California Culture Essay

California culture has changed a lot over the years. There are new trends coming out all the time. Whether they succeed or not they’re always changing. Fashion is a big deal in California, it’s the way you express yourself. Fashion trends that have been around for a while are jeans, V-neck shirts, and tennis shoes. New trends are TOMS which are shoes that are extremely comfortable, highlighter colors, and body piercings. Highlighter colors are used for clothes, jewelry, nail polishes, hair, shoes, and even make up. Piercings used to be just for your ears and nose but now they’re used for practically any body part like your belly button or back dimples. There are also trends in food restaurants. McDonalds had always been a favorite no matter how unhealthy it is. Some more fast food restaurants are In-N-Out, Chipotle, and Wingstop. A new slang word almost everyone uses is â€Å"YOLO† which means You Only Live Once. There is also a sign for representing the west side where you make a W with your fingers. Some really important problems are unemployment, debt, drugs, gangs, and obesity. There are so many people with big families but don’t have jobs because there aren’t enough being offered. Reasons why people are unemployed are because corporations aren’t using their profit to hire additional workers and state and local governments are continuing to reduce their workforce. A solution to help unemployment rates would be to eliminate unemployment insurance unless it is really needed. This insurance makes people lazy, they stop trying to look for jobs. We are in debt for a lot of reasons but I want to focus on one reason that many people might not think too much about, welfare. Welfare costs a lot for us especially if it’s being wasted on someone who doesn’t really need or deserve it. There are many people who use welfare for drugs and just sit around their house on a couch doing nothing. They learn to live off welfare and then don’t try to even look for jobs. Many people with children still do this as well. A solution to this would be several drug tests at random times and people should have to keep some type of proof to show that they have been looking for jobs and submit them every 2-3 weeks. Drugs, smoking, and drinking is becoming a lifestyle for teenagers. This is a big problem that needs to stop ASAP. It’s dangerous and reckless not only for the teens using but for innocent people around them. Solutions for this would be random searches for drugs in school. Being in gangs is also something popular among teens. Representing or â€Å"repping† colors and hats are cool to teens. Gangs are way too dangerous and frightening and the only solution I can think of is more security and better protection. The last problem is the obvious one, obesity. Obesity is taking over! It’s a huge health problem. 2/3 of US adults are overweight or obese. About a quarter of 2-5 year olds and 1/3 of school-age children are obese. A solution to this would be to have less fast food restaurants and kids should be educated and encouraged to make healthier choices at a young age so it becomes a part of their lifestyle. My prediction for society in 5 years will be that both obesity and debt will get worse. This can harm me because obesity can lead to death and debt can make be broke and homeless if I’m not careful. I also think computer technology will advance rapidly. No one will carry around textbooks at all and we might not even go to class we can all sit at home yet be in a computerized classroom together. That might not happen in 5 years but I do believe it’ll happen soon. This will benefit me because it saves gas, time, and money for fees on books.