TV or Telephone

The topic for this blog is whether or not I think the television has a greater effect on humans than the telephone. I think yes. By telephones though, I’m thinking of the old, less modern phones that only have the capability of calling or maybe texting, not like the smart phones most of the people have nowadays.

                Yes I know that the telephone has greatly impacted our society letting us more easily communicate with each other. It has brought relationships a lot closer probably, letting people talk to each other so easily and constantly, with texting. The ingenious invention of the telephone has made life so much more convenient for so many people. It makes it easy to stay in touch with people maybe across the city, across the country, or maybe even across the world. It it’s a device that links people together no matter the distance. The telephone was extremely useful, and has definitely impacted human society a great deal, but still I believe the television has as larger impact.

                The television provides us great entertainment and also convenience. For example, if we wanted to check the weather report or something like that before, we might have had to listen to the radio for a long time to wait until the weather was on, or to see news we had to find and read a newspaper that might not even be recent and updated. The television not only provides us with convenience and ease, but also entertainment. That is probably the largest effect impact the television has had on humans. This effect has both its good sides as well as bad sides though. Obviously, the good side is that when people are bored they can flick on the television and watch a show, or news, or something. A bad side though, is that people get too interested from shows and become lazy, and stay watching the television set for way too long. It contributes to bad health by making them lazy, eat unhealthy snacks, bad for their eyesight, and not getting exercise. Another way it may be bad is that it uses so much electricity. It needs a lot of electricity, and therefore coal must be burnt to produce this energy, which causes pollution. Pollution effects human everyday everywhere, so that is one major indirect effect of the television. Another less thought about thing good about the television though is that it creates a lot of jobs. It opens up the entertainment business and gives numerous various jobs to people from being an actor or actress, a janitor at a studio, a director, a makeup artist, a cameraman, a manufacturer or television sets, moviemaking crews, scriptwriters, and so much more even down to the janitor that has to clean up after a movie shoot. It has created so many jobs and helped society out greatly, so that is one major benefit of the television. Without the television, the entertainment media business would be so much smaller and they would have to rely on onstage shows, or radios. Entertainment media would definitely not be as successful or as large as it is now because almost everybody watches television. So man jobs are created and it’s so universal.

                So I’ve explained why I think the television has a larger impact of humans than the telephone, although both are greatly convenient and make life a lot easier. What you think may be different, this is just my opinion, but I have a few good points in here that I think are very convincing… so thanks for reading!

Success!

                The prompt for this blog is to define success. Success is defined as on Dictionary.com : “The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one's goals”

This is basically what the universal definition of success is, and to me also. To me success is just completing or accomplishing something that you have set out to do. Finishing a goal in a way. One is successful when one has done something they said they would do. Success is not defined by what the person has done, as long as they did what they needed to do.

Of course there are different levels of success though, like if one person for example had to go through numerous hard and repeating obstacles but reached their goal and accomplished with a lot of hard work and effort, that person would be extremely successful. A person that might have set out on an easy goal, like not fail a class for this quarter will still be successful in achieving his goal, success nonetheless, but not as successful as the one who had worked so hard and had to overcome so many obstacles and problems to achieve it. This is in the same way people may be compared. This person is more successful than that person because he has a better job, or a nicer car, or a nicer house, or more money is something probably everyone has heard.

For some people, success is getting a lot of money, and an easy but high-paying job so that they canhave a relaxing and stress-free life. For some people success might be starting and being able to support a family as soon as possible. For some people, success might have lower standards such as just finishing high school. Some people might consider themselves successful when they finish college. Some people consider themselves successful as long as they aren’t dirt poor and living on the street. Some people consider themselves to be successful as long as they don’t live with their parents anymore and can support themselves. There are many different ways people can consider themselves successful depending on their viewpoints and priorities.

