Everybody knows that living in the 21st century offers certain advantages, such as higher standard of living, but it also has some disadvantages, such as a polluted environment, the depersonalization of human relationships, and the weakening of spiritual values.
The biggest advantage of living in that century is the high stand of living we enjoy. We can earn more money for less hard work, since there are more office workers than manual laborers. Also, the salaries are higher, and the government services, such as social security, unemployment benefits and disability insurance, increased.
Another thing that has increased is the life expectancy. It became longer because now there is a better medical care with more hospitals, doctors, nurses and advances in medical technology. The improving of nutrition is clear, and the possibility of more leisure time helps increasing the longevity as well.
Besides, the modern conveniences are very helpful. We can count on long distance communication means, such as telephones, television and computer, and very fast means of transportation (fast cars, airplanes, motorbikes). Almost everybody has labor-saving machines at home, like dishwashers, washing machines and vacuum cleaners. All these things make life much easier and save you a lot of time.
Despite of all the easiness we find in nowadays world, one of the main disadvantages of living in the 21st century is that we’re living in an increasingly polluted environment. The air is polluted with smog and nuclear fallout, because of all the industries and cars. The water is also polluted with chemical wastes from factories: dead fishes and contaminated drinking water supplies are unfortunately becoming very common things, and the cause of it is the raw sewage from cities and oil spills from ships.
A second disadvantage of living in this century is the depersonalization of human relationships. People often interact more with machines than with other people. With the automated vending machines, banks, etc, you don’t talk to a person, but with a machine, and our lives are based on numbers (social security numbers, credit card numbers and so on). Another thing that increases the distance between people is the tape recorded telephone answering, since you don’t have to talk to people on the phone, because you can just listen to the message later. But, for me, the most alarming problem is the computerized dating services you can find. People are loosing their way of dating in “real life” and the relationships are becoming more and more digital, distant and cold.
The final disadvantage of living in the twenty first century is the weakening of spiritual values. Due to the materialistic culture, people pay more attention to things they can buy and have than to things they can simply feel. Faith in science instead of in religion is also a problem. People need a scientific explanation for everything, and very few people still accept that God, who has created everything, has some mysteries.
In conclusion, although the 21st century has indeed given us a lot of advantages by making us richer, healthier, and freer to enjoy our lives, it has, in my opinion, not made us wiser. The 21st century has also made our earth dirtier, our people less humane, and our spiritual lives poorer. We should continue to enjoy the benefits of technological advancements because they free us to pursue our interests and goals. However, we must make a concerted effort to preserve our natural environment for future generations. Moreover, we should take the time now to make our lives more meaningful in an increasingly impersonal, computerized world.
 
It happened on my July vacations at my grandparents' farm. It seemed just like another common day, but we were about to find out it wasn't. We "kids" went for  an erosion that there is near the house.
We slid there and ran and walked through a stream and threw some kind of purple clay and water at each other. After we get annoyed of playing there we went to the river so we could perform some somersaults and swim in there.
We went through the forest and we started hearing some noises which remembered us of a horror movie, so we started running just to make fun. We were pretending that the guys from the movies were chasing us. So we got to the river, had some fun and wrestled in the mud. But we soon saw something movin in the water and we got out of it. We looked at that place and saw this huge snake, it was a anaconda (not from those unreal shown on the movies, it was definitely smaller).
We ran and ran until we get in a place in which we could be safe. We stopped there and rested a little. Then we heard a weird meow (not those ones we hear coming out of a cat's mouth, it was chesty). So we assumed it was a jaguar and started running since we couldn't do anything to protect ourselves. We  climbed trees and waited up there until my grandma shouted it was Dinner Time.
We ran there and we told my grandparents and they said it was very dangerous to stay there without an adult, a knife and a gun. But thanks God it was the last day of our vacation and then we had to go to the city again, other way we couldn't have any more fun and adventure. Anyway it was the greatest vacation ever and I was glad to take part in this experience.

Post Scriptum: these facts didn't happen at the same day, only put them all together to make it more interesting and some of them might not be true at all.


sketch

10/13/2010

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Prejudging can lead us to do the greatest blunders ever, differently from knowing  the cultures, believes and ideologies.
First, there are these people who can't separate religion from nationality often make stupid protests like the one we saw in the United States in which people were against the construction of a mosque in New York city.
Then, there is the ignorant notion that all homosexual people are promicuous which creates an erroneous idea since it's not about sexual orientation and it happens in homosexual relationships as much as in heterosexual.
And finally, there are also "blindfolded" people who advocates for parties that don't worry about their own stratum. They are so blinded by this idea that they can't even see what these parties do in a wrong way like buying votes and all that stuff.
For these reasons, I think people should read more about countries, history, social levels, religions and try to know and understant why people act the way they do and don't pre-conceptualize any subject or person.
 
Title: Is it better prejudging or knowing?
Topic Sentence: Prejudging can lead us to do the greatest blunders ever, differently from knowing all the cultures, believes and ideologies.
First point of comparison: People who can't separate religion from nationality often make stupid protests like the one we saw in the United States in which people were against the construction of a mosque in New York city.
Second point of comparison: There is also the ignorant notion that all homosexual people are promicuous which creates an erroneous idea since it's not about sexual orientation and it happens in homosexual relationships as much as in heterosexual.
Third point of comparison: There are also "blindfolded" people who advocates for parties that don't worry about their own stratum. They are so blinded by this idea that they can't even see what these parties do in a wrong way like buying votes and all that stuff.
Concluding Sentence: For these reasons, I think people should read more about countries, history, social levels, religions and try to know and understant why people act the way they do and don't pre-concepualize any subject or person.
 
If you face you are an addict, you will deal better with it and achieve cure faster. So, why do people deny they are addicted to something?
First, nobody likes feeling helpless and out-of-control, maybe that's way they use, unconsciously, this defense mechanism. People "use" different kinds of this defense mechanism such as: supression, projection, rationalization, minimizing and etc.
Second, it is easier to blame someone or something else for our own faults, because we want to look good even if other people will not.
And last but not least, it is difficult to show we have problems and many people just realize that when they have already "lost" their families, jobs and friends. And that's when they ask for help, but other people take longer as they can't stop using the mechanism and try to convince others that their problem is not as bad as it looks.
Therefore, these are some of the reasons we will not admit being addicts and ask for treatment.
 
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My name is Virgínia Carla. I was born in Mineiros, Goiás. I'm eighteen years old. I'm studying Language at UFG and really enjoying it. This e-portfolio is supposed for us to do our assignments for Writing Practice 2. But I think it'll be more than that 'cause we will be able to show our colleagues things we like and find out about what they like too. I hope this is going to be a tool for us to learn and interact more.