Society vs. Teens

By: Nory Maradiaga

     Society today plays a significant role in shaping how the new generation will act and how they view the world. We have so much access to everything in the world with modern technology. There are many ways how society can affect a person who is developing into an adult like their parents, their community, social media, school and etc.

Social Media:

     Most teenagers go on social media every single day and see models and celebrities as expectations to look like them, have the same body shape, have the same clothes, cars, and etc. These things can cause insecurities in teens by wanting to change or even hate themselves from not looking like society’s standard or not having expensive things.

School:

     The school takes up a big role in the impact of the mindset and attitude of teens. They meet a bunch of different people at school which can influence their personalities. Depending on your friends can determine how someone acts like if they’re kind and fun or rude and have bad influences. A big “trend” right now is drugs and vaping where society is making it look cool and fun. SecureTeen states, “Teens believe everyone around them smokes and take it as a normal thing. They do not find anything weird about it. They often believe what their friends tell them about smoking.”  Society makes trends that could actually be really bad for your health. 

Parents:

     A parent has a HUGE impact on the development of their children. Kids usually look up to their parents or they follow their footsteps… not everyone does though. Martha Holden states,” Parents spend a lot of time with teens and influence them through their actions and words. Teenagers learn skills such as nurturing, socializing, and decision-making through observation and communication with parents.”  Some teens don’t have the chance to have a close relationship with their parents. 

     Some people are really confident about themselves but not everyone is like that. The world would be such a different and easier place to live if no one judged people for what they have. People should accept people for who they are because no one truly knows what people are going through or what has happened to them.

How is Marathon High School Handling COVID-19?

by Carlota Galicia 

    Due to the current global pandemic, Marathon High School decided to make things drastically different for the safety of the students and teachers. MHS had made the decision to bring back students for in-person learning on Monday, September 14th, 2020. 

    Students have been divided into groups which alternate days of attendance for in-person learning at home online learning.  This keeps our numbers down and makes it possible to have six feet between desks.  Students are required to have masks on during school hours with the exception of lunch and mask breaks. 

     When students are asked about how they are adapting to these changes, a lot of them didn’t seem to mind.  Senior Izabella Fryza said,  “ I think it’s going okay. I mean, it’s not so bad. I thought it was going to be worse. I think they are taking precautions way better than what I presumed ”. 

     Fellow senior Megan Gross added “I don’t really mind wearing a mask because I know it keeps people safe.”.

      Teacher’s are also required to sanitize & wipe down tables before and after every class. Mrs. McDonald says “I think school is going well, all things considered. I don’t mind sanitizing between classes because I like to have a clean environment anyway”.

     The precautions seem to be working and by continue to follow the guidelines set by local officials, perhaps we can return to “normal” in the not-so-distant future.

  How has COVID-19 Affected the Economy?

By Jaden Cruz           
     With the Pandemic sweeping the world and closing many businesses both small and large in the process just how much of an impact is COVID-19 having on our economy? Have we seen a drop, and if so how drastic? 

     We have officially been quarantined for approximately half a year now, or six months. In that time, we’ve seen many businesses close temporarily or even shut down out-right either due to break outs of the virus or due to lack of funds and customers. So how exactly has the virus affected the economy? Let’s do a deep dive into the numbers and find out. Also, if you’re not a big fan of analysis and numbers I’ll give a brief overview at the end of the article. 

     NPR news, an unbiased source and reliable source as stated by many surveys and reviews indicated that a record 3.283 million people filed for unemployment in the midst of one week of the Coronavirus. The previous record, 695 thousand, had held since 1982. In fact, John Hopkins University found that 22 million people had filed for unemployment in total, and overloaded the system for stimulus checks and used all the money in the Small Business Administration created to support small business with its Paycheck Protection Program. 

     According to the market watch, approximately 55% of small businesses on Yelp, or an average of around 135 thousand, are closing down each month in the months of the Pandemic. Between July 10th and July 15th alone 15,742 closed permanently. The restaurant business alone saw a 120 billion dollar estimated loss. The number of black small businesses owners alone dropped from 1.1 million to 640 thousand which is a 41% drop. To add to that 58% of owners are worried about their businesses closing. 

     According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce the trade deficit increased from 53.5 billion to 63.6 billion as a result of increased imports despite decreasing exports. The goods deficit increased from 9.3 billion to 80.9 billion. These numbers reflect 168.1 billion in exports despite a whopping 231.7 billion. Theconferenceboard.org, a trusted site for statistics analysis and trends, reported a -31.7% hit to the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) with only a 32.9% rebound months later which meant an annual growth rate of -3.8% after only a 1.3% growth in those months. This means our gap between how much we’re making back to combat our spending will only become a larger gap over time if we don’t fix our economy soon. 

     Many would tell you the economy is fine or that it’s slowly recovering, but this isn’t the case. Many small businesses are being crushed without a single report of just how bad the situation is. In fact, it was extremely hard to find Census reports alone. However, for the sake of simply reporting the news we won’t open that can of worms. All in all the Coronavirus has forced many businesses to close and has seriously hurt our national economy due to our reliance on Capitalism and business. People are losing their jobs and their livelihoods and due to the amount of trouble it took to find information from reliable sources I believe that we need more attention on a problem being largely ignored.