For me, success has different stages. Ultimate success would be having a good stable job, with at least mid level pay, and having my own house and stuff. However, I have set goals in between, and once I reach those goals, I will be successful, just successful for doing that goal, not ultimately successful. I will be successful when I graduate from 11^th grade at SIS. I will be successful when I graduate from high school next year, hopefully. I will be successful if I get into the college I most want to go to. I will be successful when I complete all the courses and classes and become an undergraduate and get my degree. I will be successful when I get my job. I will be successful when I get promotions or higher ranking and thus get higher pay. Whatever improvements of my live, or major milestones of my life, I consider myself to be successful. Small successes in life though, not ultimate success. After all, the word succession means moving ahead, and pushing forward, so shouldn’t success mean reaching something and then keep on going and pushing forward to achieve more?

                So success is defined in many different ways, to different people. I explained my definition of success in the paragraph above. This is probably different from what many people define success is, because of so many different ideas and viewpoints. Success is Success!

Bucket List

I don’t have a bucket list. I know what a bucket list is, but I never thought of to make one, or ever had the time to do such a thing. I know that there are certain things I want to do before I die, but never really specifically made a list.

                One thing I really want to do before I die, on my bucket list is go bungee jumping. I know this might sound very stereotypical, but I’ve always been excited by the idea of jumping off a high bridge into a vast ocean of rushing water. I want the feel of adrenaline rush through as I fall off a scary high thing like a bridge like the Golden Gate Bridge. It is going to be extremely scary, but even more for me since I am scared of heights. I don’t think I’ll be able to act brave all the way and just jump off the first time because I’m so afraid of heights. So there’s one thing I really want to do.

                Another thing I really want to do before I die is go skydiving. That’s another thing that might sound stereotypical, that everyone says they want to do, but this is really what I want to do. I’ve wanted to go skydiving for a long time. I know it’s scary, and once again I’m extremely scared of heights, especially so much higher than even a bridge… on a helicopter way above everything. Jumping out of that would really scare me, and once again I’m not sure if I would have the courage to do that on my first try I know, but I want to do it just so I can say that I went skydiving. I am also a little paranoid about some thigns like what if the parachute doesn’t open, like it gets stuck, or if my parachute falls off, or if my harness comes loose or breaks. There are a lot of things that could go wrong, but still… I want to do this.

                The last thing on my 3-item bucket list is that I want to go camping in the wilderness alone for a few days. Im not exactly sure how many days, but around three to seven days would be nice. In a place where nobody goes to visit, secluded, and preferably near a stream or river. I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors, hiking, camping, and such. I want to spend three days just gathering food, and setting up stuff on my own, recreationally hanging out, maybe go for a swim. This is one thing that usually isn’t on most people’s bucket list, but for me, I really want to do this. I’ve always loved the outdoors. I don’t mind mosquitoes or sleeping outdoors, or wild animals. One thing I don’t want though is weather that is too cold. I’ve lived in warm, hot weather here in Saipan my whole life, and I’m used to it. It can get annoying at times, but it’s a lot better than going camping in freezing cold weather where I’ll most likely get sick and freeze and be uncomfortable for the whole time. Being in warm weather, I can swim, and do whatever. When I sweat, just changed and wash my clothes. In cold weather, I’d have to pack coats and jackets and gloves and boots, and if my clothes get wet, I will probably freeze to death.

                These are three things that I want to do before I die, especially the camping idea. Hopefully I can get all of these done when I’m out of college or before so I can mark it off and be done with it quickly.

Superpowers

The topic for this blog is to if I could have any superpower, what it would be. If I could have a power, it would probably be either being able to go back or forward in time or to read peoples’ minds.

