Benefits of Social Networking

One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook. This number is calculated by dividing the planets 6.94 billion people by Facebook’s 750 million users. People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook, where each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site. According to an intellectual observation and calculations made by Jeff Bullas, if Facebook were a country it would be the world's third largest country after China and India and two times the size of the U.S. population. Social networking is still the fastest-growing active social media behaviour online, increasing from 36% of global Internet users to 59% managing their profile on a monthly basis by the end of 2011. There are now over 2.8 billion social media profiles, representing around half of all internet users worldwide. To date, social networking has indeed brought a change for the betterment of mankind, through its diverse benefits such as stay connected with friends and family, keep update to the latest information and as a marketing tool.

Social networking helps people to stay connected with each other. Social networking can be considered as the easiest way to communicate with friends or even old friends. Besides, you can also get in touch with the person who lives far away from you or even the close one’s around us. For example, Stanley lives in Malaysia and he wants to contact his friend who lives in Australia, at this time, they will chat together through social networking websites like Facebook. In addition, social networking websites allow them to play games and video call. Thus, meeting each other without taking distance in mind has just been made easier through these social networking sites.

                Furthermore, people are able to keep updated with the latest news just in a flash. Nowadays, technology is getting more advance, the internet connection is easily accessible without any obstacles. People now days have access to the internet by just tapping on their portable devices such as smartphones, tablets and so on. Some social networking websites constantly update the information or the news which posted regularly by the users, which can enlighten the readers. For example students who are studying in colleges or universities, social networking websites is an important part in their studying routines. This is because the most recent announcements from the colleges or universities are posted on these websites. Therefore, students are able to know the events or activities that going to happen in the campus by using these social networking websites.

                Additionally, social networking can also be an effective marketing tool. The reason is social networking allows users to post everything to the websites. Somehow, the site can be accessed by anyone and can be seen by the public. For instance, if a company is promoting its newly launched products, the marketing department will than come into the picture helping the company to advertise the products on these social networking websites, attracting customers from all over the globe. Therefore, advertising on social networks could be a profitable solution for businesses in the world today.

                To sum it up, stay connected with friends and family, keep update to the latest information and as a marketing tool in social networking are helpful to the users. People are encouraged to use social networking method to enhance the relationship between friends and family. Besides, social networking helps to increase the profit in a company and understanding the world’s news.

The Place We Call Home

Throughout my good eighteen years of living on Earth, I have never been close to Mother Nature, unlike the environmental zealots who would relentlessly fight for the betterment of our environment, nor am I considered a voracious-minded industrialist who would crudely harm nature without any remorse just to lay their hands on what they wanted. Where do I fit in then? I am one who you would call an ignorant inhabitant. I love buying new things to embellish my room, yet I don't recycle. I love being in an air-conditioned room especially when the temperature is unbearable, yet I don't use one emitting HCFCs. In short, I don't care what happens to the environment, as long as I am living comfortably in the moment, because I know the people out there doing all that they can to conserve the environment was more than enough. However, this opinion of mine was changed when Mother Nature reached out to me. What I've said may seem dubious and ridiculous, but it's true.

It all happened during my vacation in the Carribeans. It was the perfect get-away for a city girl like me, who has been living her whole life in a concrete jungle. As I lay down by the seashore, sipping my marmalade Mother made, I closed my eyes, and let my senses reign supreme. I loved listening to the sound of the ocean waves beating harmoniously against the white sands. Casuarina trees rustled in unisons as the fresh breeze blew through. Under my Ray-ban shades, I could feel the rays of the beaming sun shining down on me, supplying me with sufficient Vitamin D and of course, a natural tan. The warmth that I am feeling now is something no one can ever understand- like a quilt blanket being wrapped around a freezing child in winter; cozy and comforting. I soon began to drift away with my vicarious imagination when suddenly, I heard a distant voice calling out my name.

"Dear child, dear child, come to me", it said.

"Who is it?", I asked, with a dreamy voice.

"I am the place you live, the place you breathe; I am your Mother".

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't high on drugs or alcohol. Deep down I knew that I was to shout for help and not go to the voice, but my instincts overpowered my rationality. As if I knew that the voice could understand me, I gave a slight nod as a silent consent with my eyes still closed. It felt as if I was floating in the air. I let that feeling swarmed through me because it was such a nice surge of emotion. The voice grew louder and louder, and it said,

Dear Child, let me tell you a story,

From which you will learn about my history,

These are my heartfelt words to you,

And I hope my message gets through,

From way back I remember being pure

My attributes, mankind adore

Animals lived in times of old

Man was rich with crops not gold

From my body they learned to survive

Hardly any sickness, they were strong and alive

My ozone layer, they loved oh so much

My fossil fuels, left untouched.

