The Lack of Necessary Skills for the Modern Workplace.

          In the workplace, relationship among the peers is intensely crucial in determining the job satisfaction of the peers and harmony of the environment. In this context, effective communication skills appear to be one of the necessary skills one needs to equip when they step in the workplace. Lacking of effective communication skills seems to be a problem as it could harm the relationship between the peers, causing one to work in an unhappy environment because of the presence of another unfavorable colleague. It is possible that the unsatisfactory relationship stems from the misunderstanding with one another. If that is the case, increasing the communication with the disliked one in the workplace may at the same time enhance the comprehension of that person. It seems that all of the efforts to maintain the desirable and harmonious relationship require effective communication skills. Hence, training aimed at boosting the employees' skills on dealing with others should be provided by the employers. Individually, peers could have gatherings among one another to enhance the mutual understanding.   

The Library, The Internet, and The Academic Life.

Compare and contrast libraries and the Internet as the two major sources of information for use in academic written work.

The appreciation of knowledge by our ancestors can be obviously seen with the creation of the first library 3200 years ago. The act of visiting the library with the aim of gaining knowledge or gathering information is passed down millenniums later. In the past centuries, the library had become a frequently-visited place for the general public, especially the academic scholars. Nevertheless, with the invention of the internet in the 1950s, digital information expands and academic library use is in a chronic state of decay. Though facing the challenges presented by the internet, extinction of the academic library use is not occurring. In other words, a great number of people still see library as the most ideal place to seek for information for use in their academic written work whereas others claim that the internet is certainly the most excellent means to look for academic materials. Both views are subjectively correct. Strictly speaking, internet and the library are undeniably comparable to each other when it comes to their handiness as sources of information for academic scholars.

In most of the academic written works, citations and references on where each particular material is derived from are required. That shows the reliability of sources is highly valued in the academic world. In this context, the reliability of sources from the internet, in which everyone is granted the freedom to post anything they wish, is lower than information gained from the library. The library offers numerous books published by well-known publishers after they are reviewed by prestigious researchers and authors in their respective fields. In addition, majority of the college students are not equipped with the ability to wearily filter for the reliable information on the internet. They would be unaware even if they have included undependable information from the internet into their written work. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, collections of books in the library are trustworthy. Citing from those books enhances the reliability of one’s academic written work.

 In terms of convenience and speed, the internet is in the van as compared to the library. Physiologically, human brains are designed to favor simplicity rather than complexity. That explains why between the complex processes of extracting desired information from the book and clicking the mouse to select wanted material effortlessly, people often go for the latter. Sitting in front of the computer screen and expose ourselves to a vast amount of desired information is pleasant and less tiring, yet thumbing through books to look for materials takes hours and when the material we want is not in the book, we have to begin flipping another book again. From here we can see that, the internet serves as an appropriate source of information for academic scholars who frequently complete their academic written work few days before the deadline as it is more time – saving as compared to checking books by books in the library.

Is the nearest library situated more than 1 kilometer from you at this moment? Are you accessible to the internet now? If we answered yes to both of the questions, we might find the coverage of internet is undoubtedly more widespread than the library. Back to the topic, the ease of accessibility of information is another factor that differentiates the internet and the library. As technology becomes increasingly available, scholars nowadays no longer require going to the library to seek for materials for their academic work. As long as both the laptop and the Wi-Fi are present, academic scholars today are able to begin writing for their academic papers. Contrary to the internet, we need to be in the library in order to welcome the influx of vast information through physically contacting with the books.

 Summing up, the internet and the library are handy sources of information for scholars’ academic written works. In addition, two of the major sources come along with advantages as well as disadvantages. It depends on the scholars on the way they utilize both ways. If the internet and the library are used intelligently, they are able to complement each other, reducing the time needed for scholars to complete the academic papers, at the same time heightening the reliability of those academic works. 

Issues Related to Adolescents

i)                    Internet addiction

          The internet has plenty of information suitable to fulfill the curiosity of adolescents, causing them to stay up late, wasting time supposed to work on other activities. Along with the internet addiction, young people grow fond of hanging down their heads, consecrating their attention to smartphones, Ipad, and other similar tablet computers. Spending an unreasonable amount of time daily on that kills our brain cells. Compulsive internet use can appear as functionally destructive as compulsive drug use or gambling. For a long term, our overall thinking ability is sabotaged, and we get closer to becoming a fool.  

          Enhancing our self-control solves the problem. Every morning, we should persuade ourselves that we are stupid enough and it is indeed needed to reduce the usage of the brain-cells-killer to avoid becoming more foolish.   

ii)                  Breakfast omission

          For most young people, the breakfast is usually taken after 12 p.m. Occasionally, we skip the breakfast on purpose, deeming that by doing so our weight will be reduced. Ironically, studies have repeatedly indicated that skipping breakfast consistently results in lacking of energy, gaining of weight and poor nutrition. Also, experts have confirmed that poor nutritional status from skipping the breakfast impairs our mental development. Again, for a long-term, we get closer to becoming a fool.

         Enhancing our self-motivation solves the problem. Every morning, we should persuade ourselves that we are stupid enough and it is indeed needed to maintain the intake of breakfast every day to avoid becoming more foolish.  

iii)                Unhealthy food consumption

          Fast food, instant noodles, and snacks become the common main meals for most adolescents as they are delicious, cheap and can be conveniently obtained. We do know they are unhealthy, but when hunger comes together with laziness to seek for healthy food, we surrender and grab any edible objects around us. Unfortunately, experts have again confirmed that eating junk food regularly results in weight gain, cardiovascular problems and nutritional deficiencies. Nutritional deficiencies hinder our brain cells’ activities. Again, for a long-term, we get closer to becoming a fool.

