This year, in particular, I learned a lot about injustice in America. When hearing about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other black men and women who were wrongfully killed by police, I knew I wanted to do everything in my power to spread awareness and hopefully make a difference. I know how passionate I am about this issue and I’m hoping this will motivate me during my overall writing process.

My initial research question is “What are the effects of social media on adolescents?”. I want to write about social media impact on our lives. I believe it is really important because we live in a world where everyone in social media is exposed to cyber-bullying, depression, suicide, fake news, rumor spreading, unrealistic views of other people’s lives, and peer pressure. I want to further research the impact of social networks that are negatively affecting adolescent’s lives, increasing suicide rates, and depression. The use of social media by adolescents has dramatically increased over the decades. Along with that, it has caused many problems in society. Today, you are judged if you do not have an Instagram account and peer-pressured to post your lives on social media. I also feel like this social issue is not discussed frequently, and people are used to living in a world like this. However, it is important to emphasize where the problem is coming and try to solve it. I also understand the positive advantages of social networking, however, the negative impacts overdo the problem. Also, the overuse of social media affects people’s sleep schedules.  To sum up, I decided to choose this question because I recently watched a documentary about how social media impacts our lives, called “The Social Dilemma”. I was touched and horrified by this documentary because it explored the ideas of financial gain through the rise of using social networks. 

While I want to continue my research on my previous topic, racism, there are several questions that have been on my mind recently.

How do masks affect the transmission of COVID-19?

I find this a really interesting question right now. On the media, there are people who are saying masks do not work and it’s useless to wear them. There are also people who are claiming that wearing masks is a violation of their first amendment rights and because people are thinking this way they are starting protests to lift the lockdown and the requirement to wear masks in public. I am hoping when researching this topic I understand the purpose of masks and whether or not they truly work. This is an important topic to talk about because human lives are at risk. If masks do serve their purpose of preventing/limiting the spread of viruses it is extremely important people continue to wear masks to prevent more casualties. I plan on researching on this topic on google scholar by researching the purpose of masks and using scientific data and research to further understand the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of masks.

Why do we still have racism today?

Continuing from my previous essay I still find this topic really interesting to discuss and I am very interested in deepening my understanding of the topic of racism.  It is clear to everyone that racism still exists after countless instances of racial profiling within the past decade. This is an important topic to talk about because it is unfair towards people who are being racially profiled, this could affect their livelihoods and their social lives. I plan on using google scholar to further my understanding on the topic of racism by understanding the circumstances that could lead to racism.

Why is it important to focus on/understand mental health?

Being a teenager in today’s society can have a lot of stress on certain people. It is important to understand and educate people about mental health because it’s a very important topic to discuss. When I was researching suicide rates In the US I found it really surprising that suicide rates are increasing every single year. I find this an important topic because not many people understand how mental health can affect anybody and it’s important to be open and understanding when it comes to mental health. I plan to research on this topic by reading and researching psychological effects on a person with poor mental health and the consequences that can happen when help isn’t sought for and how people can improve their mental health.

My research topic will be about Defunding the police. To be clearer it will be about the reasoning, thoughts, pros, and cons of whether or not the police should be defunded. This thought came up from people everywhere the moment Greoge Floyde’s death by a police popped up on the news who was suspected of using counterfeit money. People that didn’t feel safe and didn’t feel comfortable about calling the police when in danger started the thought of defunding the police, to relocate those funds elsewhere such as the education system or into social services, and through that tons of people jumped on board to change the system. What it means to defund the police as an idea differs however from people to people. Some want to relocate part of the funds to something else while others seek to dismantle the police force completely and allow a community-led public safety to take its place. I came up with this question after hours of thinking about what I should research, and then I suddenly remembered I have heard people talk about defunding the police on the internet which at the time I thought was the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. I think this is definitely a very important topic to research about especially in these times where police are everywhere stopping violent protests. Police are everywhere these days to ensure that people follow the rules such as wearing masks when going into shops. They are there to stop people from disturbing the public and endangering other people. While they are supposed to protect the public its not like there aren’t some officers that snapped or just made bad choices that reflected on the police force as a whole. They are humans too but it is their job to do things by law. I think there are ways to solve these issues without defunding the police since defunding them could potentially give rise to crime. I plan to explore these other solutions and explore every idea behind defunding the police in my research.