Profiles on Passion: Part III

For her Passion Project, sophomore Caiying Selmo decided to take on the world. Computers, smart phones, movies, social media, all the things that entertain us in our lives, the entire media, she says, can hurt society with their unrealistic depictions of people.

“It’s about how media’s stereotypes negatively impact young adults,” is how Selmo described her Passion Project. “It’s a major problem because the media surrounds young adults every day.”

Selmo cites many problems in modern society as being rooted in the media, from vulgar language to distorted body image among young people. And she isn’t alone in the belief, apparently. “I found that a lot of my sources have comments from famous people or model or doctors who say things about body image and how the media photoshops and how they even have to add pounds onto models,” she said when asked about her sources for the project. “Everyone has seen the media and knows [that] people aren’t really that skinny and that can affect people like us.”

“I’m going to be making a book or, like, an infographic that has the stereotypes… with pictures and all that. And it will… educate people but they might not even know it, they might just think that they’re looking through a book,” is how Selmo described her plan to complete the service learning portion of the project, a new edition to this year’s version of the two year old Passion Project.

When asked if she had any personal connection to the problem, Selmo responded, “I think everyone does.” Later she said, “With my little sister, especially, [I want to tell her that] not everything in the media has to impact her life.”