Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Personal Response - Discrimination - Egor

Hello everyone. Today, I would like to talk about racial discrimination, try to explain why it takes place in our world and provide some historical facts and evidence.

First of all, I will talk about racial discrimination. So why does racial discrimination happen? Let’s look back back to history to get some examples. During the late 30s when Hitler came to power, he blamed all Germany’s problems on Jewish people and German people believed him because they needed someone to blame for their own failures. This example shows us that people always try to find an easiest way out of the problems or just make it someone else’s problem.

Another example of racial discrimination is an organisation in the United States of America which is called National Knights of Ku Klux Klan, widely known as the KKK. Those people were lynching black people in the USA during the 60s just because they had different skin colour. Surprisingly, this organisation still exists today but it’s much less dangerous because now their ideology is that they just want to live separately from black people. This example shows that it is impossible to change people’s ways of thinking.

Overall, as I’ve said before, it is difficult to fight against racial discrimination but it is possible and it makes sense if we would think about what was happening a hundred years ago and how the world has changed over those years

I hope you’ve enjoyed my talk today.

Thank you for your attention.

Speech - Faces behind anonymity - Da Seul

“You’re so ugly, go kill yourself” - That’s not something you would like to hear from people around you, nor people in cyberspace that you have no idea who they are. The problem here is that most of you have had this kind of statement said directly towards you before and possibly have made this kind of statement to others while hiding behind anonymity. 

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…. the amount of social media has increased drastically that we can’t even list all of them without asking Google what they are. Why? Of course it’s because more and more people start suing them every single day and, most commonly, people like us - ‘Young and wild’ teenagers. Yes, we all want to show off our luxurious, cool lifestyles : Sneaking out at night to a party, drinking alcohol, smoking weed, driving motorbikes… Social media is truly the best way of showing others how awesome your life is, and the amount of likes and comments you get one those posts makes you feel popular. 

But how about stalkers? Perverts? Pedophiles? How about your future employer? Posting thus stuff online under your account is…. well, yeah - It’s your choice. But try being more considerate about what you post. You don’t want a random pedophile to come to find you at a bar after finding out your location from your check - in post on Facebook. You don’t want an unknown person to save your pictures and use them for whoever knows what. You could find a naked photo of yourself in your email account from an anonymous person, threatening to send it to your friends unless you give money or agree to have a sexual relationship. No, this shouldn’t happen to anyone. 

So you think you know this guy pretty well from Facebook? Feel like a celebrity whenever people share your post? Satisfied after checking into a nightclub at 2AM in the morning? Knock it off, it’s just pathetic. 

What do you even get by receiving likes on Social media? I’m not suggesting you to never post anything online. I’m suggesting you to make sure you share your ‘cool’ life only with people you want to share it with. That pervert who’s scrolling down your Facebook profile right now doesn’t need to be involved in your life. That anonymous comment saying ‘Fat as f***’ shouldn’t be there. 

Stop sharing every bit of your life with people you don’t know. Only accept friend requests from people you do know and change your settings so that only friends can view your profile. Just in case you are, stop leaving hateful comments behind anonymous accounts. Click ‘Report’ whenever a stalker or a pervert is detected. Easy, right? 

Sharing your life with others is good, but you do not need to share every bit of it with every single person in this world.

Thursday, 2 February 2017

Personal Response - The need for advertisements

Many people are critical as to the enormous sums of money being spent on advertising, particularly those advertisements aimed at younger people. While there is no doubt that some advertising budgets are way over the top – for example, just look at some of the budgets of large companies like Coca Cola, McDonald's and Nestle – I believe that it is still important for advertisers to make people aware of their products.

There are a number of reasons for this. First of all, how can an advertiser attract new customers. Word-of-mouth might work in some cases; however, advertisements, be they print, on television or radio, or on the internet, are needed to reach potential new customers over a wider area. In addition, advertisements are needed to inform current customers of any improvements or additional services to their existing range of products. Without this, products will not be used to their full capacity. Furthermore, advertisers are always worried about losing market share to rivals. Well-delivered advertising campaigns can ensure that advertisers not only gain new customers but also keep their existing ones. Finally, like it or not, the advertising industry is a very important source of employment. Many people are employed in the area of market research, advertisement design and sales; without advertisements, many people would be without relatively well-paid jobs.

In conclusion, advertisers need advertisements to ensure that they attract new customers, keep existing ones and to keep their current sales and marketing employees in work. However, advertisers also need to justify how they spend each of their advertising dollars.