Nichole Kaledas Part Four

Nichole Kaledas

Fourth Part of Final Project

Amy Metcalf

                Privacy is a luxury than many Americans take for granted every day, although when pressed, they say that it is an unalienable right that should never be taken away. What happens though when we take it away from ourselves? Who is the one to blame then when we voluntarily give up pages upon pages of information about ourselves to anyone who has a laptop and a credit card?. By giving away our privacy and inviting the entire world into our lives, we are essentially living a transparent life which will undoubtedly lead to less safety for all. Social networking sites and programs like Google Earth take away our privacy and cause harm because of the massive amount of information about our daily lives that is given out with and without permission. The problem with the lack of privacy and the type of information that we constantly put out onto the internet is the fact that is will cause us both physical harm as well as financial harm. It is absolutely imperative that we end this epidemic that has swept not only the nation, but the world as well. Through simple changes in our privacy settings and the way we think about the internet and how we use it will lead to a safer way of life both on the computer and while you are off as well.

                Just to simply overview the severity of what would happen in a world with the little amount of privacy that we currently have, there are two major concerns. First of all, physical security is absolutely paramount not only for yourself, but for your loved ones as well. With social networks such as Facebook and the slowly dying Myspace, you can upload photos, say where you work, where you attend school, when your birthday is and so on. Many people put far more information than just that including their everyday plans and some people often check in at certain places. This is an app that allows you to essentially track yourself and post this information onto your Facebook. More than just the information that we write, there is also the visual evidence that is found through pictures and also through associations with people. For example, if someone was stalking you, they could look on your wall and see who posts their more often or they could simply look through your friends until they find an easy target that they could use to get to you. Either way, by putting out so much information in the open, you are opening yourself up to all sorts of people; not just your friends.

                The reason transparency is such a problem is because, to put it simply, there are bad people in this world. We cannot give our personal information to them and not expect a negative consequence in return. Would you give yourself a convicted murderer your address and school schedule? If you have a Facebook, you probably already have. There have been multiple robberies, stalking, and murders that have been a direct result of information being so available on the internet. Mostly young children have fallen victim to these stalking crimes, but adult victims have also been discovered. Facebook is not the only website that has caused a lot of uproar in the news in the way of privacy. Twitter is essentially a website that allows you to follow anybody, anywhere, anytime. In Harlem, a young man was murdered because his killer, a personal enemy, followed his Tweets and found where the victim was so he could murder him. These cases are not all that difficult to find, it is not as though these are once in a while incidents, but instead these are becoming more of the norm. It has become such a cyber world that not even criminals act or plan these acts like they used to. In fact, in Britain a group of men actually used Google Earth to track the daily schedules of multiple families in order to rob their houses while they were away. Clearly by giving out too much information, you are truly just asking for trouble because you never know who has become interested in you.

                As previously stated, another major issue that comes from giving away our privacy and becoming transparent to the world is the financial problems that come along as well. A very common, and very serious, crime that has began to spread like wildfire is identity theft. In today’s society every one in ten people are personally affected by identity theft. This translates to every one in ten people have their identities stolen and their credit scores permanently ruined because somebody somewhere was able to use their information that they either gave out willingly. Most information that is used to commit fraud is obtained through either a scam online or by online hacking where a hacker than hacks into the website that a person has just used to purchase an item and uses their skills to obtain the credit card and card holders’ information. Financial privacy is absolutely vital if anybody wants to ever amass any amount of wealth or make any large investments; it is quite easy to say that information that we put on the internet in our teens and twenties is never expected to come back and stop us from being able to purchase a house, but it just might.

                Ok, so all of us have a great deal of information out on the internet whether it is through us allowing it or it being out there for a price. But the question that is begging to be answered it, what can we do about it? Is it too late for us to protect ourselves and our loved ones? The truth is once our information is out on the internet, it cannot truly be deleted. Nothing on the internet really ever goes away, it is stored somewhere somehow, and however, if we stop giving out unnecessary information, like our hometowns and workplaces, we can protect ourselves. The very first thing that all people with a Facebook account or other social networking site is to change our profiles to private; and not that private setting where friends of friends can see it, but truly private where only friends can see it. After that, everybody needs to take off information such as their school and place of work. By taking these two places off alone, your schedule could be much more difficult to track down if you were truly being stalked by a predator. Outside of what we can do for ourselves with our own personal websites, we must petition the government if we truly want change.

