By chuyan zhang

for others might seems that happiness is being loved by someone else or getting the one and only gift you want for christmas or not failing on a test at  school. but for me really, in my perspective of happiness is just playing with my friends. Like play video games or going out for a walk or even just chatting. Or another way of gaining happiness for me is to do something new you have not done before. 

Although all of this may sound easy, the pandemic says otherwise. It had stopped many grouping activities together and spend time to have fun so we won’t get affected by the virus. Most of us know this is necessary for our community’s safety by not getting infected and not infecting others. But at the same time we also are not having fun with other people and not letting other people play with us. Thrust we can not really do things together, especially not inside. All of this is sad but me and my homies still finds a way.

Digital worlds made all of our dreams come true and why not give it a try? We don’t need to be face to face to be happy, we can try new things on the internet! Like playing new games, talk through discord and a online christmas party! My main source of happiness came form the internet during this pandemic because there is not much to do all alone in a house. Im glad i can always play with my family and i am happy about that but without the internet this pandemic would be worse then staying in school and I think most would support this idea.

 

For the human population, it’s nice to have a family. Same for every single other entity living on earth. Although at times it may be stressful, believe it or not, our newborns have one of the highest chances of survival during birth like other primates. For example, horses, dolphins, and whales. But this does not explain why we have the largest population on planet earth, 7.7 billion to be exact. We have such a large population because we have intellect and tools. We can protect ourselves and others. Unlike, for example, turtles who are born on the beach in the hundreds. They lay so many eggs because they have no way to protect their offspring. So only numbers can ensure at least a few can survive.

However, the enormous population isn’t doing us any good. There is poverty all over the world with temporary shelters built in cities. Lack of resources can occur at times and when we come across these types of events, wars can break out between opposing forces, and death is unavoidable. With industrial factories, it’s easy to make all kinds of things. But it’s not easy to get rid of the pollution it causes. overpopulation is bad. and we have not done much about it yet. 

now you may be asking yourself about the future. if this population growth event continues, what can we do to slow, or even stop it? well, the answer may be surprising. most of us need to do nothing at all. let me explain, during the 1800s Great Britain is going through a hard time. out of every five children born, two of them will die before the age of 5 and another 1-to 2 will not live till adulthood. this is because of the poor living condition and lack of medical attention. but after 50 years, the great British industrialized. and much more people have a job now. with a job, they can now pay for better food, lifestyle, and better healthcare. the mortality rate dropped exponentially, down to about 20%. another 20 years passed, and people started to realize that not many people are dying like before, so the birth rate dropped from 5 to 2. and now great Britain is in a balance where not many are dying and not much is being birthed. 

the rest of Europe is in a similar situation to Great Britain, so we can safely say that in the future, population growth is not going to be a problem. some researchers say that the 12 billion population would never be born. now we know that population isn't going to cause a catastrophe, we can work on other problems like pollution.

 Most people play video games because they want to experience something new or something that's not available in real life. For example you can’t really weld a lightsaber and go berserk over a group of strom troopers. Or you can’t really be a car racer who get revived every time he crashes or flew off a clift on accident. However, in a vidoe game, you can do whatever you want at where ever you want, when ever you want. But there are more games then just StarWars Jedi : Fallen Order and Asphalt8 : Airborn, there are thousands of different genres that are loved by different group of people. Little do they know, some part of their senses are adjusting or even improving as they progress through the game they liked. We can use a game that most, if not all know, Minecraft as an example.

Minecraft is a sandbox survival game that requires you to remember a lot of recipes in survival mode. By remembering recipes, the player strengthens their Hippocampus, the part of the brain that controlled memory. As the player progresses through the game, the more recipe they are required to remember. If not, they will fail at their journey to beat the game. So the player is “adapting” in a way. When they are not playing the game, the “adaptation” can then be used in their daily life that can help them. So in a way, people with trouble remembering things have a reason to use minecraft asa tool to help them strengthen their working memory.

Planning is a important skill to have both in minecraft and real life. By planning ahead, you can have a easier time to complete task in work or school. This is a skill that i have a hard time learning. In minecraft, both creative or survival, you would need to plan ahead and thinkw hat to do next. Spawn, chop down tree, make tools, upgrade tools, make shelter and etc should be a the first thing a player think while their new survival world is loading. They would also need to think about all the possible hazard they might incounter and how to deal with them. Many student that I know have hard time with their homework due date. And I have to rely on a list to keep mine in check. My parent often struggle on when to go shopping and when is our online classes. By exercising planning skills, it might all be easier for me and my parents.

In many group projects, teamwork and communication skills are crucial to success. Cooperation between the group members can insure that no work is missing or overdone. In a survival world with friend, a leader should be chosen and the leader should assign different players to do different tasks. Some should go collect resource while other should build a shelter for the night. A few might need to collect wool to make bed, and if possible, one or two can map out the surrounding of the base and look for helpful structures like village and ravine. To insure that the group dont end up in the opening with only a handful of materials. Same can be said for a group project. To prevent that there is no opening or not enough information needed for a passign grade.