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Famed Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson Continues Push to Increase Public’s Science Literacy

Despite living in a world run by advances in technology and groundbreaking discoveries in science, famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson still finds himself battling to increase the public’s science literacy level.

Today, scientific discoveries are often perfectly integrated into our lives through new advancements in medicine, technology, transportation and more.

Because science manages to blend itself so well into a person’s daily life, it becomes easier not to actually acknowledge those things as scientific and that, Tyson explains, could be a problem.

“We’re not constantly reminded of it,” Tyson said, according to NorthJersey.com. “If we were, we would say, ‘Oh, you’re a scientist – tell me more about how my future will be improved by what you do.’ “

Instead people barely notice anything that today’s scientists do because they simply recognize their discoveries or advancements as “just life.”

“But if [science] slides into your life, on a level where it’s fully blended with your waking hours and sleeping hours, then you’re not thinking science,” Tyson continued. “You’re thinking that’s just life. Science is something else. Science is what you take in a class.”

This lack of scientific literacy has caused Tyson to dedicate much of his time trying to educate the public and significantly boost their level of science literacy.

His latest step to doing so brought him to Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Tuesday for an old-fashioned Chautauqua lecture.

The old-fashioned lecture style is named after an early town in New York that kicked off the idea of an adult education movement that would provide traveling lectures across the nation to keep the country informed throughout the early 20th century.

“I’m glad [this idea] is coming back, and I don’t take it lightly,” Tyson said.

While it may be an older lecture style, Tyson had no intentions of pushing modern topics to the side.

“I’ll surely be talking about the comet landing in whatever I talk about,” he continued. “What I talk about is folded into whatever is the current event at the time.”

The “comet landing” Tyson mentioned was a reference to the recent landing of Europe’s Philae probe.

By focusing on scientific current events, Tyson hopes to boost the audience’s curiosity in science while also informing them in a way that will have them feeling empowered against those who would typically take advantage of scientific ignorance.

“My goal is, by the end of the evening, a scaffold has been erected, in the hearts and minds of people, and that’s the science literacy scaffold,” he told NorthJersey.com. “That enables you to receive science information going forward, in deeper ways than might have been possible otherwise. Because when you’re scientifically literate, you’re empowered to think in ways that protect you from charlatans who might exploit what might otherwise be your ignorance of science for their own financial gain.”

The Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey host explained that it is important for people to take science into consideration even when dealing with politics.

Tyson has testified before Congress several times in the past but says he is much more concerned about educating the public, not the politicians.

“People say, ‘Why don’t you teach these lawmakers about science?’ “ Tyson said. “I have no interest because they have to be re-elected every two years. And in terms of my investment of energy, I don’t think that’s the wisest way to allocate it. Instead, I communicate with the public.”

 

 

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AT&T Steps Forward As Leader in Embracing Diversity with ‘Seeing Stars’ Campaign, Highlighting Black Tech Entrepreneurs

In today’s digital age, entrepreneurs in the technology space are key to creating a future of promise and revolutionizing the everyday lives of consumers. For that very reason, AT&T is celebrating tech-driven innovators and proclaiming them to be the new celebrities of the digital world.

In its latest push to celebrate tech entrepreneurs of color, AT&T pointed a spotlight at three trailblazing tech entrepreneurs—a music lover who has found a distinct connection between hip hop, entrepreneurship and technology; the head of a global IT service company who has yet to graduate high school; and an enchanting poet who used her past experiences with journalism to become a unique talent in the world of social media.

Anthony Fraiser

Anthony Frasier (pictured above), a New Jersey native who discovered a natural gift for developing mobile applications and designing web sites, is now the founder of several tech businesses and spends much of his time helping other emerging entrepreneurs make their way into the swiftly growing industry.

“I found myself always getting approached by entrepreneurs from all backgrounds—not just African Americans—and youth who wanted to figure out how they could get into the tech industry,” Frasier told Atlanta Blackstar.

Frasier explained that he already had his own plate full of startups like Playd and was busy developing the now award-winning gaming site TheKoalition.com.

As he continued to grow his own businesses, he still never forgot about the many tech savvy hopefuls who wanted to follow in his footsteps.

In the midst of putting in serious groundwork and increasing networking efforts, he came across James Lopez who would later become the his business partner and co-founder of The Phat Startup, a company dedicated to giving emerging entrepreneurs the resources and insider knowledge they need to take their own startups to the next level with a particular focus on individuals with urban backgrounds who didn’t always feel welcome in the the tech industry.

