Over the last few years the Internet and technology have expanded in terms of size, significance and importance. Throughout these last few years many different goals and accomplishments have surfaced into the world. Although there are many positives to the world of Internet and technology, every positive side has a negative side. One particular negative that has surfaced into the world due to the Internet and technology would be social media. There are quite a few social media sites that have influenced the world greatly through both positive but mostly negative events. A few of these social media sites, the more popular one’s would be referred to as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Vine. There are multiple different media sites aside from the aforementioned one’s that fall into this category, but these are the most popular social media sites currently in the vast world that we live in. There is one thing I’ve always said when it comes to social media it would be that: “Social Media can be a horrible influence on society”. Moving forward, in the next few entries of this essay I will talk about two articles that support my claim, give feedback from two people who I have asked the personal question “Do you feel that social media has a negative impact on the world?”, and finally I will present a few flaws in my belief that social media is a bad influence.

Any normal person would believe that social media is anything but dangerous. The problem with social media is that even though it allows you to communicate with others over vast different areas of the world, social media can also be the cause of negative events and outcomes to surface. One big example of this would stem from an article titled: “The Effect of Bad News and CEO Apology of Corporate on User Responses in Social Media”. Much like the title suggest, bad news was a primary factor that lead to multiple causalities for a certain company. When I say bad news, I mean a piece of information that was left on a social media site that at the time seemed harmless but later it blew up in the companies face when it spread to vast different parts of the world under their radar. The part in the article goes as follows: “The unpredictable, cascading feature of corporate crisis in social media is at its butterfly effect: It likely starts with a single message in a network but spread to global-scale eventually leading to a devastating consequence for the business at risk.” It is exactly as the article states, one little rumor or false tale of mischief can certainly destroy a company if consumers believe these stories. Whether the story is actually true or false is irrelevant since it all depends on whether the consumer chooses to believe it or not. Companies are easily the most affected by social media in this regard and will do anything to keep their consumers faithful. The first article I read also goes into detail about an event that relates to this statement: “The Papa John’s Pizza Crisis in 2012” that started with a single message on Twitter from a Korean-American customer in New York, who was furious to find a note “lady chinky eyes” written on her receipt by a cashier. Through her negative recounting of the event on Twitter, a local newspaper picked up the story and the news went to national newspapers as well as international news media like CNN within a few days. Papa John’s fired the cashier, sent out a public apology, and even the Papa John’s branch in Korea apologized to Korean customers.” She was merely ranting about a distasteful individual and a newspaper happened to pick up the story which ended up forcing the store to remove the hostile party and apologize to the offended Korean woman. Social media can indeed be a scary thing when used improperly or even by mistake. The main point is that social media can cause companies, societies, organizations, etc, to deal with more complicated issues then necessary. In the next article titled “Social Media for Law Enforcement: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” the article actually covers both positive and negative sides of the story, but the thing to pay attention to is the section called “the Ugly”. What had basically happened was the article stated that Social Media can be a tactical problems for most police departments. In the article, social media was basically in a sense keeping tabs on the police and what they were doing which gave problems to the police and ruined their extensive setup schemes to capture culprits. So the Police Departments had literally asked people to stop posting and talking about where and what they were doing to avoid these problems. As you can see, social media can even be the cause for the police being unable to perform their own jobs. This is a problematic task at hand that will surely worsen over the years to come.

