Thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks

For approximately 5 years the social networks have become more and more popular. I personally enjoy talking to my relatives through Facebook, it helps us get in touch with everything. But one thing I don’t like is that the rest of the “world” is in all of your business. We post something up and everyone gives their opinion on the posts. It does make things so much easier to communicate with our loved ones that are far. But I feel that later these things are going to take over our lives. Let me explain myself, I feel that the whole social networking is making us dependent on this. For example my younger sister tells me of how she has tons of friends in Facebook whom she talks with jokes etc. But when she sees these people at school they don’t say a word to each other. And that brings a question to me why? Maybe because in Facebook or other social network you are not face to face with the person and you can tell them anything. I mean in the short run is a very good idea social networking, keeps people close. But I feel that in the long run this can affect our everyday lives.

Online college, or traditional college?

Technology makes a lot of everyday deeds easier, shopping and selling and now school.    It’s not a bad thing having the opportunity to be at home in your pajamas. But what if your whole college career was online, then I don’t think it would be consider a “real career.” I don’t think technology will replace the traditional college.  The traditional idea of attending college is going away to another place attending big lecture halls, waiting long hours to see your professor for a simple question.  With technology you can’t have this; most likely you will be alone sitting at your computer reading and answering questions.  Even though it will make everything much easier, we can’t just get rid of all the colleges.  I mean we can’t let this happen, college life should be about living the experience and getting a degree, not just attending class and online.  Even though online college will get more popular with the coming years it can never replace the traditional college.

Dream act!

As many of us know unfortunately the Dream Act was not passed this past December 2010.  This is such a shame for all the students that were not able to achieve what they wanted.  It makes me sad to think that their dreams were crashed by the government. I was born here in the United States thanks to the risk of my parent’s coming here as illegal immigrants. And I’m thankful for that, because I don’t think I would be as strong as the students fighting for the Dream Act, I think I would just give up.  In high school I had many friends that were at top of the class, bright students, hard workers with one problem they were not U.S citizens.   Many of those students did not attend college after high school; they ended up working in a minimum wage place. I would tell them it didn’t matter they can still got to school, but they said what were they going to do with a college career if when they graduated they weren’t going to find a job because they weren’t going to have a ss#. I feel that the people in the House of Representatives thought that if they passed the Dream Act everyone was going to become a resident. But I think they forgot there were regulations, and they were really good ones. In the future I hope they change their minds and this time passes the Dream Act. It’s not fair that there is so many great geniuses out there that deserve to stay here and can’t. And then there’s so many criminals stuck in jail that were born here who just wasted their privilege of going to school.

Hip hop and its influences

Music is very influential whether its rock, country and classical.  When we listen to music it brings out emotions in us. For example if we listen to a romantic song and we are feeling very sad then we may start crying.  Now when it comes to hip hop people say that if influences people especially males to take a “tough” role.  Most of the songs in rap talk about males having all this money and all these women.  If someone listens to rap or hip hop then it may influence them to be like the singer. If they’re going to be listening to the music might as well be like them.  I’m going to get off topic for a bit and talk a little bit on another genre of music.  Many of you may not be aware at all of this genre of music but I would do the best to explain it.  As many of you know in Mexico the war against drugs is really bad. And something that comes with this is a type of music called “corridos”. “Corridos are a songs meant to tell true stories from the past for example there are some explaining events of the Mexican wars etc.  But for the past 3 years the whole idea of “corridos” has changed. Now the only thing they talk about is the drug lords that kill, some that have died. And the different people that are heroes to the drug world.  And the big issue right now is that, these “corridos” are influencing the youth that listen to them.  Everyone wants to be like the men in the songs all these nice cars, women, parties, and money.  They think it’s cool because the music makes it sound so easy. Which it’s almost like hip hop the lyrics may influence someone especially someone young because everything sounds so cool in the song. 

US Education: falling behind?

