Internet essay

        The internet is one of the greatest inventions known to man. It is used for many things: research for your homework, dating, socializing with friends, and even making new friend. As helpful as it may be it can also hurt you in many ways. The internet is used to publicly say what you are thinking, but some things that people post are things they are not willing to say in person.
            When you post a new picture or comment on the internet do you really think about who is going to see it. People don’t realize when they post something up that they are letting anyone see it including strangers. One issue on the internet is cyber bullying. People get bullied online every day, sometimes this leads to suicides. People also create ‘avatars’ online and some are questionable as to why the avatar looks so different from the creator? Also are avatars bad for peoples self esteem? Etc.                                                                                                           
        People use the internet to get revenge on people for example I read an article were a 35 year old woman named Dawn Putnam’s former boyfriend posted up nude pictures of her online. He tried to blackmail her asking for $5,000 in order for him to take the pictures down. Instead of paying him she called the cops and told them what was happening. Alan Douglas Westmoreland the boyfriend was put in Gaston County Jail on a $10,000 bond on an extortion charge. She denied posing for the picture and says he must have taken it when she fell asleep sunbathing naked. This all happened through the social networking sit named Tagged.com. One message that was sent to her read “Message: you want your video and pix???? cost you 5000$ or everyone will get it on top of everyone on your frinds (sic) list on here and my space! IM NOT JOKING!!!!”. Another message to her threaten to send it to Putnam’s teenage daughter. There are many cases similar to this one were people use the internet for the wrong reasons. They use the interrnet to try to hurt people.
         People online get bullied everyday its called cyber bullying. There was a case where a girl was hurt by another girl and the mother of the girl that was hurt decided to get revenge. So she created a fake profile saying she was a teen boy and that he liked the girl. She got the teen girl to start talking to her and soon trusting her. Once she earned her trust she started to insult her and making her feel bad about herself. The teen was so hurt by what she was being told that she committed suicide. The argument was that she didn’t mean for the girl to commit suicide, she knew what her actions were and didn’t know that the girl would committe suicide, but she knew her actions were meant with bad intentions. I believe it should be trialed as murder since her intentions were to hurt the girl maybe not to that extreme but she knew exactly what she was doing. She is a grown woman and should be mature enough to solve the problem more wisely. She is suppose to be the grown up in this situation and instead of setting a good example for her daughter of how to deal with a problem she set a bad example.
       Cyber bullying is a huge issue in the internet. People bullying others because they can’t physically do anything back, they even have the safety of keeping there identity a secret if they wanted to. People bully teens for being gay or acting feminine. I believe religion plays a big part to do with gay teens being bullied for being gay. Teens committe suicide because of comments made about there sexuality or sexual preference. Religion teaches you to love your neighbor. Love there similarities and their differences but they also say its wrong to be gay because it is wrong in the eyes of god/lord or that it is a life style they choose. They believe its wrong and there for no one should be gay. People grow up hearing this and being taught this that they wont accept when some one around them is gay and they start bullying those people who are gay. Some bully people online because it is easier and it is more viral everyone can see it. It causes a lot of gay teens to get emotionally hurt. They feel everyone will be just as cruel and the world will never accept them for who they really are, and it would be to hard to live like that and choose to end their lives. I believe that religious people should respect people’s life styles and choices just like people respect religion it should go both ways. Respect everyone no matter what there believes are. I believe is if they choose to live like that and are not hurting anybody then they should be left alone. People should be mature enough to respect their choice. Some religious people get mad because its wrong to like the same sex because they were told by some book ‘The Bible’ that it is a sin, that it is immoral. That love is only supposed to be between a man and a woman.
         People create avatars for many reasons. Avatars are creator’s virtual self. People create avatars for games and some social sites were they create there virtual self’s. I think that it’s bad for some people. Some people might take it to serious when they play using there avatar. Some lose track of the real world. Some like there virtual self’s more because you can be anyone when you create an avatar. You can make it look yourself or you can make it look like a completely different person with huge muscles with abilities you wish you had. People are more accepted in the gaming world because you can choose what you look like and what you can do. They create alter egos you ask yourself if that person wish they looked like that or just made a character with cool characteristics.  

      The internet can be very helpful when you use it right. “The Machine That Changed the World: The World at Your Fingertips” I saw this quote online and I always hear it when a teacher assigns a new assignment in class. When I was younger I never really understood what they meant until now I understand. The internet is world wide you can be in one place and simply type in a few words and know what is happening on the other side of the globe. You type in a question and can find the answer online. The internet has everything you can research, listen to music watch videos, find pictures, read books, and socialize with people. Now when most teens have a question they simply go on the internet to fin the answer. The internet has made thing so much easier. Most teens rather go on the internet for social sites: face book, myspace, and twitter than use the internet for anything else. This causes a problem because they tend to spend way to much time on it. They can’t wait to log on and talk to their friends or post what they did during the day. I personally think those sites are a waist of time because teens mainly talk to their friends from school so I think its dumb cause they can just talk to them at school. Also because people go online just to argue and talk bad about band other people their teacher or places. I find that to be a waits of time were they can be doing something productive.  I believe even meeting people online is a waist of time because they simply can lie about themselves. I had a friend that I knew really well I had the same classes with him since we were little so one day I decided to look him up online, when I couldn’t find him I asked him for his email when I got to his page I couldn’t believe that was him. He sounded so different online than in person. In person he was the type of person that didn’t care about anything and never did what he was told to do. Online he was poetic and talked about politics on a very high level. Reading some stuff he wrote and couldn’t believe it was the same guy I knew from school. As I continued to read I thought to myself how many people must have completely different lives online I knew this guy didn’t just make everything up he knew what he was talking about, but what can you really believe its not like you can prove them wrong. It just gets you thinking that anybody can become someone else online they can tell you exactly what you want to hear because you wont know if its true or not.