Phat Startup has already garnered serious attention from media outlets and other successful entrepreneurs in the tech space, but Frasier said it was a especially exciting to have AT&T reach out to him, considering the type of work they were already doing throughout the community.

“AT&T—I’ve always been a great admirer of how much they were doing throughout the community,” Frasier said. “I remember seeing a lot of AT&T hackathons and things like that and it always was interesting to see.”

For Frasier, anything that fostered creativity in the tech space was a cause worth getting behind, especially in an industry that has a habit of being money hungry.

“It’s all about money,” Frasier said as he explained why he thought creativity needed to be pushed to the forefront of conversations in Silicon Valley. “A lot of people aren’t really trying to solve the bigger, big, big problem and that’s what Phat Startup does. We have a big problem we’re trying to solve.”

That problem is how to make entrepreneurship more appealing and “inviting” to people who didn’t feel welcome in the space before by building a bridge between entrepreneurship and hip hop.

“We can learn how to hustle from Jay-Z and there are things you can kind of pull out of an interview with Diddy that’s like, ‘Man, there’s something here,’ ” Frasier explained. “So I eventually saw a way that I can get into entrepreneurship education and teaching people how they could do what I was doing by simply using hip hop culture as a catalyst.”

It’s the type of solution that could foster creativity and spark an interest in technology at a young age and possibly help the country see more young Black tech CEOs like Jaylen Bledsoe (pictured below).

Jaylen Bledsoe

Bledsoe has yet to even graduate high school but that didn’t stop the tech savvy teen from launching his own business.

Bledsoe was only 13 when he became a tech entrepreneur. Roughly three years later his IT services company, Jaylen D. Bledsoe Global Group, formerly known as Bledsoe Technologies, has started working with major companies in a variety of different countries.

The teen’s ability to successfully launch and expand a major tech company hasn’t gone unnoticed. Bledsoe earned a spot as an honoree for Ebony’s Power 100 list along with comedian and TV personality Steve Harvey, today’s most influential international powerhouse songstress Beyonce and the media mogul herself Oprah Winfrey.

The self-taught coding expert and web designer started out designing websites and working on digital projects for friends and family before he realized he had the skills to run an entire business.

“Seventh grade year I was working mostly websites for friends and family and kind of from there I realized that I had a really unique skill that people really didn’t have,” Bledsoe explained. “So I learned it even more and eventually started my own business eighth grade year.”

Now, Bledsoe spends much of his time fulfilling duties as the CEO of a global company, a public speaker who often garners crowds of thousands of eager listeners, a young entrepreneur serving as a role model for other emerging entrepreneurs and, of course, as a student in school holding multiple student leadership positions and maintaining an impressive grade point average.

In addition to the obvious display of work ethics, Bledsoe also expressed his desire to use his company to have a positive impact on the world, which makes him the ideal candidate for AT&T’s campaign.

“My goal for the company has never been about financial gain. It’s always been to impact the world in a better way,” Bledsoe said.

Lynne D Johnson

AT&T’s campaign also featured an entrepreneur whose unlikely background helped her pave a successful path through Silicon Valley.

Lynne D. Johnson (pictured above, center) is currently a pop culture journalist who used her gift of communication to become an incredible success in the social media and digital content space.

In the past Johnson has served as a director of digital and social media strategy in the brand strategy and marketing practice at Waggener Edstrom.

With an extensive background in the media industry, Johnson was able to provide a fresh push for creative content for some of today’s most popular media brands, including Vibe, Spin and Fast Company.

Doubling as a pop culture journalist and one of today’s more requested keynote speakers in the technology space was no easy feat for Johnson, especially considering the diversity problem that is plaguing Silicon Valley.

A Black employee in a leadership position in Silicon Valley is unheard of, while a Black woman in a leadership position in Silicon Valley almost seems mythical to some.

Despite incredibly high barriers to entry, Johnson defied all odds and is now one of the most in-demand content and community consultants in the technology space.

 

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‘Star Wars’ Actor Has A Simple Message for Critics of Black Stormtrooper: ‘Get used to it’

When the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released Friday, it seemed like the excitement over the film was quickly tarnished by online complaints of a Black Stormtrooper that was featured in the trailer.

