Comments

#1: https://yungbasedsav.blogspot.ca/2016/04/have-phones-changed-relationships.html?showComment=1464101408079#c8331362197665233097

#2: https://misterkoral.blogspot.ca/2016/01/rip-tv-youtube-is-my-life-blog-post-1.html?showComment=1464102148538#c3369688975751426806

#3: http://robertsbizarreblog.blogspot.ca/2016/03/bullying-action-that-lets-you-hurt.html#gpluscomments

#4: https://ryannstuff.blogspot.ca/2016/05/would-you-pay-to-get-rid-of-ads.html?showComment=1464103333844#c7571009083095328063

#5: https://natsirtcomtech.blogspot.ca/2016/01/response-to-of-course-internet-is.html?showComment=1464103756328#c3339676422365797665

#6: https://intheeyesofblissblogblog123456.blogspot.ca/2016/04/blog-post-five-celebrites-behaving-badly.html?showComment=1464104178773#c8884429078380939819

Why Are Celebrities Doing These Nowadays?

     Celebrities are a huge part of our society in a sense that they provide solid entertainment to those who like media (so pretty much everyone). Legendary celebrities such as Michael Jackson and the Beetles all have received praise and glorification because of their intent of bringing joy to people and enlightening society with subtle messages embedded in their music. There’s a reason why they are still prodigies to this day and is that they did their job well in being role models of the community.

     However, recent celebrities kind of lost that touch of good influence and instead, turned to become a lot more selfish and rude to the world of media, transforming the once good reputation of celebrities in the past into individuals who do questionable actions that make you wonder, “Why are they doing this?” But even though their bad influence lingers to the public, their popularity and fans never falter. Why is that? Why do people still choose to adore these celebrities despite what they have done? Well, in my opinion, I think that celebrities mask their personality with their looks, singing, or other talents and people just seemed to be deceived by that fact. Looking at Justin Bieber for example, he has been quite a popular individual but the fact that he has done some really questionable things such as being rude to fans, vandalizing property, and even drunk driving doesn’t seem to scathe his career one bit. Miley Cyrus is another example as she does completely unnecessary methods of “expressing herself” in her music videos (seriously.. what does construction tools even mean?). These type of actions that celebrities use completely soiled the great entertainment that singers and artists from the past has created and it’s really unfortunate how much the world of media and music has evolved nowadays. To this day, I still enjoy listening to the Beetles and other great bands that were legends of the past.

Still like the Beatles more than Bieber...

       I believe that these recent celebrities should face the exact same consequence that other people get whenever they commit a crime because it’s sort of unfair to see that they can slip past the laws and continue on their journey to stardom. If that’s the case for everyone, would a doctor get away from being arrested after drunk driving just because he is a doctor? No right? He/She will get arrested regardless of their occupation and would most likely be fired from their jobs. Celebrities should abide to these rules and make them second-guess about their actions instead of freely choosing to do something wrong because they know that they won’t be affected by the law. They have no power over the law whatsoever and that they should be reminded of that so they won’t influence their fans into doing something that society does not want them to.

Why did you guys have to be old?

Dealing With Bullying Isn't As Easy As It Looks

     It really is unfortunate to see how much impact violence has on students let alone how much violence is present in schools. Bullying is one of the most common types of violence and is able to make someone feel left out or weak, such as the incident in Dunbarton High School. That poor girl has been bullied for a while and no one cared to listen to her, resulting in the student attacking her peers and staff members. While this may seem like it is only the cause of bullying, I feel like what the school lacked was a reliable source of help which is a staple solution to mend the wounds of bullied students.

      In my school, there are a lot of sources that you can seek help to that are willing to offer their help. Authorities such as the Guidance Counsellors, the principal, and even your teacher advisor, can help you solve acts of violence whether it was you being affected or someone else. As for the community, I feel like they should host centres that focuses on bullying where they can talk about their situations and ask professionals on what they can do. The community could also hire guest speakers that can offer presentations for students who are bullied and decide which solution is the best for them. Despite the method that you choose, the purpose for all of these is to help you cope with bullying and its effects on you so that you can live a healthier and stress-free life.

     Speaking of stress, this is something that is associated with bullying because students can get paranoid and afraid of going to school because they don’t want to get hurt every single day. Because of this, our school can offer stress-relieving classes available for everyone who is affected by school violence. These can include one-on-one talks and a puppy centre where people can relieve stress through the power of dogs! (I personally like that one). In the end, I bullying is a serious issue that is happening all around us and those students who are affected by it can’t solve the problem by themselves. They need assistance and comfort so that it doesn't consume their lives and become something that they don’t want to be.