                 The government needs to make a stand and not allow web spaces like Google Earth to have real time footage or have footage of a street view because it takes away privacy and gives a picture to an particular address or city. If the predator has our address, they can not only see where we live, but also look for ways to invade our homes when we are away. The government should also implement certain security devices on websites that are commonly gone to to purchase retail items online such as Kohls.com, Target.com, or any other site that is relatable. If it is much more difficult for hackers to obtain information off of these sites, the number of identity theft victims is sure to decrease. The government needs to protect its people when it comes to information that can be viewed and obtained from the internet because let’s face it, Uncle Sam is always watching.

                Transparency is an undeniable epidemic. We are taking away our own privacy and essentially living in glass houses inviting all sorts of different characters into our lives without ever meeting them. When it comes down to it, there are simply bad people in this world and if we are giving them a key to our house of course they will use it. It is our task and duty to ensure that we are not making ourselves targets or easy prey, but instead make ourselves wise to these scams and protect ourselves by censoring the information that we readily give out. This epidemic is just like the Plague, it is deadly and it will hit at almost every person at some point with some degree of irreconcilability, we just don’t know when.

Project 4

Mercyllia Harmon

Amy Metcalf

English 1020

Project Four

Cyberbulling...Part Four

            “Dog Poop Girl”, “Kill Kylie”, “I hate you and wish you die”. These words where actually spoken to another human being. Actually theses exact words were said to torment teenagers. When one sees these words they are forced to feel critical emotion. These feelings can range from happy, sad, or even mad. Usually the people that encounter these words are the target or the person being bullied. Cyberbullying is very hazardous and it should be considered something to watch out for by every human being. It’s very serious, there is many ways to prevent it, and plus it’s the law!

            Cyber bullying is very serious to society. It harms the community because it interacts with the minds of children and teenagers. And they are this nation’s future leaders. It can have horrible results such as death or even psychological dysfunctions. For example teens have committed suicide because the horrible things that people sent through a technology device.

            The Law states that cyberbulling is a federal crime every since so many crimes has been committed. It’s not a final law but people have been prosecuted to the charges.

As children grow their lives change drastically. They become more independent and curious about life. Therefore prevention becomes a struggle. Even though prevention gets hard it’s certainly not impossible. The first step to prevention is recognizing if there is a problem. The second step to prevention is observing the situation. The third step is taking action. Modern parents are unaware of what’s really going on in their children’s lives. This has cause cyberbulling rituals to increase.

For children ages 7-10 parents can monitor their children’s lives by keeping them close by their side because they are still small and attached to their superior. Also they can monitor their everyday lives by interacting with the child and talking to them about their daily activities and understanding how it made them feel. For children this young this young it’s very easy to prevent because they listen very well and they are in their critical learning stage. This means they pick up everything like a sponge. By practicing this action you can actually recognize if there is a problem and you can observe the situation. Therefore you can take action if needed. Their peers can also contribute to because kids copy off each other. That’s why kids come home and say and do things that are not practiced in the household. Kids can talk to their peers and influence them to act a certain way no matter how meaningless the actions is. The school can also get involved because they can incorporate cyberbulling prevention lesions I their everyday activities. They also can set firm punishments that can change early lives because children want to be accepted. For example they can set a firm limit on recess or playtime if bullying occurs. The community can play a big as well. Younger children can attend cyberbulling prevention camp or activities. If kids learn early they will know the horrible outcome of cyberbulling and will be less involved with it. Just like the lesion from right and wrong.

            For children 11-13 it’s a little bit harder for parents to monitor their children because they are so active and they are starting to get involved in outside family and community activities, but it’s still possible. They can also keep a close watch and monitor the child activities and where they are. This is also around the time where children start getting cellphones and interested in the internet. Parents should practice internet safety with their children. Also their cell phones should be checked often. Parents can do this by actually going through the cell phone at random times or even getting a detailed print out of the bill with extended text message and phone call listings. This detailed print out lets the bill holder see every word that was sent in a text message and every call that was made. This is practicing the three steps of prevention with more mature children. Children this age is still capable of interaction and talking about feelings although at this age it starts to become easier to talk to boys than girls. Boys are more likely to stray away from talks with their parents because puberty is starting to set in and they weren’t to develop their male ego. But girls can still be difficult as well. This is where peers come into play because they have a big influence at this age. Also the child is likely to hang out with their peers more than their family. That is why the lesions learned at the ages 7-10 really pay off. Therefore they can live above the influence of cyberbulling.

