Changes made in Appearance Panel not showing up in drawing

For instance I draw a line, and then go to the appearance panel and change its stroke and nothing happens. Or I choose the rectangle tool and select a fill color and the rectangle I draw has no fill, all this while the appearance panel still shows the changes I made as active. 

I just downloaded illustrator and was following along with a tutorial on youtube that had me "Reset Essentials." Thats the only change I've made to any of the settings.