Oh how Scandalous!

Soooo, for those of you out there who do not know, there has recently been three scandals to happen in association with UCLA and USC. These three scandals are perfect examples illustrating how with technology hurtful, inappropriate, and not to be seen incidents are publicized and can truly affect a person’s future and reputation.

A while back, an email was sent out to all members of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at USC. This email, sent by a fellow brother, explained how the fellow brothers of the house are supposed to see and treat woman. Now, normally I try not to judge guys as pigs when they are associated with a fraternity, but after reading this email I am not only embarrassed but also disgusted with what goes on in a guys mind. This email states:

“I will refer to females as “targets”. They aren’t actual people like us men. Consequently, giving them a certain name or distinction is pointless”.

That being only a snippet the email, I am sure you guys can figure out how much worse the email progressed to. But my point about this scandal is that society needs to start thinking before sending inappropriate contents via email. Anything a person sends over the Internet, text messaging, or any other technological device is permanently there and can always be re-surfaced years later. What’s said and done never leaves and will be attached to that person for the rest of their lives. The kid who posted this email hurt every girlfriend of his, disappointed his family, and embarrassed his school all because of something he wrote on the computer.

The Second incident involves the racist YouTube Video of Alexandra Wallace going on a rant about the Asians at her school. I am sure Alexandra Wallace had no idea she would soon be receiving death threats from a video she believed was an attempt of creating a funny ranting video to release some stress during finals. However, society did not understand the comedic attempt and was in the end truly offended with her words. Once again, she did not think about the negative effects she could possible become vulnerable to with the video. She did not think that this video would have to force her to with drawl from UCLA. She now like the previous boy with the email has to live with the hurt they have caused to not only there peers in school but to society in general. She embarrassed her school, family, and friends by posting this hurtful prejudiced video.

The last scandal I want to mention is the most recent one with a girl from UCLA and a boy from USC who were caught having sexual intercourse on the roof of a building at USC during the day. Now I know these two did not plan on having this act publicized on the Internet, TV, and newspapers but due our cell phones having the wonderful camera attached, there sexual intercourse was made public. People can no longer be sneaky and inappropriate in public like before due to the advances in technology. These two have added to the negative aspects surrounding the two schools at the moment, further embarrassing the institutions and consequences are to be announced soon.

So ladies and gentleman, the moral of the story here is… YOU WILL GET CAUGHT ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. There are so many different ways that inappropriate actions can be recorded and publicized that a person needs to be careful with there actions and what they say online. Once these things are electronic, they will never go away and can always be found later down the line. SO BE CAREFUL! Until next time J

Video Games: To be Good or not to be good that is the question.

Comment 1: Violent Behavior?

I somewhat agree with you. I believe video games do not develop violent behavior in children. Like you said, you play and do not go to school the next day and shoot anyone or rob someone. I myself have played video games since I was a little girl that has violence and I feel horrible when I kill a bug. Developing a violent behavior does not just happen in one night, it happens from what I have learned, from what happens in ones life from the moment one is born. I was reading an article where there have been studies that actually say that video games, certain ones at least, can actually help curb the need for violent behavior. However, if someone has violent tendencies and plays a game like Grand Theft Auto, this game can definitely let the person indulge in their violent tendencies. Which in the end can be deadly with the person giving into these violent tendencies in real life situations. That is just personally my opinion on the whole thing but everything you said above I completely agree with.

 Comment 2: Obesity

Yes, video games are not the main cause of childhood obesity, the genetic factors and economic factors do play the dominant role; however, video games do provide a way for children to sit all day long and neglect participating in physical activity. I know when my brothers play their video games they can sit on the couch for hours at a time and they constantly eat food. There food is not the healthiest either, they eat chips, candy, and drink a lot of soda, which in the end has the calorie count way above normal with no exercise. So video games may not be the dominant reason why children are obese but it has definitely become a way for children to gain weight.

 Comment 3: Video Games and Autism

Very interesting, I never knew that video games allow autistic children to play out certain aspects of their life they can not due to their condition. After I read that section, all the prior thoughts I had about video gaming being a bad presence disappeared.

I can see how playing video games may pose a problem for autistic children by only socializing in these virtual environments, but I think in the end, it is a healthier way for them to exercise and learn socializing skills they can use in real life. As bad as it sounds, children have become cruel these days and children do not fully understand what autism is. So instead of having an autistic child try to develop these social skills in real life and have the possibility of being made fun of, video games allow them to learn in a safe comfortable environment with anonymity. So if they make a mistake they are not judged. The autistic child's self esteem is not harmed.

I think it is great that researchers are now looking into new technologies to create new innovative games to help autistic children learn and develop new skills in a safe environment to apply in real life situations.

Working From Home... what?

So the other night, I went home to visit my family for my younger brother’s birthday. Every year we go to Mastro’s Steak House and the amount of alcohol consumed by the elders is always a tad bit too much. However, this time an interesting conversation was brought up about the relationship between the real estate market, the economy and technology.

Thanks to technology such as cellular phones, ability to make conference calls, email, and much more people have started to work our of their homes. So unlike before where people had to get in their car at six am, sit through rush hour traffic, stay in an office all day, then drive back home at six, this dreaded routine has been slowly deteriorating from society. People can do their business in the luxury of staying in their pajamas all day long. However, for the real estate market this new luxury available to the public has become a nasty enemy. People are no longer looking for available building spaces to turn into an office building, which leaves many places up for sale for long periods of time; affecting the revenue for these real estate companies.

However, there are benefits to this change in the way business is conducted on a daily basis.  For one, since people are starting to work out of the house, less people are driving which in the end benefits the lessening amount of pollution being put into the air. Secondly, people have different schedules, which make it difficult to schedule a time and place for everyone to meet and discuss business. But with the existence of the conference call or even emails, this difficult task has been made easier. People can be in all different parts of the world and be able to communicate with one another via technology. For my family at least this has been extremely beneficial for my father and his business to run smoothly. One last benefit that was discussed at the dinner table was how having such great technological devices, allows people who are in an area where no jobs are available to actually get a job. For example, if a person lives in Wisconsin and they can not find any jobs that they are qualified for in their town but they know they are more than qualified for that job in lets say Maine but they can not move because of financial reasons or something; having technology such as skype, email, and cellular phones allows them to stay in their home while also being able to work.

After hearing this conversation, I wondered how many other institutions are being affected by the use of technology or what other parts of our lives are being invaded with technology.  This issue caught my interest and has given me incentive to research more on this issue and gain a greater understanding with this topic. If anyone has any suggestions on where to go from here or anything comment! I would love the advice to help further my research.  Until next time!