                Most people want to fly or to be invisible or whatever. It would be fun to me to have those powers, but to live life and what would really help me in everything would be to go back in time. I would never be scared to do anything because if I ever mess up doing anything like falling off a cliff or missing a shot in basketball or going to jail, I can always just rewind and go back to the time before I messed up. It would be a great advantage in so many ways. Having this would let me live the most of my life. I would wouldn’t be scared to go skydiving, or cliff jumping, or bungee jumping, or just to jump off a cliff into the ocean. Another advantage of having this power is that if I really enjoy a moment of my life, like a night or something, I could relive it over and over again. Then when I’m done, just go back to the present. I would want to go forward in time to skip boring events. For example, if I’m in class and the lecture is really boring and we aren’t actually learning anything, I would be able to skip an hour or two of my life to get past it and go back to having fun. Then since I don’t get anything I will probably fail my quiz or test, but then that’s fine too because then I can just go back in time and retake it until I pass. If I mess up and do something to piss of my parents, I can go back and redo that so I don’t piss them off. If I get into a car crash, I’ll just go back a minute and avoid the accident. If I’m really hungry and eat a nice piece of fried chicken and it tastes amazing, I can just go back in time to relive that moment over and over again. If I miss a point in a volleyball game, I can just go back two seconds and redo whatever I messed up. If I had the power to go back and forward in time, it would make my life so much easier, and so much more fun. I wouldn’t have to worry about anything. This power would apply to my everyday life and it would be used so much. Every little mistake I make, I would go back and redo it until I get it perfectly right. My life would literally be perfect, because every tiny mistake, I would go back and try again.

                Another superpower I would like is the ability to read people’s minds. This would be so helpful in just everything in general. I would be able to know what people think of me, be able to answer any question in class, know what people expect, and it would just be fun. This to me wouldn’t be as useful as going back and forward in time, but it would still be helpful and fun.

                So those are two superpowers that I wish I had. To me being able to go back and forward in time, is more important and useful than reading peoples’ minds. But either power is good enough for me. Even being able to fly, although won’t be as useful for me I would still be glad to have it.

                

Cell Phone Usage

This prompt is whether or not schools should allow the use of cell phones during school. I personally think that schools shouldn’t allow cell phone usage during class and class-like events, but during breaks, lunch period, and times where we have free time we should be allowed to use our phones.

                I wrote an article about this topic for the school newspaper back a few weeks ago. It is as follows :

“The topic of cell phone usage in school is controversial. A survey was given to twelve students as well as two Saipan International School. The survey question was, “Do you think that cell phone usage should be allowed during breaks and in between classes during school hours? Why or why not?”

                As expected, most of the students said that we should allow the usage of cell phones. Out of the twelve student survey results, ten said yes, while only two said no. One student claimed that , “Yes, we should be allowed to use cell phones, because it would not be during class time and using it for a short period of time would not interrupt anything.” Another point that came up repeatedly was that if there was an emergency or such, the convenience of being able to use a cell phone would come in handy. One of the students said that we should not be able to use cell phones because, “The people who don’t have a cell phone would feel sad, when they see someone using cell phone front of them.”

                Of the two teachers that were asked to fill out the survey, one explained why we should not be allowed to, and one claimed that we should be allowed to. One teacher stated, “ No. Then people concentrate on that and social interaction suffers.” This teacher goes on to explain that if one needs to use their cell phone for a legitimate reason, they will be allowed to. The teacher that said we should allow usage explained that, “Students have a very active social life. Not letting them do so deprives them of their right to interact through technology, even for such a short period of time.”

                From the data collected of twelve students and two teachers, most thought that we should allow cell phone usage during breaks and in between classes.”

                I really thought that all students would obviously say yes to allow cell phone usage, but some surprisingly said no. I also expected all teachers to say no to cell phone usage, but I was happily surprised that one out of two teachers I interviewed was for the idea of using cell phones. I understand both sides of this controversial topic, but I still am for the side of allowing cell phones during breaks. We don’t bother any of the teachers or interrupt class during such times since class isn’t even going on. We can also relax and make the most out of our break this way. Social interaction suffering was one of the points a teacher who was against cell phone usage said. I think that being able to use cell phones during breaks and lunch won’t change social interactions at all. If anything, it should improve social skills between people which will much easier be able to communicate with their friends around the world, or at another school.

                Cell phone usage, an extremely controversial topic has probably been an issue at every high school. Some schools allow it at any time, some schools allow it during breaks and lunch, and some schools are extremely strict and don’t allow it at all. I hope I have proved and convinced my school to let us use them during breaks at least.

Improve Life

The topic of this blog is three things that will make my life perfect now. I think I would need more than three things to make my life perfect but to improve my life majorly three things will be enough. Now that I think about it, my life is actually pretty good because I can’t really think of three big things I would want to make my life better. I can actually think of many things, but so many of those just aren’t realistic. A few of the more realistic ones that are possible to happen are the ones I’ll talk about.

