Devil’s Advice Essay • • • Choose a social issue to write a 3 to 5 page satirical argument. In order to avoid confusion, make sure the majority of the population agree with the actual argument that you are making: Examples: Drunk Driving, Child Abuse, War, Teenage Smoking, High School Dropouts, etc. You will then argue that we need more of it. In satire, you are arguing the opposite of what you believe. 1st paragraph: • • • In the introduction, thoroughly introduce the social issue, using straightforward language. You want to state more or less how the general public feels about the issue. Then, you will make the claim that we actually need more of it. A forecasting statement will follow giving three reasons that actually defend the satirical claim. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th paragraphs: • • • In each paragraph you will defend the reasons you gave in the forecasting statement. Minimizing the Horror: In each of the body paragraphs, you need to include a brief moment where you discuss the real negatives of the social issue—an ironic shift; to do this, you will research the social issue in one of our library databases. The negative statistics, data, information, etc. will be quoted in your essay (you will need at least two sources with a work cited page). Following the negative details, you will abruptly go back to defending your satirical argument. I call this “Minimizing the Horror.” This is a great moment to use a fallacy. Fallacies: I would like you to utilize at least two fallacies in this essay: the red herring fallacy, the straw man fallacy, scare tactics, hasty generalization, etc. since it is very common to see fallacies in satirical essays (refer to “common fallacies” in blackboard). 5th paragraph: • The most important thing about the conclusion is that you maintain the satirical tone. * Though I do not have specific style requirements, I need to see a concerted effort on your part to incorporate style into your writing. Lam 1 Quan Lam Professor Dustin Hopkins English 100 October 29, 2013 Global Warming Society is dealing with a serious problem which is global warming. Scientists have been solving this issue for a long period of time because they conclude that global warming can lead to many negative effects on human being such as climate change, natural disasters, and sickness rate growth. They just focus on one side of global warming problem, and they completely ignore the other side. However, global warming is not too bad if we take advantage of it. There are many benefits for every individual living such as raising economy, population controlled, and creating more jobs if we would let it goes as the way it is. Those benefits would make human life more comfortable and rich. In some countries in this world, the houses are very small, containing about three generations living in a little space. They cannot be able to afford one house for each family because the land is limited; that is the reason forcing the increasing price for every acre. Moreover, the manufactories cannot expand their building and lose opportunities to push up the economy. However, there are many forests around us: Amazon, National Park, and more. These forests are gaining a lot of areas, and we need those spaces for the important reason serving human life. Deforestation is a great solution to solve these problems. Then, we can afford a big house for living with a lower price and the economy would grow rapidly because more manufactories expand and open, serving human life and becoming easier for us to live. Cutting off the trees would produce more paper for us; of course, the price of these products would be Lam 2 decreased. “The accumulated area of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose from 41.5 million hectares (102 million acres) in 1990 to 58.7 million hectares (145 million acres) in 2000. In just ten years the country lost an area of forest twice the size of Portugal or the size of Uruguay.” (Pacheco) As we can see, global warming is not big problem as the living space. There are many lost forests from deforestation activities; however, it is not nearly as what happened with BP oil spill in The Gulf of Mexico. As growing industries, people would be rich and they would have physical things which they want to own. The duty of trees is just the air filter. Without trees, the greenhouse gases would be thicker making climate change and creating the serious sickness as cancers because of pollution; however, we would be dead anyway; enjoying life is the most important thing that we should do. We live in a rich life; then, we are ready for the day comes rather than not doing anything and live poor in this bored life. Time is valuable, waiting for no one. However, we have to face to traffic hours every single day. Nobody likes traffic. We sit in the car wasting time without doing anything. The fact of growth population is the number of people giving birth each year, getting larger than the number of older people dying. Global warming effect is a key solving this problem for us. “The ozone hole stretched over a populated city for the first time. It was in Punta Arenas, a southern Chile city of about 120,000 people, exposing residents to very high levels of ultra violet radiation. The ozone depletion has also been correlated with higher levels of cancer in humans and animals.” (Bekai) There are many people dying each year because of cancers: lung cancer, skin cancer, and other type of cancers. However, we should destroy the cigarette companies which are responsible for most cancers relate to death. Nonetheless, people who die of sickness from ultra violet radiation will have time to finish their business of living before they leave this world. Therefore, they would feel more better when the day comes. Global warming helps to Lam 3 control population and traffic will not be a big issue for people. People will not spend too