What it is to be an American

            I asked a lot of people what it means to be an American to them and everyone had very different opinions on being American. Some good some bad and some simply didn’t want to answer. Some people talk about America like if it’s a magical place were everything and anything can happen. Others see America like if it’s ruining the rest of the world and I was told everyone hates Americans.
            I was told by one person that America is the land of opportunity. That person told me America can make anything happen and that’s why they are here. That’s why they chose to leave there home land to come to America. In America you can get jobs and more opportunities are given to them and there families. There are programs to help them and they can get a better education. She thinks America can help her escape the problems she was facing were she came from and start a new life.
             The other person I asked had a completely different point of view. I was told Americans are greedy and take everything for granted and would do anything to advance in life. They told me they act as if they own everything. For example animals, they are being reproduced like t-shirts. They are treated cruel and it’s unsanitary. Americans are causing global warming. They waste water and energy while the rest of the world suffers. For example they are overproducing cows and there waist isn’t disposed properly which leads to our water drains and oceans. America doesn’t want to enforce their immigration laws. American say they don’t want them here but they really don’t want them to stop coming. If they stopped coming that would mean they would no longer have cheap labor. No cheap labor means having to pay workers at least minimum wage and having to have a sanitary constructive environment. Having immigrants means having people work for nearly nothing and can work in poor health conditions and who can’t complain and work jobs no one else wants.
             I believe some American schools have a good education system but not all of them. I believe the education does help certain groups of people. I believe people do get help in America but I believe the wrong people get helped at least most of the time, and the people who do deserve the help are to embarrass to ask for it. The people that should be getting helped have to much pride to ask for it.
             Americans are 34% over weight we eat fast food and don’t exercise on a regular basis. If we simply ate better we would all have a good self esteem. We eat clone meat, that is so bad for us and some people don’t even know what they are eating. We don’t know what could happen but no one speaks up and says we want organic food. We want food that has not been genetically modified and don’t want to eat animals that have been injected with steroids and hormones. If we took simple but big steps we would live in a better America.

Academic Autobiography

         When I started school I was four or five years old I started a year late. I went to Vermont Elementary school. Most of my elementary years are a blur, the only thing I can clearly remember was crying every morning because I did not want to go to school. Only a few of my teachers in elementary liked me. They always said that I wouldn’t do my work and I would sleep in class.

         My kindergarten teacher loved me even till this day when I see her she says “hi” and starts a conversation. In first grade I always just blended in I never stuck out. Second grade was my best year the teacher liked me and I met my best friends, I had good grades and my parents were happy with me. Through third grade and fifth grade I had really low grades and my teachers didn’t like me. I’ve always been a quite and shy student at first, but once I meet people and I get comfortable I talk a lot.
 
      When I reached middle school it was no different my teachers didn’t like me and I didn’t have good grades. I attended James A. Foshay for sixth through eighth grade. When I started sixth grade I had the same teacher for four of my classes. Her name was Ms. Garcia she never liked me because on the first day of school I got to school late and I never liked talking out loud. I understood every thing we were learning I passed her final and a lot of her test but I still didn’t pass her classes because I would always get kicked out from the class.

        When I walked into my first class the first thing I thought about was finding some one I new from elementary and stay with them. That day I found Caroline that year we became best friends. In the beginning of seventh grade my teachers liked me I did a lot of my work but, I talked a lot more because I knew every one in my classes. The rest of my classes were okay but I never really stood out I would just sit in the back of the class doing my work and listening to music. In the middle of seventh grade I stopped doing my work my grades dropped and I was absent a lot because of personal reasons at home. When I started eighth grade I was still having trouble in my classes and I was still having trouble at home. I was put in really low classes and I had to work hard to catch up on everything I missed when I was absent. I didn’t go much higher since I was still absent a lot. At the end eighth I knew I wasn’t going to walked the stage unless I changed my classes and my English teacher loved me because I always did all her work and tried really hard. I explained to her and she helped me switch my classes and the only space available was in the honor classes and she promise every one I was going to try very hard so they switched me and I graduated in honor classes.

       When I first started ninth grade I knew I had to do better so I was absent less and I did all my work I got mostly good grades. I understood math for the first time and I was passing it but when my grandma passed away I was absent to school for a week or so. When I got back I was sad and I didn’t feel like doing my work my grades dropped but not by much since they were very high. When I started tenth my grades were really low I failed one quarter of English and didn’t get much higher grades in my other classes. When I started eleventh grade I made a promised to my grandmother, my family, and myself to try harder. For now it’s too early to tell but I’ve been trying really hard and I hope I pass.