PORTFOLIO

2022

COURSE:
ADVANCED 6
TEACHER:
GUSTAVO BARBOZA

STUDENT:
GIOVANNI FLORES
ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES: REPERCUSSION IN
PEOPLE’ HEALTH
After realizing that there are over 1.140 million active smokers in the world, I noticed
that one of the biggest problems we face today in society is the constant use of both
electronic and normal cigarettes. In this occasion, I will talk about e-cigs. We all heard
maybe from ads that e-cigs are promoted as a “help” with the addiction of common
cigarettes. Some people will think that maybe those electronic cigarettes are better for
their health. Is that true? Let's look deeper in the following paragraphs.
 
Electronic cigarettes were used and still been used as an alternative way of keeping
people far away from common cigarettes. It even has a new term that said individuals
no longer smoke, but instead vape. Upon hearing that e-cigs would be used as a
smoking cessation tool, many people who used regular cigarettes started using
electronic ones. But recent statistics showed that the number of people who use e-cigs
are increasing at an alarming level. Now even kids are getting used to it.
 
Many people tend to choose electronic cigarettes since it's less expensive and
ostensibly “healthier” because it doesn’t burn tobacco instead it works by heating a
liquid containing mostly nicotine. People who defend e-cigs said that nicotine in e-cigs
is less harmful than more of the thousand chemicals in tobacco smoke, since many of
them are toxic ones. These toxic chemicals of tobacco consequently trigger common
illnesses: cardiovascular disease, different types of cancer and ulcers, to mention a
few. Supporters of e-cigarettes also point to a study that claims that there is no
evidence that it emits any pollutants over the threshold Limit Values. Having known
about this study, some scientists started to ask whether this study was done properly
or not.
 
On the other hand, there are some individuals that consider it even worse than
cigarettes. Studies showed that recently there has been an outbreak of deaths
associated with e-cigarettes. The most usual ones are linked with lung injuries and
seizures. Recent studies made by Matthew Madison, a student of Barcelona University,
showed that mice exposed to e-cigs started to develop abnormalities in immune cells,
which are cells that protect us from a range of illnesses. Cells were unable to defend
mice from pathogens as their neutrophils were impaired. Besides, they present some
abnormalities in bladder cells that presage cancer there. Showing that e-cigs have
almost the same effect as cigarettes.
 
To conclude, whether e-cigarettes are good or bad for health is still unresolved, but it
all points out that the negative effects cancel out the good ones. Because the
consequences of these e-cigarettes were not really well-known, its use was restricted
in some countries: Brazil, Cambodia and Thailand, to name a few. Since they not only
affect people who smoke, but also people that surround smokers. In addition, all the
things we do now will have repercussions in the future. Try to live your life as healthy
as you can.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

We live in a world where being connected is almost a necessity for all human beings. Many
years ago, nobody thought how an invention could make our lives easier. Social networking
sites are taking its place to become one of the most amazing discoveries that humans have
made. Do you know what benefits in people’s life it has? In the following paragraphs,
we’re going to look more into some of the most highlighted things that it brings to our life.

To begin with, let me mention a brief history of how this innovation came out. A few years
ago, in 1947 in the context of the cold war countries like EE. UU and what is now Russia
competed for the power of the world. Triggering to new technological advances. In this way
EE. UU created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) that years later laid the
pillars of what would be known as the Internet. Since this network allowed the exchange
of information between institutions.

As the internet was created, many pages related to social media started to appear. The
most famous one is Facebook. Nobody awaits the impact that Facebook will cause as Kevin
Werbach a famous web designer said, “I don’t think anyone quite expected Facebook
to become so huge and so dominant”. For example, since the creation of social media
like Facebook and others, workers can directly respond to clients who have questions,
problems or comments about the company’s product just with a simple message or
through a call. Apart from businesses, social media has made it a lot easier, more
comfortable, and faster for people to communicate with one another. I hope that someday
we can have realistic interactivity with holograms as well.

Social media also has had a significant positive impact on the ability to save lives in
desperate situations, like during a natural disaster. Through the quickness of social media,
emergency relief was able to receive the necessary information and reach those people just
in a timely manner. That’s why people who live in those countries with higher risk of
natural disasters wish they could help the government in order to get this tool. And the
most important benefit for me is related to education. Let me mention that before the
pandemic education was limited to one way of teaching that was face to face but now, we
have too many options to get through thanks to platforms that allow us to do efficiently
such as meet, zoom, etc. We must be thankful, as we wouldn´t have these bunch of
resources for learning if we weren´t born in this digital age.

To conclude, social media is a way to keep us engaged with the world. It has brought a lot
of positive aspects to our lives regarding communication by helping people to find better
and various ways to stay in touch and learn. Additionally, it has helped to reach awareness
in case of natural disasters. The fact that social media has become such an integral part of
our lives might be a reason to think and comprehend the impact it has had and how it will
be in the future.