GEED 10083-Science, Technology, and Society

ACTIVITY 4

GOOD LIFE

1.In your opinion, what constitutes a good life?

In my opinion, contentment and happiness constitutes a good life. Other

people may say that they have a good life because they are kind, strong or
smart. And some may say that they have a good life because they have money
to buy for their everyday expenses and whatever material things that they want,
or they have good career and lifestyle, or having good health. It really differs
based on everyone’s perspectives and life experiences.

Moreover, I think that aside from these, a person is having a good life if
he/she is living the present or the moment of his/her life. The future may be
important, but we don’t have to overthink about it and forget the present in
return. Having what we have now is good and we should be thankful despite all
the problems that we encounter. If we become happier in the future, then that
means that the present that have become the past is well spent, and you have a
good life. You have survived a long and meaningful journey.

2. What does Aristotle say about the good life? Does it still stand in the
contemporary world?

Aristotle said that “the good life is a happy life”. He agrees with Socrates
that to live the good life one must be a morally good person. He also agrees
with Epicurus that a happy life will involve many and varied pleasurable
experiences.

It still stands in the contemporary world because many of us still believe

that we are living a good life as long as we are happy. Regardless of how hard it
is to live our life today because of difficult challenges, we were able to
overcome them and learn from it. We have become strong minded and more
sensitive of how other people would feel. Sometimes, people who feel so much
happiness jokingly say that they are happy they could die tomorrow. It is a
metaphor that could show that happiness constitutes a good life, indeed.

3. How is the process in science and technology a movement towards the

good life?

In terms of the process in science and technology, it creates a movement

towards the good life through the inventions and new advanced technologies
which makes our life easier and better. It can also bring happiness to us in many
ways and can resolve our problems faster. Like the technology and internet that
we use today to watch our favorite shows and series to make ourselves happy. It
also leads us to a good life as it allows us to easily access information and
research from different places. It provides tools as well for experiments that can
open up opportunies to create more significant discoveries.

ACTIVITY 5

FAKE SPOTTED!

Read news articles and reports from the internet. Identify

specific issues that surfaced on different social media platforms which
later found out as fake news. Discuss with the class the importance of
verifying reliable and accurate information.
 I have read and watched news about fake news that surfaced on social
media platforms. The first one happened about 6 months ago wherein a lot of
vaccinations sites (in Las Piñas and Metro Manila) were packed with
individuals who wanted to get their dose of vaccines because of a fake news
which circulated online. They thought that they will not be allowed to go to
work or receive relief goods if they are not vaccinated. This causes a huge
problem because it fastens the spread of the virus and the cases eventually
increased after that said event. It was also later announced that the “No vaccine,
no work” policy is not applied that time.

Another one is the news about Kris Aquino 3 weeks ago where she
became a victim of fake news in social media, particularly in Facebook. Fake
news circulated that she passed away, but she said that it’s not true and all of it
was fake news. She also mentioned that she has complications due to
autoimmune disease, but she was receiving treatments and medications to heal
and recover, and she is currently alive and kicking.

There are a lot of news about “fake news” and how we should avoid it.
We must put in mind that it is important to verify reliable and accurate
information to protect ourselves and everyone around us and even people from
social media. They may or may not know how to identify fake from real so let
us educate each other.

How does “fake news” come to exist and spread so rapidly? Why do you
think this happens?

I think that “fake news” is happening a long time ago already but the
faster speed of the internet in the modern times makes it spread rapidly and even
reaches countries around the globe. Before, information was only passed
through television, radios and word of the mouth only, but today, we have
internet and the social media which has a very large number of audiences. And
the spread of “fake news” happens through these social media platforms; it
becomes harder to stop it from spreading. All we can do now is to be vigilant
and careful when receiving and seeing news online especially if it is not from a
reliable source. Let’s not involved ourselves in this kind of negative action to
prevent any harm.

What are the long- and short-term effects and consequences of being a
consumer of “fake news”?

Being consumer of “fake news” have short terms effects, it makes them
ignorant because they use this fake information to deceive innocent people and
causes chaos. And in long term effects, they might reach to the extent that they
cannot stop what they are doing. It also affects them and their values as a
person. So, if we don’t want to be a consumer of fake news unconsciously, we
should not spread information that we are not sure of. There is no reason for us
to spread lies that can possibly cause negative consequences.

How does social media affect your personal life?

In this time of pandemic, I admit that my life revolves around social

media platforms. I use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and other apps
to connect with my friends and other people. Less physical interactions during
quarantine makes us miss what we usually do outside of our homes. So, social
media became my escape from boredom and anxiousness brought by the
pandemic.

Social media is harmful and dangerous nowadays, but I believe that it

affects my personal life positively in a way that I feel happy whenever I get to
talk with my loved ones and see their posts to check up on them from time to
time. It has also become a great tool in studying to reach our teachers and
classmates easily.

And lastly, social media made me see inspirational posts that makes me
motivated to do better and do what I really want in life. And I hope that other
people were affected this way too, instead of cyberbullying or using social
media to spread hatred and negativity online.

How does social media affect the society as a whole?

 Since social media is used by almost everyone in the world, I think that it
has a lot of effects to our society as a whole. As a human, we easily get
influenced by our environment, the people we are with and what we hear and
see. This means that social media affects our way of thinking and the way we
live our life, we can notice that the trends changes quickly and everyone who
uses social media knows the trends every time because they are updated. The
society also becomes more connected to each other and were able to share ideas
and knowledge through social media platforms.

However, “fake news” and misinformation also becomes harder to avoid

because information spread too fast. As a society, we should be more
responsible of what we post online and what we share to maintain everyone’s
safety and peace of mind.