We live in a society where we pay more attention to what is happening to the rest of the world instead of paying attention to what’s going on around us. Thanks to social networking, we are able to know what is going around the entire world with just a click of a button. Social networking is the use of a dedicated website, to interact with other individual around the world by the use of the internet. The most basic social networking that we use are Facebook, Myspace, twitter, Kik, Whatsapp, tumbler, Reddit, and Google plus. Without us noticing, the social network has gradually affected our lives, so much that it is now a part of our everyday life. Not only has it affected our brain, but our lives as well. Social networking had cause many controversial problems to many people. Whether it is good for us or not, it is important that many would have their own opinion on the topic. The issue is that social network grabs our attention on what is not important, promotes stress, we remember more about what happens on social networks than in real life and damage our way of thinking. While other critics say social network. While other critics say social network promotes exploration, give us the opportunity for the world to listen to our opinions and promotes communication. Social Network was first a good invention that over the years has become bad for you and to the rest of our society

Many individuals have their own perspective of the social networking. One such person I had the opportunity to interview is my friend’s dad Oscar Naspud, whose occupation is accounting clerk. Oscar was first introduced to the world of social network by his friend, who persuade him to make a Facebook account. At first he was hesitant to use it because he believes that it was a thing that only teenager use and nothing more, but now his view, change, when he started using it, to the point that he believe everybody should use it. Since that day he first made an account for now, he has made multiple social networking account, which he would regularly check in a regular base. He used social networking as a way to contact his friends and to see what is trending right now, around the world. He often posts up status about his opinion on certain controversial subject on any of his accounts. We can see, that the social network has its benefits, which is that we are able to connect to peers, and understand what’s going around the world, while posting our opinion on them. When asking him about what change his view, he states “when I feel stress at work, I would rather see what my friend is doing more, but I put too much focus on it that I forget about my work.” (Naspud par 3)  He feels that going online, helps him relieve the tension or stress he has of being an accounting clerk and would rather prefer to do it, over this work. It is clear the benefits that social networking offers, but overall it isn’t a strong statement on why social network is good for us.

The good that the social network had given us does not outdo the danger that it promotes. In Oscar case, social network distract him from his work, because he pays too much attention on it than in his work. In John Medina book “Brain Rules”, it stated that isn’t necessarily his fault to pay attention to it because our brain is unable to focus more than 10 minutes at a certain thing. In short, we don’t like to pay attention to boring things. “Employee may show more interest in what their friend is posting them in their work tasks.”(Ali, 7) Which in, turn it means that social network promotes distraction because in these networks, we are able to see funny video, world news, people newest picture, famous people post and advertisement from our news feed. These Newsfeed we see, heavily influence us to spend long period of time on it. We and including myself have gotten distracted in social networks, to the point we lose our attention on it. It’s easy to log in to your account by using a computer that is everywhere in society or logging into our smartphone. When we lose our focus on our work, it promotes stress because we spend too much time on it, that we push the important things like our project, homework or work back. We argue to ourselves that we need more time to do our work, when we used all the time we had on the network. This is one main cause that prompts stress, and frustration, we spend too much time on things we don’t need to pay attention at all. Without us noticing, the social network has become a part of our life like Oscar, which is a scary idea because we put too much attention to it that we use it and we need it to relax our self. This is what’s happening, when we put too much attention on the social network, it promotes stress and takes a lot time from us.

We often use social network to gain more attention, which heavily affects the way we think. Today, we see too much immature post online, such as a foolish picture of themselves, and dumb post for people to gain a like’s. The more we see these repetitive immature post, the more we believe that it’s alright to do what they post, in the real world. This affects our thinking because we would end up harming an individual, without us knowing what we did is bad. This is often the case in this society, but what makes it worst is that those immature post influence our mind or ourselves to make more of this post. Those posts also greatly affect our memory. “Overall, the researchers found that Facebook status updates were one-and-a-half times more memorable than sentences from books and two-and-a-half times more memorable than faces.”(Mielach, 2) This indicated the harm, social network has done to our memory, by us remembering an immature post better than something that help us expands our knowledge. This goes back to our attention, we pay better attention on something that entertain us than a boring lesson. That influence us more to go back to these social network to remember those posts, for us to mention it to our friend’s. By the time we did that, we could have used our time to be more productive by studying and learning new topics for next class. However, it is clear to state that the way we think seriously impact our memory, but a social network manipulate the way we think to more immature thinking, thanks to the childish post that is constantly on the social network.