            For children ages 14-17 it’s impossible for them to listen because they are full blown teenagers. Teens are going through a hard stage in life and they just want to be accepted. Parents can get involved by communicating with their children and welcoming them into their arms. For example maybe they can gain their trust by not judging the person the teen thinks he/she wants to be. The cell phone task can still be practiced and the parent child interaction if the relationship is mutual. Peers can be supportive and start to stand up and gain independence. The community can also get involved because teens are usually involved in organizations or teams and the person in charge can spark up a conversation about cyberbulling just like drug prevention. So next time you think about your children think about it’s the law and it can be prevented because it’s serious.

Project 4 part 3

Victoria Green  

April 20, 2011

English 1020

Amy Metcalf

Education

            Education is the most important thing in life. Education is all around us. A person can’t become successful without an education. Without education a person can’t live a stable life. In today’s society, it’s required that people have an education. The economy in Michigan is going down and is about to hit rock bottom. Education is hitting rock bottom right with the economy. People send their child or children to schools to further their education. They also send them to schools to show them that with an education you can become anything and live happy life. In the past, it was easy to get a degree but things have changed since the past. Now people have to do more than what they are suppose to do in order to succeed. The school system are getting a little out of hand and making it harder for people to succeed.  

            Michigan is closing hundred of schools and lying off thousands of teachers. People say that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. This statement is true, but the way Michigan is closing schools left and right is contributing to students wasting their mind. Schools in neighborhoods are closing which force children to travel to schools in different districts. Sometimes sending children to different district for better education is good but on the other hand it’s not. Some people can’t afford to send their children to schools in the suburbs. For example, my little sister has to go to school all the way in Southfield Lathrup. My mother has too drive 30minutes just to take my sister to school. After she drops my sister off she still have to drive another 30minutes to get to work. After work she has to drive to pick her up and go home. My mom shouldn’t have to do as much as she does just to take my sister to school. If high schools were open in my neighborhood, my sister wouldn’t have to go to school in another district and my mother wouldn’t have to drive so far.

            Students that have to go to school in different districts sometimes pay the consequences. Some district doesn’t allow children to attend their schools if they don’t live in that district. That gives children another disadvantage at education. Parents have to take drastic measures just so their children can go to school. For example, a woman in Ohio name Kelly Williams-Bolar was sentenced 10 days in jail for sending her children to a school out of her district. Her dad actually lives in the district but she falsified her residency and said they lived their also. She wants to become a teacher and she is actually 12 credits away from getting her teacher licenses but now everything is in jeopardy because she was trying to do what’s best for her children. A person shouldn’t be penalized for trying to provide a better education for their children. Kelly also was charged 30,000 for her actions and refused to pay it.           

            The school system is getting so bad that it’s affecting the economy badly. The political offices are making it harder for children to get an education. Parents can’t send their children to schools in their area because they are closed and they can’t send them to schools in another district because they don’t live there. People really aren’t going to afford schools because of the new budget cuts. The budget cuts are making students pay more money for tuition. People should become focused on education instead of money. Our economy can never get back to the way it was if the school systems aren’t back to the way they were. How can the future be in the hands of the younger generation when education is not in favor of them?

Making My Case Project 4 Part 3 (Campus Housing)

Varun Suri

ENG 1020 Amy Metcalf

Project 4: Part 3

Campus Housing

            “Congratulations, you have been accepted as an undergraduate student to Wayne State University.” As one reads this line, they are overwhelmed with the thoughts that come to their mind. For example, college life, college classes, dorm life, new friends, careers, parties, college girls/guys and the list could go on. The first step many students and their parents take is finding a new place to live while attending college, many student choose to live on campus through one of the dorms that their college/university has to offer. Campus life gives students a chance to experience the real college life. Campus housing is very essential and should be considered by every student to ensure that he/she gets a chance to experience the true meaning of college.

            Campus housing includes dorms, suites and apartments that are controlled by the university. Due to the fact they are operated by the university, one can ensure that they will be living in a clean and secure environment. Dinning services are usually offered by universities that offer campus housing and they are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) therefore are a perfect option students who chose to reside on campus. Campus housing makes it easier for student to focus and come back to their dorm room to study between classes. People have said that it is easier to live on campus, no hassle with parking or finding a place to eat for the day. Furthermore, libraries and campus stores are within steps from students to be successful. Now that you understand what campus housing has to offer let’s take a look at how it helps the student grow as a person.

