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Fast food is popular because it’s convenient, it’s cheap, and it tastes good. But the real cost of eating fast food never appears on the menu.

Eric Schlosser

Let’s talk food. There are so many different types of food in the world food itself being a lose and open term, because food to someone in a poor country if completely different to someone in an economically prosperous one. That being said there are so many different culinary dishes out there so many healthy and satisfying dishes. So why is it that fast food seems to be especially popular. Honestly some families even live of of fast food and really it’s unhealthy and some if it (most of it) isn’t real. Understandably it’s cheap but is that really the only benefit of buying fast food. Advertisement for one is a possible reason everywhere you look in New York their seems to be some type of food advertisement. Taste as well people could just generally like the taste of fast food or maybe because it’s quick sometimes people don’t want to cook. Lots of people have days where they just don’t feel like doing anything to the point where they don’t want to make themselves a meal. Their are so many good restaurants to order from so why is it that a majority of the population wants to eat unhealthy.

When living in a major city it’s easy to get distracted by lots of advertisements being the main problem as their purpose is to capture your attention and hold it long enough to get its point across. Most advertisements you’ll see will be about food, fashion, or other items. Digital marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day.

With exposure to so many different ads it’s a wonder if were not influenced by them in some way and with food ads being a big majority of these 4,000 to 10,000 daily ads it’s hard to avoid them. Therefore there’s a high chance that you’ll catch yourself staring at these interesting little picture on one advertisement and getting sucked in. Ads for junk food significantly increased food consumption in children, but not adults, the researchers found in their analysis of 22 different studies.”We have also shown that the effects are not confined to TV advertising; online marketing by food and beverage brands is now well established and has a similar impact.” Ads aren’t the only thing that can influence people to take up new fast foods.

Most adult work that is normal most adults also work long and tiring hours to support themselves and or their families. Once again this is the norm so if you work six days a week and twelve hours a day and you get back home late most of the time you’re probably to worn out to actually get up and make yourself dinner. Therefore it’s not illogical that people would rather order out instead of putting in the effort to make a meal  for themselves ordering put is just less time consuming.

Most adult work that’s normal, most adults also work long and tiring hours to support themselves and or their families. Once again that is normal the so if you work six days a week, twelve hours a day and you get back home late most of the time you’re probably too worn out to actually go and make yourself dinner. Therefore it’s not illogical that people would rather order out instead of putting in the effort to make a meal for themselves plus ordering is less time consuming.

Availability one thing we haven’t covered. We covered that there were multiple ads for junk food. We also covered that they were less time consuming. What was not covered was the fact that there are more fast food restaurants than there are healthy option restaurants in the world so honestly it’s really no wonder people rather the unhealthy option.

What can we do to change this well not much unless people start to take the initiative to start being healthy and denying junk food. Which takes dedication and commitment that Americans don’t seem to have. So what are we to expect if we don’t do something to change. Nothing absolutely not is going to change if we don’t do anything about that.

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I wanted to talk about it. Damn it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell. I wanted to shout about it. But all I could do was whisper, “I’m fine.”

The Oxytonics

When parents think about high school they think about academics,stages of maturity, and overall how their children are going to grow. What some parents just do not seem to get is that at this stage in time from freshman year to senior year students are trying to make a name for themselves. Weather it be a good one for example valedictorian or if students are going for a bad reputation like ‘how many fights can I get into before I leave’, or ‘what’s the fastest way to get expelled’ even ‘let me just be a dropout’. The one thing all students have in common despite who they leave as afterwards is that all of them expect something it could be drugs it could be sex or becoming popular being part of the ‘in-crowd’. All of these children expect something which leads to them being vulnerable to peer influence. That then leads students in to all these questionable things. Even if they don’t want to but their friends are all doing it. If they see something everyday like if it’s normal then obviously the children are going to be curious but honestly parents haven’t you been pressured back then too?

Parents want the best for their children that’s to be expected encouraging them to ‘explore’, but some don’t realize what this lose term is actually giving them permission to do. Parents might think their encouraging good behavior with this, since obviously their children knew what is permitted and not permitted but in reality they don’t. The teenage years are a time where children are flexible and flimsy mentally and emotionally.

It is very easy to change their minds. The teenage years are a time of transition from childhood into adulthood. They may also feel overwhelmed by the emotional and physical changes they are going through. At the same time, teens may be facing a number of pressures such as fitting in at school and among friends. Participating as a member of the family. Working a part-time job.Preparing for college or their next step in life after high school. Some students will crumble under the pressure of trying to keep up with these standards and it leaves them vulnerable to negative influence. Underage drug abuse being a very common and popular among a lot of young teens. Although it’s not only just a coping method student also can do it because it looks cool and ‘everybody’s doing it so what’s the big problem’.