Another individual, who I was fortune to interview, who had a different view of social networking than Oscar. That person I have an interview is a close friend of mine named Andrea Zambrano. Like me, she enrolls at New York City College of Technology, in the field of architecture, technology program Andrea was once into social networking like all the other teen, she remembers that her friend told her to make an account at Aim in order to keep in touch with them outside of school. She admits that when making a Facebook account she would regularly check on Facebook almost every minute, she described “It was like a drug to me, that I couldn’t stop using it even if I tried to.”(Zambrano par 8) She mean by her quote, is that social network is a drug that was introduced by her friend, which she got too addicted to it. She would never really update a status because she wanted to keep her life to be hidden from the internet, but she used Facebook to see how her friend was doing with their lives. Her opinion of social networking has changed over the years, at first she felt that it was a dumb idea because it distracted us from our daily life. Andrea now, believe that it isn’t necessary a bad thing to have, but argue that you should don’t waste your entire life into it because life offers us more. She avoided having a social network account, which makes people around her to give her a weird look like she not normal and won’t believe her. It’s oblivious to note that like most people that social networking affects our attention by distracting us like my friend Andrea and Oscar. She believes that stress that we receive from the social network is dumb because we put too much focus, on how we would like the people online to view us, in order to get a single like.

In conclusion, social media is neither good nor bad, it’s the way we perceive it and the way we use it as. When social network was released it was a revolution that inspire people to communicate with one another over the web. At first it was good, but in recent time we have made it worse by the way we used it. For many, like Oscar, we use it to communicate with our friend, to post our opinion online and for relaxation from the stress he face from a hard day of work. It is important to note that the better the social network offers us, does not overdo the worse it does to us. Social network in general, harms our way of thinking, memory, attention and it promotes stress. We used social network in all the bad way, by distracting ourselves from work, due to procrastination. Which in turn influences us, what we see online to change our way of thinking of the worst. If you trained your mind to use a social network in a better way than I see no harm in it. Like my friend Andrea Zambrano said, social network isn’t bad, but just don’t put all your time into it because life offers us more.

Work Cited

Ali, Syed Noman. “Social Media – A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?” Social Media Today. Social Media Today, 08 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

Andrea Zambrano. Personal Interview. 17 November 2015

Gibbs, Mark. “Social Networking, Ignorance, and Apathy.” Lexis Nexis. Network World, 8 Dec. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.

Howard, Jacqueline. “This Is How The Internet Is Rewiring Your Brain.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, WA: Pear, 2008. Print.

Mielach, David. “How Facebook Affects Your Memory.” Business News Daily. Business News Daily, 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

TIERNEY, JOHN. “Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks.” New York Times 19 Mar. 2013: D3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Oscar Naspud. Personal Interview. 18 November 2015

As we are in the golden age of technology, we have moved away from the traditional way of doing things to more of a tech base way of doing things. My name is Carlos Villalva, and I have decided to enroll in the New York City College of Technology for their Architecture program. For most people, it would have taken them, a long time to decide what college to enter and what major they want to peruse. I already knew Architecture was the career me, before even choosing a college. The City Tech architect programs stand out from the rest of the CUNY College. There are many key points that motivated me to pick this major, for example, the wages, challenges, and having already some basic understanding of architecture. Above all, the one person that pushed me and drive me to pursue this career was my mechanical technology teacher.