YouTube comments under the trailer insisted that a Black Stormtrooper wasn’t realistic while others posted racist remarks.

It was an unfortunate reaction to the Black 22-year-old British actor who played the Stormtrooper, but he quickly took to Instagram to address the controversy over his casting – and the response couldn’t have been better.

John Boyega, the actor who is playing the Black stormtrooper, posted a message on Instagram that explained how excited he was about the movie while also addressing those who just couldn’t get comfortable with the idea of a Black Stormtrooper.

“Thank you for all the love and support,” Boyega wrote on an Instagram post. “The fan mail and fan art has added to my joy! Isn’t it crazy that Star Wars is actually happening? I’m in the movie but as a star wars fan I am very excited! A year is a long time but it will be worth the wait.”

Then at the bottom of the post was a much simpler message.

“To whom it may concern… Get used to it,” the actor wrote.

He even finished the post off with a smiley face for good measure.

Despite the hateful YouTube comments, other social media platforms were filled with users who were defending the decision to cast a Black Stormtrooper.

“Love how there’s ‘controversy’ over a #BlackStormtrooper,” one user tweeted. “Even in a galaxy far far away black people exist and can be dynamic characters too.”

Another user, Marc Watson, explained that the first Stormtroopers were actually of Maori descent.

Others took a more comical approach to the backlash.

“They’ll accept an alien-filled galaxy powered by ‘force’ but they’re not having a black man in uniform,” writer Iain Macintosh tweeted.

“Three movies in a row with James Earl Jones’ voice only to reveal Darth Vader was white all along and you’re mad at one Black stormtrooper,” another user quipped.

One self-proclaimed Star Trek fan even pointed out that this actually isn’t the first appearance of a Black Stromtrooper in the Star Wars franchise.

The user posted a screenshot from the animated “Star Wars Rebels” TV series, which revealed a young Black man holding a Stormtrooper helmet.

“A #BlackStormtrooper is not unprecedented,” the user wrote under the image.

Throughout the weekend fans continued to post more images and send out more tweets to explain why the backlash against the character just didn’t make sense.

It isn’t the first time that fans have had to defend a popular franchise for casting Black actors for roles that were previously taken on by white actors.

Idris Elba was the target of criticism when he was cast to play Heimdall in Thor: The Dark World back in 2013.

Michael B. Jordan also had to deal with critics after he was cast to play Johnny Storm, known as the Human Torch, in the Fantastic Four reboot, which is scheduled to hit big screens in August of 2015.

This pattern of Black actors stepping in to fill roles that were previously white is yet another reason critics of the Black Stormtrooper may certainly have to “get used to it.”

The lack of diversity in Hollywood has become a hot topic and has encouraged many of today’s most influential filmmakers to start looking for ways to incorporate more people of color in their movies.

 

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GoPro May Sever Business Ties to Bring Its Own Consumer Drones to Market

GoPro Inc. may be on the verge of releasing consumer drones, but the risky move could result in the company losing some of its key business relationships.

GoPro is known for its variety of wearable cameras that have become incredibly popular with most sports enthusiasts.

Now the company is looking to expand into the realm of drones.

The company plans to start selling its own multirotor helicopters, known as drones, with high-definition cameras already equipped by the end of 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Consumer drones are typically controlled by the user’s smartphone or tablet and have become a popular new way to film weddings and outdoor concerts and even deliver bottles at upscale nightclubs.

It wasn’t long ago that many American consumers weren’t exactly sure what drones really were, and some were immediately terrified by the idea of the flying machines.

The presence of companies like Sony Corp. and now GoPro in the drone market, however, proves that the drone industry is starting to expand and become a more mainstream market than ever before.

As drones grow in popularity, it is only natural that competition in the market will follow suit, and that’s precisely what GoPro may be sparking by releasing its own line of drones.

In the past, those who were interested in filming events and snapping pictures through the use of a drone would typically purchase the drone from one company and then purchase the roughly 3-ounce cameras from GoPro.

Now, GoPro will be producing a product that gives consumers everything they need without having to reach out to other companies.

“I’m happy to let GoPro keep making great cameras and we’ll keep making great copters,” Colin Guinn, senior vice president of sales at 3D Robotics Inc., told the Wall Street Journal.

The company sells GoPro cameras with the drones they sell, but Guinn said he is surprised by the company’s move to produce the consumer drones on its own.

