Why junk food is good?

Thriveni

September 9, 2021

Traditional foods are overhyped and junk foods are underrated but junk food is good than we think

Every Indian child at least once would have heard from their mother that “Don’t eat Junk food. It is not good for health instead eat more green vegetables and fruits.” Food discrimination starts here. In Indian culture, traditional food is considered healthy and junk foods are seen as addictive. There is a Tamil proverb, “If, in excess, even nectar is poison.” In reality, whatever food we eat excess, causes the problem to our health. In our everyday life, junk food is our buddy when we read books, watch movies, and it was also a stress-buster on a bad day. Junk food lifts our bad days and makes us happy. Even in the period of the corona, junk food is a companion for alone people. But many people know junk foods only for bad things and how they are addicting and causing many bad consequences.

Many people prefer junk food over healthy food because it was prepared very fast and sold at an affordable price. Above all, junk food is so tasty. India’s fast food industry is expanding at the rate of 40% every year. India ranks 10th in the fast-food per capita spending figures with 2.1% of expenditure in annual total spending.

Let’s see what is the definition of junk food? Junk foods are food that’s high in fat, salt, and/or sugar and low in nutritional content. Right now from the definition of what junk foods are, they may sound like something bad but that is not true. Many people didn’t know that junk food contains different nutrients that the body needs. Tufts University Health & Nutrition’s scholarly journal article “Junk food, or junky food choices?” stated, for every bit of junk food, we consume there is a small number of nutrients that we consume along with the junk food. For instance, Vitamins A, B6, B2, C, folate, calcium, protein, and iron. These important nutrition elements are actually in junk food, a source of food that people believe to be harmful. Vitamin A, B6, B2, C, folate, calcium, protein, and iron are good nutrients needed for people.

Many people are having a diet to stay fit and healthy but truly are they healthy? “Juicing” and “The Paleo Diet” are popular diets that are practiced in India. Juicing is a diet where people won’t be consuming any food, but juicing whole vegetables or fruits and drinking them as their daily meals. People don't know the truth that juicing vegetables and fruits will cause them to lose all the fiber and some of the good nutrients that are contained in them. What will end up in the cup of juice is a small amount of protein, and it has a high glycemic load. This means that it becomes something that contains more calories than a burger and it will even cause weight gain. Not only that this diet will also make a person weak, irritable, and exhausted. The Paleo Diet is a diet that follows our ancestors’ way of eating; only allowing eating foods that can be eaten by gatherers or hunters. Foods like meat, poultry, fish, seeds, fruits, and vegetables, are the example and things like dairy, and whole grains will be eliminated. This diet misses out on all key nutrients like fiber, iron, vitamins B and D, and calcium because of that a person feels tired and they eat only unsaturated fat from all the protein in this diet that can put the life of the person at risk.

So do these diets have anything to do with junk food? The idea is very simple, – there are no good or bad foods, there are only bad eating patterns caused by a person’s preferences, food cost, times, and the way people eat. The example of “juicing” and “Paleo diet” shows clearly that the problem is with the people. They are not doing their diet correctly, which causes them to lack other nutrition that the body needs, which also makes the diet into a harmful diet instead because they shape the diet based on their references. The same idea is for the diets as for junk food: if people are not abusing junk food, sometimes even making junk food their only meal, then junk food can be a good source of food instead of something that is harmful to our body.

“Eating junk food is not good for health” is a long-term belief in India. There is no discrimination among food and there is no need to underrate junk foods. Junk foods are good in their way but people make mistakes in taking them. Everyone should keep an eye on their everyday meal so that their health is not a deal and they can also have a happy and healthy life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

              Is social networking is necessary for students?

INTRODUCTION:

Today’s world is a global village. Everyone is connected to one another in this vast network generated by the Internet. As said by Marshall McLuhan, a philosopher of communication theory,

    “The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village.”

