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Kayla Herrera PrideTime Reporter  Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has vastly impacted not only the marketing world, but it’s significantly shaped Gen Z, generation Z, making their most visited website YouTube. In this article, I’ll be discussing the ways in which YouTube has changed teen culture. The, “YouTube generation”, refers to the abundance of young people who predominantly use YouTube as their main source of entertainment.  So, why do teens adore YouTube so much? Aniyah Taylor, a sophomore at Brien McMahon High school and an avid YouTube watcher, insists that the app has this much appeal due to the abundant information it offers with just the click of a button. It’s clear that Gen Z isn’t unfamiliar with information at the tips of their fingers, but Aniyah explained that watching videos and hearing another person speak actually makes it feel more personal; it feels as if they’re speaking directly to you. With such a wide variety of videos to choose from, it makes sense that teens are  spending a lot of time on YouTube. Popular video titles among teenagers include; Get ready with me, My high school morning/night routine, What I eat in a day, My skincare routine, A Day in my Fife, Makeup tutorials, Conspiracy videos, and Story times. “I really like watching morning routines and day in my life videos because it kind of feels like me and the YouTuber are friends. It’s just nice to watch stuff I can relate closely with.” Aniyah explained. Teens seem to crave relatable content now more than ever. They’re bored of the polished and highly edited TV shows, or even the previous popular YouTube videos, which were highly edited. They want to see other teens doing things they actually do in their own lives. “Study with me” videos on YouTube are popular as well, because they allow kids to have a virtual study buddy. My point is that there is a plethora of video topics for everyone on YouTube, there really is something for everyone.  Also, thanks to Youtube, getting recognition for your talents is easier than ever. Literally uploading a video of yourself could be your gateway to fame. This, I believe, is one of the best uses of the app. Anyone with a phone has the chance to promote themselves or their ideas. 75% of kids and teens ages 6-17 aspire to be YouTubers. Teens no longer see YouTube as just somewhere they get entertainment from, they view it as a career option. For a growing number of people, YouTube is a job. With the popularization of vlogging, filming your daily life can possibly gain you a follower.  On the other hand, adults may find themselves browsing for videos less often than teenagers do. My mother, who is 34 years old, admits that although she doesn’t frequently use YouTube, it has helped her with a few things. When I asked her how much YouTube she watches, she explained that she doesn’t use it regularly, “It’s fun to watch some hair and makeup tutorials once in a while, and I’ve watched a few documentaries on there. It’s not the first place I go to for entertainment though." Actually, 96% of internet users from age 18-24 use YouTube, and 90% of users are male.
YouTube is seen as an app, and website, that anyone any age can use and be able to find some relatable content. We thank YouTubers for giving us the content we look forward too as well as inspiring us kids and teens to be ourselves and upload our own content.
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Lesly Temal PrideTime Reporter  Buzzzzz… Buzzzzz… Buzzzzz… is the noise most people’s phone’s make when they received a text message, a phone call, or a notification from some random app. Once hearing that noise most people's response would be to pick up their phones and forget what they are in the middle of doing. Even though phones could be useful, at some moments it becomes a distraction.
 During Mrs. Liotta’s interview, an English teacher here in McMahon, I asked her do you think that technology is a distraction in someone’s life? She then responded, “Yes, I do. I think technology is amazing and can be extremely helpful in certain situations, but I also think it is distracting and takes away from hands-on learning and physical activities.” As said before phones can be very helpful, but when it comes to using it all the time, it becomes a big distraction.
Other than being a distraction and causing people to become unproductive, phones can be very helpful in emergencies or when information is needed. Thayly Santos, a student here at Brien McMahon High School stated, “They help us connect with our loved ones and it helps inform ourselves about what is going on in the world.” Many people would agree with the fact that phones are bad if used all the time, and sometimes causes accidents, but other times they could be used to save a person’s life. Zheyla Jimenez Vasquez PrideTime Reporter  Prom is a stressful time for most students here at McMahon, from finding the perfect dress, to getting the right date, and making sure you have ultimately have a good time. Prom, short for “promenade” according to “The History Of Prom: Where Did This Weird High School Tradition Come From?”, was originally created for college students in the Northeast as a debutante ball. A debutante was “An upper class young woman making her first appearance in formal fashionable society” but later was converted into what we now call Prom. Prom is a Junior and Senior dance where students dress up and take another fellow classmate for a night to remember on the dance floor.   Joshua Vega, a senior here at Brien McMahon, was asked if prom was really worth all the stress, money, and time. Joshua stated, “I think so because it's something everyone does all over the place and it's like a tradition and it's something you will remember forever.” Another senior, Chelsea Lindo, agrees. “I would say yes. I do think prom is worth the money, time, and stress. For me just like buying the dress and getting ready. All that is so fun for me. The experience and the way it makes you feel putting on your gorgeous long gown is just indescribable. The only prom I did attend was Junior prom. The dance itself was alright… but I still had fun with a couple of my friends that did go and I just made the most of it and it was a great unforgettable night.” Ultimately I believe prom should be worth going to. It allows for us to have a fun night out with our friends and even get to know some other people we might not have had the chance to talk to around school.