Some skeptics are already questioning if GoPro will be able to hold its own in the drone market with companies like SZ DJI Technology Co. of China already producing devices that come with their own built-in cameras.

SZ DJI Technology is currently the world’s largest consumer drone maker and going up against them could prove to be a serious challenge for GoPro.

Most GoPro cameras sell for between $200 and $500 while the drones are expected to start at $500 and go up into the thousands.

For those who are still uneasy about the idea of drones and feel it could have a serious conflict with privacy rights, consumer drones do have an incredibly limited frequency band and the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to propose rules for commercial drones within the next few weeks.

 

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Search Algorithms Don’t Just Know You, They’re Judging You, Too

For avid technology users, the online experience has become an extremely personalized one. But the same algorithms that are responsible for recommending new products and completing search terms are not as objective as many users assume.

These algorithms can also be used to shape public opinion, support racial bias and even influence voting behaviors.

Tech giants like Facebook and Google are often conducting experiments on their users in order to learn more about their behaviors and how those behaviors can be influenced.

Back in June, Facebook was the target of online backlash after it was revealed that the social media giant conducted a research experiment by manipulating users’ news feeds.

The study was an attempt to see how the alteration of the news feeds would manipulate user emotions.

While Facebook did apologize for “any anxiety” the experiment may have caused, the test did not violate any of the social media site’s terms and conditions that users agree to before setting up their profiles.

Even more upsetting for some users was a study that attempted to see how Facebook could impact users’ willingness to vote.

The experiment proved successful, and the tech giant announced that it saw a drastic increase in civic engagement and voter turnout by incorporating an “I voted” badge on certain user’s profiles.

For some people it begged the question, if social media sites can influence some users to vote, could it also influence some users not to?

This is the same type of testing used by Google that tries to determine what types of color combinations and content placement will garner more attention from people online.

That ability to track behavior has also led to something called the “filter bubble,” which is the idea that the same search will produce very different results based on what type of person the search engine assumes you to be.

For example, the search for “wagner” on Google will likely produce sites about the composer Richard Wagner for women while men will see results about Wagner USA, which is a paint supply company.

Then there was the story of African-American Harvard University Ph.D., Latanya Sweeney.

Sweeney realized that her Google search results were often displaying advertisements asking if she had ever been to jail.

The same advertisements weren’t appearing for her white colleagues.

After conducting a study of the advertisements on different people’s Google results, it turned out that the algorithms behind the ad placements were likely to draw a connection between names commonly given to Black people and ads related to arrest records.

For once, Sweeney was confronted with the fact that some of these so-called objective algorithms are making connections based on stereotypes and racial bias.

The real concerns come from the fact that social media sites and search engines are not the only ones using such tools.

Earlier this year, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm tasked an algorithm with making crucial decisions about which companies to invest in.

If such algorithms are continuously used to make investment decisions, is it possible that the same results that suggested Black people would want to know about arrest records will recommend wealthy investors avoid putting money into companies with Black CEOs or a certain percentage of Black employees?

While the algorithms don’t cause much harm when it comes to placing advertisements on Facebook pages, the implications of what these algorithms have the ability to do on a broader scale are enough to call for marginalized groups to keep a closer eye on what decisions these automated systems are allowed to make.

 

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War on Bullying Goes Digital at Brooklyn Middle School with Bridg-iT App

One middle school in Brooklyn is taking the war on bullying into the digital age by using an app that will allow bystanders to anonymously report incidents to school officials.

Unfortunately, the fear of being judged by classmates can keep many children from speaking up when they see other students being bullied or harassed.

Officials at David A. Boody Intermediate School 228 in Gravesend have decided to use technology to eliminate this fear and make sure any students who are caught bullying are dealt with quickly.

The school launched a campaign against bullying about six years ago and they hope incorporating the Bridg-iT app will leave students feeling safe and empowered at school.

“It’s a tool of empowerment,” said PTA president Heather Fiorica. “The sense of helplessness that a child feels when they’re being bullied is no longer there.”

All it takes is the tap of an icon and app users will immediately be directed to a form that will allow them to include details of the bullying incident they have witnessed.

The app will allow their identity to remain anonymous.

“We want the bystanders to be upstanders as far as reporting and take leadership roles in saying, ‘I’m not going to accept this type of behavior toward my friend or this person,’ ” the school’s principal, 49-year-old Dominick D’Angelo, told the New York Daily News.

The app is a new tool for students to use, and, so far, five reports have already been filed through the app.

