Social justice summit to focus on solidarity News Thursday February 19, 2015
Baseball to face off with Stanford at home
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Sports Volume 97 Issue 13
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Program offers teaching options English teaching program expands to undergrads MARICELA GOMEZ Daily Titan
PHOTO BY AUSTIN WALLACE, GRAPHIC BY MIKE TRUJILLO / DAILY TITAN
A study by a Cal State Fullerton professor showed that people addicted to facebook had similar fMRI readings to those who are addicted to other substances.
Bitter pill: Facebook addiction mirrors substance dependency Study shows social media addiction in brain DARLENE CASAS Daily Titan Social media has become a force to contend with in today’s society, embedding itself in the home and becoming a part of the culture of many workplaces. Undoubtedly, social media is a versatile tool, but it’s also highly addicting, according to recently published research. Ofir Turel, Ph.D., a Cal
State Fullerton professor of information systems and decision sciences, has studied the various effects of technology-related addictions for the past six years. His research analyzed a series of individuals, from students -to employees, and conveyed how this addiction can affect job performance as well as a user’s personal life. Turel published his findings on Facebook addiction in 2014, detailing how he examined the brain systems of 20 Facebook users. The examination process began by having participants engage with a
Facebook addiction questionnaire. A week later, those same individuals underwent fMRI scans while completing Facebook-specific tasks. In a series of “no-go tasks,” participants were asked to hit a button every time they saw a traffic sign, and refrain from hitting the button every time they saw a facebook-related symbol. Other participants were asked to do the opposite in a series of “go tasks.” People who ranked higher on a Facebook addiction scale tended to have faster response times for Facebook-related iconography
than they did for traffic signs, and women demonstrated stronger Facebook addiction-like symptoms than men, according to the results. The findings also indicated that Facebook addiction has similar neural features with gambling and substance addictions. Technology-related ‘addicts,’ however, are capable of preventing such behavior. The behavior associated with a Facebook addiction is similar to that of a food craving, Turel said. “As long as you are aware, ‘OK I need to stop drinking; I shouldn’t
eat this second piece of cake’—as long as you control your behavior you are fine, but the moment you lose control and you are suddenly sucked into a particular behavior that has negative consequences for your life, it’s a problem that should be treated,” Turel said. Along with researching the effects of social media, Turel studied the effects of information technology in employees. He was coauthor of The Dark Side of Information Technology, an article in MIT Sloan Management Review magazine. SEE FACEBOOK 2
The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures will offer a new Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate to undergraduate students interested in teaching English in the U.S. or overseas. The certificate program, which was originally offered to Cal State Fullerton graduate students, will be available to all undergraduates and international students in Fall 2015. The development of undergraduate certificate started when the program’s faculty discovered that the university criteria would not prevent undergraduate students from participating in the program, said Janet Eyring, Ph.D., a professor for the program. The undergraduate program has been in development for up to two years, said Cheryl Zimmerman, Ph.D., another professor for the certificate program. Zimmerman developed the vocabulary for the program. The undergraduate program will touch on teaching english to adults, but will emphasize teaching younger students, Eyring said. The classes will feature hands-on experiences to give students the skills they’ll need to teach English. SEE TEACHING
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The jazz man plays to his own tune A passion for music, education and performance EVAN LANCASTER Daily Titan
AMANDA SHARP / DAILY TITAN
Gary Gould, who is a professional musician, can be found practicing jazz and other styles of music on campus. Gould is currently an undergraduate, working toward his master’s in jazz performance. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @THEDAILYTITAN
At 53, Gary Gould may not fit the description of a typical college student. Yet, the Cal State Fullerton graduate is recognized as a professional musician and lecturer, who teaches music part-time at the Orange County School of the Arts. He has command of more than a dozen different woodwind instruments and specializes in live performance of smooth jazz, Irish penny whistle and klezmer, an Eastern-European folk music, to name a few. Students may have noticed Gould practicing the clarinet or saxophone on campus. But, few realize Gould’s melodies echoed through the university more than two decades ago, when he attended CSUF. For Gould, music has always been a part of life and his professional career started at a young age. While attending high school in Scottsdale, Arizona, Gould was recruited to play tenor and
alto saxophone in an adult big band, The Bill Hunter Orchestra. Gould’s father, had a different set of plans for his son and expressed that he did not expect him to pursue music as a professional career. Moreover, his father wanted his son to help run the family business, which was an optometry practice. “I had an interesting conversation with my dad, one day … he asked me if I would become an optometrist and join him in business,” Gould said. “I was disappointed, because I did not want to be an optometrist … I didn’t even think about it.” He declined the offer. However, his reaction to his father’s proposal served as a defining moment in his life as a young musician. “I said, Dad, I never thought you were happy as an optometrist, I always thought you wanted to do something else,” Gould recalls. “And it was the first time I ever saw my dad cry,” he said. “He said, ‘you’re right. I wish I had done something else.’” Gould knew he wanted to pursue music as a career and he got his first ‘real job’ as a saxophonist on a cruise ship. He was making an honest living as a musician, but still being pressured to pursue an
academic degree. Finally, to honor his father’s wishes, he enrolled at CSUF as an advertising major and left music behind. “I quit music to do this,” he said. “This was my deal with my dad, I was going to quit music and go into advertising. Kinda like, ‘okay, I did the music thing for a while, and now I’m going to do what a responsible adult is supposed to do, that was my attitude.’” After a few months as an advertising major, Gould remembers visiting the music department; unaware everything was about to change. “I could immediately hear in the distance that a band was playing,” Gould said. “I opened the door and stick my head in, and a voice says, ‘Gary Gould, what are you doing here?’” Gould had just randomly reunited with a former bandmate from the Bill Hunter Orchestra, who had moved to California and become a professor of engineering at CSUF. The professor then introduced Gould to the university’s jazz band director, and Gould’s relationship with the music department began. SEE GOULD
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