Viral
March 22, 2008 at 1:18 am | In Adolescent, Technology | Leave a CommentTags: google, internet, Technology, youths
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” – Albert Einstein
Well, the issue about the sponsored ad on google is more or less part of the past now. The ads are changed and there have been quite a number of ‘discussion’ on the blogosphere for the past few days. Oh well, for the better or the worse, the parties involved did not step out to take the issue by the horn.
This can mean two things: 1) yes, slowly, people will stop talking about it and it will become ‘just another in(ac)cident of the past; 2) many years down the road, when someone do a search online, all these will still surface because even though the wind has died down, the damage is already done, and it’s permanently there on the web.
This whole issue has shown that ‘word of mouth’ is faster than ever in this new era with the advanced technology. Just like the Edison Chen’s case which made headlines for at least 1.5 months. It was precisely because of the internet that the culprit could upload the pictures and ’share’ them with everyone anywhere in the world. This is where people comment, support, comfort or slam the characters involved; this is also where journalists could send back reports faster than ever before. If rumours have legs, those legs must have made good friends with technology to work hand-in-hand.
“Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology.” – John Tudor
It’s very real. It’s viral. Previously, during one of the forums that I attended, one of the speakers was speaking on the topic about how children can access restricted content because they were able to gain access to the internet where information is widely shared. If it was in the past, to learn about another country, you will probably have to borrow a book from the library; right now, you may just type the country name into any search engine, and ta-la~ you will know right away its population, religions, places to visit, find accomodation etc –> all with a click!
This is so amazing!
Stress
February 26, 2008 at 11:59 pm | In Life | Leave a CommentTags: anxiety, depression, stress, youths
You know what, I was attending this course last Friday which talked about one of the many challenges youths of today face. Things like having no time to reflect; pace of life is moving far too fast; too much work to handle; having to meet up to expectations; wanting to be accepted and to belong to a group; etc. And what do all these boil down to?
S-T-R-E-S-S.
‘Stress’ has evolved into more than just a noun. It’s verb! [Just meaning it's an action word now =D] I mean, hey, I’ve never bowed to that six-lettered word till I came to college. Manz~ was I surprised to find myself in this depressing situation after near to two decades in this world. We are living in a world so competitive that we are FOREVER trying to catch up and then to come up with something even better than before; it’s just like a dog chasing its own tail; a never-ending chase and an adrenaline pumping lifestyle.
I’m not sure what’s our take for this, but to me at least, we may be ‘cleverer’ than people of the past, playing around with tools that were never dreamt of previously, but are we losing more than what we gained? Are we the master of the tools or have we succumb to being slaves to them? Are we always rushing forward so much so that we’ve lost control and focus of what’s really important in life?
Well, I’m not sure if this would be a good analogy, but in a heavy traffic, if you just want to get out of it by ‘trying to gain an edge’ over the others, you might be trying to overtake the cars in front of yours; and whenever there’s a slight gap in sight, you step on the accelerator and sped [for a little], and the next thing you know, ‘kaboom‘ –> an accident results. What do you lose in this situation? 1) No, you didnt manage to get past the heavy traffic and instead, you might be even later for your next appointment due to the accident; 2) You might be held responsible for the accident and need to pay for the damages; 3) In the worst case senario, you lose your life along with it.
Studies show that stress will create anxiety, and anxiety will lead to depression. If working adults are overwhelmed by the workload and the kind of stress that they can hardly handle, how can we expect our younger generation to bear with all these? Does it necessarily mean that if you are borned in this fast(er) paced society of today, you are naturally borned with a better immune system to cope with stress? Just look at how popular counselling services are with people of today. This phenomenon is not uniquely belonging to just the adults, the children and youths are seeking for help too! If we overlook this increasingly scary trend, we might just be sending our kids towards the dark side of depression.
I would really hate to see what new tricks kids come up with in order to escape from all these stress. Looking at the increasingly difficult syllabus for even the elementary students is distressing for me. Childhood should not be just about attending classes, courses, doing homework, having tuitions, etc! What kind of stories and memories will these batch of kids bring with them when they are in their ripe age, wanting to share some childhood memories with their grandchildren? “Oh, when grandpa was a child, I attended piano class, taekwondo training, golf lessons and watched documentaries after school. Sometimes, I had a tutor who would come and coach me and made me do about 20 different assessment books in a year…” –> where’s the “my friends and I caught spiders in the drains” kind of stories?!!