This electronic independence is inherently dependent upon the Internet. It illuminates the lives of thousands of people by spreading knowledge internationally, thereby making us global citizens. In the past, the communicating and free sharing of thoughts among people were restricted by long distance, nationality and/or religion. But now, even these barriers cannot stop the flow of information and knowledge. The new world of social networking allows free sharing of thoughts.  Nowadays, no one can live without having an account on twitter or on Facebook or on an other kinds of social network, in order to be connected to the whole world. So, how do these networks affect our education? How do they influence the lives of students?

Humans are social animals. We always like to remain in some group or another, and we prefer to follow what this group does. All of our traditions and cultures are the product of this group-oriented facet of human nature. A well-known American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, stated in his “Theory of Motivation” that the social need of human beings is the third most important requirement after our physical and safety needs — the third tier in his hierarchy of needs. Even our self-esteem comes after this social dependence. This is the main reason billions of people use social networking to stay connected, make friends and satisfy their social needs. So, here youngsters are not exceptional. . As per the survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 72 percent of high school and 78 percent of college students spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. These numbers indicate how much the student community is involved in this virtual world of social networking. This is not at all surprising because if today even a rickshaw wala and a doodh wala can manage to have a profile page at Facebook then why not the youngsters who are enough smart and intelligent to make a use of such sites.

Types of popular social networking sites:

·         FACEBOOK:

               FACEBOOK is currently one of the most famous social networking application site globally, is avail-able in 37 languages and permits registered users to create profiles similar to a ’wall’ like a virtual bulletin board, add friends, and send messages, comment, upload and share videos, photographs, web links. This application has several public features like

              *’Marketplace’ to post and respond to classified advertisements online;

              * ’Groups’ to publicize events and invite guests and friends for attending that event;

              *’Pages’ to create and promote a personal or business ideas or involve others in a topic;

              *’Presence Technology’ which allows video calls and text chat for those on the online. ‘Privacy’ to block/allow specific or all members from viewing the profile, photos or comments.

·         TWITTER:

              TWITTER is a micro blog service which allows registered members to broadcast and follow replies to short posts, better known as ’Tweets’ with no approvals required. These tweets are searchable and are available for the public.

·         LINKEDIN:

             LINKEDIN is designed primarily for corporate business community to promote personal brand online and allows registered members to establish a network of other professionals whom they know and trust as ’connections’. This requires preexisting relationships unlike Facebook or Twitter.

·         GOOGLE:

            Google+ provides ability to Google users to post status updates or photographs, available to friends for view and comment in to ‘Circles’ which is primarily a group for multi-person instant messaging social networking system. Text and Videos are posted on ’Hangouts’.

IS SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE NECESSARY FOR STUDENTS?

                       Yes, it is absolutely necessary for students. In this digital era, it is impossible for students to survive without social networking sites. But, unfortunately it has both positive and negative sides. They are:

Positive impacts:

The positive impacts of social networking sites are:

Education:

·         Teachers are able to easily collaborate and communicate with students and one another.

·         Students have easy, free access to resources online to help them learn.

·         Grades improve and absenteeism is reduced.

·         59% of student users report that they use social networking to discuss educational topics and 50% use the sites to talk about school assignments.

Politics:

·         Voter participation is increased. Facebook users said they are more likely to vote if they see that their online friends did. During the elections of 2010, users who visited Facebook more than once a day were 2.5 times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting and 43% more likely to say they will vote.

·         Social networking sites facilitates political change: Online networks give social movements a quick, cheap method of disseminating information and mobilizing people.

Awareness/Being Informed:

·         27.8% of Americans get their news online. (28.8% get it from newspapers and 18.8% from radio.)

·         Information spreads faster online than any other media. More than 50% learn about breaking news on social media.

·         Social networking sites provides academic research to everyone with online access, allowing people access to previously unavailable resources.

·         Social networking sites inform and empower individuals to change themselves and their communities.

Social Benefits:

·         Social media allow people to communicate with friends and this increased online communication strengthens those relationships. 52% of online teens say social media have helped their friendships. 88% say being online helps them stay in touch with friends they don't see regularly.

·         People make new friends. 57% online teens report making new friends online.

Job Opportunities:

·         Great for professionals for marketing, connecting, and finding business opportunities.