Now, D’Angelo explains, school officials can focus on getting to the root of the issues that are causing bullying.

The school has called on various mentors to reach out to school bullies and help them correct their behavioral issues.

The important thing is that students have another tool that makes them feel safe when they should be focusing on their education.

“The main this is, we need to emphasize to the students that this type of behavior is not acceptable and we’re clearly watching you,” he added.

D’Angelo said that the number of bullying incidents at the school has already declined since integrating the new app.

Based on the app’s success, this could lay the foundation for more digital means to be used in schools to monitor bullying and ensure students are able to thrive in a comforting learning environment.

 

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South Africa Desperately Needs More Doctors in Rural Areas, Where Patients Are Sickest

In the midst of what has grown to be a serious shortage of doctors and medical practitioners in South Africa, the country is relying heavily on natives to return to rural parts of the country to help provide quality health care to those who need it the most.

Recent statistics paint a very troubling picture of health care in rural parts of South Africa.

In addition to proving that there aren’t enough doctors to go around, there is also evidence suggesting that only the doctors who grew up in these rural areas are likely to return and work there.

Only 12 percent of the country’s physicians work in rural areas despite the fact that more than 45 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas.

The shortage of medical practitioners means patients are waiting much longer to receive care despite the fact that people in these areas tend to be much more seriously ill than those in more urban parts of the country, according to a 2009 study published in the health journal Rural and Remote Health.

Only doctors who have a particular connection to the rural parts of the country seem to be willing to work there, leaving the people relying heavily on doctors like Llewellyn Volmink.

Volmink grew up in a rural South African town called Ladismith and witnessed the death of his own grandfather when he was still just a 14-year-old boy.

His grandfather had been stabbed in the neck by a relative and as Volmink watched the ambulance carry his body away, he realized then that he wanted to be a doctor, according to the Mail & Guardian.

Volmink is now 27-years-old and has followed through on his dream to become a doctor.

Unlike many in his position, he had decided to focus on rural parts of South Africa to help provide his countrymen with the medical assistance they so desperately need.

The ratio of people to medical practitioners in rural parts of South Africa is disheartening and well below the country’s national average.

While the nation averages 30 doctors and 30 specialists per 100,000 people, rural parts of the country average only 13 general practitioners and two specialists per 100,000.

This means rural areas have a disproportionately lower amount of doctors despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests these areas should actually have a disproportionately higher number of doctors based on the seriousness of the illnesses that patients in these areas tend to have.

After years of trying to solve the patient-to-doctor deficit, it seems the real key lies in getting future medical practitioners to experience these rural areas for themselves.

Studies in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo all proved that exposure to such rural areas during an individual’s undergrad years drastically increases the likelihood of them returning to those areas to work in the future, regardless of their own upbringings.

By getting students to spend more time in these areas, there are not only hopes that they will return to practice medicine there but also that they will pick up on the native language and become a true asset to the region’s healthcare efforts.

In addition to not having enough doctors, rural areas have fewer doctors who can speak the native tongue of the patients, which makes it incredibly difficult to give the proper medical care.

This is why Volmink is such a highly respected member of the medical community in his hometown.

The trilingual doctor is able to fluently speak English, Afrikaans and Xhosa, a language that many doctors in the areas don’t speak.

“It’s my role to explain to patients, in their own language, and like a lay person, what is wrong with them and how we’re going to help them,” Volmink said.

He went on to say that since he is the only doctor at his hospital who speaks Xhosa, he is often called in to translate for patients throughout the day, which makes it easier for doctors to help patients but also adds some extra pressure on Volmink.

“When a Xhosa patient arrives, I get called, because they are able to explain to me in the language they are most comfortable with why they’ve come to the hospital,” he said. “It makes it easier for us to help them. We provide a much better service when we communicate with them in their home language.”

Volmink and other doctors who made the decision to return to the rural areas they grew up in hope they can combat the depleting numbers of medical practitioners in rural communities all across the globe.

 

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Revolutionary Program Could Turn California Inmates Into Successful Tech Entrepreneurs

Inmates hack their way out of prison

One California prison is taking the battle against high recidivism rates into the digital age and using a unique program to help inmates become tech savvy developers and entrepreneurs.

Coding classes and tech incubators are far from rare but having one in a state prison is nearly unheard of.

Over the past few years California has been faced with the problem of overcrowded prisons and etremely high recidivism rates.

