Privacy of Social Networking Sites

       Social networking sites like Facebook, QQ, and People People are growing fast. Since more people have become members of social networking sites, we should be careful about what we upload on the Internet. Protecting our personal privacy is one of the main challenges facing us. Here I have some advices of how to protect information about yourself.

        First of all, we should make our contact information private. The contact information includes phone number, email address, home address, and so on which we put in our profile. This information is important. If we do not care about it, it could cause some problems.  For example, we may receive some emails or phone calls from some strangers. We may be pestered by people we don’t know well. For this reason, we should make the contact information visible only to close contacts in the profile.

        After that, the photos, which were posted on the Internet, should be chosen carefully. When we upload a photo, at the moment many people will see it. It is for all to view, not just our close friends. As we all know that some people have been fired from work after some terrible photos were posted for the boss to see. For others, some photos have ended relationships. So we must post photos cautiously. My suggestion is that we can select the option “only me” or “some friends” in the profile privacy page. We can prevent strangers to see the photos.

         To sum up, there are just two ways to protect your privacy. Although the social networking sites make the way of communication faster, we should use it very careful. 

 

People Should Sometimes Do Things That They Don’t Enjoying Doing

    Do you believe that people should sometimes do things that they don't enjoy doing. However, I think that it is a basic part of being an adult. Indeed, some things that aren't "fun" are still good for us in the long run.

    Sometimes we do things only for our health. Who enjoys going to the dentist? Very few people enjoy having their annual checkup with the doctor. Who enjoys going to the hospital to do a thorough physical examination? I think that no one enjoys doing this. These are some things we do because we have to, not because we want to. We realize that taking care of our physical health is the sensible thing to do.

    Professional task is another part of it. No one likes to be stuck with an assignment or doing homework which has lots of difficult math problems. None of these are fun things. Unfortunately, these are the parts of college life, whether you like it or not, as a student you have to do.

In short, sometimes people don’t have the choice to choose what they do, because there are lots of things that we have to do.  It’s just part of life. However, we need an attitude adjustment. When we do things that we don’t enjoying doing, we could think about the result of the things that we are doing.

A Social Networking Site “Renren”

   I use a social networking site which named Renren. It is same as Facebook, but the language of it is in Chinese. It is very popular in China. People who have their account on Renren are using more of their time to get in touch with other individuals despite the distance. In fact, Renren has been a great community for many people. However, this is the reason why I use it; therefore, I could make more friends in here. Although there are so many advantages of it, it also has some disadvantages.

   There are so many advantages of Renren. Firstly, I can use it to search for new and old friends. It has advanced search services, and users could find their old or new friends easily. We can use it to find the people who are in the same school, or living with the same place. Secondly, it provides a lot of functions. For example, we can upload download photos from the website. In addition, it also has lots of online games which we can play with our friends. Even if Renren carries these advantages, the disadvantages are also considerable.

      Because of it is a public site, there is potential to expose a lot of personal information on the web for all to see. If I put my real phone number on it, the risk is that I would receive the phone call by strangers. The most important thing of Renren is the waste of time. People always spend too much time on it; therefore it avoids people to do more enjoyable activities than to sit on seat and use it for many hours.

      In short, Renren carries both advantages and disadvantages. However, it is good for staying in contact with friends, but we need to understand that this site can be used to some extent, but not over the limit.

The Truth

      People would always like to hire the truth. However, I believe that sometimes it is better not to tell the truth. In some cases the truth is going to hurt someone and no good will be gained by it. If so, then I don't think that person should be told the truth. There are times when a person needs to know the truth in order to make an important decision. However, I believe that only telling the truth benefits the person being told.

      If someone has said something nasty about a person, those words don't need to be repeated. However, what if a person has told a shameful secret to a friend and that friend has told the secret to others? Then that person needs to know that she can't trust her friend, otherwise, she might tell that friend other secrets.

     Sometimes people need to know the truth before they can make an important decision. Suppose you're selling your house and you know there's water in the basement. Then you should tell the truth about that to anyone interesting in buying your house. If you don’t, you could be in trouble legally as well as ethically! However, you don't need to tell the truth about the cranky neighbor who lives next door. The neighbor may not be as cranky with someone else as he was with you. Sometimes it’s better not to tell.

      To sum up, sometime the truth can be a good thing for others, but it also can be a bad thing for others. People have to decide when the truth could be told and when it could not.   

Learning English

       English, as a foreign language, has been widely learned in China for more than a hundred years. Nowadays, English is becoming more and more important in international communication due to the globalization. However, for me, the reasons of learning English are finding a job, conducting business, and communicating with foreigners. With these goals, I have some strategies to help myself to learn English outside of class.

       Learning English carries lots of benefits in my future life. First of all, the ability to fluently speak English can be beneficial if I am seeking job opportunities with international companies.  Secondly, another reason of learning English is in order to conduct business. Indeed, English is the primary language of business throughout the world. Most international business transactions, including emails, reports and contracts, are written in English. Finally, in terms of communicating with foreigners is another reason of learning English. English is spoken throughout the world, so if I want to communicate with French, I could speak English with him or her. Thus, learning English carries lots of benefits in my future life.

        To learn English effectively, I have some strategies. Firstly, listen to English every day. Listening to English on a regular basis will improve my listening skills and also help me build my speaking skills. Secondly, keeping reading English news or articles is another strategy to help me improve my reading skills. Lastly, I believe that do more writing practice is very helpful to enrich my writing skills. These are some strategies that I learn English after class.

