SOCIAL MEDIA AND STUDENTS

Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media act as essential modes of communication and distractions to Wayland students as their dependence on social media increases.

A bloodshot pair of eyes are glued to a glowing blue screen where the time in the corner says 12:36 a.m. Meanwhile, a neglected textbook is spread open beside the keyboard. Sound familiar?

Many students at Wayland High School find that their use of social media easily distracts them from academics and could be causing their grades to drop.

Over the past few years, a variety of social media websites and apps have become popular, and practically every student at Wayland High School uses some form of social media. The most prevalent social media at Wayland High School is Facebook, followed by Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest.

Not only do students use Facebook most often, they use it in a variety of ways. Facebook use includes stalking photos, emailing, chatting with friends and communicating with extracurricular activity groups.

Students feel obligated to have a Facebook page not just to keep in touch with friends, but also to communicate with classmates for school and extracurricular activities.

“For sports, you have to be in a Facebook group,” sophomore Sammy Karle said. “That’s where they put all their information. They don’t send out emails anymore.”

Script to Screen teacher Erin Dalbec explains that she supports students in her class using Facebook in a positive way; she finds it important for her class to communicate.

“It definitely helps with the planning and communicating. Since most students are using Facebook outside of class, that’s the only way I can get in touch with them. Students these days aren’t using email,” said Dalbec.

Students don’t use Twitter as often for schoolwork or extracurricular activities. Instead, students use Twitter to Tweet (post statuses) and read others’ Tweets. You can follow friends, celebrities, teams or anyone whose Tweets you like to read.

“I don’t really post anything on Twitter. I look at other people’s stuff,” sophomore Rex Provost said. “I don’t follow Kim Kardashian; I follow people with interesting thoughts.”

Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest all involve self-expression by posting images. Instagram is a mobile app for the iPhone, and Tumblr is a blogging site.

“Facebook has gotten boring. On Tumblr, you can express yourself. It’s fun,” said sophomore Kate Kaneiff.

School nurse Amy Schoeff and guidance counselor Jennifer Mast are concerned with the effects of social media on students’ academics. They both believe social media can become academically, emotionally and mentally harmful if used improperly.

“It almost has an addicting quality to it,” said Mast. “My sense is that a lot of students can’t ever shut it down, in which case if they’re studying or working on assignments, anytime they hear the beep of a Facebook message, it’s very, very distracting.”

Mast and Schoeff’s observations of social media’s effect on students’ schoolwork seem to ring true as students agreed that social media is distracting when trying to do work. Some students admit it can even completely prevent them from doing their schoolwork.

“It’s a means for procrastination,” said junior James Shaw. “Say you go on for five minutes; it turns into 30 minutes.”

“Sometimes when I have a reading to do for English, and I don’t feel like doing it, I go on Facebook,” senior Natalie Barone said.

Mast also believes social media can affect academics indirectly by creating mental and emotional distress, which in turn can cause students’ academics to suffer.

Cyberbullying is one way this emotional damage can be caused.

“Words can be so, so hurtful. It doesn’t matter if they’re said to somebody’s face or if they’re said online,” said Mast. “The world of bullying has gone cyber.”

According to Mast, students’ emotional and mental health is also affected by their relationships. Social media has a major impact on relationships because it is one of the most utilized forms of communication.

“If you’re communicating on Facebook, and you feel like that’s a conversation that you’re having with someone, then I think that’s a problem because it’s not,” said Schoeff. “You’re not getting facial expressions and hand gestures; you’re not getting the whole message. If people are using social media conversations instead of face to face or even over the phone conversations, then I think that’s a true problem with personal communication.”

Mast and Schoeff also had similar views regarding privacy on social media. They both warn students to be cautious when deciding what to post and to avoid posting anything personal.

“I do believe that it does more harm than good,” said Schoeff. “If you shared something personal with one other person, and all of a sudden the entire school, and world really, has access to it, it can be emotionally devastating. The whole privacy piece to me, it terrifies me.”

“If you wouldn’t say it to somebody in person, don’t put it online. It’s not a space for publicizing your entire life,” said Mast. “Recognize that while these sites may feel secure, they’re absolutely not.

CORRUPTION IN INDIA

Now-a-days corruption can be seen everywhere. It is like cancer in public life, which has not become so rampant and perpetuated overnight, but in course of time. A country where leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lai Bahadur Shastri and Kamraj have taken birth and led a value-based is now facing the problem of corruption.