I decided to interview one of my close friends who wishes to stay anonymous so I will refer to him as “Mr. T”. I asked him one main question to answer for me: “Do you feel that social media has a negative impact on the world?” His response was actually pretty lengthy and it goes as so: “I believe that Social Media has had a negative although while beneficial side to existence when you consider its impact on the world. Due to the wideness of the World Wide Web and how we are able to reach out and socialize with anyone in the globe, it is a powerful opportunity for others to connect to those outside of their own lives, towns, or cities. However, Social Media does have a dark side. It grants the ability of consistent exposure. Your private information whether it be through emails or signing up for social media related websites like Twitter or Facebook provides a security risk for your information to be breached and accessed by another person; someone you don’t know. Social media has provided the means for another form of exposure and that is the ability to voice one’s opinion about anything the topic may be. Everything and I mean everything you comment on or view can be seen by someone else more importantly it could be someone you don’t even know. It has created the existence of Cyber bullying; consistent harassment or humiliation through the use of social networking.” As Mr. T states, although social media itself can be a beneficial factor, it definitely has a dark more rough side. Like the example he used, cyber bullying. Cyber bullying sounds pretty silly from just reading the term, but it should not be overlooked because of the word “Cyber”. Cyber bullying is the same as bullying someone in real life through the use of media over the Internet and sometimes it can be far worse than bullying someone in real life. There have been many cases where people have committed suicide from cyber bullying because the attacker causes them to become too stressed out over life that they end their own lives themselves. Unlike real life bullying, in the hands of an expert the cyber bully can get away with being the cause of someone’s suicide and not being found out by cops. The reason for this is because of hacking and IP changing. Normal conventional means of tracking the source computer who wrote messages to said individual is to check their computers IP Address which would allow authorities full information on the whereabouts of individual. But as times have changed, hackers have found ways to avoid detection like VPN’s, proxy networks and even changing their IP Address to match another countries. Other social media issues stem from individuals themselves who post disturbing and unwanted images and videos. As I’ve said, social media has a huge set of negatives that impact society.

I also decided to interview my father on the same concept. I asked him the same question that I asked my friend: “Do you feel that social media has a negative impact on the world?” It took my father a while to think about it but his reply went as followed: “I’ve been alive for a while, over fifty years at this point and I never would have expected the world to change as much as it has to this day. In regards to your question… Yes, I do feel that social media has had a negative impact on the world as we know it. Back in the day we used to do everything by hand like writing up a letter then putting it in an envelope and shipping it to someone you care about as you wait for the next few days for a reply. Those were replaced with emails and I can’t argue with those, I love the invention of emails. The problem with social media is that it has too many openings. You know when you watch a fighting show and the main character says the opponent has a weakness or they look for an opening to break their guard? You can apply that to social media. Social media, while it looks fun, strong and sturdy has many gaping holes in it. Through these holes everything negative seeps out and slowly travels throughout the Internet preparing itself to poison all viewers of the world. It’s like they say, every positive has a negative and every negative has a positive. In this case however, I would say there is more negatives than positives.” My father makes some good points. He doesn’t feel that social media as a whole is completely corrupt and irritable but rather he acknowledges that it has many bothersome negatives within it.

Now that I’ve stated my opinion on the matter of social media, I will have to admit that there are some positives to using it. For starters, social media is a good way of communicating with others not only through text but even through speech. Programs like Skype that allow users to either send instant private messages or talk to each other manually through the use of built in computer microphones or external microphones. Video and image sharing is another great addition from social media. You can submit an article, video or image to others publicly on a domain such as Facebook for some constructive criticism. Artist are better able to express themselves through social media because they do not have to be a Hollywood star or child prodigy to get their works submitted and posted to a gallery. And finally, social media sites are a good leeway to advertise works like new company products, games, toys and various other projects and products.

To bring everything together, as you can tell I am not very keen on the idea of social media. While I do believe that social media itself isn’t necessarily a horrible product of the growing times, I do believe that it has many casualties hidden behind its “safe” demeanor. I’m going to be honest here and state that I did not always think negatively about social media. But, as time started to go by and I started to grow older and my brain started to grow with both my body size and mental logic I came to the conclusion that social media isn’t always good for you. There are people who commit suicide, threatened institutions, post disturbing and undermining pictures and create absolutely atrocious videos that are posted and show them to everyone in the world. Some videos are even making fun of people with disabilities and others who view the videos end up commenting some rather rude things about it. If they were in the same boat as most of these individuals they wouldn’t be laughing, and if they would be laughing then I don’t believe they are a mentally sane person to begin with. Overall, social media has its upsides and downsides.

Works Cited

Kim, Hoh, et al. “The Effect Of Bad News And CEO Apology Of Corporate On User Responses In Social Media.” Plos ONE 10.5 (2015): 1-21. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

“Social Media: Law Enforcement Tool – Public Safety – LexisNexis.” Public Safety. N.p., 01 Oct. 2014. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

Casseus, Mario. Personal Interview. 1 December. 2015.

Mr., T. Personal Interview. 9 December. 2015.