San Quentin State Prison believes it has the answer to tackling both of these problems.

The prison is participating in a program that has been dubbed Code.7370, which could lay the foundation for what might be one of the most effective ways to ensure inmates are not only prepared to re-enter society but are also able to successfully thrive in the job market once they are released.

Through Code.7370, 18 inmates at the state’s oldest prison are learning JavaScript, CSS and HTML.

Eight hours a day, four times a week the inmates will be working on developing and sharpening the types of skills that would make them viable candidates for entry-level developer positions.

“The new Code.7370 program is unique not only because it’s being taught inside San Quentin State Prison, but it has an end-goal of preparing formerly incarcerated people for jobs in the tech sector after they are released from prison,” said Chris Redlitz, the co-founder of the Last Mile, the nonprofit organization that launched the program.

In addition to giving the inmates the skills they need to make their way into Silicon Valley, the program has the potential to turn each of the inmates into tech entrepreneurs by offering them a technology entrepreneurship class.

The class will assist the inmates in developing ideas, business plans and product concepts that could help them launch their own successful start-ups once they are released.

While the inmates will have to wait until their release date to launch the start-up, they won’t have to wait to start finding funding for the business.

Code.7370 will host a Demo Day for the inmates so they can pitch their ideas to potential investors and Silicon Valley executives, USA Today reported.

Last Mile, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that is aimed at creating a strong relationship between the tech sector and the penal system, teamed up with the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) and the coding academy Hack Reactor in order to make the revolutionary program a reality.

If the results of the program prove to be effective, similar programs could start popping up in prisons all across the nation, which would not only help fight recidivism rates but also help add more qualified individuals and people of color to the tech space.

A recent study revealed that the technology industry is growing so quickly that there could be a deficit of workers for the field in a matter of years.

Programs like this will be able to help close the gap between the amount of workers needed to fill certain positions and the amount of people who are actually qualified to do so, all while helping incarcerated people obtain the second chance they so desperately need.

 

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Controversial Neuroscientist Worried That Ever-Expanding Virtual World Could Be Detrimental to Youth’s Future

Controversial neuroscientist Susan Greenfield said she is concerned about the negative impact that quickly growing new technologies are having on young minds—but without much hard evidence to back her concerns it doesn’t seem likely that her lecture will spark much real-world change.

Greenfield, of Oxford University, is pushing an age-old debate about how new technologies can impact young minds.

While some argue that learning how to use and operate complex technologies is a good thing for younger minds, Greenfield says more often than not those new technologies are being used to make the younger generation complacent and lazy while robbing them of creativity and shortening their attention spans.

According to Greenfield, technological advances are positive things when they are enhancing every day life but not when they are replacing aspects of every day life.

“People have often said to me ‘What about the car and the television and the refrigerator and the printing press even?’ They did make greater advances with those technologies on some people’s lives, but we were still living in the real world when we used those things,” Greenfield said during her lecture at the University of South Australia on Wednesday. “Nowadays you could wake up in the morning and you could work, you could play games, you could shop, you could go dating all without actually living in three dimensions.”

That’s where Greenfield says younger people’s brains could take a serious blow.

“As a neuroscientist I am very aware that the brain adapts to its environment,” Greenfield said. “If you’re placed in an environment that encourages, say, a short attention span, which doesn’t encourage empathy or interpersonal communication, which is partially addictive or compulsive…all these things will inevitably shape who you are.”

She went on to say that “the digital world is an unprecedented one and it could be leaving an unprecedented mark on the brain.”

Greenfield also said that the younger generation’s ability to engage with a virtual audience online before they truly develop a sense of self is rather problematic.

“People like me, a baby-boomer, grew up with the television being the new luxury that came into our home,” she said. “Clearly the amount of life we’ve lived already, the experience we’ve had, the conceptual frameworks that we’ve developed, the attitudes we have, the memories that we have – the individuality that we’ve therefore developed – all those things will offset against whatever other influences are coming in.”

According to Greenfield, the youth don’t have that luxury.

“If you’re a very young person and you haven’t developed, let’s say, a robust sense of identity, you haven’t got interpersonal skills, then clearly we’re going to see changes that we might not see in someone who’s older,” she said.

Those changes are typically the result of the youth’s desire to please that anonymous but often vicious online audience.