·         Employers find employees and unemployed find work. 89% of job recruiters have hired via LinkedIn, 26% via Facebook, and 15% via Twitter.

·         Social media sites have created thousands of jobs and new avenues of income.

NEGATIVE IMPACTS:

The negative impacts of social networking sites are:

A Detriment to Work and/or School:

·         Enables cheating on school assignments.

·         While grades did improve for light users, the grades of students who are heavy users of social media tend to suffer. One study shows that student users have an average GPA of 3.06 while non-users have an average GPA of 3.82.

·         For every 93 minutes over the average 106 minutes spent on Facebook daily, college students’ grades dropped .12 points.

·         Another study showed that students who went online while studying scored 20% lower on tests.

·         Possible negative effects on college admission: 35% of admissions officers scan prospective students' social media and report discovering information that affects their admissions decision.

·         Social networking sites harm employees' productivity. 51% of users aged 25-34 checked social media at work.

·         Using social media can harm employment and prospects. Job recruiters check a prospective employee's social media accounts, and things like profanity, poor spelling or grammar, racism, sexism, poor health, references to alcohol or drugs, and sexual and religious content can all count against you.

Lack of Privacy:

·         People, especially the young, are often too open and public with personal information when online. Most don't read privacy policies and may be unaware that their information may be used by third parties, like advertisers, insurance companies, and the IRS. 21% of teens believe it is safe and harmless to post personal information, including photos.

·         Social media gives exposure to corporate and governmental intrusions. The US Justice Department intercepts thousands of pieces of information from email and social networking activity per year.

·         The IRS trains agents to scan social media for information that can help them resolve taxpayer cases.

·         Insurance companies use information gleaned from social media, as well. If you have "liked" a medical-related page or a post about a health condition, that information is sometimes used by insurance companies to determine eligibility and raise rates.

·         Online advertising policies are an invasion of privacy. If you "like" a brand, you’re giving that company access to your personal information.

Users Vulnerable to Crime:

·         Social networking sites allow hate groups to recruit and distribute propaganda online.

·         Unauthorized sharing and copyright infringement threatens intellectual property and causes loss of income.

·         Security attacks such as hacking, identity theft, phishing scams, and viruses are common online. 68% of users share their real birth date, 63% share the name of their high school, 18% share their phone number,12% share a pet's name: This information might be used in identity theft.

·         Criminals use social media to commit crimes. Robbers know when you're away from your home on vacation and stalkers get information about your whereabouts via social media.

·         Sexual predators find, stalk, and assault victims through social media.

·         Sexting (texting sexual content) can be a big problem. When teens post sexy photos or comments online, it can lead to criminal charges and child pornography. 88% of "private" sexual images posted to social media are stolen and publicly posted on porn sites without the subject's knowledge.

·         Security attacks such as hacking, identity theft, and viruses and exposure to phishing scams are common via social media.

Social Detriments:

·         Cyber-bullying (the use of electronic communication to bully someone, usually by sending intimidating or threatening messages) is commonplace online causes emotional trauma, and sometimes even leads to suicide. 49.5% of students reported victimization by bullying online and 33.7% admitted to online bullying. A 2012 study found that at least 800,000 minors had been harassed on Facebook. Middle school children who experienced cyberbullying were almost twice as likely to try to kill themselves.

·         According to one report, 15% of adult users said that something that happened online caused a friendship to end. 12% of adult users said something that happened online caused a face-to-face argument, and for 3% of adults it turned into a physical confrontation.

·         Extensive online engagement is correlated with personality and brain disorders like poor social skills, ADHD, narcissistic tendencies, a need for instant gratification, and addictive behaviors and other emotional distress like depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

·         Less time for face-to-face interaction with loved ones. 47% of 18-34-year-old users reported using social media or texting during meals. 10% of people younger than 25 reported checking their phones and social media during sex.

·         Children at higher risk for depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders and more prone to feeling isolated and disconnected (especially youth with disabilities).

Misinformation:

·         Social media enables the spread of false rumors and unreliable information: 49.1% of users have read false news on social media.

