In today’s culture, we are overwhelmed by uncomfortable images after every well-documented tragedy. In fact, I am so personally used to seeing graphic images that I find I have become numb to them. After some self-reflection, I realize that whenever I watch the news, I expect to see horrific images, and almost view them as a ploy for ratings, and not an actual depiction of actual, horrible events. I believe it is this unfortunate side effect of publishing images of a crisis that has led to the backlash and negative feedback from the public. People do not wish to see an image of a mutilated child if it is only so the news network can boost its ratings. This is unfortunate, because I do not believe that is always the intention of the photographers, or publishers, of these graphic images. For example, the children on page 200, who are smiling while holding a poster with horrific images on it, are not doing anything wrong. They are smiling because someone asked them to say ‘cheese’ before snapping a picture. In fact, the children are actually taking the time to raise money for a tragedy that they became aware of through those very images. The fact that anyone questions the motives behind a set of eight year olds raising money to help others only proves how cold our society has become. This is because the media portrays these images so frequently; they lose their meaning, or worse, are questioned for their motives and authenticity. Any form of media is, unfortunately, very subjective to the author’s bias and opportunity. People, including myself, need to except this and learn to actually look at these images again, instead of passing them off as a hoax or a trick for attention.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Sarah Pim
21 October 2011
English 103, Section 30
Mr. Stowe
Research Paper Outline
1) Introduction
a) Hook
b) On a grand scale, the lottery is an excellent source of funds for all sorts of government expenditures, usually education.
i) LIFE scholarships in South Carolina are funded by the lottery.
c) Thesis: The lottery may have positive impacts on society as a whole, but on a personal level it is negative.
2) Paragraph 1- How the modern lottery system works
a) A description of what the lottery actually is, how it works, who it benefits, laws regarding it, and how much it costs to play.
b) 
3) Paragraph 2- Realistic odds of the lottery system
a) Realistically, it is more likely to be struck by a meteor than to win the jackpot.
b) 
4) Paragraph 3- Common demographics of lottery ticket buyers and why it is economically irresponsible to buy lottery tickets
a) People in a lower socio-economic bracket are the common demographic of buyers of lottery tickets
b) Poor people spend, on average, three percent of their annual earnings. This is wasteful because that money could be used to pay off other debts or improve their economic situation.
5) Paragraph 4- The Curse of the Lottery
a) It seems like most of the people who actually win the lottery end up losing all their money within a year
b) Winners are harassed and become distrustful of family and friends’ intentions
c) Abraham Shakespeare was murdered after winning the lottery
d) 
e) Many winners end up needing therapies they did not need previously
6) Paragraph 5- Why do people still buy lottery tickets if they know their chances of winning are so low, and there are so many negative side effects?
a) The pleasure receptors in the brain release serotonin and other “feel-good chemicals” when it thinks there is a possibility of financial profit. These chemicals are the same as those sent out for any basic rewards, like food, sex, shelter, and safety.
b) Financial security is so important that people are willing to hurt themselves through the lottery system, on the off chance that they may actually win.
c) 
7) Conclusion
a) The lottery has an overwhelming number of negative effects on all participants involved.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Bibiliography
Sarah Pim
19 October 2011
English 103, Section 30
Mr. Stowe
Annotated Bibliography
1. "Curse of the Lottery Winners." ABC Good Morning America. ABCNews.com, 11 Mar. 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Winning the lottery may seem like a positive experience, but it seems that in many cases, peoples’ lives have crumbled. Psychologist Steve Danish of Virginia Commonwealth University has studied this phenomenon. He believes that the problem with winning the lottery is that winners lose a sense of purpose, or life goal. Most people are productive to earn money, and since winning the lottery negates that purpose, winners become unproductive members of society, which seems to often lead to their downfall.
2. Foley, June. "Psychology of the Lottery." Clinton Community College. N.p., 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Many people who regularly play the lottery are unaware of the actual odds of winning. In New York, the odds of winning the Take Five Jackpot are similar to being killed by an earth-impacting asteroid. Yet people still buy tickets regularly. Foley hypothesizes 4 possible reasons for this. She claims that people play the lottery because of the psychological phenomenon of Operant Conditioning, the Gambler’s Fallacy, memories tricking players if the information does not fit their schema, and the Availability Heuristic.
3. Friedman, Russel. "Winning the Lottery: Instant Millionaire or Instant Griever." Broken Hearts. Psychology Today, 17 Aug. 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Most winners of the lottery end up spending all of their money within three years. Large percentages also need new therapies that were previously unnecessary. Winners of the lottery actually often feel similar emotions as those experiencing grief. Since “grief is the conflicting feelings caused by a change or end in a familiar pattern of behavior,” it makes sense that those who unexpectedly come into a large sum of money can feel similar emotions. Winning the lottery forces a change in the winner’s perception of their self-worth, leading to feelings of grief and depression.
