Weekly Overload (in 800 words or less)

"Working on yourself" and why it won't get you what you want. It has been said that there is no “us” without “me”, and to a certain extent, this is true. What does it mean to be yourself? People do not exist in a vacuum, and our existence is always in relation to the people around us in our life. That is how your identity is formed: by negotiating, acting, and counteracting, until you have established what your role is within the family, the community locally, and the community at large. Have you ever noticed that you act differently in different friend groups that you have? This is normal. One group of friends that like to do one thing have that thing in common and your other groups of friends know you through a lens according to what the goals are of that group. Your hiking friends are going to be different from your gaming friends. You will speak to your parents differently than your boss. That is because your identity is different in each of those social settings. You

  Sex and Gender  “How many genders are there?” Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past couple of years, you've probably heard this question or one like it. Not only do we see new laws on the books, but we also see a whole new culture rising from the confusion this question and other questions about sex and gender create. Despite what people claim about genders, there are only two sexes. Of course, there are a few certain genetic conditions that exist within a gray area, but well over 99 percent of the entire human population has been divided into male or female categories. Please note none of these things here are value judgments. No one sex is better than the other. Gender is heavily related to sex, of which there are only two of. One observation is that people who claim to be bisexual or nonbinary (claiming that the gender of man or woman does not fit how they feel) describe their fashion habits as being irregular, therefore they are neither. If there is an infin

Family Culture and its Impacts “I think I'm turning into my dad.” If you have ever said this, it is probably because you have modeled something into your life from your family culture. Family culture bleeds into how everyone behaves in your home, and how you perceive those outside of your home. Family culture is the atmosphere that your family creates. Families can run into problems if there are disagreements about what the family culture should be. Family culture is largely influenced by the culture at large in your region.  All of us have a family culture that is supported by the actions and attitudes of each member of the family. Culture both affects and is affected by the people that compose it. Some families make family time a priority, and some make certain responsibilities a priority. For example, some families might have politeness be the top priority in the family and require the children to write thank-you cards after every social gathering that pertains to them, such as

 Some Useful Theories... “No man is an island entire of itself” John Donne once wrote in the early 17 th century. What a profound truth! We are all interconnected, and those we share the most connections with are our families. We are related by blood, but also by sweat and tears, dreams, and fears. Sometimes families struggle, and sometimes that that struggle can cause lasting and deep wounds that are hard to stitch up. Within the family there can be many personalities, motives, and skills; and these are good when they work together. But what if they don’t? There are a couple of theories or models of what is happening to explain why there is tension in the home. For starters, because everyone is so interrelated, a disruption with one person can ripple through the home and affect many other people or routines. This is because each family together becomes stronger than just each person individually. This idea is called Gestalt, and while also being fun to say, is an important concept.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (science). Today for your Weekly Overload, I decided it would be a good idea to discuss what to look out for when reading scientific papers. There are a lot of things that you should be on the lookout for, but here we will break down some of the main problems that arise from reading and interpreting “science”. The three problems I'm going to talk about are bias, sample sizing, and lastly “proving too much”. All these problems are going to be referenced within this hypothetical scenario, but before that, this is important because what the experts say drives the culture and behavior of the people around you. I ask that you keep that in mind as I discuss these flaws that often operate behind the scenes of articles and scientific literature that you see. Let’s say that I’m researching the durability of certain cars under normal conditions during driving. I really like Ford cars because I have a lot of memories, and I notice that they just work bett