One thing I’d want would be my license and a suitable car to drive. A car I want right now is a SUV, not a two seater or fancy car. A car would make my life so much easier because then I wouldn’t have to always ask for a ride. Instead, I can just drive myself and won’t have to wait for someone to pick me up, or have someone wait for me because I’m not ready to go yet. This would save a lot of time and effort for not only me, but also whoever has to drive me around. Hopefully I can get a car this year. A car to me is basically a sign of freedom.

                Another thing that would make my life better, but not perfect would be less schoolwork. This might sound like a stereotypical thing from a teenager in high school but it would really help my life out a lot. There would be more time for doing everything else that schoolwork is taking up. I would have more time to play volleyball, or do my own hobbies. I know I’d probably learn a lot less and then just have a harder time in the future when I get a job and have to work, but this blog is about what would make my life perfect now. Schoolwork and homework also causes so much stress and worrying because I’m always concerned about how I did on this test ,or what my grade is, if I’m sure my homework is correct, or if I forgot about any assignments that are due. Life would be so much nicer without having to worry about anything school related. It just takes up so much time… time that I would much rather be spending doing something else. Since getting less schoolwork and homework is probably extremely unlikely, I could just be a genius and be able to get through all my work and studying quickly, but that is highly unlikely too.

                One more thing that would make my life better would be having an unlimited supply of money. I mean that will help me because I consider myself pretty conservative with money. I mean, having an unlimited supply of money is going to help any person, but this blog is about me. If I had an endless amount of money, the first thing I would do is get a car, like one of the things that will make my life better as I mentioned above. 

                Those are three things that will make my life better. They won’t make my life perfect by a long while, but it will definitely improve it. Having a car will let me get more freedom, save me a lot of time and effort. Having less schoolwork and homework will let me enjoy my time doing other things, and having an endless supply of money will let me get the things I want. I can think of a few other things, but these three are on the top of my list.

Being Friendly

                This blog is about people being friendly. The question prompt is “Do you think people were nicer in the past rather than now? Explain why or why not.” I think that people shouldn’t be all grouped together as one. There are nicer people and there are people that aren’t as nice. The question isn’t really that good because obviously there are people that are nice as well as people that are not nice. It just depends on the person not on the time period they are from.

                In general though, I think people from the past might have been a little nicer. A lot of people would agree that nowadays we have access to too much technology and such so that we’re not as social, but rather spending more time on an iPad, or a laptop, or watching TV, or playing games on an x box or ps3. Back in the past, people had less of these and in result spent more time together doing things, rather than being indoors starting at a television screen, which at the time hadn’t even been invented.

                Another reason why people might have been friendlier in the past is that the community was closer, in smaller towns. Before cars were invented, people only had access to their direct town, which was probably small. Almost everywhere had to be within a walking distance. This kept the communities closer and more closely knit together. Once cars were invented, the distance of everything was more spread out, and people no longer had the small towns where all one’s friends would be within a five minute walk away. Another example would be the invention of the internet and online e-mail. Back in the day, people all wrote letters and had a mailman deliver them. The mailman got to meet a lot of people, and they were friendlier. Of course these new inventions were a good thing by making everything so much more convenient, but they also had some negative influences on society.

                I predict that a lot more new technology will be invented and it will just increase convenience for us so greatly, but human interactions may begin to get worse and worse. I may be wrong, but from I’ve analyzed from the past until now, I think this is a pretty accurate prediction. I mean this won’t be quick… it will take decades upon decades for all this new technology and the changing of human nature. It will not be fast at all, but it seems destined to happen eventually. We humans have advanced in many ways from bigger cities rather than small, invention of cars and e-mail and internet, and invention of gadgets that keep us preoccupied like iPads, iPods, cell phones, x-box, ps3, wii, computers, television, and all those things.

                So that’s what I think of the topic of whether or not people were nicer in the past than now. I think that people are just caused to be less social with all the new technology that has appeared. It’s through no fault of human kind, just that it’s a part of the way the world is changing. It’s the times going on. People aren’t really not as nice now, but that we are less social as before.