This is where wanting to fit in comes into play. There are many reasons why teens might use drugs. Some common reasons include: To fit in. Social status is very important to teens. Your teen may do drugs in an attempt to fit in with friends or impress a new group of kids. To be social. Some teens use drugs because it lowers their inhibitions and makes them more comfortable socially. To deal with life changes. Change is not easy for anyone. Some teens turn to drugs to deal with situations such as moving, starting at a new school, puberty, or going through their parents’ divorce. To ease pain and anxiety. Teens may use drugs to deal with problems with family, friends, school, mental health, or self-esteem. Fitting in is all ways going to come up when talking about peer pressure parents may console or get angry at their children for turning to drugs or sex or even violence, but it’s not going to help them by getting yelled at. If anything it makes it worse.

Teens don’t want to hear that their parents don’t like their decisions. They don’t want their parents to judge them they just want to be like everybody else tries to be they want to be okay. Just as they are figuring out who they are, we, as parents, struggle to understand the child we once thought we knew inside out. But the thing is, that is what they need from us most of all; to understand. This was written due to the fact that this is so common and parents really need an inside view of what’s it’s like, and given that I’m a teenager I thought let’s talk about it.

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“It is clear that we are in a crisis, I have no rights, and if I lose my business, I lose everything.”

Maria De Los Santos, explaining that she is fighting to keep both her apartment and her Irving Street juice business. 

Throughout recent years New York has seen multiple changes from public transit improvement to the overall remodeling of communities like Bushwick. It was predominantly a sicilian community but around the 80’s a transition of more African American’s and Puerto Rican’s. Thought even with the change the situation within the community stayed the same. Bushwick has always had a tight knit community, family owned stores and shops lined the neighborhood, the people were familiar with each other. There was a sense of trust and familiarity with the people living there. The community itself was family oriented that’s what type of neighborhood it was and it stayed like that until recently. In the early stages of 2010 – 2015 it became clear that the community was changing. Out with the old apartments and family stores in with modern high rises and bigger department stores. Now some of these changes could be seen as improvements to the neighborhood but with all the modernization occurring the community went through rent and tax increases. Which led to most of the community struggling to adapt to the sudden demands. This led to a lot of family leaving the area leaving Bushwick a shell of its former self.

It means Bushwick family that have been there for generations are being evicted because rent was too high, or a building was being demolished to make way for something better. The people who have resided in Bushwick are against many of these developments even providing push back trying to sway the government into stopping all these new developments. Bushwick officials and residents unveiled a long-awaited plan on Saturday to shore up the neighborhood against the effects of gentrification and development in the coming years. Not only are they working against the government development they are trying to make rent afordable to help the people. As previously mentioned with the new commercial buildings being built in residential areas there is an increase in rent demand from residents. Among the recommendations, the plan asks for no rezoning from manufacturing to residential, that additional units above what could be built as of right without a rezoning be deeply affordable, and for blocks on residential streets to be preserved.The people of the BCPSC [Bushwick Community Plan Steering Committee] have been trying for years to stop the increase in rent, and the overdevelopment in the area. It took years of time and persuasion to get the opportunity to be heard by government official but they did it.

Brooklynites pushed and pleaded to keep the community the same. This change was not meant for the people within the community but for the people who would move into the community after all the initial remodeling. Bushwick, with about 113,000 residents according to United States Census data, has seen quite a bit of change in recent years. The number of Hispanic residents grew to 73,608, more than 65 percent of the population, in 2010, an increase of 4.9 percent from 2000, with the number of Puerto Ricans declining and Mexicans and Dominicans growing. The number of white non-Hispanics more than tripled from 2000 to 2010, to 9,560, while the number of black non-Hispanics fell by almost 9 percent, to 22,686. With this brief history of the Bushwick community the change of ethnic groups has been great.

Hispanics have been a large part of the community up until recently. Where large masses of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Mexicans have been leaving the community. Why? Because of money of course Bushwick has always been an everyday  working class community. When rent became too high above normal working class family standards the people who could not make the cut left. Persuading the people without the use of words. Families could not stay in the community as they were going broke. They needed to find somewhere else to say and to do that they had to move out. Making was for a new wave of people to come in slowly but surely white non-hispanics came to populate the newly renovated area in spades. This development was made possible by driving people out of their communities by targetings their status as a working class citizen in Brooklyn.