How to Become a Sports Fan

Watching sports is one of America’s greatest pastimes. But what makes someone a true fan?

Fig. 1 “A young sports fan is embraced by his father”

“A sports fan is not merely someone who watches sports, but rather someone who is loyal to a tee.” Lane Kenny, a lifetime Chicago Bears and Iowa State Cyclones, believes that the most important thing in becoming a fan is loyalty. According to Mr. Kenny, the difference between being a real fan and a fake fan is not being a “fair weather fan”. “Fans that are willing to stick with the team even when the team is struggling are the truest of all fans”, states Kenny. When I asked him what got him and other fans he knows into sports fandom, he stated that some people were born into fandom and other people became fans due to the influence of some other friends. 

There are many other ways to get into fandom however. “Choose a player and get invested in them,” Kenny says. For him, his fandom of the Bears reached an all-time apex following the UDFA signing of Jesper Horsted. Horsted has been in and out of the league for the last 5 years, but he is able to cheer for Horsted due to his random, committed allegiance to him. This was also similar for Mr. Kenny in his ISU fandom, when he became a diehard fan of David Montgomery following the recruitment of Montgomery despite the fact that he was a third-string running back. Following Montgomery’s success and subsequent drafting by the Bears, his fandom was reinvigorated for both teams.

Overall, Mr. Kenny kept alluding to the importance of staying true to a team throughout our interview process. In order to become a true sports fan, the allegiance must never waver. Regardless of the outcome, a true sports fan remains loyal and true to their team. Once you choose a team, you can’t change teams if you want to become a real fan. “Whether it’s a player or a fan, stay devoted. No matter how hard times get for you and your team, you’ve gotta stay hopeful. The real difference between being a sports watcher and a sports fan is that sports watchers watch two teams, while a sports fan watches their team against the enemy.”

Should Teens go Cold Turkey on Social Media in Favor of their Mental Health?

Social media is critical for communication amongst peers, but there is a certain limit to when this becomes too much. A study of Arab teens discovered that over 60% of teens believe that social media negatively affects their mental health. Another study explained that most teens struggle with FOMO due to the constant pressures of mainstream media to be a part of the big group and not to miss out on the next big trend. While this is most definitely true, and the negative side effects of social media are most certainly evident, I believe that teens shouldn’t fully go without social media as it serves as a critical growth point in their developing lives. Instead, children should learn how to stay safe online as they grow alongside technology.

The brain is drawn to technology due to its newness, and this can make kids susceptible to being addicted to tech and subsequently social media. However, technology is the future, and social media is the future of communication. Teenagers need to learn how to interact through social media because they will be doing it for the rest of their lives. While it is quite easy to become addicted, the simple remedy is enhanced “training” by parents to ensure that their teens are safe on the internet. And while technology may negatively affect a child’s brain throughout their development, close sensoring and limiting by parents at an especially young age should ensure that no critical lapses will occur in a child’s development.

It is important that with this growth, teenagers need to learn how to avoid negativity on the internet. Instead of just removing social media from the lives of tweens and teens, kids should learn how to be safe and sound on the internet.

A lack of safety online can be dangerous for many people. In my life, I had a friend who was cyberbullied to the point that they made an attempt on their life. Without proper teaching about how to put mental health first and how to avoid negativity on the internet, it is possible that many other teenagers fall victim to the atrocities faced by my friend.

Overall, while technology can become easily addictive and can lead to negative mental health struggles, it is a critical part of teenager’s development and it will be around for a long time, so teens will have to learn one way or another how to thrive through social media. With the promotion of positive self-identity and avoidance of bullying on social media, the positives will vastly outweigh the negatives of social media in the lives of teens.

Word Count: 435

Works Cited:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/health/social-media-addiction.html

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetsafetyforkids/teaching-kids-about-internet-safety/1/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/upshot/social-media-teen-mental-health.html

https://research.ebsco.com/c/idf4ib/viewer/html/agzptuiu4b

How much Social Media is too much Social Media?

Social media is critical for communication amongst peers, but there is a certain limit to when this becomes too much. A study of Arab teens discovered that over 60% of teens believe that social media negatively affects their mental health. Another study explained that most teens struggle with FOMO due to the constant pressures of mainstream media to be a part of the big group and not to miss out on the next big trend. While this is most definitely true, and the negative side effects of social media are most certainly evident, I believe that teens shouldn’t fully go without social media as it serves as a critical growth point in their developing lives. 

The brain is drawn to technology due to its newness, and this can make kids susceptible to being addicted to tech and subsequently social media. However, technology is the future, and social media is the future of communication. Teenagers need to learn how to interact through social media because they will be doing it for the rest of their lives. While it is quite easy to become addicted, the simple remedy is enhanced “training” by parents to ensure that their teens are safe on the internet. And while technology may negatively affect a child’s brain throughout their development, close sensoring and limiting by parents at an especially young age should ensure that no critical lapses will occur in a child’s development.

Overall, while technology can become easily addictive and can lead to negative mental health struggles, it is a critical part of teenager’s development and it will be around for a long time, so teens will have to learn one way or another how to thrive through social media.

What is High School truly like in 2023?

School used to be a critical place for learning. Whether it was learning important math skills like algebra or multiplication, or if it was building friendships and learning pivotal social skills, school was a place for a child to come into their own. Nowadays, so many outside forces are attempting to limit a child’s education that school isn’t becoming the safe space it once was. 

The key reason for these radical effects on schooling comes from politics. Students are no longer allowed to be their true self due to the heavy amounts of pressure put on by the outside world to fit into the mold. Teachers are criticized based on what they teach and how they teach it. The most obvious example of this is illustrated through book banning. Books containing sex or inappropriate language are not just discouraged by political parties, but they are being outright outlawed due to their mature target audience. However, this idea of book banning has gone too far, as anything that does not agree with certain political values are being banned over miniscule details. Another example of politics overwhelming the school system is found in gender identity. One of the more prominent political issues of today involves children’s sexuality, and whether or not teachers should abide by what the child believes their gender or sexuality is or if the teachers should focus solely on the birth sex. These issues can create a hazardous learning environment for students not just on the outside where the student may be bullied, but also on the inside as the school, which should be a safe place for the student, becomes detrimental to their mental health.

All in all, school has simply become too political to be as beneficial to students’ health as it once was. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to fix these issues as no matter what, half of America will be disappointed in the final verdict on teachers and the school system. Only through concerted effort will the once great American education system return to its past glory as a safe haven for students, and once that happens learning and knowledge will skyrocket once again.