When we talk of corruption in public life, it covers corruption in politics, state governments, central governments, "business, industry and so on. Public dealing counters in most all government offices are the places where corruption most evident. If anybody does not pay for the work it is sure work won't be done.

People have grown insatiable appetite for money in them and they can go to any extent to get money. Undoubtedly they talk of morality and the importance of value-based life but that is for outer show. Their inner voice is something else.

It is always crying for money. It has been seen the officers who are deputed to look into the matters of corruption turn out to be corrupt. Our leaders too are not less corrupt. Thus the network of corruption goes on as usual and remains undeterred.

Corruption is seen even in the recruitment department where appointments are ensured through reliable middle agencies. Nexus between politicians and bureaucrats works in a very sophisticated manner. Nexus does also exist between criminals and police.

Everybody knows that criminals have no morals, hence nothing good can we expect from them. But police are supposed to be the symbol of law and order and discipline. Even they are indulged in corruption. This is more so because they enjoy unlimited powers and there is no action against them even on complaints and sufficient proof of abuse of office atrocities and high handedness.


Corruption can be need-based or greed-based. Better governance can at least help to check need-based corruption. Better governance can check greed based corruption also because punishment for the corrupt will be very effective and prompt in a better-governed country.

The steps should be taken to correct the situation overall. Declarations of property and assets of the government employees are made compulsory and routine and surprise inspections and raids be conducted at certain intervals.


Though it seerris very difficult to control corruption but it is not impossible. It is not only the responsibility of the government but ours too. We can eliminate corruption if there will be joint effort. We must have some high principles to follow so that we may be models for the coming generation. Let us take a view to create an atmosphere free from corruption. That will be our highest achievement as human beings.

MAKAR SANKRANTHI

Makar Sankranthi, or Sankranti is a popular Indian festival. It is celebrated in many parts of the country and also in some other parts of the world with great zeal and enthusiasm. It is a harvest festival which is basically celebrated in the Hindu communities. In Indian, the states of Bihar, Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu celebrate the festival with great fervor and gusto.In Tamil Nadu the festival is known as Pongal, in Assam as Bhogali Bihu, in Punjab, as Lohiri, in Gujarat and Rajasthan, as Uttararayan. Outside India, the festival is given due importance in the countries like Nepal where it is celebrated as Maghe Sakrati or Maghi, in Thailand where it is named as Songkran and in Myanmar where it is called Thingyan.
The festival of Makar Sankranti marks the day when the sun begins its northward journey and enters the sign of Makar (the Capricorn) from the Tropic of Cancer. It is like the movement of sun from Dakshinayana (south) to Uttarayana (north) hemisphere. It is the one of the few chosen Indian Hindu festivals which has a fixed date. This day falls on the 14th of January every year according to the Hindu Solar Calendar. The festival is considered to be a day from where onwards all the auspicious ritualistic ceremonies can be solemnized in any Hindu family. This is thus considered as the holy phase of transition.
Shankranti means transmigration of Sun from one zodiac in Indian astrology to the other. As per Hindu customary beliefs, there are 12 such Sankrantis in all. But the festival is celebrated only on the occasion of Makara Sankaranti i.e. the transition of the Sun from Sagittarius ('Dhanu' Rashi ) to Capricorn('Makara' Rasi). In this case, the zodiacs are measured sidereally, and not tropically, in order to account the Earth's precession. That is why the festival falls about 21 days after the tropical winter solstice which lies between December 20 and 23rd. Here the sun marks the starting of Uttarayana, which means northern progress of Sun.
Makar Sankranti holds special significance as on this day the solar calendar measures the day and night to be of equal durations on this day. From this day onwards, the days become longer and warmer. It is the day when people of northern hemisphere, the northward path of the sun marks the period when the sun is getting closer to them. The importance of the day was signified by the Aryans who started celebrating this day as an auspicious day for festivities. The reason behind this may be the fact that it marked the onset of harvest season. Even in the epic of Mahabharata, an episode mentions how people in that era also considered the day as auspicious. Bhishma Pitamah even after being wounded in the Mahabharata war lingered on till Uttarayan set in, so that he can attain heavenly abode in auspiciuous times. It is said that death on this day to brings Moksha or salvation to the deceased.