It’s so scary sometimes, to know that having inadequate amount of sleep is a norm. We can well compare with one another how little sleep we have [and we keep telling ourselves that sleep is highly important for health] and will be impressed if anyone is able to keep to a 8hrs nightly sleep. No kidding! :p Well, if all of us were borned with a silver spoon in our mouths, and we do not need to be concerned with household expenses or financial problems, well and good; we can just concentrate with being a good student who is active in CCAs and studies. But NO, not all of us are able to achieve that. It’s common to see students doing part-time job(s) on top of their studies and CCAs.
Sometimes, it’s not much of a choice. We try to convince ourselves that we can cope and we know there’s not really any other way out since you do need the money to pay your school fees and buy your textbooks and pay for your transportation and meals if you do not want to add on to the burden of your poor parents [when people say "well, if you can't cope with jobs on top of school, don't do any part-time jobs", they totally missed the point that not all families are financially stable. Given a choice, of course everyone would love to put all your energy and focus onto doing well for your studies, aint it so?].
*Sigh*
Parenting
January 26, 2008 at 11:54 pm | In Adolescent | Leave a CommentTags: family, youths
You know, sometimes it’s so hard to really understand how things work when you are really young and you simply feel that the adults are out there to make life difficult for you. Just like how come at times, you feel that there is a ‘generation gap’ between you and your parents when they can’t understand you.
“Why can’t I place my computer in my own room?”; “Why do I have to come home early when my friends can stay out the whole night and their parents won’t scold them about it?”; “How come everything I do is wrong?”; “Why must I listen to everything you say?”; “…”
There are too many ‘whys’ in a child/youth’s mind. And it’s not always that we can fully provide them with an answer to. And sometimes, we feel that it’s simply taking too much of our time and energy to explain everything we do/want them to do. As a child/youth, I do feel that we sometimes have to trust our elders/parents about some of their instructions. They have been through life, they have seen more of the world than you and I do. Though times have changed, some basic rules of life don’t. Or maybe at times, it’s because there really isn’t enough time to fully explain everything before we can be satisfied enough to heed their advice/instruction.
I’m more comfortable [and personally prefers] with the idea that between parents/elders and child/youth, communication and understanding is highly important. However, I do understand that sometimes, with the lack of time, we might be unable to do that. I feel that though you may be more senior in age, it doesn’t mean that you have the rights to instruct; the younger ones should be given a space to voice their opinions too. BUT, having said that, I must admit that at times, because the senior ones can see a full/whole picture of what is needed and would be more appropriate, they can’t always accept totally all new ideas. These ideas might not be ideal to be implemented now, but it doesn’t mean in the future, they won’t be appropriate. Hence, we shouldn’t give up just because our proposals were ‘rejected’ a few times.
Remember, even peace may at times needed to be won after bloodshed, so how can we give up on providing new feasible ideas just because of a few rejections? [Okay, I myself ain't in the favour of violence and war, it's just an analogy.] If we don’t even try, we are in no position to complain that people are not giving us chances, and that they will never take our opinions into consideration.
Teenage Pregnancies
January 19, 2008 at 2:08 pm | In Adolescent | Leave a CommentTags: youths
“Every child is desperate for love, without any exception.”
Maybe we should change that qoute a little to “Every one is desperate for love, without any exception”.. It’s very true. The very first person to have skin-ship with us is our parents, hence how parents shower their child with affection right from the start is very important. Why is it that teenagers might fall into this problem of teenage pregnancy? This may be explored from one aspect which is that they are looking for love in the wrong places. It was precisely because they yearned for love so much that once they are given the slightest attention or affection, they are willing to give anything in order to receive it.
Maybe they are not as good-looking as their siblings or peers, hence they are often being compared to others. Once inferority sets in, they start to seek for alternatives to attract attention. There is an increased number of working parents and usually, it’s less of a communication style when they are interacting with their children; more often than not, they are merely giving instructions. Many of us who are elder siblings, or a parent now, will fall into this trap. We thought we are doing this for their own good, but we have often overlooked the fact that they might be sending signals to us — to seek help and understanding. Yet, we failed to listen.
When problem arises, we tend to blame. We tend to be overly concerned with what others will say, how others will feel and react. Have we forgotten that it’s actually none of their business? The problem now lies in front of us, but because we are facing the pressure from others, we tend to make choices which we will regret later. It’s just the same as teenage pregnancy. Okay, now this young teenger is pregnant, the parents go berserk and scold the child; faced with looks from relatives and friends, what is the choice to make? Pro-life or pro-choice? To keep or to abort?
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