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.

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.

problem-solving essay draft3

Essay Draft 3

Chen Xinzhu 

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 posting 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.” It 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 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 use 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 the 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, B. 2012). These facts reflect how serious social media anxiety disorder is and 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 spent on social media, meanwhile they should encourage them to unplug for extended days. By 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 of adequately using social media websites and knowing that emotions like waves are temporary and fluctuated. 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 carrying out 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, T.). By continuous practicing and repeating, the anxious feeling 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

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

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

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

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

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

problem-solving essay draft 2

In today’s society there is an increasing trend that social media websites are causing anxiety among users. It’s normally to notice that when people posting a cute photo on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or other social media websites, they will keep on checking every few minutes or hour to see whether their posts are been liked or shared. This phenomenon reflects that the social media actually makes people feel inadequate and creates excess fear and pressure. Additionally, social anxiety that is a syndrome of social media anxiety disorder will be gradually acquired when an individual frequently using social media, and this in turn, will adversely affect one’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.

Such phenomenon is especially prominent in the U.S. where half of the adults and three-quarters of all teenagers are active SNS users (Hampton, Goulet, Marlow, & Rainie, 2012), and it has been highlighted that after alcoholism and depression, social anxiety disorder is the third largest psychological disorder in the U.S. Today’s society is shifted to be technology and internet dependent, people will be shocked if someone never use social media at all, and a recent study released by non-profit Anxiety UK, indicated that people do feel anxious and uncomfortable if they are unable to log in to their social networking accounts (Fitzgerald, B. 2012).

To minimize and address this negative impact of using social media, one possible solution is that people should focus on limiting the time of using social media and consciously unplug for extended days. If one is getting no substantial return from using social sites like Facebook and Twitter throughout the whole day, he should cut ties with social media websites purposely for certain period of time, so as to limit the usage of social networking sites. A study conducted by the University of Bergen in Norway released that people who are more anxious and socially insecure are more likely to use the social networking site. (Andreassen, 2012) while another study, conducted by Dr. Rauch found that social interaction on social media sites, may create a higher adverse impact on face-to-face encounters for those already with high levels of anxiety. These two studies reinforce the viewpoint that social media websites do cause social media anxiety and may worsen the situation continuously. Currently, there are some applications and tools available to assist people in controlling the time of using 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 spend on particular websites that he specified. Additionally, another useful application is Facebook Limiter, which is created to disconnect users with Facebook and YouTube. It is especially beneficial for parents who have children with problem 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 (Frence, A. 2012). Social media anxiety can be progressively treated if one can control himself very well and unplug into the social media websites for extended days.

There is no denying that applications designed to limit the time of using social media websites serve to assist people to be better self-controlled and so as to achieve higher realization in solving social media anxiety. However, this may not be effectively conducted, as not everyone 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 one’s awareness and self-control capability. Therefore, education and cognitive methods can be applied to address this problem through a more effective manner.

Cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT), is used to guide people by understanding and being aware of adverse consequences of adequately using social media websites and knowing that emotions, like waves, are temporary and fluctuated. CBT permits changes within addictive users’ brains, so that people can think and treat social media differently and gradually release themselves from over participation in social media sites. A recent study obtained results that forty-five percent of respondents felt uneasy and worried when they were unable to log in to their online networking accounts, while 60 percent of them reflected that they have to switch off their phones and computers so as to ensure a full-fledged break form social media (Fitzgerald, 2012). This shows that people do feel anxious if they are not being on social networking sites, leading to negative impact on their mental-health. While, through fully carrying out cognitive behavioral therapy, people who have similar social media anxiety issue are engaged in practical activities that are normally anxiety-causing, and proceed in a flexible and scheduled way. (Richards, T.). By continuous practicing and repeating, the anxious feeling will be gradually reduced, better outcome obtained. CBT affects one’s brain operating processes, making people feel, think and behave differently. People can be released from social media anxiety disorder by keeping on practicing and developing this method which treats people mentally and cognitively, and this is the root that can lead to behavioral control in using social media websites. Therefore cognitive strategies should be approached so as to address the problem of social media anxiety effectively.

In conclusion, social media is indeed creating anxiety among users with an increasing trend. To effectively minimize this problem, people can conduct cognitive therapies, strategies and concepts to train themselves to be more self-disciplined and controlled in using social media websites.