much money on gas online and waste their valuable time. The main problem that many people today are concerned about is unemployment. People who work for a long period of time (about 10-20 years) at one company with everything familiar to them will one day get the unexpected announcement that the company is going to lay them off, and they try hard to get back their job in different company; however they don’t get hired. Everything is falling down; the world falls apart. They are depressed and do not know what to do. There are many things that they are worried about—monthly payment for utilities, leasing fee, credit card payment. These things will lead them to frustrated mood; they will do crazy things—admit to crimes such as robber, alcoholic, drunk driver and suicide because of desperation. They will die in pain and ruin their lives with regrettable after they figure out that everything is too late. Jobs are very necessary for human life. Especially, Global warming issue creates jobs for many people. Although, people declare this problem is bad, “The use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal has increased carbon dioxide levels by 30 percent. Fossil fuel use, waste dumps, increased agricultural production, and massive livestock operations have increased levels of methane by 240 percent.” (Introduction to Global Warming) Gases release from industries will be worse for health; however, everything will be much worse if people have no job. Global warming creates many types of jobs—forest guards, research scientists, assembly for industries, managers, construction careers. As the scientists state that the global warming would be occurring in a hundred years later, the effects of global warming would kill all of human lives. However, we would not live this long to see the effects. The future would not be predicted; it may or may not happen; we do not even sure; what if it would happen as the time that the scientists have predicted; the society Lam 4 got higher education, people would have another key to solve this problem without changing the way we live. Our next generation would take care of it. Nguyen 1 Thi Nguyen Professor Dustin Hopkins English 100 April 30, 2018 Devil’s Essay: Technology and Social Media on Teenagers In the modern society, the presence of technology is everywhere. Newest model smartphones—Iphone X, IPhone 8, or Samsung Galaxy S9—tablets, and personal computers with strongest configurations to play online video games are indispensable items and competitive standards of a human, especially children and teenagers. Most parents complain that technology is too bad for their lovely kids because they use electronic devices and social media everywhere and every time: eating, taking a bath, using a toilet, or even not sleeping to count the number of followers or likes on their social pages, then waking up with the “Panda” eyes on the next day. Even some parents compare their kids to “phone zombies”. Lack of privacy, lack of social bonds, or development effect are the negative impacts of technology that the society is condemning. However, can you imagine how people survive under a bunch of pressure in life without any kind of entertainment applications on electronic devices or social media? One day will be as long as 48 hours. Life will fall into the state of boring, depression, pressure, and deadlock. From Suicide Statistics of Mental Health America, “44,000 Americans die by suicide each year.” This number is constantly increasing. It is an extremely terrible problem. Therefore, technology and social media overusing are not too bad if people realize advantages of them. Technology and social media are wonderful tools that decrease the suicide rates due to depression, provide job opportunities, and create a new generation of peace. Those benefits will make children and teenagers more confident, comfortable and happier in their lives. Nguyen 2 As you know, suicide is considered a trend of most people like teenagers or artists in Asian countries—Japan, Korea—and even in the United States. The root cause of this issue is that they do not find a goal in life—so boring, no colorful, no goal, no competition, and no striving—or they do not know how to get rid of the stress in life. Finally, they decide to give up everything; they think that death is the best way to free themselves. Every day, when you read newspaper, you easily find some hot news related to suicide such as an only-fifteen-year girl cut her wrist while taking a shower because she has just broken up with her boyfriend, or a handsome Korean artist has just died at his own house because of depression for a long time. Suicide is really a terrible choice; it brings sadness and painful for the remaining relatives. Luckily, technology and social media are considered as a precious gift that God has given to human. Kaiser Family Foundation showed a recent statistic: “Children 8-18 are exposed to the media for 10 h and 45 min a day because, with the use of mobile media, they are “always connected” and usually are multi-tasking” (Kelly L. Heider). Either children and teenagers spend all day on technology and social media to forget unhappy things, releasing stress, or they will bury themselves in the pressure and sadness. Moreover, social media is a way for teenagers to express themselves. Let’s imagine that you are super “cool” if you are a “super gamer” of a popular video game with the highest score, or you become a “hot girl” with million likes after 5 minutes for your bikini picture. Your friends will admire and praise you; you will be called with a “king” or “queen” title in virtual world. Is it so proud of? All of these are exactly the goal of life. Technology makes teenagers feel more confident and happier, and continue living to gain the great achievements in virtual world. The best way to look at benefits of technology is by comparison with the past as we continue