Homework 53 -Survey Analysis

This survey had some interesting questions, some were straightforward and easy to answer, and some required a little bit of thought. One of the questions was “Do your parent(s)/ guardian(s) know who you really are?” or something like that, and this question stumped me. If course they don’t, I first thought. I don’t tell them everything that goes on in my life, as it is better that way. Yes I tell them the important stuff, but little details such as what I ate for lunch or who I met (if I met someone new) seem to escape my mind. But this question made me think about if anyone really knows the real you. I believe that everyone puts on a different face when interacting with different people, so how can someone really truly know who you are? Honestly, I highly doubt 75% of people even know who they really are. We can say who we think we are, but truly we are all actors and actresses trying to fit into a role that society molds for us.

There was also another question that said “are you happy” or something along those lines, and I again had to stop and think. Am I happy? Well, I guess you could say I am. Sometimes I feel as if school is pointless, or I say the very common saying “f*** my life”, but does that mean I’m unhappy? I believe that I am happy with my life, and I am happy a lot of the time. I have an amazing family (who annoy me at times), the best of friends, and a lot of wonderful opportunities that can open doors for my future. So I guess you could say yes I am happy. But this question makes me pose another question, what makes someone unhappy?

Some of the results to this survey actually surprised me a bit. The questions that I had a hard time answering seemed to generate the most shocking results, in my opinion. One of the questions/statements was “you know something about your family you wish you didn’t”, and I had the hardest time answering this question. I had to think hard, but in the end I couldn’t come up with something that I know about them that I wish I didn’t know. However, a lot of people said they did indeed know something about their family that they wish they didn’t. I was curious as to who answered yes to this question, and to what they know about their family that is so bad that they wish they didn’t know. Another question/statement that stumped me was “your family would/do accept you if you were/are gay.” I would like to say yes they would, but honestly I don’t think they would. In my family it is not looked down upon to be gay, we have a cousin who we are convinced is. However, I don’t believe it would be as accepted in my immediate family (such as my mother and father) as it would be if it happened to my cousin and my immediate family were the ones judging. A lot of people actually said that their family would support them, and while it should not have surprised me, it did. In my family, I am use to strict rules and regulations, and to see someone’s answer that their family would support them if they were/are gay, it shocked me. One of the biggest surprises I received in looking at these results, however, were how many people said yes to the statement “I feel happy alone”. When I first read this question, I thought it meant “I feel happier alone”, but now I realize it means just being content even though you are by yourself. In our society, I always feel that people feel happier when they are around other people, especially in our school. It seems that everyone in our school has friends, and everyone is always hanging out with somebody else. But when people agreed that they felt happy alone, I reconsidered my previous thought. “Who are these people that answered yes to this statement?” I thought, “are any of them my friends?” I admit when reading the results to this survey; I was a tad curious as to who answered yes or no to certain questions.

I read the survey results from the article “DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE LAUNCHES HEALTHY TEENS INITIATIVE” and some of these results actually shocked me. Nearly 50% of New York City public high school students have had sex, and one in ten have had sex before the age of thirteen. In my opinion, that is a ridiculously high number and people having sex before they are even of age to be a teenager? What is wrong with these kids now days? One similarity between these results and our survey results is that students in our school also admitted to being sexually active. Understandable, since we are seniors in high school. One thing that was different between our results and the results of the survey done by the department of health and mental hygiene is that people in our school use condoms or other safe-sex technology, while only 8% of sexually active teens reported to using birth control pills. 8% is not a very large number, and makes me wonder if anybody in our school has used birth control pills.

Between comparing these two survey results, I believe that I learned a lot. The best way to understand results is to compare two different types of results. When reading just our results, I only could look at the answers of the 52 people in our grade that chose to answer this survey. But when looking at a general study of New York City public students, I was able to look at a wide range of students, and then compare the results to the results from our survey. I was able to see what similarities and differences in results the two surveys generated.