Thursday, April 16, 2015

Post Presentation Reflection

On money, I gave a presentation to the class about my problem-sloving essay, and the topic is about social media anxiety disorder. 

I did not prepare slides for my presention, as I wanted to try to give a presentation without slides and script which can actually help me to recover the content if I loss during the presentation and also attract audiences’ attention. But, I really wanted to try grasping people’s attention even without the slides. Then, I memorised my script and keeped it simple, short and logically flow. 

Based on the feedback from classmates and Mr. Brad, my presentation generally went well with my enthusisam involved in. However, there were several pronounciation errors and other mistakes during the presentation. Mr. Brad suggested that even I make mistakes in the presentation, do not pause and correct them, just move on, since nobody will actually notise that. I think, I could do better if I practice more beforehand, as at least, pronunciation errors can be avoided. I will keep on learning and work towards giving better presentations in future.

Problem-solving Essay Draft 4

Essay Draft 4

In today’s society there is an increasing trend that social media websites are causing anxiety among users. It is normal to notice that when young people post a cute photo on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or other social media websites, they keep on checking every few minutes or hours to see whether their posts have been liked or shared. This phenomenon reflects that frequently using the social media actually makes people feel inadequate and creates excessive fear and pressure. Such social anxiety has been termed “social media anxiety disorder. ” (Social Media Anxiety Disorder,2015) This social condition is gradually acquired when an individual frequently uses social media, and this in turn adversely affects that person’s mental health. While the most vulnerable group would be teenagers and young adults who are usually not very self-disciplined and not always being capable to control themselves, it is the responsibility of parents and school counselors to help them better understand the negative impact of using social media and meanwhile, to conduct some effective programs for those problematic students so as to minimize the social media anxiety disorder.

Such a phenomenon is especially prominent in the U.S. where half of the adults and three-quarters of all teenagers are active social networking site (SNS) users, and it has been highlighted that after alcoholism and depression, social anxiety disorder is the third largest psychological disorder in the U.S. (Hampton, Goulet, Marlow, & Rainie, 2012). Because today’s society has been shifted to be technology and internet dependent, people will be shocked if someone never uses social media at all, and a recent study conducted by the University of Bergen in Norway reports that people who are more anxious and socially insecure are more likely to use a social networking site (Andreassen, 2012). An another  study released by non-profit Anxiety UK indicates that people do feel anxious and uncomfortable if they are unable to log into their social networking accounts (Fitzgerald, 2012). These facts reflect how serious social media anxiety disorder is and that the situation may become worse.

To minimize and address the negative impact of using social media, one possible solution is that parents and schools should focus on limiting the time that their children and students spend on social media, and parents should also encourage them to unplug for extended days.  Through disconnecting the young people from SNS for certain periods of time, the level of social media anxiety disorder can be reduced comparatively. Greater improvement will be obtained with longer time staying away from social media. If a child is getting no substantial return from using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter throughout the whole day, he should cut ties with social media websites purposely for certain periods of time, so as to limit the usage of social networking sites. Currently, there are some applications and tools available, which assist parents and schools to control the time that their children spend on social media networks. For instance, Rescue Time’s website is designed to control the time that users would have spent on social media to be within 4 hours per week. This program is also capable to ban certain websites, and track and log how many times one spends on particular websites that have been specified. Additionally, another useful application is Facebook Limiter, which is created to disconnect users from Facebook and YouTube. It is especially beneficial for parents who have children with serious problems of social media anxiety, since with assistance of this software, they are empowered to block Facebook entirely, restrict the time of using Facebook or make it accessible only at a specific time in a day (French, 2012). Social media anxiety can be progressively treated if a child can control himself very well and unplug from the social media websites for extended days.

There is no denying that applications designed to limit the time of using social media websites can serve to assist young people to be better self-controlled so as to achieve higher realization in solving social media anxiety. However, this may not be effectively conducted, as not every child has the equal power to control and discipline themselves routinely. Whether the social media anxiety can be effectively solved or not is mainly depending on children’s awareness and self-control capability. Therefore, educators, school counselors and parents can consider the cognitive methods and work together to develop some programs involving cognitive education so as to address this problem through a more effective manner.

“Cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors” (Duckworth & Freedman, 2012). It is used to help young people understand and become aware of the adverse consequences in adequately using social media websites. CBT permits changes within addictive young users’ brains, so that they can think and treat social media differently and gradually release themselves from over-participation in social media sites. Unlike the traditional therapies, CBT ensures the patient to actively work together to help the patient recover from their mental illness (Duckworth & Freedman, 2012). Through fully conducting such cognitive behavioral therapy, young people who have similar social media anxiety issues are engaged in practical activities that are normally anxiety-causing, and proceed in a flexible and scheduled way (Richards, n.d.). By continuous practicing and repeating, *the anxious feeling embraced by the young people who are addictive in social media will be gradually reduced and a better outcome obtained. CBT affects young people’s brain operating processes, making them feel, think and behave differently. Children and young adults can be released from social media anxiety disorder by keeping on practicing and developing this method which treats them mentally and cognitively, and this is the root that can lead to behavioral control in using social media websites. Therefore, school counselors and psychologist can employ such cognitive strategies and develop some relative programs to help problematic children and young people release from social media anxiety disorder.