My name is Emmanuel Casseus, I am eighteen years old and I am a student at New York City College of Technology. After a few years of thinking about what type of major I wanted to study and what career path I wanted to specialize in I ended up choosing the path of a Computer Engineer. I have quite a few reasons for choosing the career path of a Computer Engineer as opposed to other majors but the most important reason is because I not only love computers exponentially, but also because I’ve basically grown up and matured together with them. If there is one thing I believe you should know, is that I have always said that “Computers are the gateway to a life of fun and success.” Personally, I believe this is the best career path for me because: A. Computers have always helped me grow as an individual, B. I have a long history with computers and C. Computers have a very interesting life cycle. From here on in this essay, I will provide some information and background regarding my major, explain in further detail why I chose this major and finally explain what I plan to do to further excel in the future.

The first thing you’re probably wondering is what exactly is a “Computer Engineer”? A computer engineer is a person who is well versed in the construction and building of computers. A computer engineer typically strives to develop ways to make computers faster, smarter, smaller, stronger, etc. In essence, computer engineer’s jobs are to improve the computer’s ability to analyze, process and even think, much like how our brains work. Computer engineers tend to work for computer companies such as Intel, HP and Texas Instruments as well as in industries that build or use computer-based systems. Often after graduation, engineers have quite a few options as to what they should pursue for their career. Some go for big name companies like Microsoft, Apple or Google. Others tend to start small and move up from there in companies like Intel and HP. Upon graduation however, “engineers at City Tech automatically qualify for direct admission to the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.” And most importantly the goal I want to achieve the most with my education at City Tech is a complete and better understanding of how the computers works inside and out.

To me, computers are like a strong companion that I have known for a very long time. Over the years I have learned how to use a computer more efficiently and have grown quite attached to them. To this day I can say without a doubt that computers have a strong influence in my life simply because they have helped me excel and shape who I am today. This might sound weird to others and they honestly might be thinking: “How does an inanimate object shape someone’s life?” Well firstly, let me explain what I mean by “Shape my life”. The computer itself is an interesting object. It is a gateway to many possibilities that mostly stem around something that we all use today called the internet. Computers and the internet have a shared role in shaping who I am in reality. I’m saying this because when some people look at a computer they only see machinery, a small or large box or device that is used to access the internet for multiple purposes which is often for entertainment. Although this is a true factor, I see the computer as more than a tool, as see it as an instructor. My reasons for saying this is because when you think of an instructor, you think of somebody who is smart and well versed in a certain subject or certain subjects. The instructor’s job is to not only help you understand the subjects he or she teaches but to also try and excite or interest you in the subject. This is the exact reason I see a computer as an instructor. The computer itself caused me to become interested in itself on its own. To put simply, the computers existence brewed curiosity inside me and eventually I chose to act on this curiosity and examine the computer. After examining the computer I became “excited and interested” in it which caused the curiosity I had before to evolve and manifest into a resolve. When I was younger I did not like to be social with others, I liked to keep to myself so I actually missed out on a few important things that I could have learned if I hadn’t kept my distance. It was through the use of the computer and internet that I was able to learn and figure out those exact pieces of knowledge I missed out on due to lack of communication. To keep things simplistic, computers have taught me a lot over the years and helped me not only shape who I am, but also shape how I speak to others, how fluent I am in the English language and helped me expand on my vocabulary.

To understand why I am so interested in computers, I believe you should know my history with computers to better understand me. I have been very interested in computers and technology since I was really young child. To estimate, I would say it was around the time when I was seven years old. Compared to my knowledge of computers today, back then I had absolutely no idea how to actually use a computer or what purpose it even served. The only actual thing I knew about the computer was what I learned in my elementary school computer classes and that was barely anything outside of educational programs or games. Eventually overtime I finally became interested enough in the machinery to actually try and use it. If I had to estimate I was around the age of eleven. My first experience with the device was definitely thrilling. It was one of those moments in a person’s life that they feel extremely ecstatic from learning about something new and amazing. Although, I was still a young child at the time so my actual experience and access to the computer compared to today was very restricted. Eventually as I grew older, I’d say around the time I first started high school so I was around the age of fourteen, I started to become better versed in the use of the technology. One thing I would like you to keep in mind is that I had to teach myself how to use a computer because no one else in my household knew anything about computers. Basically, for the last few years I taught myself how to use a computer and my knowledge from there expanded as I became older and my knowledge of computers has reached its peak. I know quite a bit about computers now from how “.exe” programs work, to how to modify file extensions and manage digital objects and programs. With that, you should now have a better understanding as to not only why I enjoy computers but also why I chose to pursue the computer engineer career.