I'll let this image speak for itself.

The Phone Plague

     Communication devices have been a great part of our society ever since the invention of the telephone. The way it evolved through many generations and became part of people’s lives truly demonstrates the impact that these devices have. From phone calls, to video chats, and texting, the methods of communicating to one another are endless! What about face-to-face conversations? Was it that the original way of communicating to people? What happened to it? Perhaps, the constant rise of phones and laptops are the ones to blame and here is why.

     Communication devices have changed the way people interact. They don’t have these gatherings that often anymore, instead, they just do group calls on social apps such as Skype. Yes, those apps can be very convenient but it sort off makes people lose their interest in actually hanging out with their friends and having fun. Not only that, but by not being able to talk to people in person, you lose communication skills. Have you ever had that time when you’re writing a formal essay or a PowerPoint presentation and you accidentally use texting slang such as “u” or “LOL” or “Swag”… somewhere along those lines? I know I have and it’s not pretty when your teacher hands the assignment back to you with a bad grade. It’s a habit that I eventually changed as I moved away from social media more and tried to engage face-to-face conversations with my friends.

Titled "Mobile Lovers" by Banksy, this artwork shows the society that we are in and how phones have affected our relationships with other people.

     Social interactions also change the relationship that people have with their families. By being a lot more focused on your phone, chatting with your friends, you lose bonding time with your family. That is not good at all. Family time is one of the best times that a person can have because… family is great! If you feel guilty because you are one of these people, don’t worry! Try setting time limits on your devices and spend the rest on your family. Activities such as watching movies or going outside are very good ways to keep out of your devices and be more interactive.

     In an academic point of view, phones and laptops have their goods and bads. For example, you can use them for research or provide efficient communication during group projects. However, this freedom also allows students to stray away from the school’s intent for the use of devices for educational purposes only. This can really affect a student’s academic excellence. In order to prevent this, the school can block specific social media websites that students could potentially use during school hours in order to keep them focused on their task at hand.  That way, they’ll still be able to use their devices but more towards the academic use of it.

   In conclusion, communication devices are a great way to save time and offer convenience to people. However, too much of it can affect a person significantly and it might change them as a whole.

In other words, control the way you use your phone. Don't let it control how you live your life.

The Internet... Home of the trolls that live under bridges.

    The Internet is such a broad world of cyber space filled with information and entertainment, one of which are memes, the most trending form today. They are absolutely a fun way to make you smile or even burst out of laughter depending on how hilarious or weird it is. Take a look at this one:

I just found this sitting on my shelf....

 Didn't that just brighten your day? Well I'm sorry if it didn't.. (I tried). Anyway, the main purpose of this blog is to inform you guys about how memes, actually, everything that the internet tells you, aren't always true. Sometimes, they are meant to fool people because many of us tend to just believe the first thing we see on the internet and assume that it is true.

     Every minute, there are millions of bytes of information being published, posted, shared, liked, whatever it may be, and we are always open to them and it is up to us to check if it is true or not. Some can be really misunderstood and it may or may not make you look like a fool yourself. It can also be dangerous sometimes as some stuff on the internet like donation posts where they tell a sad story and asks for donations. Those can really affect people who easily believe everything that they see on the internet and may end up being exploited by the ones who made those posts.

HERE COMES THE $$$MONEY$$$

 
     Memes such as the one about the lottery that had over 200,000 likes even though it was obviously a fluke if people took the time and actually think, "Is this real?" Instead of thinking, "This is so real! Gosh, I should share this to other people so that the post would fool more people and then they would cause a chain reaction and so on and so forth. I wish people had at least doubted this post and warn people that it is fake. Shout out to the one who posted the actual calculations and actually made people realize that they're wrong for believing the first thing that they see on the internet. I'll admit, when I first saw the post, I thought, "Huh, that's nice. Poverty is solved!" But then I thought to myself, "Wait, that's too good to be true." So I actually did the math myself and found out that every American would only get about $4. (Shout out to the one who posted the actual calculations and actually made people realize that they're wrong for believing the first thing that they see on the internet.)  Can you imagine? $4 compared to the 4 million that the meme initially said. It kind of hurts to see how much damage this post has dealt to everyone. And it's not like physical damage, but more like societal damage which is caused when a huge part of society becomes manipulated.

