Lauren's True or False Blog

Today in class, we talked about the Millerite movement and why so many people believed the Second Coming of Christ would happen in 1844. Before our discussion, I would have struggled to understand why anyone would invest so much faith in a prediction that ultimately didn't come true, especially when followers persisted even after the Great Disappointment. It's easy to judge from the present, thinking people should have been more skeptical. Yet, as we delved deeper, I realized that faith in such a prediction was likely about more than just believing a date. Hope might have played a far greater role than I first thought. The idea that 1844 marked the Second Coming likely meant something very different to those living through that era compared to our perspective today. Life then was often uncertain and difficult. For people facing hardship, the promise of something beyond this world could be deeply comforting. The Millerite movement offered hope and a sense of purpose—a reason to ...

Today in class, we watched clips from the German film  The Wave , which is based on a classroom experiment where a teacher creates a social movement to show his students how easily people can be influenced by group dynamics. Before watching, I already understood that groups of people can be manipulated, especially when they are given a strong sense of belonging or a common goal. What I did not fully think about was how quickly something like that can happen without people necessarily realizing it. I think we like to assume, for our own comfort, or when we think about history, that movements like that take years to develop and grow, but it can be quite the opposite. They can happen with such speed that you do not have time to stop and think, “Something’s up.” The more we watched, the more uncomfortable it became because the people involved did not just suddenly become completely different people. They slowly became more invested in the group until it started influencing the way they...

Today I learned that I should probably stop procrastinating things that I know I need to deal with. My tire pressure light has been on for about a month now, and every time I got in my car, I would think that I should probably get it checked. Then I would continue driving and completely forget about it, or look at all my tires and see that they looked fine enough to continue ignoring the light. I kept telling myself I would deal with it eventually, and apparently “eventually” meant this morning when I needed to drive to class. I went out to my car, ready to leave, and realized I was in fact not going anywhere. My tire was visibly too low to drive on, which meant I had to get on the phone with AAA and get my tire aired up enough to drive to the shop. Unfortunately, the class I missed was the exact class I am writing this blog post for, which feels like a pretty fitting consequence for procrastinating. It honestly made me realize how often I do this with school, too. If there is an assig...

 Today in class, we talked about phishing and the different ways people can be tricked into giving away information or doing something they normally wouldn’t do. I already knew that phishing was a thing, but I honestly did not realize how many different forms it can take. It is not always some obviously fake email from a random person asking for your bank information. It can be texts, emails, phone calls, fake websites, messages pretending to be from companies you actually use, or even something that looks like a normal request from someone you know. The more we talked about it, the more I realized that phishing is really about getting someone to react before they stop and think. I have always considered myself basically un-phishable. I am honestly waiting for the day that I finally fall for something just so I can be humbled. I get scam texts constantly, especially the ones claiming that I have an unpaid toll road fee and that I need to pay immediately or I will be taken to court/...