What makes City Tech, Architectural program stands out from the rest of the CUNY Colleges? The Architectural Technology program is the only program of its kind in all of the CUNY College. The degree I want to get is the Bachelor of Technology in Architectural Technology, located on the school of Technology and Design. An individual like myself can get their associate degree in two years and their bachelor degree in 4 years. Whether you pursue an associated or bachelor degree is up to you, but regardless this program will prepare you for employment in the architectural field. According to the City Tech catalog,” student in this program have a greater opportunities in employment and in advanced education at the graduate level as a result of the base knowledge gained at City Tech.” (City Tech, 192) By receiving your degree, you would already have knowledge on construction documents, computer application, design and programmatic planning, architectural history and environment system. These degrees open a pathway of learning architecture and similar related fields. Us, the student would be fortunate to be taught by a professor, who are professional in Architecture, to develop core skills and knowledge on this field. City Tech has made this course easier for students like myself, by setting up requires courses that every student will need to take every semester. The require grade to pass every class is a “C”, but this shouldn’t be your goal when getting your degree. The 4-year degree can help prepare students to be more proficient with the 21st-century technologies, by teaching us programs that are used in architecture every day. They consist of architectural model, CAD drafter, architectural model maker, building department expeditor and many more. The two important things that make it worthwhile to go is that the student is given an opportunity to develop their own ideas and creativity through being active in many architecture projects and enabling students to qualify for their architectural registration exam, which if I pass, I’ll become a licensed architect. For many students, this is a great way of learning 21^st century architect programs and having the ability to get a license, at very low price instead of going to an expensive college.

An architect makes a good amount of money to support themselves and their necessity. According to the Bureau, the average architect makes about $73,000 yearly. (United States, 4) Everybody wants to make money, that’s a proven fact, but they do not want to work hard to get it. For me personally, I always perceive that the amount of money an individual makes weekly, determine how good they are in the field. What I mean by this is that, if you have experience and you are a world class architect, then it is only natural that you have the best wage in the field. While for the new upcoming architect, like myself, it’s only right to have a low wage, due to the fact that we are inexperienced. Then there are those individual, who want to get a better wage, without giving that hard work to get it.  The great thing that comes from being an architect is that we will receive raises, depending on how your company want to increase wages by. There are projects that require going places outside of the state or country to be complete, and your company will pay for it, without you even using your own money to go to those places. I’m not going to lie, I want money as well, but I want to earn the highest wage to be a representation of how good of an architect, I am.

There are multiple challenges that could mold an ordinary architect to become something special. Architects are required to be thinking at all times, seeing that an idea can pop out at any time. One of the challenges an architect faces is that even after you graduate with the highest degree, you’ll always be learning, no matter what. People who usually who have a master’s or higher degree would have a stubborn attitude that they do not need to learn anything more. It’s natural to feel that way, but it’s important to remember that architecture is a major that nobody will ever master because there’s always something new to learn. This challenge is not a big problem because I’m an open minded person and like being optimistic. Listening to my superior or professor’s idea, is the best method of learning, as well as hearing my fellow peers. The challenge that fascinates me and my own personal challenge is to build an iconic soccer stadium for a world class team like Real Madrid or national team. This is no easy task that I’ll face because you need to make the stadium itself be appealing for the fan and have it represent something big for the club. There are opportunities for me to achieve these goals, which is to be part of next upcoming FIFA World Cup, stadium designer, which they make the new stadium for the World Cup. The biggest and hardest challenge an architect is the life of an architect. The life of an architect, consist of the individual to be more anti-social, in order to be more focus on your drawing or project for a long period of time. Why is this the life of architect? Well, it’s like that because, in order to be a real architect, you would want to have your drawing or design to be the best it could be. For that to happen to require you to use your own time, outside of class or work to make sure its the best. That’s the sense of pride you have for your project. This single and one challenge is, what separate an architect and the average person. I personally adapted the life of an architect, without even knowing, because almost every day I stay in college until it closes to finish my project at the best it could be. This requires me to stay up all night without sleeping and get to college when it starts and leave when it ends. If you can handle this and accept it like me, then I believe architecture is the right career for you. These are the challenges I strive for as an architect and the personal challenge I want to face.

