Responses should be thoughtful and a minimum of a paragraph in length (do not shoot for the minimum, push yourself)!
List the pros and cons of competition.
Considering your list, do you think competiton is healthy or unhealthy?
A point to ponder: the impact copetitiveness has on a friendship between two teenagers.
I think competition is very healthy for a person but there are always pros and cons. The reason i think it is healthy is because people need to get the inner tiger out and show what they got when it is the time of the competition. If people don't get there anger out ever on anything at one point in there life their going to snap and they wont be able to control themselves. The pros are good way to relieve stress, exercise, improve the athletically ability's. The cons are could be bad because people could get to into it and then they get mad at people that mess up and they might not even know who there yelling at it could of been there best friend and they wouldn't even thought about it because there mind set was way to much in the game.
ReplyDeleteBrian G
I find that without competition life would be easy and boring. With competition comes a challenge and when challenged many strive to push themselves and end up with better results than there would be without competition. A major pro of competition is that it forces you to strive to be the best that you can be. However a con of competition is that it can cause problems between people, which are produced from bad sportsmanship. For example take me and Luke, if Luke tells me that he is going to write a better blog than me (which is a lie) than i would try to one-up him like i am right now. If Luke had never challenged me i would never have been pushed to write a blog that is probably twice as good as his (just kidding Luke). The point is that competition is a very healthy thing, however it can be bad when you take to far like i think i just did...
ReplyDeleteTheo G
Although there are indeed multiple cons to competition, I do believe that competition is healthy for individuals. While some may disagree, competition exists in our daily lives, and quite frankly, without competition, people would have very little motivation and expression. Life would seem boring with little excitement, and we wouldn’t have as much to look forward to. Competition not only motivates one to put forth their best effort, but it also teaches individuals sufficient life lessons which enable them to grow as an individual. While it often may seem like it, competition is not solely about winning and beating the opposing players. Rather, competition’s main focus is to encourage individuals to try their hardest and to ‘leave’ the knowing that they’ve done exactly that. In these ways, competition is healthy, however it is only healthy to a certain extent. For example, while competition is also extremely beneficial in aiding individuals in expressing their inner feelings of anger, envy and even hatred, it can shortly become a negative aspect. Especially in today’s society, competition has become more than just winning and losing. It now dominates our everyday lives, controlling all of our decisions from what we wear, who we hang out with, and how we talk and interact with others. It is when individuals focus their attention too heavily to these subjects that competition turns unhealthy. To a certain extent, using competition as a form of expression is healthy, however relying on getting revenge and beating others is extremely unhealthy, and ultimately goes against the goals of competition. The idea of constant competition in our daily lives relates to the idea that competition can alter and even destroy a relationship between friends. While I believe that the validity of this statement depends mainly on the extent of the competition (as well as who the competition is between,) I agree that it is capable of causing damage to relationships. While I cannot speak for the guys and how competition affects their relationships with their friends, I do know for a fact that girls are extremely competitive with one another. This competitive nature often leads to jealous and envy and in turn results in uncharacteristic actions. When these actions occur, friendships and relationships are often affected, many of them weakening as a result.
ReplyDeleteAmy Carton
Pros:
ReplyDelete- One’s motivation is enhanced.
- Pushes people to strive for their full potential – and beyond.
- People end up working harder (most of the time).
- Allows for personal growth and development.
- One may receive extra experience in performing under pressure.
- One may desire feedback from those who judge – and hopefully take measures to improve their skills.
- It provides the opportunity to meet others who share the same interests and goals – one sees they are not alone in their focus.
- It’s a systematic way to measure one’s achievement and advancement – this also acts as motivation.
Cons:
- Stressful – those who participate may experience extreme anxiety.
- Those who cannot function well under pressure and do poorly are crushed – they may even quit.
- Scores become a public comparison between competitors – humiliation?
- People start participating in activities they used to love for the wrong reasons.
- Some are forced to compete as a result of overbearing coaches or parents.
- Competition becomes personal and people may get hurt.
One can see from this list that there is no simple answer to the question; do you think competition is healthy or unhealthy? I believe competition acts as tool of motivation in forcing people to truly reach beyond their full potential, however there is a fine line between competition being positive verses negative. The unknown malicious side of one’s personality is almost always revealed during higher-level activities of competition. Human beings are in fact living creatures and competition stimulates one’s natural instinct survival senses; it is as though each competitor is trying to “outlive” his opponents like animals in the wild. Competitiveness has an impact on all types of relationships between people of all ages, but more specifically it really has an impact on the friendship of teenagers. A competitive environment constantly surrounds young adults whether they’re in school, participating in extra curricular activities, or being a member of a sports team. Casual and friendly competition has the potential to generate harmful jealousy that may ruin a person’s relationship with someone they thought they’d always be companions with. I believe insecurity is one of the key factors contributing to the development of harmful competition and jealousy. The insecurity one feels concerning their own ability may be projected onto others, allowing that person to believe others are the reason for their failure. Life becomes a competition until a person has the courage to evaluate him/herself and admit to the insecurities and jealousy he or she may have.