According to Newsmax, Nations such as Korea, Norway, the Czech Republic and Japan have had faster growth in high school completion, and have passed the United States on the way up the rankings. It seems that for the past years our education is falling behind. But is it the youth's fault or the school system. I feel its the school system, recently I saw a documentary named "Waiting for Superman".  It talks about how a children going to a private school rather then public schools.  In the documentary they mention that if a young child is attending a bad school, and the child knows he wont do as good. They say its a mentally think but I think its the educationa system.  If the parents pay a lot of money to put a child in a private place, then their education is super. But its not fair that if a smart child has parents that cant afford a private school, the child is stuck in a "bad public school". Then because of this he wont be as good as he would be if he was put in a private school.  I feel that the U.S should re organize the school teaching standarts ask more of the child and by doing this it will improve the system.

How can we end racism and classicism?

When it comes to these topics such as racism and classicism, I feel that we are far from seeing the end of it.  Racism and classicism has existed for a very long time, and I have a feeling its going to stick forever. As much as we convince everyone that we are all equal, there are going to be those that rebel and say they are better than another race or group of people.  Even in the same group of people racism and classicism exists.  For example we have three classes High class, middle class, and low class. I bet in the high class there are some that belong to the high class but may have a tiny bit less than others.  And because of that there will we class discrimination against them.  Its sad to believe that we just have to deal wiht this forever, but its the truth. It would be great that we see everyone the same regardles of how we look or how much money is in our pockets.  Lets just hope that everyone can learn to deal with such big thing. 

Is it the end of books?

When was the last time you picked up a real book? I might be wrong and there are many of us who are still not infected with the "E book virus" and it was a couple hours ago. Technology keeps on making our life better as they say. But is it really? Let’s talk about books; I am not very familiar with all these ideas of E books. The only thing I do know is that you don’t have to buy an actual book anymore. Well that is if you don’t want to. You can download an app in your I phone or if you have any Smartphone. You can also buy one of those kindle things or an I pad. The point is that you don’t have to buy an actual hardcopy. I'm not so happy of the idea of these E books. I like reading books but actually having it in my hand, writing in it going back to previous pages, even doodling on the book. I mean many may argue that you can also do that in an E book, but it’s not the same. Whether I like it or not I do believe that in the next years books will disappear.  I’m not talking about in two or three, I give it 10 years.  I guess it makes it easier for everyone to read a book.  You don’t have to go through the trouble of finding it in a library or buying it. But if books disappear then what would happen to the libraries, would those disappear too.  I really do hope not!

Why learn Academic English?

For many of us English was not the first language we learned. Because of this many have trouble writing in English, its two different things writing in the "language" English and writing in Academic English. What do i mean by the "language" English? I mean you read the paper in English but the words and sentence structure is composed as another language.  I say this because I had an experience where a former English Teacher told me i would write in Spanish. I was confused at first because I didn't understand what she had meant by that. How can i be writing in Spanish if I'm writing in English. Then i realized what she had meant by that. Yes, indeed I was writing in English but the way I wrote my sentences and the type of words I used were those of the Spanish language. I came to the conclusion that it's very important to learn Academic English. I feel its very important to learn Academic English so you can be successful in life. Whether it's in you career or any other none career based job, its very important to know the right way to write and speak English.  
You wouldn't like to be in a business meeting and speaking like if you were with your friends. Many will argue that Academic English is the same as the English we speak, but in reality it's not. For example you wouldn't use the words gonna, finna, dunno, etc while talking to your boss. Even if you are the best worker with a PhD the person you are speaking with its mostly likely going to see you as inferior for your poor usage of words. These reasons and many others are great reasons for everyone to learn the right way to speak English.

Introducing Myself

Hello my name is Norma Ceballos this is my 4^th semester at Northeastern and my major is accounting. But i hope to major in art soon because art is one of my passions. Graduating is very important to me and my family, for as I will be the first one to graduate college. I am the oldest of 4 children which puts a lot of pressure on me. I’m Mexican American, I was in Chicago but my parents were born in Zacatecas, Mexico. Unfortunately I have never visited Mexico but hope to do so soon.  I’m a very easy to get along with and I enjoy working with others. All the different cultures around the world and their customs interest me a lot. Learning of the different customs the different religions makes me want to visit their countries.  I have many goals for the future; I plan to graduate in the next two years. Also I would love to travel to Europe and other countries around the world.