            Campus housing should be cared for and considered as an option because it helps student grow as a person and as a student. It helps them grow as a person because they meet so many different people from different backgrounds and cultures; therefore are able to understand the diversity and different personalities in the world. They learn how to get along with people since they have to continuously come in contact in them. A prime example of this is roommates, having a roommate ensures ones development to get along with people and living with a complete stranger. Getting along with ones roommate ensures development as a person and student. For example, making compromises with roommates, setting goals together for the school year, sharing the room and bathroom, and understanding the problems faced by others in life. I have grown as a person through meeting the different people here at Wayne State University Ghafari Hall.

            Campus housing ensures a clean and safe environment while letting the students grow and develop as a person. Campus housing should be offered as every university across the country. If one is deciding on college, campus housing should be their top consideration for their housing choice. As you now know, people come out of their first year of college campus housing life as a different person, very grown and mature. They understand life through a new perspective and develop many new insights. Do you want to grow mature as a person in a safe and clean environment? If so living on campus in your university is the first step towards maturity.

Nichole Kaledas Part Three!

                Privacy: the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs; that is the definition of privacy as seen in the Webster English dictionary. Privacy is one of our most protected and sought after principles that is used as the basis of many legal arguments each year and it is used as a political standpoint for most recent elections. But ask yourself this, when we as Americans pride ourselves as having the right to privacy, we claim how lucky we are to be one of the few countries who possess this wonderful virtue, how is it that we are giving that right away? How is it that we simply tell everybody and their brother our phone numbers, our email addresses, our house address, and where we go to school or work? There are many outlets that we use to ensure that not one single person does not know where they should find us at any given moment. For example, on Facebook people can put their hometowns, their current towns, their old schools, their recent schools, where they work, their birthdays, who they are in a relationship, and that is only in the small information bar located on the top of the profile! Once we include what pictures we have posted or what we write on our wall, you might as well forget about ever keeping a secret. This access to such private information is not only a very irresponsible thing to do, but it is also an epidemic that has swept not only the nation, but the entire world. The founding fathers of this country fought so forcefully for the right to privacy for a reason, privacy keeps people safe and it keeps people connected.

                Privacy is vital because if people do not keep certain information to themselves and instead it becomes a free for all, there are many consequences. As previously stated, privacy keeps people safe and safety is the utmost importance when it refers to peoples finances, especially in today’s economy. For one, identity theft has skyrocketed with every one in ten people already falling as a victim and these numbers just continue to grow. Identity theft costs people billions of dollars every year while also ruining credit scores and thus essentially ruining their lives. Privacy also keeps people safe physically because if you have all of your information out in the internet floating around somewhere, any person can use that information in any way that they choose. For example, in India recently a man was convicted to the death sentence because after a young girl turned his sexual advances down, he was obsessed about getting her. He was able to use her social networking site to get her house location and then from there he used Google Earth to track her movements. After using both physical stalking and cyber stalking, he was able to make a schedule for her to know the right moment to attack. She was brutally murdered and by no means is this an isolated case. Multiple murders and even more robberies have been connected to using either social networking sites or Google Earth to plan an attack. By using either one of these sites, we are taking our privacy away from ourselves and we will undoubtedly suffer the consequences.

                Outside of Facbook sites or Google maps, the government often has public records available on the internet or some people have created websites devoted solely to buying and selling peoples information. Information such as tax forms, current addresses, and other financial numbers are up for sale if the buyer wants to pay a certain price or if they are savvy enough to gain access into this web space. How is this even possible? Our entire lives are completely exposed and transparent to those with deep pockets or swift fingers and the average person is helpless to stop many of these actions. It is absolutely imperative that these actions cease or this abuse of information and of privacy will not only continue, but it will become even more prevalent as people freely hand out more and more information to the internet.

                The right to privacy is supposed to keep people safe by ensuring that those people who are not supposed to be involved in personal matter stay out. Not only are people disturbing and intruding other peoples’ lives, most people are encouraging this behavior by either being naïve to this entire situation or by simply not thinking that it could ever happen to them. The truth is that this is a real threat. This lack of privacy is a real issue that will affect you. This abuse of the internet will without a doubt touch your life in some way. Whether it be financially, physically, or in a way that you are not even aware, giving away your privacy is comparative to smoking. You know it is going to kill you, you just don’t know when.

Sue Part 3

Teen Pregnancy

"I love you" - these are the only three words it takes for a girl to believe her boyfriend truly loves her, once he tells her that she'll give him everything. When girls start dating at a young age they believe that everything in their relationship is perfect, they believe everything their boyfriend tells them, and they believe that their love will last a lifetime. But unfortunately, they finally see that it's all too good to be true and we their hearts shattered by the guy they thought loved them. We've all heard it a million times - guys only want one thing from a girl and when they get it, they'll leave her. So if we know this is true why do we still fall for their tricks? Then maybe it’s not the guy that’s only to blame, girls know what their doing and whether it’s right or wrong is a decision that is left to be made by them.

