This is the link list blog where Nik will periodically post about the continual and rapid social, technological, economic, and political changes—and changes to perceptions of time and space—that are occurring across the world.
University students’ mental health during Covid-19 pandemic
I want to amplify some of my students in my Sociology 441: Public Sociology class. They researched the effects of the pandemic on university students mental health. They made a great website you can find here.
The write:
The COVID-19 epidemic has had a significant influence on the mental health of kids all around the world. In the face of such a crisis, the sociological imagination may be a valuable tool for comprehending the junction of personal difficulties and social challenges. We may better understand how individual experiences of mental health are impacted by bigger institutions and systems by investigating the pandemic's broader social and historical context. Considering how social isolation, economic uncertainty, and changes in everyday routines have led to anxiety and depression among students. We may strive toward more comprehensive and systemic solutions to help kids during these difficult times by placing mental health challenges within their social environment.
I want to amplify some of my students in my Sociology 441: Public Sociology class. They researched the effects of the pandemic on university students mental health. They made a great website you can find here.
The write:
The COVID-19 epidemic has had a significant influence on the mental health of kids all around the world. In the face of such a crisis, the sociological imagination may be a valuable tool for comprehending the junction of personal difficulties and social challenges. We may better understand how individual experiences of mental health are impacted by bigger institutions and systems by investigating the pandemic's broader social and historical context. Considering how social isolation, economic uncertainty, and changes in everyday routines have led to anxiety and depression among students. We may strive toward more comprehensive and systemic solutions to help kids during these difficult times by placing mental health challenges within their social environment.
Ban TikTok?
The University of Wisconsin system joins other universities in the US to ban viral engine and social media platform TikTok on state owned devices.
This move stems from a growing argument that TikTok is a tool of the Chinese government. Richmond writes,
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location. U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices.
TikTok is super popular among teens and college students and the increasing geopolitical battle between the US and China will bring the its popularity and legitimacy into serious question. He continues,
TikTok is consumed by two-thirds of American teens and has become the second-most popular domain in the world. But there’s long been bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation.
The University of Wisconsin system joins other universities in the US to ban viral engine and social media platform TikTok on state owned devices.
This move stems from a growing argument that TikTok is a tool of the Chinese government. Richmond writes,
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location. U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices.
TikTok is super popular among teens and college students and the increasing geopolitical battle between the US and China will bring the its popularity and legitimacy into serious question. He continues,
TikTok is consumed by two-thirds of American teens and has become the second-most popular domain in the world. But there’s long been bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation.
Will the future of capitalism will look more like feudalism?
Jodi Dean, writing in the LA Review of Books, makes a compelling argument that the future of capitalism will look more like neofedudalism, which remember feudalism is the name of the social system that pre-dates capitalism. Dean writes:
Over the past decade, “neofeudalism” has emerged to name tendencies associated with extreme inequality, generalized precarity, monopoly power, and changes at the level of the state.
The tendencies of global capitalism in the past two decades, particularly in the reconstruction after the global finaincial crisis of 2008, as Branko Milanovic has detailed are rising within country inequalities, as well as the rise of precarious working class, the so-called precariat, who are threatened not only by the global pool of cheaper labor but also developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The new working class, particularly in wealthy enclaves in both the global north and global south, will be more a “property-less underclass will survive by servicing the needs of high earners as personal assistants, trainers, child-minders, cooks, cleaners, et cetera” than middle class white collar workers or industrial workers.
Jodi Dean, writing in the LA Review of Books, makes a compelling argument that the future of capitalism will look more like neofedudalism, which remember feudalism is the name of the social system that pre-dates capitalism. Dean writes:
Over the past decade, “neofeudalism” has emerged to name tendencies associated with extreme inequality, generalized precarity, monopoly power, and changes at the level of the state.
The tendencies of global capitalism in the past two decades, particularly in the reconstruction after the global finaincial crisis of 2008, as Branko Milanovic has detailed are rising within country inequalities, as well as the rise of precarious working class, the so-called precariat, who are threatened not only by the global pool of cheaper labor but also developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The new working class, particularly in wealthy enclaves in both the global north and global south, will be more a “property-less underclass will survive by servicing the needs of high earners as personal assistants, trainers, child-minders, cooks, cleaners, et cetera” than middle class white collar workers or industrial workers.