          Enhancing our self-control solves the problem. When the stomach emits the hunger signal and junk food is at the easily reachable distance, we should persuade ourselves that we are stupid enough and it is indeed needed to reduce the consumption of unhealthy food to avoid becoming more foolish.  

iv)                Plump perception

          Often, our close friends comment about our statures when we first meet them after holidays, like saying “you grow fat!” directly. Occasionally, we honestly reveal our “body expansion” through asking our friends, “Do I look fat?” Also, it is not uncommon that we commonly listen to people around us complaining about their body size. Thinking ourselves is plump, but in fact we are socially acceptable as normal (Body Mass Index (BMI) is below 25 and look just normal in the eyes of our groups of friends) is one of the problems among young people today.

          When we claim that we are not thin, we are either truthfully admitting that we are plump, exaggerating the problem or comparing ourselves with the toothpicks. If taking the initiative to keep fit sounds torturing our souls, we can choose to be friends with people who are plumper than us, with the aim of taking a lot of photos with them and analyzing our real body size by rationally comparing the subjects in the photos.

v)                  Photographing skills dissatisfaction

          Matter-of-factly, taking photos is one of the favorite activities of young people today. Sometimes, when requested to take photos of our friends, we are blamed and complained for not producing a gorgeous piece of photo for them. This happens because for amateurs, taking photos means simply fitting every targeted object into the frame, then click or press the button. For others, taking photos means clicking or pressing the button after taking into consideration the suitable brightness, perfect angle that beautifies the subject, and the occupancy percentage of the subject as compared to the background.  

          If we are unfortunate enough to have friends belonging to the group other than the amateurs, to avoid being complained about our photographing skills, we should digest more photography magazines.

vi)                Photos superabundance

          Along with the passion in taking photos, most young people are facing the problem of having colossal amount of photos in the laptop, tablet computer, smartphone, camera, thumb drive, blog, Facebook, and the like. We say that albums are the storehouse of our sweet memories. Problem arises if we have difficulty in seeking for the memory we want at any moment, due to the large number of photos we keep in different means.

          Once in a while, we should delete unwanted photos and organize them so that we could get them easily whenever we want them.

vii)              Singing skills dissatisfaction

          Karaoke serves as an ideal place for groups of young people to gather and talk about anything and release their tension through singing. Nevertheless, having a not so pleasant voice in singing is quite embarrassing in the karaoke box. Most of us are not aware of how our voice sounds like in others’ ears. Thus, there are people who sing aloud in the karaoke box; not knowing of his or her injurious voice is maltreating others. It becomes a problem when someone directly criticizes the person singing and hurts his or her self-esteem.    

          If we are unsure of the quality of our voice, we should go singing in the karaoke. If it happens that our voice is that lousy, there is nothing for us to worry, the group of friends will automatically weep us out in the next visit to the karaoke. Anyhow, this is not an issue if we do not mind how others judge our voice. However, if we are so conscious about this problem, we can either blame the God for not granting us an angelic voice or take the initiative to sign up for a related course.

viii)                  Love expectation

          “Josephine is having a boyfriend. I also want a handsome boyfriend.” “I must get married before the age of 25!” Love is one of the favorite topics in the conversation of most young people. It becomes a problem only if the expectation of finding the right one is intensely exaggerated. Adolescents facing the issue extremely worry that they will be alone in perpetuity, and thus focusing too much on this particular matter whist neglecting other aspects in their life. 

          Watching less romantic dramas and novels could aid in reducing the excitation of love-related-hormones in the physical body, thus cutting down the uncontrollable intention to keep thinking about love.

ix)        Life realization

          Adolescence is the stage where we begin to question about the reason of our existence on earth. Whist questioning, we are in the process of accumulating information from everywhere to construct the person we would like to be in future. When this process is interrupted by the insecurity about the future and failure to answer the question, “who am I?”, confusion happens, causing young people to face depression or even suicide.

          To happily and maturely go through the process, we should gain an entire understanding of ourselves. Externally, we have to know our current heights and weights, blood group, family history and the like. Internally, we should have a clear idea of our personality, the one we hope to be in future, and the field we would like to devote our remaining time to. Reading self-help books aids in this process as well.

x)                  Sarcastic communication

          The author of this post is an adolescent. It is somehow obvious that a few of the sentences above seem sarcastic for some people and funny for the others. It applies to real life communications among young people as well. Majority of the adolescents are desperate for attention from the others. Engaging in sarcasm whist talking to people gives them a sense of superiority to the other communicator. When sarcasm is presented in a mild and not serious manner, it becomes joke. Young people expert in joking are seen as humorous and tame, unlike the detractors. Problem arises if young people are incapable of grasping the exact boundary between sarcasm and joke, thereby hurting the others. It is also a problem if adolescents adapt to the sarcastic manner of talking and speak casually in front of lecturers or the elders.  

           If we realize we are the one mentioned, spend a few minutes reflecting what we have said today when we are lying on our beds, preparing to fall asleep. It helps to speak appropriately if we manage to put ourselves in others’ shoes to speculate how we will feel if we are the receiver of those words.