to strive to create a better world with a superior standard of living. From Pew Research Nguyen 3 Center surveys of social media using, “Some 88% of 18-to-29-year-olds indicate that they use any form of social media. That share falls to 78% among those ages about 30 to 49, to 64% among those ages 50 to 64 and to 37% among Americans 65 and older.” (Aaron Smith). This data is so amazing. Everyone is using social media and technologies to help country more modern, better, and wealthier, so technology is not bad. The economy over the world will grow up rapidly according to the increasing technology demands and requirements of people such as creating a beauty application like “720o camera” that you will become “hot girls/boys” with a perfect body on social networking, even though you are actually 220lbs in weight and 5’2’’ feet in height, or creating an intelligent robot who help teenagers do homework. A very bright future, is it right? Billions of software, hardware jobs or other jobs will be created to meet the demand of all people in the world. People are no longer afraid of unemployment in time of difficult economy. “In the US alone, computer and information technology jobs are expected to grow by 22% up to 2020, creating 758,800 new jobs.” (Elena Kvochko). Besides that, the more they use mobile devices, the less physical activities they do. So, the government can consider destroying parks, soccer fields, stadiums, swimming pools, or anywhere that related to outdoor activities to build lots of big software industries to develop numerous applications of public services and gaming. But, don’t worry. Technology is also one kind of sports that helps brain development; people will become more intelligent and prudent in modern society. In fact, technology is a wonderful progress; it creates more job opportunities and raises economy. Especially, it is a pedal that helps people have a new vision and improve the quality of life. Finally, the biggest benefit of overusing technology on children is to create a new generation of peace. As you know, war is one of the biggest obsessions of human besides natural disasters. Because of the competition—economy, political—or racial, religious discrimination Nguyen 4 that lead to war; the terrible wars make us lose our loveliest relatives, decrease the economy, and face to lots of difficulty in life. However, the youth generations who use electronic devices all day will resolve this issue in the future. According to a student’s survey, “Nearly 80% of teens checked their phone hourly, and 72% said they felt the need to immediately respond to texts and social networking messages.” From the above statistics, I will show you the use of technology and social media all day and night of youth people are an advantage right now. Do you think what is the main concern of young people in society today? Are they political issues or economy development? Nope. The main concern of young people now is how to attract more followers on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or how to be a hero of the “World Warcraft” game. They do not care about anything around them; each person lives on a private island in their virtual world. Nobody want to talk or contact to others in the real life, so there will be no conflict or war in the world. All of advantageous issues will create a world of peace—no care, no argument, no competition, and finally no war. If there is any war, it is the war on the video games; this does not affect to our real life. For this reason, young people can solve the war problem by technology; people will be lived in a peaceful, safety, and wealthy world. In bried, from the negative impacts of technology on teenagers that society condemns, the innocent children and teenagers are put to malicious names like “phone zombie”, or “phone addict”. It is so sad to hear that. Why does the society complain about this? Enjoying on a frequent basis does not necessarily mean they are addicted to technology; it is just a habit and basic need of a human like brushing teeth, washing face. Besides the great benefits that technology brings to society and economy, the parents cannot deny the advantages of technology for their children. Technology, especially social media as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram—is a way for teenagers express themselves. Moreover, technology helps for teens who have poor Nguyen 5 coping mechanisms get rid of stress, feel more confident and comfortable in life. Positive energy come from having social media, and everyone (not only teenagers) deserves to be happy in this technology world. Nguyen 6 Works Cited Kelly L. Heider, Mary Renck Jalongo Editors. “Young Children and Families in the Information Age” - Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands: Imprint: Springer, 2015. Mary Renck Jalongo. “Information Literacy in Early Childhood: What, Why, How, and Where to Next?” https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.occlib.nocccd.edu/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-94017-9184-7.pdf Jessie Nuez. “6 Negative effects technology has on kids”. https://www.babble.com/tech/6-negative-effects-technology-has-on-kids/ Adrianne Albarado Ortiz, West Texas Counseling & Guidance. “Negative effects of technology on children.” Published: April 19, 2017. https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/life/wellness/2017/04/19/sound-mind-negativeeffects-technology-children/99872132/ Elena Kbochko. “Five ways technology can help the economy.” Posted 11 Apr 2013. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2013/04/five-ways-technology-can-help-the-economy/ Kelly Wallace, CNN. “Half of teens think they’re addicted their smartphones.” Updated July 29, 2016. https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/health/teens-cell-phone-addiction-parents/index.html Nguyen 7
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