·        Social media encourages amateur medical advice and self-diagnosis of health problems, which can be dangerous and life-threatening.

Advertising:

·         Studies have shown that sites such as Facebook influence you, via advertisements, to spend more money.

·         Advertisers gain all kinds of personal information about you via your social media, information they use to persuade you to buy their product.

A Waste of Time:

·         When alerted to a new post or tweet, it takes about 20 to 25 minutes for the average user to return to their original task. 30% of the time it takes two hours for the user to return to their original task.

CONCLUSION:

              “SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE DOUBLE –EDGED SWORD.IT HAS BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDES”

                                               Considering all of the above pros and cons, it is necessary to develop certain regulations over the use of such social networking sites, especially for high school and college students. But still, students should get the choice to spend time socializing in an effective way. It should not hamper their school or college performance, and it should be kept in mind that social networking sites create virtual worlds that drastically differ from reality. Students should develop the cognitive and intuitive ability to analyze how much time they want to spend on social media. It is left up to the students to decide what really matters in their life and how much of this virtual life translates to real life.

           SIGNIFICANCE OF ICT IN LEARNING AND TEACHING PROCESS

INTRODUCTION:

                     “WE NEED A TECHNOLOGY IN EVERY CLASSROOM AND EVERY STUDENT AND TEACHER’S HAND, BECAUSE IT IS THE PEN AND PAPER OF OUR TIME, AND IT IS THE LENS THROUGH WHICH WE EXPERIENCE MUCH OF THE WORLD”

                                                                     -DAVID WARLICK

                   In recent years, the educational access to digital information and communication technology (ICT) has grown dramatically. ICT can be defined as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” ICT has become one of the building blocks of the modern society. Many countries now regard understanding ICT and mastering the basic skills and concepts of ICT as part of the core of an education, alongside reading, writing and numeracy. In the digital age, it is impossible to imagine an education without technology.

SIGNIFICANCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN LEARNING AND TEACHING PROCESS:

*E-LEARNING:

                  E-learning is self –directed and allowing students to choose content and tools appropriate to their differing interest, needs and skill level. It accommodates multiple learning styles using a variety of delivery methods geared to different learners. It makes scheduling easy and allows a greater number of the students to attend the classes. Travel time and associated costs (parking, fuel, vehicle- maintenance, tuition, residence and food) are reduced or eliminated. It fosters greater student interaction and collaboration.

E-JOURNAL:

               E-Journal is an electronic version of a journal that is found and read on the web. It encourage more general changes in scholarly communication and lead to more scholarly publication.

DIGITAL LIBRARIES:

               A digital library is a collection of documents in organized electronic form available on the internet or on CD-ROM disks. The user of a digital library need not to go to the digital library physically. People from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an internet is available.

WIKI WEBSITES:

                  A wiki is sometimes interpreted as “WHAT I KNOW IS”, which describes the knowledge contribution, storage and exchange information. It encourages students to revise Wikipedia pages or take on new Wikipedia assignments.

BLOGS:

                  A teacher can use blog a course-specifying assignments that students are required to do, including the assignment scheme, along with links to internet resources, and recording daily what is taught. The teacher can use the blog as a course plan. Students can quickly catch-up if they miss a class. Blogging can also be used to record class excursions and to create electronic “scrapbooks” of the student life. Blogs can be used to motivate students to do more reading and encourage them to improve their writing style, due to the presence of the audience.

VIRTUAL LEARNING:

                A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a set of teaching and learning tools designed to enhance a student’s learning experience by including computers and internet in the learning process

INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA BASED LEARNING:

              Interactive multimedia based learning have been designed to help tertiary students achieve deep understanding as they learn to teach science. These environments enable individualized, flexible learning and have proved to be successful.

M-LEARNING:

            Learning that transported to mobile services such as cellphones or PDAs is called as a Mobile learning. 

EDUSAT:

            EDUSAT is the first Indian communication satellite built exclusively to serve the educational sector. It is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite based distance education system for the country. It can be used in the field of higher education for enhancing to access to education, creating awareness and motivating students.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ICT IN LEARNING PROCESS:

STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING:

           It can transform teaching and learning process from being highly teacher dominated to student-centered.  ICT creates and allows the opportunities for learners to develop their skills on their own without the help of teachers.