And my final reason for wanting to become a computer engineer is that I believe the computer itself has a very interesting life cycle. To show you what I mean by that I have found and chosen an article regarding an important figure in computer engineering field and computers themselves. His name is Tom Kilburn and he with the help of Freddie Williams worked on the world’s first stored-program computer, the “Small-Scale Experimental Machine” (otherwise known as the SSEM). In this article I read this man named Tom Kilburn who made a significant contribution to the development of five historical computers. Kilburn was brought up in an interesting way as stated in the article: “Kilburn had a somewhat specialized education at Wheel Wright Grammar School having been permitted by his headmaster to study almost nothing else aside from math and technology around the age of 14.” It is because he was only allowed to study this that he ended up not only emerging as a specialist in mathematics, but also graduating with a high degree in mathematics. One of the few things I found extremely interesting in the article that pertained to computers is the section where it refers to a certain type of computer called a “Transistor Computer”. A transistor computer is a computer which uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The “first generation” of electronic computers used vacuum tubes, which generated large amounts of heat, were bulky, and were unreliable. What I found the most interesting is that Kilburn along with a few other people were actually the first people to work on transistor computers and they might as well be called the inventors of them. Tom Kilburn is also the father of computer engineering’s sister occupation known as “computer science”. Kilburn did his best to establish an academic form of computing that required the highest degree of education and being well versed in the scientific and mathematic fields. Thus after many hardships and struggles the computer science major was born from Tom Kilburn’s efforts. Tom Kilburn’s efforts were one of the many stepping stones that led to the expansion and growth of the computer to this day.

To sum up the major point of this essay, the key points go as followed: A computer engineer is a person who is well versed in the construction and building of computers. A computer engineer typically strives to develop ways to make computers faster, smarter, smaller, stronger, etc. To me, computers are like a strong companion that I have known for a very long time. And computers have always had a strange yet interesting life cycle throughout these past few years. Aside from these points, I would like to draw your attention for just a few more seconds. I would like to explain something to you before we finish up here. Firstly, how I plan to excel in my major. I plan to take all the information I learned from my professors as well as outside information and mesh it all together into one. Basically, I will take my basic knowledge and new integrated knowledge and bring them together to make a form of fused information which I will later use to teach others in the future. For my plans to distinguish myself, like I stated earlier I want to take the knowledge I learn at City Tech as well as the basic knowledge that I already know and fuse them together to make a new form of information. I will use this, clean up and revise this information so that it actually makes sense and I will compare it to other explanations regarding engineering and if I find that my assorted information might be and or is more easily understood or more informative, I will use it to create a new way of explaining the subject.

Works Cited

Anderson, David. “Historical Reflections Tom Kilburn: A Tale of Five Computers” May 2014: Vol 57. Print.

New York City College Catalog 2015-2016 (City Tech). New York: New York City College of Technology, 2015. Print.

“Skip Menu.” What Is Computer Engineering? N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

“Computer Engineering Frequently Asked Questions.” UH Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

“Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Hello, my name is Emmanuel Casseus, I am eighteen years old and my major is Computer Engineering. I am currently a student at New York City College of Technology. If there was anything that I would like you to know about me from the get go, it would have to be that I have a great fascination with computers. Although I am very intrigued with computers, there is also something that I equally enjoy in comparison to computers which would be video games. You see, computers and video games have been the two things that have entertained me the most since I was a little child. I gained a strong passion for video games first, but over time I started to become interested in technology and eventually I came to fall in love with computers. If there is anything I would want you to understand, it is something that I have always thought of in my life and that is: “Computers are one of the many important aspects in my life that helps me learn new things” and I stick by this quote. From here I shall discuss my history with computers, my history with video games and how both of these subjects coincide with each other to help you better understand me and further information to help prove my earlier quoted statements of why computers are so important to me.