Jennifer Blum
ReplyDeleteI think that competition is both healthy and unhealthy for many reasons. Competition can be considered healthy because by nature, humans are born to compete against each other and we are all, whether we realize it or not, competing against each other in one way or another. Trying to be the best or just beat someone else pushes us to work harder, smarter and faster than the other person or people. In order to be successful in life, we are required to be better than those up against us in sports, academics, test scores, etc and this is what competition stems from; the desire to obtain success. If people didn’t feel it was necessary to put any effort into competition, life would be rather boring and unfulfilling because people would have nothing to work for, no one to put themselves above and nothing accomplishments to their names. Although competitions often times show us what we are truly made of, they can also show us our true, sometimes negative, colors. Trying to defeat others and feel that sense of accomplishment can make people do things they wouldn’t normally do. Opponents often times will speak negatively of each other, blackmail each other and in general do almost anything to get ahead. That is the negative side to competition because it can go too far. The real reason we all work so hard to get ahead is to avoid feeling insignificant, but how much competition is too much?
the other one had a typo & it was really annoying me so here is the fixed one:
ReplyDeleteI think that competition is both healthy and unhealthy for many reasons. Competition can be considered healthy because by nature, humans are born to compete against each other and we are all, whether we realize it or not, competing against each other in one way or another. Trying to be the best or just beat someone else pushes us to work harder, smarter and faster than the other person or people. In order to be successful in life, we are required to be better than those up against us in sports, academics, test scores, etc and this is what competition stems from; the desire to obtain success. If people didn’t feel it was necessary to put any effort into competition, life would be rather boring and unfulfilling because people would have nothing to work for, no one to put themselves above and no accomplishments to their names. Although competitions often times show us what we are truly made of, they can also show us our true, sometimes negative, colors. Trying to defeat others and feel that sense of accomplishment can make people do things they wouldn’t normally do. Opponents often times will speak negatively of each other, blackmail each other and in general do almost anything to get ahead. That is the negative side to competition because it can go too far. The real reason we all work so hard to get ahead is to avoid feeling insignificant, but how much competition is too much?
my list of pros and cons (wasn't sure if we needed to include them or not, so here they are)
ReplyDeletePROS
-people learn how to play and act according to rules or standards
-teaches individuals (regardless of their age) how to be a good winner and a good loser rather than a sore one
-people have the chance to expose their true personality and friendship to others
-it often exposes one’s ability to contribute their best effort and determination
-can prepare and strengthen an individual by teaching them how to deal with defeat and become a stronger/better person
CONS
-people focus too much on winning rather than improving or giving the situation their best
-it can lead to violence and conflict between a single individual, or multiple individuals
-people become so caught up in the number of wins they have that they become cocky
-causes conflicts in relationships over jealousy and envy
Pros:
ReplyDeleteChallenges people to push themselves
Often adds excitement to games
Motivates individuals
Make friends with people who have similar goals as your own
Can strengthen leadership skills
Cons:
Stressful
Hinders those who do not function well under pressure
May ruin the game for those who wit to play just for fun
“Sore losers”
People may loose site on the essence of the sport and may only focus on winning as opposed to what the sport it truly about.
Considering my list, I think competition is healthy if you know your limit. It’s when people become out of control with winning in which it becomes an unhealthy ordeal. I remember watching an episode of Wifeswap where there was one family that raised their kids that winning was the most important thing. This can be shown by their vigorous athletic and educational schedule that the children had to endure everyday and by the mantel in their living room that displayed all of their first place trophies. They refused to put any second place trophies up because that wasn’t winning. This would be an example of unhealthy competition because it goes past the point of motivation and it often becomes too stressful for people. On the other hand, the other family was one in which the entire family was lazy and did not participate in any school sports both in and out of school. These are the type of people who could use a little competition instilled into their life because it can motivate you to get up, be active and work hard. Determining that middle ground is crucial. If you find yourself overworking your body up until the point where its not fun or sitting on the couch with a big of potato chips watching TV everyday, maybe it’s time for you to figure out your middle goal. You should always be having fun.