Whether we want to believe it or not, technology is now becoming a key part of life and on our society. Technology had affected every career in a positive way, especially architecture. When I enter college, I have already knew of two programs that architect use, which are AutoCAD and Revit, both that I am certified, but there are many more programs that are being used, today. Programs for a model design that I never heard of, are sketch up and rhino. Most of these programs aren’t only used by architects but in other major, such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and draftsman. Architect borrows programs from other careers, such as illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign to further improve their design, floor plans, and models to best it could be. You may be asking why bother using a computer when you can do it in real life? Well, since computer drafting has first release, it been a critical complement to most companies, which are used in their project, it has become increasingly used, versatile and efficient in this age of time. I personally used two programs in High School, and let me tell you that it was a wonderful experience. Having a simple multiple floor plan turns into a building by clicking the 3D option was mind blowing at the first time I did it. It gives a sense of pride in your work like you would feel in manual drafting. Even though we go closer to abandoning our roots of doing things, I would strongly recommend students to do manual drafting in order to understand the difference between computer drafting and manual drafting. Computer programs have a lot to do to beat the original way of drafting, but it’s important to note, how far it has gotten to it. Computer drafting is just strings of command put together to generate a building model of it. I was lucky to be exposed to these programs in my high school, but I’m more graceful who taught me the fundamental of these programs.

My high school mentor, Ms. Mulling, is a teacher, I would recommend all mechanical technology students in Thomas Edison to take. Her class is not a class to take too lightly, but she has this drive inside of her that pushes herself to make sure you pass her class with the highest grade possible. Many students felt that she was there to make their life harder, but she tried to show how the real world environment would work and she also tried to prepare us for it. Every day, I felt like she pushed me to my limit to help me find that passion that I’ll need in this major. Not only did she help me find my passion, she indirectly aided me to get my pride. Pride isn’t usually a bad thing because it is a standard that you put in your head to achieve. My pride and passion have affected my work greatly. I remember that I had a project due for my Building Tech 1 class, that wasn’t that hard, but I put the extra work into it because I knew that in order to be the best, I had to put the extra work. That is the mentally I had, not only had it affected that class, but also affected all my classes and me, personally. It was installed when, my teacher told me that I’m better than this and should never be lazy doing my work. One of these, when I’m not pack on work, I would like to visit her again, to ask for guidance and tips on architecture.

In conclusion, I would personally thank Ms. Mulling for helping guide me to pursue this major. I fully understand the challenge I would face in this major, and the challenge I have set myself to push me to follow my dreams. The money I would receive will be a representation of how good I am. Once, I receive my bachelor degree, I would like to celebrate it would Ms. Mullings, to show how much she impacted me not only as a student but as an individual that was lucky to have her as a mentor. The two things, that I would want to make as an architecture is to make a soccer stadium and a house for my parents to live in. Giving something back to the society, is what I want to do in any way, such as remodeling, constructing or designing a building in this city.

Work Cited

“Summary.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

New York City College of Technology College catalog 2015-2016 (City Tech) New York: NewYork City Technology, 2015.PDF

William, Mitchell J. “BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: Constructing Complexity in the Digital Age.” BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: Constructing Complexity in the Digital Age. Science, 5 Mar. 2004. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Hello, my name is Carlos Villalva and I’m currently enrolled to New York City College of Technology. Heading into my first year of college is a big step for me, to achieve my degree. I have been told that college is tough and an order to pass my class, I need to abandon the many things that I do for fun. This is so, I can stay on track and not play catch up. Leaving behind some fun activities behind, is no big deal for me, but the one thing I can never abandon is Soccer. This simple sport had played a big role on me, since the day my dad thought me, how to play. Since then, soccer is very important to me because it defines who I am. The following reason is that soccer is a way of life and it can give freedom to anyone. Soccer has personally had helped me gain my confidence and also taught me, many valuable life lessons. For many people out in the world, they can relate to how soccer became a part of their life as well. This sport is truly an amazing sport.

