Religious Festival

In our country festivals are important social events which have great meaning in our lives. Every festival
is celebrated with a lot of colour, lights and festivities.

In my locality Navratri is celebrated on a very grand scale. This festival is a nine nights celebration which
ends on Dussehra. Every night the function starts with a prayer invoking God's blessings and then
follows a night full of dancing, feasting on local cuisines and competing with friends for the title of the
best dancer of the night.

Last year, the youth group, which I was a part off, was given the responsibility of organizing the event.
We booked the lawn near our housing society and arranged for people to enclose the place, provide
lights and other sound systems. We then hired a musical group which would perform for all nine nights
and include a lot of traditional songs. We had to arrange for catering as many people would attend this
event directly from office and would require food and refreshments.

On the first day the women of our society, attended prayers in the local temple and to this attend this
prayer, they would require colourful clay pots and dressed in colourful traditional garments. These clay
pots were arranged by us.

Every morning we would have to make sure all the women attending prayers at the local temple were
given all the facilities. We then would organize the evenings program and it was decided that five
members would take responsibility of the night's celebrations so that the forty five could enjoy the
dancing and entertainment.

I wanted this Navratri to be special as it was the first time I was part of the organizing committee. Since I
would get to dance for eight of the nine nights, I got eight new traditional outfits made especially for
these nights. I danced with friends and on three nights I was declared as the best dancer of the night.
After the dancing stopped at 10.00 pm dinner was served to all present. I made sure the caterer had
served different traditional cuisines on all nine nights.

The last night was a special event and we had arranged for a well known singer to sing and entertain the
crowd. All of us were dressed in traditional clothes. We all danced to traditional songs with similar steps.
At the end of the event many adults of our society congratulated me for organizing and participating
actively on all nights of the Navratri festival
 What will you do if you won a lottery

What would you do if you won $500,000? If you won $500,000 in the lottery, what would you spend it
on? There are a lot of different ways that people would choose to spend this money. Some people
would choose to spend it on themselves, others would choose to give it all away to charity. The way I
would spend it would be a mixture of the two. (67) First, I would take $250,000 and put it in the bank. If
it is in the bank for a while, it will draw around four to five thousand dollars in interest a year.

So after about ten years, it will grow to around $300,000. That way, I will never have to worry about
not having money or struggling from paycheck to paycheck. (72) After I put half of it in the bank, I would
give $50,000 to a charity. I believe that if I was given the opportunity to have a big sum of money given
to me, I would love to give some of that away to people that truly need it. There are millions of needy
people that have no money, no house to live in, and no food to eat.

By giving them some extra money, they will be able to afford the things that other people take for
granted. It would make me feel like a better person if I gave my money away to people that truly need
some help. (112) I would take $100,000 and give it to my parents. They deserve the money since they
always provided me with things I wanted, even if that meant they had to go without. If I gave them that
money, they would not have to worry about struggling to pay bills or not having money to buy food.

My parents are very generous people. When I would have friends over, my mom would give her
food away so that my friends can have something to eat. She was always giving and never asked for
anything in return. (95) With the remaining $100,000, I would go crazy with it. I would go buy a new car,
buy some stock in a big company, and just buy whatever I feel like buying. After all, I did win the money
and it's my money to spend how I want to spend it.

I should be able to choose to spend it on whatever I spend it on, whether its morally right or not.
(82) Coming to my conclusion, most of my money would be given to other people. If I was lucky enough
to win a large sum of money, I believe that I should give it back to other people in return. Karma would
help me out down the road by giving me better opportunities in life. So, that’s pretty much the way I
plan on spending all of my money. (75) Total Word Count: 501
 Social Media

Argumentative essay outline

I. Introduction

1. Thesis statement

Yes, social media is addictive because of the manner it forms behavioral characters among individual
that affect their lives.

II. People use social media to:

1. Contact friends.

2. Share their feelings, videos and pictures with others.

3. Access important educational information and data.

III. Social media has become addictive since:

1. Statistically, two out of three persons who have access to the technological gargets, such as smart
phones, spend seven and more hours daily on social networking.

2. Research indicates that those addicted to social media tend to become abnormal tolerant to and are
dependent on things that result from using social media. This include people wanting to access
Facebook or Twitter accounts before going to sleep or immediately after waking up.

3. Those who are addicted to social media can suffer from withdrawal symptoms, feel lonely, bored or
be less focused, if the privilege of using social media is taken away.

4. Even though counterarguments talks of usefulness rather than addiction as the purpose for
continuous desire of wanting to use social media among people, there is need to define the behavioral
character and time limit for which something can be depicted as useful or addictive as with the case of
social media.

IV. Conclusion

It is imperative for individuals to effectively evaluate their use of social media in order to avoid being
controlled by the new technology. This way, they can protect their personal lives as well as health
conditions from being affected by the negative impacts of social media.
Is Social Media Addictive?

In today’s technological world, a lot of people, both young and old, have embraced the use of social
media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Myspace among others in order to connect with each
other. Just as the use of the Internet has progressed rapidly, the same case has been with the social
media. Almost every individual who uses smart phones, iPhones, or comfortable devices that can easily
access the Internet has in one way or the other used such devices for social networking. This has
allowed users to contact their friends, families and other people who are beyond their physical reach.
Though the Internet and social media has many positive results such as enhancing communication with
distant friends, research for education purposes or for online jobs, if used in an unregulated manner, it
can have negative effects on the society. Thus, while social media has significantly enhanced
communication and connectivity, it can as well be addictive thereby affecting people’s lives.

Yes from the definition of the term addiction, I personally agree with the argument posed by authors
such as Lewis that social media is addictive. Addiction can be described as becoming an abnormal
tolerant to and is dependent on something that results into psychological or physical habit formation
(Sherwood, p.1). It therefore means that whereas most people tend to think of addiction as that which
have crack heads or the alcoholics, these are only common types of addiction which are as a result of
unusual things which can also be in the case of social media. The fact that individuals seem to have great
length especially in doing whatever it takes, just to make sure that they are able to use social media,
makes it to be addictive. This leads to them forming behavioral problems that can be associated with
being addicted to something.

Similarly, based on definition of the term addiction, I do argue that social media addiction can be
described as the habitual character of a person who is always on the phones, laptops, computers or
other internet accessing devices every minute of every day just to connect with others failure of which
they do not consider their lives complete. As a result, these people become so attached to the social
media allowing it to have control over their lives. Some can even suffer from “withdrawal” in case they
feel that they are being cut from using social media. This echoes the arguments posed by Sherwood
especially towards teens in particular becoming the biggest target when it comes to social media
addiction.

One of the major reasons as to why social media has become addictive especially among teens is due to
the availability of internet services and different social networking sites. As Sherwood argue, the
availability of social networks sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, which are more compatible
with most portable technological devices like smart phones, has open a window opportunity in which
teens can connect with each other. I do agree with this argument because for addiction to occur, it
means that at one point of time an individual must have been continuously involved with that particular
thing, in this case, social media. Similarly, Sherwood points out that the problem with social media
addiction normally starts when a person is allowed to create an account on the website which is usually
free, and from which it gets worse. This is because after creating an account, adolescent teens tend to
find out juicy information about other kids. This is followed by the urge to gain more information and
this is what makes addicted.