Pregnant teenage girls are all around us. We see them in high school, at the mall, at the movies, and mostly on television. When we see teens pregnant on television, the shows and movies that are around today are most of the time glorifying the teen for their actions. This sets a bad example for the audience that is watching. So does the media try to prevent teen pregnancy, or is it in fact promoting pregnancy? Nearly one million teen girls get pregnant each year and teen sexual activity has risen among girls younger than 15. Even if birth control and other forms of contraception are used there is still a chance of getting pregnant. So why is this all so important to us? Because many teenagers are sexually active and although they are aware of the consequences of having sex, they rarely think about them when they choose to have sex.

We’ve all heard of that in high school that got pregnant and had to drop out to raise her baby on her own because her boyfriend wanted knowing to do with her once he found out she was pregnant. We all gossiped about that girl and thought she was a slut for getting pregnant. But what we don’t realize is – she’s not the only one doing it, about half of the other high school students are doing the same thing. We also over hear girls talking about how they’re so afraid because they think they might be pregnant and when they find out they’re not, it’s such a relief to them. But they still do not learn their lesson because they continue to be sexually active. I know I’m not alone on this one, we all need to open our eyes and see that teen pregnancy is a growing epidemic that seems to be rubbing of from one girl to another.

The problem with teenagers becoming pregnant is that most of the time they either drop out of high school or cannot finish college because they need to raise their child. Many teenage mothers are also single mothers because most of the time the relationship does not work out. It has even been stated that billions of dollars are spent taking are of teenage mothers and their child. There is only one solution to all this – abstinence. But how can abstinence be taught to teenagers when all the popular television shows and movies are showing all the teenage girls getting pregnant and having babies. The media needs to be more aware of what message their shows are actually sending and needs to think of a solution to end this.

Mercyllia Harmon...Cyberbulling

Cyberbullying

            It has come to my attention that not many people know what cyberbulling is even though it is a nationwide problem. Cyberbulling is when a person harasses another person over the internet or some other technology device. Although kids and adults have been known to participate in this act, teens are causing the most uproar in the media. Cyberbulling is not a new issue, but it is  how modern society does their dirty work. In the past children would complain about their local bullies stealing their lunch money or threaten to beat them up after an event. But now there is a difference. Cyberbulling consist of threatening messages that usually is dissatisfying emotionally and or mentally instead of physically. These actions usually take place over social networks such as Facebook or chat rooms. Society needs to understand the seriousness of why doses it happen, how it works, how it affects others.

Cyberbulling happens because the bully is feeling hurt, frustrated, or angry, and is taking it out on other people. Sometimes the person they are directing their hostility toward is in the mist of the person. But even though this person could be in the mist it couldn’t even be that person fault. The bully feels the need to get back at a target that is gullable enough to feel the impact of what the bully has to dish out. Therefore the bully has satisfied his/her need to harm another person.

            Cyberbullying usually starts off in the community although we often hear about kids getting harassed at school then the bullying following them into their personal lives. A student doesn’t like another student and one of the students starts harassing the other one. Then it goes as far the student harassing in public and this causes public humiliation. I don’t know if every teenager felt this way but public humiation as an adolescent was the worst thing in school. It could ruin your life eventhough life hasn’t even started yet. And when teens have problems they usually seek a way to relieve their stress through expressing how they feel. This could be a personal personal journal they write in or a explanation to their trusted peers, or even a update on their social network. And this this is when  cyberbulling comes into play. Someone gets ahold of that person “stress reliever” and slanders it until it gets to the enemy. Now the enemy can do whatever they want with that personal information including cause harm to that person through technology.

Thousands of teenagers across the country suffer torment from their peers indirectly. It is known that teens go into life treating emotional states. Cyberbullying has even been known to cause death. For example a 13 year old girl committed suicide because a cute boy she met online befriended her and then sent her mean emails. CNN said “Someone using Josh's account was sending cruel messages and Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like, "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat”. Her mom and dad are now getting a divorce. Also her mom still doesn’t understand how someone could get into another person mind over the internet.

Cyberbulling is a big problem that could be prevented. We as a society should be concerned because it could have been one of us that were tormented. It could have even been one of our close family members like a child or sibling. This type of bulling is out of control and we need to be aware of how it works why doses it happen, how it works, how it affects others. By being aware, we as a nation can pull together to make the lives of the people who hold our future worth fighting for.