Fast Food: A Fast Way to Get in Trouble

    Imagine that you are a high school student. Every day, you eat lunch with your friends at the fast food place near your school. You order your usual double cheese burger with French fries and go to sit down with your friends. They are standing by the wall, waiting for another group to get up so you can sit at your usual table by the vending machine. Ten minutes go by before the group finally leaves. When you sit down and look at your cell phone, you realize that you have only three minutes to get to class! You scarf down your double cheese burger and manage to squeeze in if your French fries before you hastily start for the door. You try to put on your coat; it is a rather blustery day, but it won’t zipper up all the way and fits you much more snuggly than it used to. Now you have a mere two minutes to cross the street and race up the stairs through the throng of students. When you finally get to class, the late bell has already rung, and you are out of breath. Your teacher decides that taking five points off your essay due today is reasonable punishment. Students are to stay away from fast food restaurants during a school day due to them serving unhealthy food, delaying students from school, and lacking enough space.

     Fast food is extremely unhealthy. Eating foods with such high fat content everyday can cause health issues such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A double cheese burger from a popular fast food chain contains 421 calories and 21 grams of fat! In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of teenagers who struggle with obesity. Students with health issues have difficulty with their school work and are often unable to participate in all the activities that they wish to. For example, according to www.americansportsdata.com/obesity stats. asp, between 1962 and 2000, the number of obese American grew from 13% to an alarming 31% of the population. 63% of Americans are over weight with a BMI in excess of 25. The most shocking of all is that obesity is responsible for over 300,000 deaths nationwide each year!

     In addition, students return late to class after eating at the fast food place across from school. When students come to class late, they are not only taking away from themselves, but they are disrupting the students who were on time. Students who are not punctual are often unprepared as well. They may have forgotten about an assignment because they are too concerned with spending time with their friends. Teachers get annoyed with students who are not punctual and careless. Also, class time is taken advantage of when teachers are forced to discipline students for their tardiness instead of educating.

     Not all students can fit into the fast food place at once. This leads to long lines, disputes, and shambles. Teenagers often become rowdy due to their lack of patience. Nobody wants irritated kids hanging around. Students will often crowd around the outside of the restaurant, disrupting the daily traffic. When lots of people are confined in a small area, problems will most likely arouse. For instance, on the popular television show 'Survivor', people are forced to live together for 39 days in basically the middle of nowhere. Many disputes occur after being stock together for so long. When there are too many high school students in one small restaurant they will not get along.

     In conclusion, students should be prohibited from going to the fast food restaurant during school hours since fast food is extremely unhealthy, students return late to class, and there is not enough room for everyone. Nobody wants to witness another generation of young America deal with obesity and struggle through their schoolwork. The future of this nation needs to be healthy and well-prepared to take on whatever challenges they may face, and a fast food restaurant will most certainly not help that cause.  

The Internet: Pros and Cons

     The amazingly rapid development of the Internet has provided people with multiple uses they did not previously even dream of. The imperfections of this revolutionary technology are equally valuable for individual users, companies, and institutions. The Internet is a unique information resource for scholars who can use it as an efficient tool for research work. Business people cannot function without it, as they benefit largely from marketing and promoting services on the Internet. Physicians log on to acquire knowledge about diseases and the latest medications. Ordinary people find the Internet a really effective channel of communication with other users around the globe. They establish new relationships online, both personal and professional. Some are even reported to have found their future partners on the net while others take advantage of shopping, banking, or bill-paying possibilities. In short, the Internet has opened up the door to a completely new reality. 

     The Internet channels run in many directions, and users never know where their journey will end. What many of them often ignore is the dark side of such a captivating invention. Problems crop up when the computer world takes over the real world. Some users develop out-of-control behavioral pattern that may threaten their regular lives. Many have attributed it to Internet addiction where user's attachment to his or her computer overshadows and replaces reality. Computer addicts prefer to relate to their silent machine rather than their families and friends. While expanding their electronic horizons, they automatically isolate themselves from real-life relationships. As a result of such Internet abuse, friendships may weaken, family ties may fall apart, and promising careers may collapse.

     The most frequent cases of Internet addiction are home users. On average, they spend about forty hours a week online, absorbed in non-academic or non-business search. It is believed that obsessive net surfing can be as addictive as other popular activities, including smoking, gambling, and shopping. Once they are "hooked," Internet addicts display typical symptoms of addictive behavior, such as loss of control over limiting the time they spend on the net.

     In contrast to addiction, the Internet has its positive and negative sides. However, the borderline between them seems to be almost invisible. The most exciting aspect of Internet communication revolves around the fact that the user's identity is kept unknown. The user feels free and comfortable, acting in a way he or she would never do in real life. Many users usually gain a sense of acceptance from people they have never met before. Those with low self-esteem or those who feel unattractive or shy find it very easy to build their self-confidence and have a sense of importance online.