I have been very interested in computers since I was rather young, and that would be at the age of seven. Although, I never had the chance to use one personally outside of my computer class in middle school until the age of eleven. When I started to use computers it was one of those interesting experiences of my life, one of those feelings you get when you try something completely new and within only a few minutes of using it, you end up falling in love with it. Of course I was still only a small child so my knowledge and use of the computer was very limited. However, at the age of 14, I started to become more acquainted with computers and began to use them more frequently. No one in my house used computers as much as I did so I couldn’t exactly ask for help when I got stuck on an activity. I mean, at the time my dad was the only one who currently had the most knowledge on the subject but he was far too busy for me to ever bother asking him to help me. So instead of having someone to help me better understand this electronic device, I chose to teach myself how to use computers over the past few years. Each and every day, I would take two to five hours out of my day to learn about the ins and outs of the computer. I learned how type quicker, download things, use various browsers, understand the differences in image file extensions such as .PNG (Portable Network Graphics), .JPG (Also known as .JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group), .GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) and understand how programs work like .exe (execution) files, etc. Now here I am today with a lot more knowledge in regards to computers and I am now pursuing the field in which I shall manufacture and build computers, that being my major of being a Computer Engineer. In addition to computers, I very much enjoy video games. In fact, I’d say out of all the inanimate objects in my life, I honestly prefer to enjoy computers and video games equally. Most people just use their computers for their basic needs like searching up information, writing papers, talking to friends, social media and etc. I on the other hand went beyond these activities, and went more in depth into the field and learning the basic concepts of how a computer works. I taught myself how to remove a motherboard from a desktop, how to replace broken wires, troubleshoot computers for problems, learned something on how computer registries work and various other concepts regarding the machine. I’m not saying I’m an avid computer genius but what I am saying is that I like to do my research on subjects that interest me the most.

As I’ve said, before I started to use computers I was an avid gamer and I still am an avid gamer. Video games honestly have done a lot for me, like teach me lessons from various subjects that I wouldn’t know naturally. For example, a popular and well received video game titled “Persona 4: The Golden” has taught me quite a few things that I had not learned about yet in school. You see, Persona 4 is an RPG (Role-Playing Game) where you take the role of a young teenage male in high school who has recently moved from the big city into a rural country town named “Inaba” where you live with your uncle and his daughter. The game itself fuses elements of real life situations as well as the elements of a turn based game. A turn based game is, as you can imagine a game whose combat is structured around how many actions you can perform in one sitting. So for example, if I casted a lightning spell on an enemy and they lived, I would not be able to attack again until the enemy has finished its action. So as you can already tell, a turn based game is when you and the enemies take turns attacking each other. Back to the actual game, the way it uses real life elements is your experience of going through school. Like everyone in the real world does, the main character also has to go through his high school life. As the story progresses, you will start to meet various important characters who will become your best friends and allies in the video game. It is the high school aspect of the game that has taught me some new things for a while now. This is due to the fact that on various different days, you will find the main character of the video game inside of a classroom listening to a lecture of various different topics and subjects. Sometimes however, the teacher will ask you a question and you will be given a choice with a few different answers and you have to choose which answer you believe is correct. It is some of these questions that I haven’t learned in high school yet so I would have to guess which one is correct. Whether I was able to answer the question correctly or not the teacher would give a more detailed explanation of why the answer is correct or why the actual answer is correct.

Computer and Video Games as a whole are very important aspects in my life as you may have already figured out from reading the previous statements. The reason these two are so important is because they blend well together. Video Games are able to teach me different new things whether it be through a sci-fi action game, a fun and adventurous journey through a fictional land or in a school setting where you bond with other individuals and learn new things from talking to NPC’s (non-player characters) or reading notes form other players who may have been ahead of you in the game itself through online features. Just like Video Games, Computers are able to not only teach many various things and aspects but it is also able to allow me to enjoy my two favorite things all in one package. Computers are able to teach me various new things like history, how to do something I am unfamiliar with, research, as well as play video games on my monitor screen. As time has progressed and improved, technology has not only improved video games and output quality but it has given personal computers the ability to play certain games on the computer itself which effectively allows me to enjoy two of my favorite things in life perfectly in one sitting and one screen.

I’m running out of space so I will keep this simple. Although I did talk about how much I enjoyed computer and video games equally, I would like to say that if I had to choose between either, I would have to choose computers first and foremost because it would benefit me the most. Knowledge on computers are mandatory and needed for my field of work for my major so it is only natural that I would vastly prefer computers over video games, but the thing is, by being able to build computers, I’ll not only learn how to build and create one of the things I enjoy most but with the knowledge and expertise I’ll even be able to manufacture electronics which in return can very easily be useful and influence the creation and performance of video games.