Ict Causes Social Ills

? 1. THEME :REVISIONTOPIC :MEC MID YEAR2009 Q2SKILLS :WRITING ? 2. QuestionInformation and communicationstechnology (ICT) is the cause oftoday’s many social ills. What isyour opinion? Support youranswer with examples. Youshould write at least 350 words. [60 marks] ? 3. Definition †¢ digital products, communication device/ application/ service ICT †¢ radio, TV, mobile phone, satellite system, Internet, computer, software †¢ causing troubles or suffering to the society and relations betweensocial ills people †¢ truancy, violence, erosion of culture, drug abuse, cyber-relationship ? . OUTLINE agree : ICT is the cause of today’s many social ills addiction obsession depression a condition of the state of being a persistent general emotionalenslaved to a habit preoccupation, dejection and or practice idea, or feeling withdrawal; great sadness SNS, online gambling, entertainment, SNS, anonymity, online games fashion, sports bullying, harassment ? 5. Sample answer MUET Trial 1/2013 ICT is the cause of today’s many social ills. I agree. ICT is thecause of today’s many social ills because it causes addictions, obsessionsand depressions.First, ICT causes addictions. Internet, satellite TV and onlineactivities are all accessible to anyone with no age, gender, religious orcultural restriction 24 hours a day. Having unlimited access to theInternet turns many people to addicts. Before ICT, there is no onlinegame, online gambling and pornographic addiction. For example, ICTcauses online game addiction which have even caused deaths. In Chinaand South Korea, there are cases of young parents neglected theirnewborn baby while busy creating new scores online for days.They didnot feed their child because to them, playing online games is moreimportant . Besides, with ICT, gambling is done around the clock. So,online gambling makes gambling accessible even to those who are faraway from gambling venues thus creating more gambling addicts. Otherthan that, ICT causes pornographic addiction. With endless access to allsorts of pornographic materials, people turn into addicts in no time. Before ICT, pornographic materials are not that easily available and now,by only ticking a certain box to indicate your age, even young kids couldaccess these types of unsuitable content.It is obvious that ICT givesway to addiction with its unrestricted accessibility and this leadsto social ills. ? 6. Second, ICT causes obsessions. ICT makes people obsessed withcelebrities of many kinds, entertainers, sportsmen and public figures. Before ICT,we read about celebrities on newspapers or magazines but ICT provides moresources. Worse, ICT permits and even encourages stalking. Social networkingsites like Twitter, glorifies stalking because a user gets to ‘follow’ anyone theywant . It used to be that a stalker needs to physically follow a celebrity but nowone can stalk anybody, not just celebrity.Before ICT, stalking is not announc edand not publicly done. Besides, a trend used to take some time before reachingour shore but with ICT it’s just a matter of seconds. Any trend is a worldwidetrend with ICT. Therefore, more people become fashion victims because they areobsessed with anything new. For example, one who is obsessed with fashionmight emulate a fashion trend of an idol but it might not be in accordance withour cultural values or even weather. In addition, with ICT, obsession gets moreoutlets.Fan forums and groups are created to encourage obsession where allobsessed fans gather. For example, in the 60s, teens all over the world wereobsessed with The Beatles but none of them could beat the obsession teensnowadays have on Justin Bieber. The ‘Beliebers’ wear, eat, drink and sleep Bieber. This causes social ills because in the long run, the fanatics might resort tosomething illegal such as stealing and cheating to get what they want. Theymight also develop a psychological disorder like â⠂¬ËœCelebrity Worship Syndrome’. They might neglect their responsibility.From this, it is clear that ICTprovides for obsessive behaviour and this leads to social ills. ? 7. Third, ICT causes depressions. ICT makes people depressed becausethey feel inferior. When other people flaunt their amazing life on SNS, some willfeel lacking thus feeling sad and self-pity. They will try to overcome theirdepression by turning to recreational drugs or even vandalism to forget theirinferiority. With ICT, one knows too much about others and jealousy could be thebeginning of depression. Some people are depressed because they do not feelbelonged.They might suffer from low self esteem because nobody likes theirFacebook updates or nobody comments on the uploaded pictures. Before ICT, onemight feel that sometime, but with ICT, the evidence is for others to see too andthis causes greater depression. Other than that, ICT makes people depressedbecause with ICT, bullying has greater impacts. School b ullies continue to bullyeven after school hours. Cyber bullying happens even amongst office workers. Bullying is not only physical but mostly emotional and virtual. Slanders are spreadmuch faster and reach more people thus reating more harmful effects. Thevictims suffer from great depression because they are alienated not only in thereal world but online. Some victims resort to self-destructive behaviour such asinflicting pain on themselves. Some turn anorexic and bulimic. Some developtrauma. The worst case scenario is the many cases of suicides due to cyberbullying. ICT facilitates bullying because harsh remarks are done anonymously,with no time limit. It is evident that ICT causes depressions and this leadsto social ills. ? 8. As a conclusion, ICT is the cause of today’s many social ills.ICT causesaddictions, obsessions and depressions and these negativity eventually will leadto social ills. Undeniably, ICT has its positive impacts but we have to be carefulof its detrimenta l negative impacts. We should take preventive measures so thatthe negative effects will not outweigh the positive effects. Social ills are thepublic’s concern and we should do our part to curb the problems. Task 1. Identify the opening statement, stand, thesis statement, topic sentences, elaborations, examples, micro-conclusion and conclusion. 2. Look up for meaning of new words you have encountered.