(Words 948)

References

Fitzgerald, B. (2012, December 7). Social media is causing anxiety, study finds. The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/social-media-anxiety_n_1662224.html

Social Media Anxiety Disorder. (2015, February 7). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Social_Media_Anxiety_Disorder

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 March 4, 2015, 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 March 6, 2015, 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 March 6, 2015, from https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/comprehensive-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-social-anxiety-disorder

Whiteman, H. (2014, April 16). Social media: How does it really affect our mental health and well-being? Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php

An influential event

With my interest in entrepreneurship, I took my initiative to join in NUS Entrepreneurship Society(NES), which created lots of unforgettable memories for me in joining this CCA. 

During last December holiday, NES organized Global Youth Entrepreneur Summit (GYES), an inaugural student run conference for entrepreneurs that connects student entrepreneurs, local start-ups and angel investors to come together. The event aims to engage young budding entrepreneurs from around the globe and in local universities through an interactive discourse about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore.

As one of the event executives, we spent 3 months to plan the whole event. Along the preparation works for this event, l have learnt to effectively communicate, work and collaborate with different kind of people, which in turn helps to improve my leadership skills. During time of the event held, I met with many entrepreneurial like-minded people from all over the world. I chatted with them, learnt form them and finally we have been very good friends with each other. Meanwhile, this event provided a platform and precious opportunity to communicate with outstanding local entrepreneurs who gave me a fresh understanding about the challenges that I might be confronted with when starting a business in current competitive business world. It is very influential event I have experienced in my life. 

( 214 words)

problem-solving essay draft 1

In today’s society there is an increasing trend that social media websites are causing anxiety among users, since the social media actually makes people feel inadequate and creates excess fear and pressure. Additionally, social anxiety that is a syndrome of social media anxiety disorder will be gradually acquired when an individual frequently using social media, and this in turn, will adversely affect one’s mental and physical health. Many symptoms of social media anxiety are apparent in social anxiety disorder, including anxiousness, nervousness when talking in front of people etc.

Such phenomenon is especially prominent in the U.S. where half of the adults and three-quarters of all teenagers are active SNS users(Hampton, Goulet, Marlow, & Rainie, 2012), and it has been highlighted that after alcoholism and depression, social anxiety disorder is the third largest psychological disorder in the U.S. Today’s society has been shifted to be technology and internet dependent, people will be shocked if someone never use social media at all, and recent studies indicated that people do feel anxious and uncomfortable if they are unable to login to their social networking accounts. 

To minimize and address the negative effects of using social media, people should focus on limiting the time of using social media and consciously unplug for extended days. It is commonly known that whatever is in excess is bad. If one is getting no substantial return from using social sites like Facebook and Twitter throughout the whole day, he has to cut ties with social media websites purposely, and social networking should be limited. Virtually every person who over uses social sites experiences some mental issues in regard to their usage. Taking breaks helps one clear his mind. Pulling back also improves the overall effectiveness of social media campaign. Currently, there are some applications and tools available to assist people in controlling the time of using 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 much time one spend on particular websites or applications that he specified. Additionally, another useful application is Facebook Limiter, which is created to disconnect users with Facebook and YouTube. Especially beneficial for parents who have children with problem 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 at a specific time in a day (Frence, A. 2012). Social media anxiety can be progressively treated if one can control himself very well and unplug into the social media websites for extended days. 

There is no denying that applications designed to limit the time of using social media websites serve to achieve higher realization in solving social media anxiety. However, this may not be effectively conducted, as not everyone 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 one’s awareness and self-control capability. Therefore, education and cognitive methods can be applied to address this problem. A recent study obtained results that forty-five percent of respondents felt uneasy and worried when they were unable to log in to their online networking accounts, while 60 percent of them reflected that they have to switch off their phones and computers so as to ensure a full-fledged break form social media(Fitzgerald, 2012). This indicates that people do feel anxious if they are not being on social networking sites, implying that their mental-health are negatively affected. Hence, the most effective and fundamental solution for social media anxiety should involve many cognitive therapies, strategies and concepts that will permit change within a person’s brain. 