“You are out to entertain and seek their approval and the danger lies then in constructing an artificial identity that’s not really you at all,” she said. “Everything you do is done for the approval and to impress this audience, who inevitably will be vicious and nasty because they’re not constrained by face-to-face communication.”

Greenfield continued, arguing that too much time spent with new technologies, specifically digital media, can ruin a child’s imagination.

As Greenfield pondered what the future of the younger generations looks like, others pondered the credibility of her argument.

While Greenfield is indeed a neuroscientist, many experts in the scientific community don’t believe she has been supporting her claims with hard evidence.

Without conducting some serious studies on the impact that new technologies could have on the minds of young Americans, there will always be some pushback against Greenfield’s claims.

Earlier this year, The Guardian said Greenfield’s argument was simply a rehashing of “the same old surface-level debates about simplistic concepts that don’t have much bearing on the real world.”

 

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Free Fitness App Delivers on Promise to Make Exercising More Fun and Engaging

Free fitness app Nexercise

In the midst of many fitness apps, DVDs and websites promising to make fitness fun, easy and convenient for the average person looking to shed a few pounds, Nexercise has emerged as one of the few apps to actually deliver on that promise.

Nexercise is the perfect fitness tool for anyone from the busy person at the office to the stay-at-home parent who wants to fit in a workout without losing track of the kids.

Benjamin Young, the tech savvy entrepreneur who created Nexercise, says that’s exactly what the company set out to do.

Nexercise is meant to “empower everyday people to become the healthiest versions of themselves by removing excuses,” Young told Atlanta Blackstar.

The virtual workout guide removes excuses by offering workouts that cater to specific time restrictions and use interactive methods to make exercising more fun.

One of the app’s most celebrated features is the ability to challenge friends, family and colleagues to fitness challenges.

The challenge feature is essentially the digital age adaptation of the gym “buddy system.”

Having a fitness partner helps push many people to work out harder or longer than they would have by themselves. Realistically, however, it’s not always possible to physically meet up with another person and coordinate workout schedules.

The challenge feature allows friends to keep track of each other’s workout progress virtually and have a friendly competition to see who can reach their fitness goals the quickest.

It’s the type of friendly competitive spirit that could make a real difference when it comes to shedding pounds and ultimately changing someone’s life.

Dropping excess weight could be exactly what some people need in order to gain an extra boost of confidence or just embark on a journey to a healthier, longer lifestyle.

With over a quarter of a million monthly users, Nexercise could be well on its way to uplifting communities across the globe.

Eventually, Young would like to see more businesses using the Nexercise app and getting their employees more focused on fitness.

As Young explains, a friendly fitness competition between coworkers could boost even the least motivated workers to do a few more minutes of exercise every day.

“We recently shifted focus to bring effective, engaging corporate wellness to the masses,” Young said. “Outside of your significant other, who do you spend most of your time with? Your coworkers. We believe to get America healthy again, the key lies within companies.”

The app also allows users to reap real rewards when their fitness tracker records a significant amount of progress.

The work-for-rewards method is yet another proven way to inspire people to start working out more.

According to Shape Magazine, the app comes across as a video game more than a fitness guide.

“Workout or a video game? Now you don’t have to choose,” the magazine said of Nexercise. “With the Nexercise app, your workout is transformed into a fun game.”

The virtual trainer is essential for any American who is eager to lose weight, but it could have particularly powerful implications in the Black community.

According to WebMD.com, diabetes is 60 percent more common among African Americans than it is among white people.

Within the population of Americans with diabetes, Black people are more than two times more likely to suffer a limb amputation and more than 5 times more likely to suffer kidney disease.

African-Americans are also more likely to die from complications with asthma, four times more likely to die of a stroke and develop high blood pleasure earlier in life than most whites.

While some people assume this is only caused by traditional foods in the Black community that are fried and greasy, even medical experts stressed the importance of acknowledging racist institutions working against Black Americans.

People of lower socioeconomic statuses tend to battle more health problems than those who can afford organic foods and have spare time in their schedules to workout.

Nexercise could be a saving grace.

The free app features a collection of shorter workouts for busy people and adding just one or two of the five minute workouts could significantly reduce the chances of some African-Americans encountering serious health issues later in life.

Needless to say, their diet will have to make healthy changes as well, but some effective workouts that conform to their own busy schedules is a great way for many Black families to start their journey to a healthier version of themselves—and Nexercise has delivered that free of charge.