In conclusion, social media is indeed creating anxiety among young people and kids with an increasing trend. To effectively minimize this problem, educators, teachers and school psychologists can conduct cognitive therapies, strategies and concepts to train their students to be more self-disciplined and controlled in using social media websites.
(Words 1027)



References
Duckworth, M.D, K., & Freedman, M.D., J. (Eds.). (2012, July 1). Treatments & Services. Retrieved from: http://www2.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Inform_Yourself/About_Mental_Illness/About_Treatments_and_Supports/Cognitive_Behavioral_Therapy1.htm

Fitzgerald, B. (2012, December 7). Social media is causing anxiety, study finds. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/social-media-anxiety_n_1662224.html

Farfan Jr., G. (2012, November 18). Running Head: SOCIAL ANXIETY IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS Social Anxiety in the Age of Social Networks. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/7234612/Running_Head_SOCIAL_ANXIETY_IN_THE_AGE_OF_SOCIAL_NETWORKS_Social_Anxiety_in_the_Age_of_Social_Networks

French, A. (2012, April 3). Boost your productivity by blocking yourself! Retrieved from http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/955407/programs-that-limit-your-time-on-social-media

Richards, T. (n.d.). Comprehensive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy For Social Anxiety Disorder. Retrieved from: https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/comprehensive-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-social-anxiety-disorder

Social Media Anxiety Disorder. (2015, February 7). Retrieved from: http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Social_Media_Anxiety_Disorder

Whiteman, H. (2014, April 16). Social media: How does it really affect our mental health and well-being? Medical News Today. Retrieved from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php




Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Critical Reflection Draft 2

Peer review system was emphasised and implemented throughout the semester, which assigned us to give as well as receive feedback to and from our classmates. This module was conducted effectively by Mr. Brad through many interesting and interacting methods, such us group discussion, group presentation, blogging, peer review, pair work, etc.

I find this teaching method very beneficial for me in improving my critical thinking and English language, as we were given a chance to read and think critically regarding to others’ viewpoints, based on the same topic, meanwhile providing useful and constructive feedback to them. Besides that, we were required to check their grammar mistakes by reading the essay carefully, which allows me to understand and avoid the same mistake in the future.


Previously, I did not understand and recognise the objectives of carrying out the peer review system, as it is quite time-consuming and seems to be ineffective. However, after receiving peers’ feedback about my reader response and problem-solving essay, I began to see the importance of it. I realised from the feedback that how other people perceive my essay, and what I should change so as to make my essays flow in a more logical and structured manner.  Additionally, Mr. Brad provided many evaluation criteria that guide us to effectively analyse other people’s work and give constructive feedback. This exercise has largely enhanced my evaluating and analysing skills.

However, on the other hand, there might be some limitations in this system, as everyone has different opinions and thoughts, one’s idea might not be understood or agreed upon by others. Modifying our essays by totally relying on the peer’s feedback could sometimes be misleading and ineffective, since we ourselves, also have limitations in writing a professional academic essay. Therefore, I hope I can obtain more formal feedback and suggestions from my English tutor, and it will be more effective in improving my writing.


Overall, through this English learning journey, I have learnt a lot regarding to language use, academic essay writing, and analysing skills.  All of these skills I obtained can be effectively applied to the written reports and other academic essays. In the future, whether it is academic report or program proposal, I will proactively ask for peers’ and mentors’ feedback, as this actually does help me to improve and progress in my work.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

reflection and feedback outline

The role of peer and tutor feedback outline

1. what happened ( describe the experience)
Throughout the semester, we have been assigned to write serval academic essays.
We were giving and receiving feedback to and from our classmates.
We also obtained the formal feedback from Mr. Bread for us to improve on our essays.

2. why/how did it happen?
In the class, we were separated into small groups, and we were obligable to read and give comments on our group members' essay.
This gave us an opportunity to look at other people's thoughts regarding to a topic, and also served in a way that is to supervise us to complete the work in time, so that other people can view our essays during the tutorial.

3. what is your interpretation of the experience? what is the significance? what did you learn about yourself and others?
- recognised the importance of peer review.
-improved my analysing and evaluating skills.
-English language improved.

4. what will you do as a results of this experience? how will you use it to inform your future?--how to apply the skills learnt to your other subject ?
- ask for peers' and mentors' feedback for my academic reports or program proposals.
- can be applied to my other subjects' report writing.