Alejandra Donaire PrideTime Reporter  Many people have a favorite social media star they love and are inspired by. Our favorite social media stars are our biggest inspiration. Watching their YouTube videos, following them on social media, and buying their newest merch is what allows for us to look forward to watching and checking their social media everyday. Everyone has a social media star who has impacted their lives, in a positive way, and encouraged them to do better. We support them and accept them for who they are because of their personality, the people around them, what they do for the community, and their creative work.  Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson, are one of the many most famous stars on social media. They both have thousands of followers and make money off of their personal YouTube, and Instagram, careers.   Esmeralda López is inspired by Kylie Jenner. Kylie Jenner is said to be Esmeralda’s biggest inspiration and favorite social media star. If you don’t know who Kylie Jenner is, she is owns a famous cosmetic brand named after her. She started off on a reality TV show that starred her and her family as they were one of the wealthiest families in Calabasas, California. She is an inspiration to women and girls all over the world and inspire them to follow their dreams and not let anyone destroy them. “I know how influential I am over my fans and followers. I feel like everything I do, my hair color, my makeup, I always start these huge trends, and I don’t even realize what I’m capable of. I didn’t care what people had to say We’re influential in different ways, and that’s okay.” - Kylie  Louie Castro is a YouTuber who has expanded fans and followers over the years and has become an inspiration to young adults with his videos. Zheyla Jimenez, another fellow PrideTime reporter, is inspired by how Louie shows the world “to not care about what people think and to always love your family.” Zheyla stated, “He motivates me to do better in life by doing what’s best for me. He has showed me to value myself and my family. He’s a positive motivation to society. Show your true colors no matter what.” Castro influence’s people to open up and enjoy what they want to do. Not only has he helped to inspire other people around the world, but he helped me to stay positive and focus on my goals in life too, “He’s one of the only beauty influencers who embraces his latino roots, and its representation the industry desperately needs.”
Kiara Gonzalez PrideTime Reporter  Everyone has their favorite shows on T.V but sometimes we run out of shows to watch. After interviewing some people I found out that many McMahon students can relate a lot with others about watching shows. We know that one person who will put on a show and watch it for 20 hours straight while eating ice cream or some other type of food. There are also those people who watch 10 shows at a time and don’t know which one to continue.
According to Frankie Mandujano, a senior at McMahon, nothing is better than watching a comedy show because anything that can make a person laugh is enjoyable and you won’t even notice the time. Mandujano’s favorite shows are The Walking Dead, The Office, and Lucifer. When I interviewed Mandujano, I realized that not a lot of people use cable anymore. He pointed out that he only uses Netflix and Hulu. I asked him if he was the type to watch multiple shows at once or binge watch and he stated, “It depends on what kind of show. If its a show with short episodes but a lot of seasons then I like to binge-watch them because it’s more fun that way. If its a show with long episodes then I like to take my time with it so I can understand everything that’s going on.” Another student I interviewed was Simon Osorio, a junior at McMahon. Osorio’s favorite shows are Shameless, Big Mouth, and Narcos. During the interview, I was surprised to hear that he still watches cable which makes him one of the very few people but he mostly watches Netflix. Osorio also said that he loves action movies because he loves the adrenaline rush it gives him. He stated, “I take my time watching each show and I don’t like watching multiple shows at once, I like to watch them one by one.” Elianny Ramirez was the only female at McMahon that I interviewed. She is also a junior at McMahon and her favorite shows are Friends, All American, and Grey’s Anatomy. Like Osorio, Ramirez also uses Netflix mostly and she doesn’t like to rush through shows, she likes to take her time on each show and not binge-watch them. According to Ramirez, she likes to watch multiple shows at once. Throughout the school, there are a lot of people who like to watch different types of shows. Some of these shows are unheard of or extremely popular. Maybe next time when you want a suggestion of what show to watch, ask the person sitting right next to you. Jacob Biasetti PrideTime Reporter Social Media has become a huge part of the lives of people all around the world. The ages of people who use social media range from elementary school kids up to retired grandparents. Although it is cool that such a wide variety of people can relate to the same things, many issues are brought up. A major problem with the age gap is that there are many things online and on social media that are not appropriate for kids of such a young age. There are many different ways that young children can be exposed to subjects that they are not ready to know about yet. Even something as simple as a meme could have numerous topics that parents wouldn’t want their 6, 7, or 8 years old to look at. There are age restrictions on most social media apps, however, kids can easily lie about their birthdays and ages. “While the story of Rebecca Ann Sedwick, the 12-year-old who jumped to her death after enduring a year of cyber-bullying from two girls, ages 12 and 14, has been covered widely by the press, what’s been largely overlooked is that the victim and one of the two perpetrators were under the minimum age required to use the social media sites,” exclaimed Diana Graber, author of Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology. This story is a prime example of underage kids easily being able to use certain apps and the negative effects that can happen.