MOTIVATE STUDENTS to learn:

        There appears to be general consensus that both teachers and students feel ICT use greatly contributes to student motivation for learning.

INCREASES CONFIDENCE in learners:

         Use of ICT by the student increases the level of confidence. Students who use computer at home use them in school more frequently and also with more confidence than the pupils who have no home access.

ACCELERATE AND IMPROVES LEARNING:

        ICT application to the core business of education can accelerate and improve learning on a number of front from basic skills, problem-solving, information management, work habits, motivation, establishing lifelong learning habits to concept development. Evidence exists that the use of ICTs can increase learner autonomy for certain learners.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTION:

         One important factor in why pupils’ attainment improves when using ICT is because they spend more time working at or practicing the skills being studied and tested. Increased practice is a key feature of how ICT can help to improve learning. Computers can motivate pupils to undertake such practice and to ensure they are practicing at an appropriate level of challenge.

FEEDBACK FROM A COMPUTER for learners:

         There is a research evidence to show that feedback from a computer can improve pupils’ learning. Text-to speech feedback in a word processor or interactive storybook can improve easy reading. Voice input and text feedback can also improve pupils’ reading and writing.

ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE:

         Online course materials can be accessed for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. It saves the time and money for both students and teachers.

ACCESS TO REMOTE LEARNING RESOURCES:

         Teachers and learners no longer have to rely solely on printed books and their materials in physical media housed in libraries for their educational needs. ICTS facilitate access to all resource persons- mentors, experts, researchers, professionals, business leaders and peers –all over the world.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ICT IN TEACHING PROCESS:

EMPOWER GENERIC SKILLS in students:

          It is generally believed that ICT can empower teachers to promote change and foster the development of 21^st century skills in the learner.

QUALITY OF TEACHING:

           ICT has the potential to be a valuable tool in enhancing the quality of learning and teaching. It avoids the dull and monotonous classroom. For example, the use of radio programs in classrooms can provide interesting and relevant content in subjects such as social studies and English language. While computer stimulation and visualization technologies can help the students to learn complex concept in more concrete ways.

REDUCES TEACHERS WORKLOAD:

          ICT makes the work of teachers easy by planning and making the resources related to the subjects available over the internet or by providing and exchanging information in electronic form.

USES OF ICT IN DIFFERENT SCHOOL SUBJECTS:

         Uses of ICTs for stimulations and modeling in science and maths have been shown to be effective in teaching maths and science. ICT also have a word processing and communication software which develops the student language and communication skills. Some teachers believe that ICT make a positive difference in students.

RAISE LEVELS OF PUPIL’S ATTAINMENT:

        Teacher can raise levels of pupils’ attainment when they use ICT to support their teaching in literacy and numeracy. It improves the   concentration and retention power of the students.

POSITIVE IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT:

         It is believed that specific uses of ICT can have positive effects on student achievement when ICTs are used appropriately to complement a teacher existing pedagogical philosophies.

Conclusion:

        There is an ongoing debate as to whether teachers are becoming redundant as a consequence of the use of ICT in education or whether teacher less classroom is just a myth.

    “TECHNOLOGY IS JUST A TOOL .IN TERMS OF GETTING THE KIDS WORKING TOGETHER AND MOTIVATING THEM, TEACHER IS MOST IMPORTANT”

                                                           -BILL GATES

         ICT can never replace a good teacher. And at the same time, good teacher uses the ICT in a proper way.

  “THERE CAN BE INFINITE USES OF THE COMPUTER AND OF NEW AGE TECHNOLOGY BUT IF TEACHER THEMSELVES ARE NOT ABLE TO BRING IT INTO THE CLASSROOM AND MAKE IT WORK, THEN IT FAILS”

                                                                             -NANCY KASSEBAUM

        Though ICT has both good and bad, it plays prominent role in education. No one can deny it. So, good teacher should acts as a mediator between students and technology.