Spaces and exchanges : Are social networks a bane or a boon in today’s world?

Introduction:

• An exchange is the act of giving or receiving something in substitution for something else. In today’s modern-day world theses exchanges can take several forms: economic, work exchanges, exchange of goods - exchange of ideas, information, education, and movement of people – immigration, student exchanges, and gap years. There is an evolution of the tehnologie and the communication.

Are social networks a bane or a boon in today’s world?

One of the major developments in the most recent years is the internet and the different social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Skype… They are changing the way we live and communicate today. On Facebook, you can like pages or posts, you can create events, upload pictures and videos, plays games… Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. On Twitter, you can follow people and people can follow you, you can write brief messages. You can also send private messages. And there are lots of others social networks.

I - Positive sides of social networks

• We can talk to friends, relatives who live far away. Social networks enable us to keep in touch with people we don’t see often. We can share a lot of things like photos, videos etc. We can also play games, post comments, share songs we like or articles.
• Social networks can also be very useful. For example, in the text, protestors in Iran used Facebook and Twitter to protest against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad on June 12 2009. The text clearly states that “[the protestors claimed] that the election results were wrong and that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the real winner.” Thus, social networks can be used to spread information worldwide, to inform people and in the case to denounce election results that were actually wrong.

II – Negative sides of social networks

• People have to be careful about the information they put on the social networks. For example, in the video “Meet Alice”, the woman wants to take revenge on her boyfriend Timmy and discloses several personal pieces of information about him on Facebook and Timmy finally goes to jail because it’s revealed that he is a communist.
• People also have to be careful about the privacy settings. In the text, we have the example of Rebecca Javeleau who created an event on Facebook and made the event public. The text reads that “21.000 Facebook users signaled they wanted to join the party but the police came to prevent them from coming.

Conclusion:

Social networks are both a bane and a boon in today’s world. They are goods means of communication and they enable people to spread information. However, they can also be dangerous if they are not used in a good way.

Introduction:

• The idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or a change – a technical, scientific or social advance which is supposed to make the world better place.

What are the several types of progress? To what extent are progress and regress linked?

I - An example of technological progress

• There exist many social networks nowadays such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. On Facebook, you can like pages or posts, you can create events, plays games, keep in touch with people who live far away. We can share a lot of things like photos, videos.
• Robots already help out in factories to carry out specific tasks. There also exist robots that look like human beings, they are called androids or humanoids. We have the example of Asimo that can walk, run, climb stairs, do sign language, serve drinks, kick a ball etc.

Some other robots can talk, interact with human beings, shake people’s hands, greet people in hospitals, take care of elderly etc.

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