By: Oleksiy Korytnyuk, PrideTime Photographer There has always been an argument regarding whether older people nowadays had an easier or harder childhood than kids today. One side occasionally says that they’d have to walk 50 miles to go to school, or they had to work 24/7 because they had to. And the other side claims that life is easier for them because they didn’t have any cell phones or social media, so they weren’t judged as much. For both sides, that might’ve been the case but also they could be lying. In this article, I’ll interview a teacher to compare their childhood to kids my age.
I interviewed Dr. Rich, a Chemistry teacher here at Brien McMahon High School. I started off by asking when Dr. Rich was the ages of two to sixteen. He told me that from 1974 to 1990 was when he was two to sixteen. Then we got into the questions regarding our respective childhoods. I asked the chemistry teacher whether he thought it was easier to grow up back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He expressed (with a bit of thought) that it was “a little easier to grow up in general”. When I asked him if he thought that kids are having a harder time growing up nowadays, he said, “As far as growing up there’s a lot more, access to information and social media and everything people can search it, so there is a lot more access to what you’re doing, who you’re doing it with, what you’ve done, where you’ve gone.” And when I finally asked him if he’d rather grow up now or back then, he simply said, “I don’t have a preference but I’m glad from my experience and I can use some of that experience to help kids today”. When I look back on Dr. Rich's thoughts regarding the difference between our childhoods, it does seem like it was an easier time. No social media, no cell phones, just not a lot of sources to get stressed from. I’m looking back to my question and wondering what I think and I do believe it was an easier time back then. Kids didn’t grow up as fast, meaning kids actually were kids and weren’t trying to act older than they actually were. Kids grew up tougher, and people wouldn’t try to beat around the bush. They would be honest, making it easier for each other because people had that trust in place Mickaelah Joseph
Pridetime Reporter Have you ever felt so uncomfortable you had to cry, run, shake or even hide? If so, you’ve experienced something called “fear”. The idea of fear is a feeling of danger, or a threat to certain things. Fear plays a huge part in everyone's lives because everyone has a fear. Whether your fear is as small as spiders, or as big as the idea of “death”, fear may have a way of controlling us if we allow it to. Ignoring a fear, or denying it may not always be the best decision to make. Being able to admit and accept your fears is the most helpful situation possible. Scientists have discovered that the 6 biggest fears in a common human being are:
Fears may not always be an animal, or a person, fear may develop into something as serious as death, or being afraid of dying. Thanatophobia, or the fear behind death may be the whole idea of dying, or the process of it. It’s normal for one to be afraid of how they’re going to pass, but this fear may be the cause of the worst anxiety a human can have. Thanatophobia consists of: focusing only of death, or losing your life, an extremely uncomfortable feeling at a funeral or burial service, and putting an end to daily activities because the fear of death. The best ways to cope and work through your fears are by allowing yourself to sit with your fear and take deep breaths. You should take time to keep reminding yourself “It’s okay”. Avoiding your fears will not benefit you in anyway possible. Also, you should try to develop a healthy sense of ‘personal control’, focusing your energy on things you have influence over, and changing things that you’re able to change. Lastly, you should try to find meaning in your fears. Tell your stories and figure out why you’re afraid of what you’re afraid of. Having a fear is normal, but how you deal with it defines who you are as a person and your strength to overcome what is important. Kiyona Turner
Pridetime Reporter Beauty is such a powerful word and can possibly define how the rest of our lives perish. The very definition of beauty is “a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.” With this being said, the human race has formed their own physical definition of beauty. Social media representation is a major contribution to this issue displaying many women and men who are the norm for “beautiful” but not showcasing love to people out of that realm. For example, I did a social experiment asking my 2 friends of different races how did they feel about beauty, and well their answers all varied but compared in a certain way. When I asked my friend Shayla, African-American sophomore at Brien McMahon High School, “what words come to you when you hear beauty?” She replied with “Girl with curly afro with light eyes” I also asked my friend Delaney, a Dominican young sophomore, the same question. She answered saying “ young girl with curly hair and hazel eyes.” Don’t you see a pattern? When I was reading the article “Society’s Definition Of Beauty Is Dangerous” I found two vital statements that really stuck out to me. Hannah Bayer, Student at Missouri Baptist University said “The definition of beauty has dangerously twisted how we see ourselves and one another.” I agreed with the statement because I see how much beauty has such a huge impact on our daily lives. “When participants in a recent study were presented with attractive and unattractive faces for only 13 milliseconds, they were able to judge the faces’ attractiveness accurately (that is, in accordance with experimenters’ ratings), even though they were not consciously aware of the stimuli and felt like they were just guessing (Olson & Marshuetz, 2005).” That claim was stated by Eric Wargo, writer of The Association For Psychological Science. That amazes me how you can determine whether someone is deserving of your attention by just looking at them for a quick one, two seconds. Both sophomores I interviewed both expressed to me that if they could change society's beauty standards they would set it on welcoming everyone, natural beauty especially. I interviewed those two girls because they come from completely different backgrounds, providing different perspectives of things. However you can see that America's standards affect everyone and not just one selective group. Beauty is just a 6 lettered word, it should not as much power as it has now. Let’s make a change.  