Anthropomorphism
For this theme I wanted to focus on how and why we humanize animals, objects, robots and sometimes even the weather. During my research, I found that humans have a tendency to make the the object or an animal more relatable. Its a way of making sense of our own experiences by giving them emotions.
“We want to bring our own experience into the narrative we tell ourselves about animals, and assume they feel emotions.” ~George McGavin, an academic and TV presenter
Another aspect of Anthropomorphism is briefly looked into was based on how we could use this as a tool for conservation of wildlife. During this part of my research I came across some interesting media references and some studies that people have done on this subject:
Looking into these really helped me learn more about clever ways of using this and how we can use this for a good cause. But often there is a thin line between using this in a positive way and it being interpreted in the wrong way and therefore creating a backlash.
Nostalgia
What can I say, researching this theme was pretty n o s t a l g i c...
It was a pretty exciting theme to look into as I got to look into some of my own childhood memories to get a better understanding of what nostalgia really is.
Its a powerful emotion that can be felt when a person is reminded of a past event through music, people, places, objects, etc. I wanted to take a little different approach to nostalgia instead of just looking into the general feeling of it. I started looking into how the entertainment industry uses nostalgia for selling their products and the negative side of it.
"Your memories aren't just the basis of your life, they constantly remake and reshape your brain"
~ Nick Stockton, Wired
{Article on brain and memories}
If put into simple words, the biology behind nostalgia is that it triggers the reward system in your brain which gives you pleasure. It works like a lot of other addictive drugs and it can become negative overtime. The positive feelings of nostalgia may serve as a substitute for living in the present-day if current, real life troubles take more effort than a person can tolerate. I never looked at it this way and I found this quite interesting. There are various apps like Timehop and Spotify's Time capsule feature are some of the many apps out in the market that gives you a look back in time where you can listen to old school music or look into old nostalgic images of a place. Stranger things is a great example of a TV show that has been set in a 80's science fiction universe and it bleeds nostalgia.
All of these nostalgic moments are now so accessible that people can get addicted to the feeling of nostalgia. It was interesting to look into how media uses these techniques to get us into buying things and if I take this topic further into Phase 2 I would look more in depth into it and research if there are ways that nostalgia can be used in a much more healthy and positive way. I will link down some interesting articles I found on this topic.
Anxiety and Stress
This was one of my more intense topics of the others, and I wanted to look into how people deal with stress and anxiety and what are the different ways people use to relieve stress.
I started off with looking into music and how it impacts our stress levels as its something that I personally use a lot to cope with my own stress. I found a few very interesting papers and articles on it:
From this article I discovered that music around 60 beats per minute can cause the brain to synchronize with the beat causing alpha brainwaves (frequencies from 8 - 14 hertz or cycles per second). This alpha brainwave is what is present when we are relaxed and conscious. This was such an interesting fact and the fact that music can have such an impact on us is quite beautiful.
Something that I listened to during the stressful times of doing uni work and my part time job:
Researchers at Stanford University (press release 2006) have said that "listening to music seems to be able to change brain functioning to the same extent as medication." They noted that music is something that almost anybody can access and makes it an easy stress reduction tool. The article really helped me understand how music affects our brains and I was interested in looking deeply into it.
Other aspects that I looked into were Yoga and Meditation and how they help us release stress through physical and breathing exercises.
There are different types of Yoga in the world but most of them follow a similar structure.
Pose: Poses/posture helps with flexibility and calms your body through strength and flexibility based exercises.
Breathing: This helps regulate your blood flow and calms your mind down.
Meditation: This helps train your mind to be present in the moment and helps you calm your thoughts. Its also great for focus and concentration.
All of these different aspects of yoga work together in harmony. One needs to pay attention to breathing and focus while doing the strength and flexibility based exercises, also pay attention to the breathing and posture during meditating. I looked into some articles based around meditation and how it helps us and some general articles that helped me understand how stress and anxiety works.