Article: www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/style/the-juul-is-too-cool.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FSmoking%20and%20Tobacco&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

For my project 3 idea, I decided to go with the epidemics concerning with Juuling.

Juul is a compact, USB-shaped vaping device, created by two former Stanford University students to mimic the nicotine hit of a real cigarette. The use of Juuling has eclipsed the cigarette use. According to Mr. McDermott, “Nobody smokes cigarettes. You go to the bathroom, there’s a zero percent chance that anyone’s smoking a cigarette and there’s a 50-50 chance that there’s five guys Juuling. And it’s like, how Band-Aid has become synonymous with ‘bandage’? Juul has become synonymous with ‘vape.” Juuling has become more popular in use for college/university students and since most parents confuse the small vaping device for a usb/flashdrive, it doesn’t look suspicious.

Juuls is becoming more rampant and not just within schools, but in social media and parties too, which has also led to cases of theft. The other issue is how accessible they are, middle school students can go to a deli and buy it without question. According to Ashley Gould, the chef administrative officer of Juul Labs, said “We do not want underage kids using our products. Our marketing is directed toward adults, tested with adults. And I do think it’s worth noting: All of the things you see on social media, we have absolutely nothing to do with. We actively try to take these things down. But unless there’s an infringement of our intellectual property it’s quite difficult.”

Artificial Intelligence

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-04/09/c_137097436.htm

I chose artificial intelligence as my main idea of this project. Nowadays, people lend on the digital technology and its function has been developed as smart as human’s mind.In 2016, an artificial intelligence computer program that plays the Go already beat the human player. It immediately becomes a hot topic that people would focus on whether the AI would become the human’s future or not.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/opinion/strava-privacy.html

For my editorial project, I decided to focus on the issue of data privacy and why It’s important. Now that we are living in the digital world, everybody’s information is being given up by services that we use, but how trustful is it? We use many apps, and social media sites and we need to abide by the consent that these companies offer to us. Sometimes we won’t read the consent of what we give up. There’s consequences when we accept these consents from these companies. whether our data is private or public, it’s all out there.

Gun Control & Minimum age

Gun control had been a problem for a long time. Two of the big problem are the lack of background checks and the minimum age for buying a gun. As stated in the article, one study by researcher at Northeastern University and Harvard University estimated that 22% of gun sale occur without a background check”, some gun sale doesn’t require background check to buy a gun. The minimum age to buy a handgun compare to a Ar-15 is non sense too. You need to be 21 to buy a handgun, but you can get a shotgun at 18?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/12/11/phone-addiction-is-real-and-so-are-its-mental-health-risks/#1c0b52a013df

Smartphones have been integrated into the lives of many people since it’s introduction in 2007. Smartphones are useful tools that act as a device that can do many things that should make life more efficient. Smartphones also makes it easier to connect with people whether it would be calling, texting, and most notably social media. Smartphones create an easy faucet for social media to flow into and people who get caught up often times spends a majority of their waking hour checking for new posts. Social media companies rely on certain mechanisms that keep the user coming  back (Snapchat badges, red notifications, refresh button, etc) which are often times very effective in keeping a person on the platform. As something that was supposed to make life more efficient now becomes a problem of the 21st century.