       In short, learning another language is beneficial for us in many ways. During the study, we should find some useful strategies to help us learning it.

Water Shortage in China

     Like many other fast growing countries around the world, China is facing severe water shortages. However, this situation is the result of a combination of factors.

     The first factor of water shortage in China is over use of water. In fact, in China, people are paying too little for water. This can be a reason why people waste and overuse water. Moreover, the water is used not only by residents for household use, but also by factories, and there is little encouraging for them to conserve or recycle water.  

     The second factor of shortage has been created by increased demand for water.  There is no doubt that the population has grown rapidly in China.  As a result, the demand for water has grown with the rapid population growth, and it far exceeds the supply.

     Finally, the pollution of the water is another factor of water shortage. The two main pollutants are industrial waste water and household sewage. Some factories dumped industrial waste into lakes or rivers. This includes various chemicals which can impact people’s health. In terms of household sewage, people, who live bank a lake or river, is in the habit of dumping sewage into lake or river.

     In short, there are three main factors of water shortage; over use, increasing demand, and pollution of the water. Apparently, all these parts are related to human beings. However, I think that no one can live without water. For this reason, I want promote people to conserve the water resource.

Fast Food

     On September 27, I attended a lecture which was given by Eric Schlosser. From the lecture, I knew more about fast food industry. It helped me to think about what I am eating. Although I think that fast food should be banned in the United States, it is hard impractical to do it. Admittedly, I think that there are something should be done in the United States.

     Firstly, I think Americans should know more about fast food. The two main reasons of why fast food is famous in the United States are the cheap price and the saving of time. Most people believe that eating fast food is convenient and cheap. There is something they do not know about fast food. The most obvious harm of eating too much fast food is weight gaining. Teens as well as adults are at risk of disease related to weight. This information should be known by every person. Here, my suggestion is to promote this knowledge to public. Moreover, teenagers and adults should be educated about fast food. For example, children are cautioned against drugs. We could do the same thing to against fast food.

     In China, fast food, especially McDonald's and KFC from the United States, has brought a lot of impacts since the first day it arrived in China. I can notice that many people, especially the youth and kids like to eat fast food. In my view, Chinese food is much more delicious and nutritious than fast food. Chinese people should keep their own food culture

What I Have Learned From CS1 Class

     Time flies, three weeks of this quarter have elapsed.  During these three weeks, I have learned many things about English, and I also enriched my knowledge. Now, I want to sum up what I have learned from reading and writing classes.

     To begin with reading class, there are serial things I have learned. Firstly, I learned how to use SQ3R. It is a reading method, and specifically created for learning from textbook. This method includes reading strategies, methods of reading and review, how to match my reading rate to the material and how to use the World Wide Web to expand my background knowledge. As a future college student, I think that all these skills will be useful when I study academic class.

      In terms of writing class, I learned some skills of writing. In the class, I learned about the process of writing academic essays. It tells me how to use the English academic style of writing and the type of organization. It is very important, because when I enter college my professor will be expecting. Other academic writing skills I learned are summarizing an article and giving a personal response to what I have summarized. I can use these skills to summary a newspaper, online Web site and giving my own opinion of the article.

     To sum up what I have said. Trough these three weeks I have learned lots of knowledge from class. I think that I should practice these skills to make sure that I can use them properly.  

My Future

        One question that my parents always ask me is what I want to do when I graduate. I am confused about this question. For me, the two choices are working for myself or working for others. However, whether I am working for others or work for myself, I must have the general working skills. As everyone knows that the current economic crisis caused high unemployment rate. This phenomenon makes a fierce competition between people, so only the highly skilled people can get away from unemployment. On the other hand, if I want to do my own business well, I must have several management skills. So, I think that to learn more skills is the most important thing for me. What I should do now is to try my best to study. I think when I greduate I will give my parents an answer that they satisfy.

What does it mean to live a healthy lifestyle? How can you do that as an international student at OU?

I think there is no doubt that to live a healthy lifestyle is very important to everyone. However what does living a healthy lifestyle mean. Some people believe to live a healthy lifestyle means to eat healthy food and exercise, others believe that in a good mood is necessary to keep fit. For me these three things are all important to live a healthy lifestyle. Firstly, having a healthy diet is a primary step to keep fit. For example, we should eat fruit and vegetable every day. In addition, we should avoid eating fast food, such as cheeseburger and French fries. Secondly, exercise is also an important part of healthy lifestyle. You can choose one of you liked sports and keep doing it. However, the easier way to exercise is walking.  I think that people should walk at least 20 minutes everyday. The last part of living a healthy lifestyle is in a good mood. Nowadays, people can be considered having more stress than ever. To manage stress effectively is very important to our health.  As an international student, I think I am pretty healthy. The first reason for this saying is that I often eat fruit and vegetable. I also have breakfast in the morning. Breakfast can give me energy. The second reason is that I do exercise everyday. As a student, I walk to the class everyday. I am studying in a small town. There doesn’t have subway or bus, so I walk around school everyday. Finally, I usually sleep for eight hours every night. A good sleep can keep me active during the daytime. This is my way to live in a healthy lifestyle. I hope that all people can have a healthy lifestyle like me!