Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

"No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth." These were the words of former Facebook Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya who publicly expressed his regret in a 2017 interview over his role in co-creating Facebook. Palihapitiya shared that social media is ripping apart the social fabric of society and he also sounded the alarm regarding social media’s unavoidable global impact. He is only one of social media’s countless critics. The more disturbing issue resides in the empirical evidence supporting such notions. At least 95% of adolescents own a smartphone and spend an average time of two to four hours a day on social media. Moreover, 91% of 16-24-year-olds use social media, yet youth rate Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as the worst social media platforms. However, the social, clinical, and neurodevelopment ramifications of using social media regularly are only beginning to emerge in research. Early research findings show that social media platforms trigger anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and other negative mental health effects. These negative mental health symptoms are commonly reported by individuals from of 18-25-years old, a unique period of human development known as emerging adulthood. Although emerging adulthood is characterized by identity exploration, unbounded optimism, and freedom from most responsibilities, it also serves as a high-risk period for the onset of most psychological disorders. Despite social media’s adverse impacts, it retains its utility as it facilitates identity exploration and virtual socialization for emerging adults. Investigating the “user-centered” design and neuroscience underlying social media platforms can help reveal, and potentially mitigate, the onset of negative mental health consequences among emerging adults. Effectively deconstructing the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (i.e., hereafter referred to as “The Big Three”) will require an extensive analysis into common features across platforms. A few examples of these design features include: like and reaction counters, perpetual news feeds, and omnipresent banners and notifications surrounding the user’s viewport. Such social media features are inherently designed to stimulate specific neurotransmitters and hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol. Identifying such predacious social media features that unknowingly manipulate and highjack emerging adults’ brain chemistry will serve as a first step in mitigating the negative mental health effects of today’s social media platforms. A second concrete step will involve altering or eliminating said features by creating a social media platform that supports and even enhances mental well-being.

A survey was created to help gain some insight on the opinions of homeowners across the <br/>Phoenix Metro Area. This survey consisted of 7 questions relating to personal experiences and <br/>the homeowners’ opinions or concerns. The results of the survey showed that there are a few <br/>concerns surrounding solar energy with an emphasis on the cost of maintenance of panels and <br/>the payback period where the homeowners would see a return on their investment. Most of the <br/>homeowners answered that they do not use solar energy but have thought about using it for their <br/>main source of energy before. The homeowners in the survey also thought that solar energy was <br/>overall too expensive and that it would take a long time before they would see any payoff or <br/>savings from the solar panels. It was found that the payback period for panels is around 7 years <br/>and that depending on the size of the solar system installed or on the model used, solar panels <br/>cost much less than many people think. This was found by researching non-biased resources <br/>from government websites and from local energy companies’ websites. To combat the concerns <br/>found from the survey, an infographic was created to help inform the public about solar energy <br/>and allow the homeowners to make decisions that are well informed and not based on <br/>misinformation. The infographic included information related to the survey by explaining the <br/>survey and explaining topics that were of concern to the homeowners who took the survey. In <br/>addition, the infographic displayed information about solar energy and that the decision to use <br/>solar is ultimately up to the audience.

Surveys have shown that several hundred billion weather forecasts are obtained by the United States public each year, and that weather news is one of the most consumed topics in the media. This indicates that the forecast provides information that is significant to the public, and that the public utilizes details associated with it to inform aspects of their life. Phoenix, Arizona is a dry, desert region that experiences a monsoon season and extreme heat. How then, does the weather forecast influence the way Phoenix residents make decisions? This paper aims to draw connections between the weather forecast, decision making, and people who live in a desert environment. To do this, a ten-minute survey was deployed through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in which 379 respondents were targeted. The survey asks 45 multiple choice and ranking questions categorized into four sections: obtainment of the forecast, forecast variables of interest, informed decision making based on unique weather variables, and demographics. This research illuminates how residents in the Phoenix metropolitan area use the local weather forecast for decision-making on daily activities, and the main meteorological factors that drive those decisions.

Food insecure populations suffer from the ability to access affordable and nutritious foods as a result of financial and transportation needs. Often these populations are concentrated in areas referenced as food deserts. A food desert is an area that does not have a supermarket or large grocery store within a mile and often is saturated with small non-traditional food stores and fast- food establishments. In this study, 21 food deserts along Grand Avenue in Downtown Phoenix were analyzed to better understand their access to food, population statistics and barriers to being food secure. The research question analyzed is the impact food insecurity has on communities in Phoenix, Arizona. The findings are presented in the form of a research paper, as well as 15 black and white film photographs accompanied by descriptions. There is primary qualitative data presented through photographs and observations, as well as secondary quantitative data analyzed from Census data. The food deserts studied consist of communities that are low-income and majority minority with little to no access to nutritious food in their area. The economics of food insecurity and grocery stores, racial discrimination, access to transportation, impacts on health and education and the sustainability of food deserts are all aspects of food insecurity discussed in the research. Possible solutions such as community gardens and subsidized grocery stores are also presented. The study revealed that food insecurity has several negative impacts on the affected populations and communities and disproportionately impacts low-income and minority communities.

For my project, I delve into the relationships of Victor and the Monster as well as the relationships Victor shares with other characters that were underdeveloped within the original novel by Mary Shelley in the novel Franeknstein. I examine their relationships in two components. The first through my own interpretation of Victor and the Monster’s relationship within a creative writing piece that extends the novel as if Victor had lived rather than died in the arctic in order to explore the possibilities of a more complex set of relationships between Victor and the Monster than simply creator-creation. My writing focuses on the development of their relationship once all they have left is each other. The second part of my project focuses on an analytical component. I analyze and cite the reasoning for my creative take on Victor and the Monster as well as their relationship within the novel and Mary Shelley’s intentions.

In this essay, I set out to explore and analyze how Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and the character of Eleanor Vance in particular, disrupts and redefines the traditional conventions of the Female Gothic within the context of the 20th century. I utilize Tania Modleski's gendering of Freud's theory of psychoanalysis in her exploration of the ‘Female Uncanny,’ arguing that the source of the Uncanny in the Female Gothic can be found in the "fear of being lost in the mother." I argue that Jackson's complex personal life, including her fraught relationship with her mother and her difficult marriage with literary critic Edgar Hyman, color her fiction and the primary motivations of her protagonist, Eleanor Vance. I also outline the traditional structure of the Gothic novel and the heroine's journey. With the necessary context provided, I then explain how Eleanor Vance’s character rejects these Gothic traditions and ushers in a new era of Female Gothic fiction.

My thesis, titled Female Agency in the Canterbury Tales and Telling Tales, compares Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth century work and Patience Agbabi’s modern adaptation in regards to their portrayal of female agency. While each work contained a whole selection of tales, I focus on four tales, which were The Miller’s Tale, The Clerk’s Tale, The Physician’s Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Tale. I also include relevant historical information to support and assist in the analysis of the literary texts, and secondary sources were also used supplementarily to enhance the analysis. I argue that female agency is irrationally believed to be dangerous, and the consequent attempts at protection manifest as limitations, which are themselves damaging. The paper is divided into two main sections, which are themselves separated into three smaller categories. The first of the two main sections concerns what actions and options are available to women influenced by a distinction of gender; this section is divided into female gender ideals, marriage, and occupation. The second of the two main sections addresses the entities or individuals enacting the limitations upon female agency, and its three subsections are society, men, and women. I ultimately conclude that not only is it irrational to believe that female agency is dangerous, but also that making gender-based judgment on the capacity of a group of people or an individual is inherently flawed.