Many individuals, including myself calls it futbol, the beautiful game because the feeling one can get when playing or watching their favorite team play. A passionate person like me will feel sorrow if my team or favorite team loses in an important game and will feel joy and happiness if we win that important game. Fans of this sport, would wake up and search news of what they have miss every time they slept, and would make time to watch any game that was available on TV. I’ll make time every day I could to find a way to play without disturbing my studying time. For me, personally I have always found two huge differences between the feeling of watching the beautiful game on TV and from playing it. I remember when my favorite team, Real Madrid, lost in the semifinal for the third time in a row. I felt devastated for the entire day, thinking if they did one thing differently, the outcome would have been different. Seeing one of the star player’s in the Real Madrid brake down in tears was a feeling I would also understand last year. When my team lost 2-0 in the round of 16 of the playoffs. When the referee had whistled for full time, my team mate and myself broke down in tears in the inside, everything became quiet for me as I realized this was the last year for me to play for my High School. I had gave everything I could have for these colors, but ultimately I failed to give the one trophy my coach and the school craved for. My teammate, who had\s 2 more years left in high school came to gave me helping hand, by telling me “thank you for everything and it’s been an honor to play alongside me.” As I arrived home that day, I was sad and mad at myself because I felt I could have done better at the moment I had my chance but I missed, thus I was sad for the entire week. Winning is easy for any team to do, but getting back up after a defeat is hard to forget.

Everyday in our life, it is clear that not everybody has the privilege to have the freedom to do what you want, due to the restrictions they face. Although soccer has some restrictions when playing a league game, it won’t affect you from having the freedom of expression. People would think of soccer as an ordinary sport and nothing more. That is where they are wrong because it’s more than that, it’s an art. Everything about soccer is art from attacking to defending because like an artist, you create your own style of futbol that defines you. Giving a good pass, beating players and getting the ball back is where freedom comes to play, since it’s entirely up to you to do whatever you think is right. What makes soccer more remarkable is the fact there is another form of it, which is called freestyle. This form of soccer differs from playing soccer because you don’t need to play to freestyle. Freestyle is where you juggle the ball, while doing amazing tricks for a long period of time, without the ball dropping to the floor. You can do this with a friend or by yourself. What I consider true freedom is where you just have fun, no matter if you are not a good player or can’t freestyle well. Soccer is a way to escape from your problems or stress and just let loose by enjoying yourself. Personally, I play soccer to escape the restriction I get from my projects, school and at home. The freedom I receive helps to define the person who I am. Not everyone is gifted with the idea of self expression, but those who seek it often play soccer as means to achieve it.

Confidence, is the key to success. Many people in the world lack this characteristic for many reasons. Confidence is when a person is certain of their own ability or character to make a choice without hesitation. It is often mistaken for someone being too cocky or stubborn, because of the simple fact not many people have seen someone who is just confident. I remember a time when I was younger, where I lacked confidence greatly and it affect the way that I play. This is because I was shy, uncertain and most of all I lacked experience, not only on the soccer field, but in life as well. While playing as a youngest with the grown up, I was often criticized for not being as good, which ultimately hurt my self esteem, when I thought I play well. Gaining confidence is no easy accomplishment because it isn’t something you can just do overnight, but days of mentally and physically training. I learn this the hard way because that’s was my motivation as a child. I knew from as a child gaining self esteem, won’t just improve my game greatly, but influence me in my social and school life. Training by myself, in all my skills had help me believe that the choices I make while playing were the correct ones. While playing again with all my confidence, the grown ups were impressed of how much I mature, but the others would still criticize me. I would just ignore both the praise and criticism because if I listen to them I would either get over confident or start from square one. It had took me a long time to gain my confidence, but in the end it was all worth it. I have never felt any better. After putting myself into intense training everyday, it had help me gain the courage to join my school team.

