SESSION 22: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 PERSON OF THE YEAR: Who would you choose person of the year in these different categories? Why?
- sports
- politics
- movies
- business
- technology
- your country
- photos
- making new friends
- finding old friends
- social networking
- sharing things
- knowing people´s news
a) What did you think when you read the headline?
b) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘Facebook’?
c) Why do you think Facebook is so popular?
d) What do you know about Facebook’s creator Mark Zuckerberg?
e) Do you think Mark Zuckerberg is a good person of the year?
f) What do you think of the fact that 12% of the world population is on Facebook?
g) Why hasn’t China opened up to Facebook?
h) Is a more connected world a better world?
i) What three adjectives would you use to describe Mark Zuckerberg – a multi-billionaire at 26?
j) Do you think the name ‘Facebook’ is a good one?
k) Did you like reading this article?
l) Is Mark Zuckerberg a better choice for person of the year than Julian Assange?
m) What are the best things about Facebook?
n) How would you like to see Facebook improved?
o) How has Facebook changed the world?
p) Do you agree that Facebook “changed how we all live our lives in ways that are innovative and even optimistic”?
q) How many friends is it possible to have?
r) Is Facebook useful to use as a study aid?
s) What do you think Facebook will be like in 10 years from now?
t) What questions would you like to ask Mark Zuckerberg?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 22, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook or other social networks.
- Tell about your experience with Facebook.
Nowadays, Facebook has revolutionized the means in which people communicate each other. The border between countries do not exist in these sort of social networks, so it leads us to wonder about, has been changed the meaning of friendship? Can the world be changed without leaving our seat in front of a computer?
ReplyDeleteFacebook has lots of advantages due to the huge number of people who use this network every day, the different tools it has to communicate and what is the most important, the amount of things everybody can share each other. It is known that facebook has had a great success because of the number of people who are registered in this social network although it has to compete with other ones like tuenty or twiter. Besides, facebook has become a basic tool which is used from relationships to businesses in order to the success it has had since the last years. The greatest benefit is that a lot of people from wherever you can imagine, can share whatever they want, for example, opinions, photos, experiences, trips, emotions, etc and all of them in a short period of time, so the speed that these sort of feelings are spread incredibly fast. A clear example of this, might be the recent acts of revolutions against dictatorial governments in the Middle East which have provoked the change of the Tunisian regime firstly and the Egyptian one afterwards, thus because of that the Libyan government, which has been in the power for forty years, it will probably finish its dictatorial system with international help in the next days.
On the other hand, facebook has some disadvantages too. For example, the material that you add to this network cannot be deleted afterwards, many images can be added without permission as well, furthermore, lots of people are invited to add new ones who you do not know at all, etc. Firstly and most important downside of facebook is that people cannot delete some information which has been added, so if you regret about something that you wrote, it will not be able to be changed. Another downside, of facebook are the images which are added about records of people who do not know they are recorded or knowing it, they are not agree with the person who does. In my opinion there is another drawback which is very annoy, it is refered to the great number of people who facebook puts in the network which you do not have any interest in. Eventually, you finish with your contact list full of people who you do not know or do not have any thing in common.
All in all, I believe that facebook is a great advance in people’s communication, especially, when it helps to improve the quality in the life of people, showing them different points of view about the reality of the world, solidarity with population who suffers social injustice and so on. But on the contrary, we have to be alert about some behaviours inside these networks which sometimes they try to manipulate people in order to damage other people’s image or honour.
If I think about facebook, it comes to my mind a double opinion. On the one side, its success and the number of people who use it implies that it is a very powerful tool which is very useful in order to keep in contact close and distant friends, sharing photos, tastes, hobbies or just chatting. Even you can add to other people and make groups with a concrete interest or idea and work together a favour of them.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side, I also think we are exaggerating with facebook since it is just another social networking service as messenger, for example, maybe the newest and with more possibilities and tools than the others but when you are talking about computers and internet you know everything happens very quickly and facebook could go out of fashion if a new way of communication appears on the net.
Apart from this, there are two behaviours of people who use facebook which have helped to make it more popular. First, facebook’s users want and fight for getting as many friends as they can in order to be more popular and second, many of them are using facebook to try to find old friends who they do not hear from for years.
But one thing I really do not like of facebook is that the most of information people send and receive through it is very superficial and childish.
I did my Facebook account at the end of 2007, when I had already decided to leave Barcelona and move to Roquetas de Mar, Almería. In that moment, I was bound up with my family, my friends and that place. So, I thought I would need to keep in touch with them, one way or another, when I was not living in Barcelona.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started to live here, I emailed everybody very often. However, when time passed, I was no need to write so much, because I didn’t have too much things to tell. It was then when I found my first real reason to use Facebook because I could say something when I had something to say.
In addition to that, Facebook lets me have all kind of people at the same time without any level of friendship, everybody belongs to a friend’s level. For instance, I can have relatives, close friends, acquaintances, former colleagues or old students. So, at any time, I can read a thought or a new or anything else about anyone of them, it seems to me great because I can know things when they have happened, or people from my circle can know something about me when I have anything to say.
Another point in favour of Facebook is the option to communicate personally with one of them in their personal walls, without sharing that chat with anybody else,
To conclude, in my opinion Facebook is a good invent, despite of my lack of perseverance having access to my Facebook account and despite of the bad use of some people, because a social network could be good or bad depending on the behaviour of their members.