Competition is what separates the boys(Theo) from the MANLY MEN(me). In many ways or reasons points of view competition can be very healthy or very unhealthy. For instance, i could challenge my good friend Theo to an arm wrestle and completely and utterly pwn him but that does not give me the right to be rude and over zealous. Even if it is an advantage that I'm twenty thousand times stronger then him does not by any circumstances give me the right. Another example is if Mrs. Maricevic challenges me to a badminton competition and destroys me does not mean she can go boast about it to the other English teachers or the entire school. I personally think that competition brings out the best and the utter worst in people. In Harrison,NY we have a very unhealthy relations with our neighbors rye because of our high school football team and any other sport we compete with them in, people from rye can at times be very stuck up and snoby but that doesn't mean that we can't see the best in people. Im not cutting rye any slack or anything but most of them are not bad people and they probably feel the same about us(maybe). All in all i feel that competition is part of our regimen and way of life and i feel with out it their cannot be advances in technology or medicine or anything that makes the human reace great and strive for glory upon our planet we like to call home. In the end i think there can be many side effects to competition such as upset stomach, diarrhea, dis-functional personality's, crying, depression, sadness, anger, rage, fire coming from the eyes, debauchery,etc.......
ReplyDeleteCompetition is competition and it will never change.
P.S. Theo i always win! =) =0 =) =0 =) =0 =)
Luke Elion's master piece
Competition is healthy and it is important for people because I think that competition allows people to perform their best. Competition also encourages people to try harder and improve. The pros of competition would be challenge and motivation. Both of these are important for an individual to improve and achieve success. The cons of competition is that it can cause conflicts between individuals and also countries. Competition in the Olympics can cause conflict between countries or conflicts between countries can cause competition. For example, during the 1980 Winter Olympics, there was a lot of competition between U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. because of the Cold War.
ReplyDeleteSanam Patel
Pros:
ReplyDelete-Bringing out the true personality
-motivation is used to reach ones goal or achievement.
-People usually work harder
-It challenges a persons ability and pushes them to do better
Cons:
-Becoming very stressed out
-Pushing yourself past your limit
-Becoming rude towards others if too intense to create conflicts or ruin relationships with competitors
-Ruining the origional point of the competition
After evaluating my list of pros and cons I can see that competition is healthy when the person understands their limits and the overall attitude of the competition but can easily be pushed over a limit. Competing can bring out the best and worst of people. This can be seen as helpful to get work done efficiently and to the best of your ability. When a person knows they are in a competition they enter this mind set that they have to win and do everthything so that they do. Some people don’t know when enough is enough and it is just a game or techneque and ruin the fun. There is a big difference from casual, friendly competition and competitive, enemy competition. The first one is so that the people can have a little fun and test their skills to prove that they can try very hard and accomplish many things. Despite the fun healthy competition, competing with an enemy might just bring out the worst in people considering that they are both angry with eachother from unresolved conflicts and it is no longer an internal conflict of working harder, the pressure that is added on to win will be stressful and destract them from other ongoing tasks that must be done.
I think that there are both a lot of pros and cons to competition. It can bring out both the best and worst in people. One pro is that it can show how determine a person can be to accomplish and get to the point they want to be at. It can also show that they can stand up for what they want and prove that they will get it. On the other hand a con is that people can act different when they are in the “zone” and they might do something or something that they wouldn’t normally say. Also, fights can occur from people being too competitive. Considering my pros and cons I think that competition is healthy to a degree. It’s healthy because it teaches people to push themselves and to do the best of their ability. However, it can get to the point where one pushes the limit and goes out of control. An example of unhealthy competition is when it comes between friendships. When one friend is over competitive they tend to envy their friend. This can lead to them trying to be better then that friend and can lead to a huge conflict.
ReplyDeleteOlivia M
There are always a lot of pros and cons to competition. They bring out both the best and the worst in people. One pro is that it can bring out kindness in a person, and that they have a lot of determination, and they bring out a persons true personality. Some cons are that if it does bring out the persons true personality, that personality sometimes isn't very nice. Another con is that people can become aggressive, they go out of control and push the limit too much. I think competition is both healthy and unhealthy. Competition is healthy mostly when its between two very good friends or family members, and they are just joking around to see who can do it better. I think its also unhealthy because when its between two people who loathe each other, the competition can become fierce, and end very badly like someone getting injured.
ReplyDeleteEmma Potts
Pros:
ReplyDelete-Drives a person to be the best they could possibly be
-Allows a person to relieve stress or anger
-Can be fun if the game is played fair
-When in a competition there is a winner and it is a great feeling when you win
Cons:
-People often cheat when it comes to a competition because they are driven to win
-Friends can get angry with each other resulting in hating each other
-Sometimes when people get so focused to win people could be hurt physically and mentally.
-When in a competition there is a loser and they could be really upset about their lose
Competition is an idea that is difficult to ban or keep, both sides could be fought whether it is healthy or not. People love competition because it allows them to explore their skill and push themselves to get better at it. On the other hand if you just want to win you could be vicious towards your competitor and lash out at them verbally or by violence. How-ever I would agree that competition is necessary because it really brings a person up out of the dark and raise to an occasion that could impact themselves and the people around them for the better.
^ Laura McKinsey
ReplyDelete