Based on cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT), people are guided to understand and be aware of adverse consequences of adequately using social media websites and to know that emotions, like waves, are temporary and fluctuating. With fully carrying out cognitive behavioral therapy, people need to keep on practicing and developing this method over and over again, it will become habitual and automatic. This affects one’s brain operating processes, making people feel, think and behave differently, which in turn will lead to noticeable improvements. One of the behavioral strategies in CBT is that a group formed with people who have similar social media anxiety issue is engaged in practical activities that are normally anxiety-causing, and proceed in a flexible and scheduled way. By continuous practicing, anxious feeling will be gradually reduced, better outcome obtained (Richards, T. ). Therefore, cognitive strategies should be approached so as to address the problem of social media anxiety effectively. 

(Words 798)

References

Fitzgerald, B. (2012, December 7). Social Media Is Causing Anxiety, Study Finds. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/social-media-anxiety_n_1662224.html

Social Media Anxiety Disorder. (2015, February 7). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Social_Media_Anxiety_Disorder

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 March 4, 2015, 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 March 6, 2015, 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 March 6, 2015, from https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/comprehensive-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-social-anxiety-disorder

Problem-solving essay outline draft 1

Main problem: There is an increasing trend that social media websites is causing anxiety among users, since the social media makes people feel inadequate and creates excess fear and pressure. In the US, Social Anxiety Disorder is the third largest psychological disorder, according to one study, half the adults and three-quarters of all teenagers in the U.S. alone are active SNS users (Hampton, Goulet, Marlow, & Rainie, 2012).

Based on the results obtained from a recent study which was conducted by non-profit Anxiety UK, forty-five percent of responders felt uneasy and worried when they were unable to login to their online networking accounts, while 60 percent of them reflected that they have to switch off their phones and computers so as to ensure a full-fledged break form social media. This indicates that people do feel anxious if they are not being on social networks.

Affected target group/stakeholder: frequent social media users, especially for people aged between15-45.

Agent of change/stakeholder: the public, social media, government, frequent users in America,

Solution 1: Focus on limiting use and unplug for extended days. Users must purposely control the time of using social media networking so as to prevent from further addiction. Unplug for hours each day and do not look at social sites at least once weekly to ease your social media anxiety.

Evaluation 1: Whatever is in excess is bad – a very common but often ignored notion. Just like any other pursuit that gives you a sort of unending search for satisfaction, social networking should be limited. By doing so, it means that people have to cut ties with sites like Twitter or even Facebook if they think they are getting no substantial returns from spending the entire day on them. One can use them for a good cause like personal or business use, but focus himself on understanding the consequences if he becomes totally hooked in it.

Virtually every person who over uses social sites experiences some mental issues in regard to their usage. Taking breaks helps one clear his mind. Pulling back also improves the overall effectiveness of social media campaign. If you believe in ideas like social media disorder think long and hard about these diagnoses; you simply need to stop spending so much time on social sites to detach from the networks and rest your overworked mind.

Rebut: However, this may not be effectively conducted by every person, as not everyone has the power to control and discipline himself routinely.

Solution 2: whether the social media anxiety can be effectively solved or not is mainly depending on the users’ awareness and self-control. Hence, education and cognitive methods involved would be effective solution for this problem.

Evaluation: Successful therapy for social media anxiety disorders should involve dozens of cognitive methods, strategies, and concepts that will permit change within an individual brain.

·        Understanding and being aware of the problem

·        Commitment to cognitive behavioral treatment to fully carry it through

·        Practice and development of methods that become habitual and automatic

·        Participation in a social anxiety group to relate with others who have similar issues

Thesis: To effectively minimize the social media anxiety, focus should be putted on educating

References  

Buttons, B. B. (2012, 12 07). Social Media Is Causing Anxiety, Study Finds. Retrieved 03 04, 2015, from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/social-media-anxiety_n_1662224.html

Social Media Anxiety Disorder. (2015, February 7). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Social_Media_Anxiety_Disorder

Jr., G. F. (2012, 11 18). Running Head: SOCIAL ANXIETY IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS Social Anxiety in the Age of Social Networks. Retrieved 3 5, 2015, from academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/7234612/Running_Head_SOCIAL_ANXIETY_IN_THE_AGE_OF_SOCIAL_NETWORKS_Social_Anxiety_in_the_Age_of_Social_Networks