lunes, 3 de diciembre de 2012

Unit 2: Honesty Is the Best Policy


Vocabulary

Pervasive: Existing or spreading everywhere.
Trivial: Unimportant; of little value.
Tattling on each other:  Tell something bad that another person has done.
Mislead: Make someone believe something that is not true.
Veneer: A cover that hides the way someone or something really is.
Relentless: Continuing without stopping or losing strength.
Finely honed: Sharpened; perfected.
Conceal: Hide something carefully.
Preoccupation: The condition of thinking about only one thing.
Intrusive: Affecting someone´s private life in an annoying way.
Erosion: The gradual reduction or wearing down of something.
Inflated: Exaggerated; overly important.

 

Essay #1 – Technology Addiction

First it is important to define the concept of addiction, the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy says: Addiction is a habit who is mastered by excessive use or addiction to certain games, drugs or activities that impair their physical and mental capacity. So addiction to technology is only one of many forms of addiction that people have.
Addiction to technology is detected when there is excessive and uncontrolled used of cellular, video games, internet and social networks, which negatively impacts other areas of the life of the person. Furthermore, when the person cannot use them, they feel anxious, tense and indecisive.
As with any addiction, the technology can greatly affect interpersonal relationships. For example, it can prevent people from maintain friendships or relationships with others.
Also, it can physically affect depending on the person acquiring technology, including computers, laptops, tablets, phones, sight deteriorate generates hand injuries, even back injuries. All these technology tools are shaping our interpersonal relationships.

The problem is occurring in most cases. For example, it happens in students and teenagers, that rely heavily on technological resources in tasks, in college and university work, in social networks, among others. This creates isolation between societies. This is because these people turn away from the group experience, these people keep little contact with people, causing loneliness and low self-esteem.

Statistics indicate that 27% of students in USA, say their laptop is the most important item in their backpack (from http://edudemic.com/2011/08), this data shows that people is fully linked to technology and creates a huge dependency between these artifacts.
The 46% say they´d be more likely to read an assignment if it was in digital format (from http://edudemic.com), another example of the great dependency on technology, although it helps greatly, but causes deeply rooted in man, carrying other consequences for those who fail to channel assertively using technology.

But the most common these days is the excessive use of the smartphones. Shadya Gandur is a good example of addiction created by phones. She lies upside down with his feet toward the back of the bed to reach the outlet and to sleep with his Black Berry in hand, while the device is powered.

The psychiatrist Alejandro Ortiz reveals that there is an addiction to BlackBerry cell phone. By the time the user depends on phones to interact with people, they start to isolate that means they have an addiction to the device. The addict gives preference and privilege to virtual contact rather than personal contact. This shows, according to him, isolation from the real world, a key symptom of addiction. (From http://www.usergioarboleda.edu.co). Another example of excessive use of technology could be surfing the internet for hours.

Finally, the first thing a person with an addiction must do, in this case the technology, is first identify and accept the problem, and then seek professional help from a psychologist or psychiatrist specialized in addictions and behavioral disorders.
The best solution is prevention, which is achieved by being informed about the issues that may generate abuse of new technologies. But, once immersed in a serious addiction, we definitely recommend the help of a specialist to provide the strategies needed to solve it. Or maybe addicts can receive therapy.

References
Dunn, Jeff. (2011). Students Addicted To Technology: The Good and Bad News.

 

Essay #2 – Medias Influence on the people

The media is a weapon that produces some negative things in the people. I think that media produces a very bad influence in the people around the world, because their reports, advertising, news, articles learn a lot of private situations of the people, specially from celebrities, Examples of this situation we mention news on stars homosexuals, drugs in Hollywood, intimate relationships outside marriage, alcohol abuse, divorces between stars; information that people want to read, see and hear, news that only seek to destroy families, to the stars. We all want to know everything that is embarrassing ... especially when it comes from known stars of show business.

But not everything is negative, media informed some situations positive of the people, of the rock and Hollywood stars, but this is not the main reason of the media, they want and try to find private information to show at the rest of the world. Positive news can be mentioned: worldwide sports information, weather, business, health, personal cares, education and technology.
On the other hand, the movie called: “The Social Network”, teach us how the Internet as a part of the media´s influences, try to keep closer the people, how friends, couples and families are very close each other wherever they are.  But specially in the University students, is a tool to find a lot of fun, friendship, be nice with other people.
Of course, I am a user of Facebook, and I find a lot of friends and family that I can´t see, but with Facebook, can talk wherever we are. Facebook is a good tool or application created for all of us, around the world, is one of the best inventions of the century.

Finally, some diseases or affections that can be result of the media´s influence in people are: headaches, depression, loss of sleep, stress, accidents or suicides (why not…!). I believe that media´s influence more than showing positive things is concerned about the personal lives of the stars (movies, singers, sports) and see them fall from grace to show the world ... And make privacy a fun story to others.

References
Yeomans, Matthew. (2012). How social media will drive meaningful sustainable action. Retrieve from http://socialmediainfluence.com/2012/10/16/how-social-media-will-drive-meaningful-sustainable-action/.

Wu, Michael. (2010). The 6 Factors of Social Media Influence: Influence Analytics 1. Retrieve from http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Science-of-Social-blog/The-6-Factors-of-Social-Media-Influence-Influence-Analytics-1/ba-p/5708


Grammar


Modals – Degrees of certainty. Use modal verbs to express different degrees of certainty about the present, the past, and the future. The modal you use shows how strongly you believe something is true or not true.




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