By: Jazmin Crawford Senior Senators are beginning to apply for colleges and they are super stressed and worried for many different reasons. I don’t know about other Seniors, but the thing I’m worried about the most is college admissions going through my social media. Social media is a big influence in many of our lives outside of school. Having the freedom to post whatever we want, whenever we want can sometimes be a bad thing. Some teenagers are mindless and don’t care what the internet sees. These are the same people that post hate and comment rude things towards other people. Yes, the post is later taken down due to the fact that the strict guidelines have been violated but is it really gone forever?  According to the New York Times, “Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have become an integral part of teenage culture. Yet the snarky comment or inappropriate picture we share with our friends just might not project the image we want the rest of the world to see, especially as we get older.” To make sure things such as this won’t happen to our Seniors, I spoke to two of our guidance counselors in the guidance department.  Mr. Southerland, a counselor in our guidance department stated, “They look for any concerning content regarding dangerous or irresponsible behavior, excessive/ reckless social life, or offensive statements/bad language, irresponsible behavior. They also look for things that stand out, like community service, professionalism, things that students post that give them a glimpse of what causes they are passionate about.” I also interviewed Counselor Ms. Kimmich and asked her the same question. Her response was, “Well, I do think that colleges will look to see what type of things you are into with your friends and clues as to your character.”  Another question I had asked our counselors is what do you believe will turn admissions people away when viewing students social media? This question was seen as quite obvious as to what you should and shouldn’t be posting on social media; but Ms. Kimmich had stated, “Mention of drinking alcohol and drug use would be a big turn off for colleges as that is one of the big concerns that colleges have (they do not want students drinking underage or using drugs illegally on campus). Also, if there are unkind, discriminatory, or harassing types of comments that would be a major negative.” Mr. Southerland had also responded to this question, “See my previous answer to the previous question…but beyond that, anything that really says that a student may not be ready for added independence and responsibility.  Anything that shows that the student may have ideologies that don't celebrate diversity (homophobia, racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, etc.).” These responses had tied to my other question as well which was, should senior’s even post on social media or should they play it safe and not post things at all? Mr. Southerland’s response to this was, “I believe it's totally fine to post appropriate content. However, my rule of thumb is if you have to second guess it, or if it something that may be passive aggressive for the purpose of stirring drama or a conversation thread, that should not be something you post- that goes for college admissions and beyond, because employers also may check social media!” Ms. Kimmich had also responded to this question and she stated, “I think that is one strategy but another is to remember that when you post things publicly you need to always think about who your audience is.”  My final question for our guidance counselors was what do you recommend seniors do to give college admissions people a “surprise” when it comes to having social media? Mr. Southerland stated, “Community service activities!!! most people will post the typical stuff about music, entertainment, and selfies....however, anything that sets a student apart is great...community service or other activities that they enjoy, pictures of trips or visits to different parts of the country (or outside of the US). Quotes, images, and clips that students find to be inspirational, positive, or impactful...if a student is a particularly great artist, posting clips of a performance, or photos or pictures they have created I'm sure give a nice inside track to who a college is researching.”  As it times for Seniors to begin applying to colleges I believe they should begin to take into consideration the fact that college admissions don’t just look over your applications. I also interviewed one of our McMahon Senior Senators, Jessica Ceja, and asked her if she was worried about what college admissions will see on her social media. “Honestly it depends on the social media they see. I use Instagram the most, but I’m not worried about them seeing what I post on there. Twitter, that can probably be a different story. And I also have a VSCO, but I barely use that app as well.” College admissions look at your social media and the things you post for the whole world to see, these should reflect who you are as a person and set you apart from other students. It is totally okay to be posting on social media, but just make sure your careful and don’t post things that are seen without you being able to explain them.
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