I blessed them with summer sun

And what happiness I have brought on each one

Sunset at dawn of every day

Just watching it melts their stress everyday

At night, moon and stars shine so bright

And darkness bears no fright

My mountains grew up high

As though they were reaching for the sky

In autumn wind, blossoms fell

On the roasted-like leaves, man began to dwell

As a fond mother, I fawned over my children

And this may be why today I am barren

I was confused with Mother Nature's grief. I replied her messages with a stanza:

Dear Mother Nature, that's where you lost me

Man has done so much, why do you still plea?

From a barren earth we embellished you nicely

With skyscrapers and monuments juxtaposed promisingly

Your environmental troops have defended you with findings

With HCFCs and unleaded petrol to protect your lining

They fought and demonstrated to protect your sanctity,

Which I see is progressing finely

This is why I don't understand you

As to why you do the things you do

At times you are humble then moody the next

Is it because Babylon corrupted you and made you vex?

You cry with so much anger, not forgetting rage

I guess we haven't learn anything about you, all this time and age

Maybe I am wrong, but your reasons I yearn

Please Mother Nature, tell me so I'll learn

She replied,

As grateful as I am to my environmental troops

To what extend will it do when the ones who care are only a few?

The crass industrialists, they can't defeat

As they crudely explored me like a treat

Plutos sons multiplied on Earth

Maximizing my potentials to their worth

These Babylonians have shown me no respect

Their science and knowledge they wanted to eject

Into my system, corrupting me so

I was hurting so much, they don't even know

The rain you see, it is me crying

To moisten my body, preventing me dying.

When the wind gets so strong it's because I can't bear

As a form of anger I declare

The Babylonians remodeled me boldly

So through earthquakes I reshaped my body

The volcanoes I erupted to purify the land

But man destroyed it with sinful plans

I sent hurricanes not to cause anguish or pain

Yet as a reminder of how strong I reign

So now that I am being austere

My Child, I hope I have made it clear

I am your Mother, not your enemy

So please preserve my natural beauty

It soon dawned on me that my actions, together with irresponsible human beings living on the kindness and mercy on Mother Nature were hurting her. We were unable to resist the lure of our lifestyles, the attraction of our conveniences. All this while, I had been bloated with pride at our successful attempts in overcoming nature's disasters, and was utterly smitten with the idea that nature could rarely infringe on our desires to move whimsically about the world. I was oblivious to the fact that the resources in this world is not unlimited. I regretted my previous actions for perilously ignoring the deep connections among our lifestyles to the environment. For now, I've received her message, and I will chip as much effort as I can to help protect the place where we all call home.

Creativity Is Needed More Than Ever In Our Society

     First SAT Essay :)

     A stroke of the paint brush, a graceful step taken by dancers, or a speech so fluent that it awed the crowd; these activities require one common thing- creativity of an individual. Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems.Edward de Bono, a Maltese physician once said, there is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. It is deemed as a necessity in today's world more than ever. This unanimous notion is exemplified in various major historical events.

      One of the irrefutable reasons of why ingenuity is essential today can be explained through the historical episode where Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer who sailed for King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain, found 'The New World'. In pursuit for a shorter route to India, he uncovered a land by sheer serendipity where no other European has ever come across. Being a prudent man himself, he decided to explore the wealth that the land can bring to him. In today's world, we require this unprecedented thinking as many discoveries that have yet to be unearthed can be conducted by man. For example, space exploration. Galileo and other astronomers of his epoch have discovered the planets and the position of the sun and Earth even with limited technologies in times of yore. Sadly, we are still progressing at a snail's pace and not maximizing the potential of our savvy machines to explore space. What if, there is something significant out there waiting for us? Lamentably, we might never know if we do not start oiling our creativity to explore the vast and enigmatic universe. We outrageously live on Gaia as though the water, the land, and the air would perpetually support our fetish for luxury. The resources on Earth will soon deplete, and one day the Sun may just disappear. We have to think ahead and look for alternatives before it's too late. 