Gaining something you want requires a lot of hard work, but you can lose something on a instance. Soccer has taught me, many very important life lessons, but the one I will never forget is that life is cruel and very tough. After finishing my first season with the team, I was always the first choice sub because of my flexibly and understanding of the beautiful game, but I was determine to push myself to become a starter. Training during the weekend, I felt that I was unstoppable because I improve everything in my self, all of my passes was accurate and I was easily able to beat a player left and right, without hesitation. What could have possibly gone wrong, with the form I had, but then came the slide tackle that I would never forget. Playing a friendly and fun game in the park with the folks, but one individual didn’t take this friendly as a friendly game because he wanted to win, really badly. As both of us try to get the ball, I was able to give a great cross to my teammate, but it ultimately came with a cost of him sliding tackling at my ankle. It was the first time this ever happened to me, spraining my ankle was the worst pain I ever felt and I was dumbfounded, sad and angry at him. Was that really necessary of him, I ask myself, while rolling around in pain. I first got up to play it off like nothing happen, but only a minute later I felt it that I could no longer play with all this pain in my right leg. It had took me about 2 week to heal, but it would take just another slide tackle on my other leg to put me back injury, for another 2 week. I had gain some weight and lost some of my technique, but I didn’t think it would happen again. That is where I was truly wrong, I pick up a serious sprained ankle again on my right leg, while playing with my friends. Just only a month away for my high school tryout and I was beaten up mentally and physically, all I could have think of is just to give up. Soccer or in life in general can be cruel and unfair, but that is no reason to give up.

The easiest thing a person can do is make up an excuse for something that doesn’t go their way. I was about to use my injury as an excuse for not joining the team, not having the ability I had, that took months to achieve to be lost because of all this freaking injury, clouded my judgment. What could I bring to my team, was all I could think of? With all the attacking player we had on the team, made it obvious to me. The one thing that could make me stand out from everyone was being a defender, an area the team lack greatly. A month was everything I need to retrain my position from a winger to a right-back. It wasn’t easy from switching from an attacking mentality to a defensive minded player, with my sprained ankle still affecting my playing style. Any serious tackle on my right leg could put me out for the season, but it was the only chance I had and I was willing to take that chance to join the team. My sprained ankle would still be with me, during the tryout session that I eventually pass. Only two members of the squad, had seen me wearing ankle support and told me to tell the coach, so I could sit out with the other injured player. Automatically, I responded “no, it’s not that serious, I could play”. They knew I was lying, but they didn’t stop me because they knew I could offer something to the team. I purposely hid my sprained ankle from everyone, so my teammate won’t hold back on me at practice and so the coach won’t drop me from first team because of my injuries. As the preseason games happen, I ultimately impressed my coach every minute I played, even though he had admitted, that I could use some improvement, since defending isn’t my specialty. I played every minute in the preseason game and at the end of it all, my coach told the entire team that I was the only one who improve during the break He also said I was the only one serious about the upcoming season. Those words meant so much to me, during that time because of all the challenging I had faced, the injury prone I had, playing with a sprained ankle and rehanging my position, just to accomplish my goal of being a first choice player. To top all that, I was a crucial and a key player on my team for the season, I played every game and every minute, giving everything I could for the team. Looking back right now, I have no regrets and I’m glad I didn’t give up or gave an excuse to prevent me from achieving my goal. My message to you is to never give up, when you face something that would bring you down, because at the end of journey, you would look back and be amazed of what handwork and dedication can bring you in life.

In conclusion, as a child, I had dream to play professional soccer because I thought that it would show how passionate you are. As I grew older, I realized you didn’t have to play professional to have a love for this sport. I’m grateful for my father to show me this sport and I would love for my future kid’s to play soccer as well. I want them to experience what I had felt and the important life lessons it showed me. High School isn’t going to be where I hang up my cleats, because I plan to join the City Tech soccer team and try with all my effort to win a trophy. Currently, I’m trying to become an architect and I dream of constructing an iconic soccer stadium for the USA national soccer team like, how Mexico has the Estadio Azteca and Real Madrid has the Santiago Bernabeu. I want to build a stadium where I can hear the happiness, sadness and admiration of the fan. As the World Cup appears more and more on condone country, who are not prepared for it, due to the lack of stadiums or building. It would be wise for me to get hired as an architect by FIFA to construct a stadium, which get me closer to my dream. For me, I always wanted to give something back to soccer, like how it has given me so much.