     So all I have to say is be careful of what you see on the internet as some people would like to post to make people laugh, to inform something serious, or just become a "troll". Pay close attention to posts like the one mentioned above and trust your instincts to determine if they are telling the truth or not. Try looking for the source of the post to see whether the information showed is credible or not. Well that's all for this blog. Thanks for reading it and stay safe! :)

I Can Live With Ads...

Oh perfect! Youtube Red is not here yet. Go read this blog and it may (not) enlighten you.

 So umm.... ad-free Youtube for $9.99 a month. That's pretty cool but, I think I can handle waiting for 15-30 seconds instead of paying so much just to take those away. I mean, I know ads are terribly annoying sometimes and it drives me nuts to see the same "Hey! Buy this thing!" or "Hey! 50% off of whatever!" I get it.... Businesses are trying their best to sell stuff to us audiences, but I'm trying to watch some videos here so let me just click that skip button and... bingo, get out of my sight ad. Now, my evil self aside, this offer that Youtube is putting out is, in my opinion, not that worth at all. Look at it this way, $9.99 for add-free stuff, including some music and video exclusive privileges that were included (Yes... I researched...). I don't think that is really efficient. Imagine yourself, the only one who bought the subscription amongst your friends, talking to your group at the park. You wanted to talk about one of the exclusive videos that you watched last night and decided to bring it up. I think the conversation would look like this:

You: Hey guys, I just saw a really cool exclusive video! It's soooooo funny.

Friend: Oh cool, where can I watch it?

You: Well you kind of need to pay $9.99 a month at youtube to access it so umm.....

Friend: Yeah.... I ain't paying.

*silence*

See? That is exactly what would happen (I think. I don't know what you guys talk about these days). Anyway, my point is that Youtube Red, the title of the subscription, is a waste of money. Compare it to Netflix, for example, in which a subscription would give you access to movies that cost like $14 per viewing to only about $8 a month, while a subscription to Youtube will give you access to more free videos that originally cost a whopping $0.00 for a small price of $9.99. Pretty good deal? I don't think so.


What about the companies that rely on videos to advertise their product? Because of people buying this subscription, I feel like the society and economy is losing more money. They won't attract as many customers anymore and they would have limited ways to advertise which isn't really a good thing for companies. So by paying $9.99, companies lose thousands of dollars because they lose their power to bring in customers. With this in mind, I ask again. Would you pay? Because I definitely wouldn't.

R.I.P. Television... You will be missed....

   Soooooo... Television has been a part of my life ever since I was a child. I loooooooveeee watching cartoons, shows, and sometimes the news (Yes, news can be interesting too). TV was such a strong source of entertainment as it was something that people can spend time to when they're free. Notice how I used the word "was" and not "is"? Well actually, ever since internet started expanding and expanding as the years pass, television was just kind of going downhill and I'm pretty sure that it's not just me who felt it, but everyone else.

    With the rise of Youtube, Shomi, Netflix, and the recent Crave TV, it has made television drown beneath the dust because of the "on demand" power that these applications have. With normal television, you have to deal with commercials, advertisements and working your way around the show schedule. Take for example, Doctor Who, which airs at around the evening every Saturday. Why would anyone want to wait that long to watch an episode and deal with all those commercials when they can just go to Netflix or their website and stream it there, ad-free!

    Even the old "everyone-sit-together-and-enjoy-family-bonding-time-movie-day" is slowly changing as movie streaming vices, particularly Netflix, started gaining popularity and I've been noticing that around me. I remember one time when I was talking to my friends and I asked one of them if they watch a particular show that I like, in which they replied," What are you talking about? I don't have cable. Just Netflix." Wow... just wow.. I can't believe how much of an impact internet sources have created to the society, even though they were just introduced recently while television has been around for decades!

   With this in mind, I'm not really surprised that families are cutting on cable packages and are spending for more storage in their internet plans instead. Well, now that I think about it, internet streaming sources are incredibly cheap or even free while television cables cost quite a bunch per month so if families move away from TV, then they would be able to save money, while still maintaining that same level of entertainment as TV. What does it mean for cable businesses? I'm not sure yet, because not everyone agrees that TV is dying and some people still love to sit down, grab a cup coffee and just switch channels, looking for a show that might spark their interests while waiting for their favourite show to arrive. Final thoughts? I think that with the rise of popularity with these internet services, television is slowly getting forgotten and if it continues for about 10 years or so, then cable companies and the good old visual-audio box might as well pack up for vacation.... a long one.