     The rise of the  Italian Renaissance in the 14th century distinctly justifies why we need creativity in society now. As a cultural movement, it saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval besides being best known for its artistic developments. Society was encouraged to discover their innate talent through creativity. Various artists like Da Vinci, Michael Angelo and artistic cities like Florence and Milan were formed. As a result, the period of intellectual darkness, or better known as the Dark Ages was overcame with the 'light of Rome'. Let's consider the Great Recession that we are going through in the present. This burden has been on our shoulders for four years, yet even the greatest economist is unable to help us weave our way out of this crisis. Economic downfall and unemployment are taking a toll on mankind. The only way to disentangle ourselves from this quandary is by manipulating  our resources using an adept way creatively. In fact, we might even generate a stratagem  so unconventional that would prevent any recessions from befalling on mankind again.

     Every age has its dissonant voices. And certainly, this fate will befall our time if we don't start using our creativity right now to elucidate the glitches happening in our daily lives. So why aren't we all awakening from our dreamy isolation? Let's not let our own distant progeny live in the worst aftermath of our inconsiderate actions. To quote Confucius, a Chinese philosopher and religious leader, 'A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door'.

Man is believed to be the main cause of environment deterioration

Huge droplets of sweat trickled down his forehead profusely. Although naked, he was fanning himself with a bamboo hand-fan as fast as he could as he sat on his chair in the verandah. He glanced towards his right, where the green grass used to be, where trees were healthy and productive, where he and his father used to work on the earth together- it is all gone now. What is left of it is only a dry and barren land full of soil. His heart sank as he reminisce upon the past when Mother Nature was still a pleasant environment to live in. Well, this man is not alone. To date, there are many issues pertaining the environment that causes detrimental effects to mankind. Some parties believe that man is the main cause of environment deterioration. I agree with this statement purely because human activities like industrialization, agriculture and advancement in science and technology instigates many harmful effects to the environment.

Although critics believe that global warming is caused by Mother Nature herself, there are many reasons why mankind can be blamed for global warming. United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) reported that only two percent of the temperature increase per decade is caused by nature's cycle, but ninety-eight percent is fostered by the many activities of man. Carbon dioxide, or better known as CO2, is mainly the contributor to this issue. It is emitted during the combustion of fossil fuels especially in industrial sites. Deforestation as an act for 'cleaning up more spaces' for agriculture not only reduces the amount of trees that uses up CO2 for respiration, but the combustion of the whole forest produces by-products like soot and carbon dioxide. Besides, a study from NASA showed that products of the digestive system from grazing animals (as an effect of deforestation) emits a high amount of methane gas, a very potent greenhouse gas that is believed to trap twenty times more heat compared to carbon dioxide. In short, the selfish greed of humans in order to accumulate more wealth through industrialization and deforestation have certainly heightened the amount of heat-trapping gases in the air.

Some parties believe that eutrophication is caused by nature, itself for the sunlight that penetrates directly into the lakes induces more aquatic species to reproduce on the water's surface, yet this is not the case as eutrophication is mainly associated to agriculture. One is aware that agriculture is an activity that uses intensive amount of fertilizers and pesticides in order to increase crop yield. However, its detrimental effects can be seen when the traces of these chemicals run into the soil and eventually flow into freshwater lakes. Aquatic plants and species are unable to live in a poisoned environment. Hence, these little forms of life slowly dies, depleting the amount of freshwater species while increasing the rate of decomposition in the lake. As a result, decreased amount of oxygen and increased turbidity in the lake occurs.

Critics asserts that as Earth gets older, the layer of atmosphere will too get thinner, however, a study from University of Birmingham proved that the depletion of ozone layer is caused by humans. Today, technologies like refrigerator and air-conditioning system are considered as a 'need' instead of a 'desire' in every household. These advanced cooling equipments emits a gas called chloroflurocarbon (CFC). CFCs are potentially harmful to the environment because it binds with O3 particles that make up the stratosphere, and would 'pull' them away from it. This leads to a hole in the Earth's stratosphere, and is hazardous towards the human health as UVB (Ultraviolet Body) radiation is able to pass through and penetrate the Earth, resulting in cancer like basus carcinomas, a malignant skin cancer, and also cortical cataract. Ironically, mankind's desire to live a 'better life' has put the Earth and also themselves in various health complications.

To sum up, environment deterioration is definitely caused by human activities like industrialization, agriculture, and advancement in technologies. One must be aware to always care and protect the environment because we have only one Earth to live in. Safety measures and steps like recycling, using unleaded petrol and using HCFCs emitting refrigerators can help us combat the many analogous brick walls that hides the treacherous side of the effects of environmental hazards. To quote Mahatma Gandhi, 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world.' I am sure that none of us here would like to live our lives in future constantly in apprehension, for the air that we breathe in is polluted, the water that we drink is contaminated, and the sun that shines on us are actually cancerous rays. Every party must work hand in hand to save the earth. A little effort goes a long way.