4. Gallo, Eileen. "The Psychological Impact of Sudden Wealth." Journal of Financial Planning 14.1 (2001): 48-50. Microsoft Word file.
Coming into a sudden increase in wealth can have many different effects on different socio-economic groups. In general, those who are used to having money, and are well aware of how to spend and save their money are less concerned by a sudden increase in wealth. In fact, they view it as a positive change. People who are inexperienced with money found the sudden increase of wealth to be a negative experience. They felt helpless and unable to make sound financial decisions.
5. Griffiths, Mark D., and Richard T.A. Woods. Lottery Gambling and Addiction: An Overview of European Research. Nottingham. PDF file.
The lottery should be considered a “gateway to gambling,” since it is based on odds. It therefore has a great influence of addiction and other social impacts. European countries have a well-established and popular lottery system, which has become increasingly accepted in society. This is concerning because of the clear relationship the lottery has with gambling and addiction. There are several possibilities behind the rise of the lottery, including advertising, entrapment, unclear probabilities, and heuristics.
6. Haley, Jen. "Seduced into Spending Thousands on Lottery Tickets." CNN Living. Turner Broadcasting System, 4 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Even if someone buys a lottery tickets every day, they are never guaranteed to win anything. Buying those tickets though, will always have a price. When one woman added up all the money she had spent on lottery tickets over the years she has been consistently playing, she found she had spent over $10,000. She has never won any prize in the decade she has been playing. Frank Farley, psychology professor at Temple University, blames this on the low entry fee to play. People spend a dollar a day, not realizing how that money can add up.
7. Landau, Elizabeth. "Winning the Lottery: Does it Guarantee Happiness?" CNN Health. Turner Broadcasting Systems, 7 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Many people who play the lottery believe that winning will guarantee their happiness. However, that is often not the case. There are several cases where, as names of winners were made public, people quickly violated their privacy and demanded favors. In the case of Abraham Shakespeare, he was murdered after winning $31 million. Research has shown that monetary wealth does bring happiness, but only to the point of financial security. Beyond that, extra cash can bring stress and complications to peoples lives.
8. Lehrer, Jonah. "The Psychology of Lotteries." The Frontal Cortex. Wired.com, 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
The demographics of people who commonly play the lottery seems concentrated in households which make less than $12,400 a year. In fact, people in that tax bracket spend on average 5% of their income on lottery tickets. This is not rational, since the odds make spending money on lottery tickets a waste of money that could be used towards necessary things. People use the lottery as an easy way out, but end up simply wasting money that could be put to better use.
9. "lottery." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.
The official definition of a lottery is a procedure for distributing something among a group of people by chance. In modern times, lotteries are commonly referred to as a form of gambling, where the price of all tickets sold pay for the winning ticket. Historically, the lottery system has been referenced throughout the Bible as form of census. The first European lotteries in the modern sense appeared in France in the 15th century. Now, lotteries can be government-sponsored, and proceeds may benefit public endeavors.
10. News Staff. "Psychology of Poverty: Why Poor People Buy Lottery Tickets." Scientific Blogging. Science 2.0, 24 July 2008. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
People pour thousands of dollars into the lottery system, with little hope for return. A study by Carnegie Mellon University has looked into the reasons behind this waste of money. It was found that participants in the study who were made to feel poor were twice as likely to buy lottery tickets. This is explained by the inaccurate feelings of participants that winning the lottery will get people out of poverty. Unfortunately, the act of buying the lottery tickets actually exacerbates the poverty lottery ticket buyers are hoping to escape form.
11. Rogers, Paul. "The Cognitive Psychology of Lottery Gambling: A Theoretical Review." Journal of Gambling Studies 14.2 (1998): 111-134. PDF file.
Psychology of lottery is an often-neglected field, which is unusual considering its popularity. There are many various biases and irrational thinking patterns typically found in lottery gambling. A huge part of this is misunderstanding of lottery odds, the idea and belief of personal luck, and the illusion of control. These thinking patterns are often found in the typical lottery player, which is a person from lower income, lower social status and poorer education backgrounds.
12. THS Investigates: Curse of the Lottery. E! Entertainment Television. 24 Sept. 2006. Television.
This documentary follows the lives of ten real-life lottery winners. These winners all seem to inevitably end up in a worse position than they were in before. Winners experience drug addiction, bankruptcy, and even death. Friends, family, and experts are interviewed.
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