Social Meida Addiction Essay - 1962 Words

On the night of my first Media and Society class, my instructor Ann, sternly stated (while going over the class syllabus) that we were not to use our, smart phones, computers, etc. for personal use only class related reasons or taking notes. No social media networks, tweeting or sending messages. I found myself thinking this is an adult college program; why was it necessary for her to tell us that? Is there a problem here that required such a statement? Ann then asked how many of us use â€Å"Social Media† (that is what the class is about, media and its effect on society) what we use it for, how often we use it and if we ever turned our connection off. When I heard some of the answers I was concerned. Several students admitted that they would†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"As many as 1 in 8 Americans suffer from problematic social media usage,† according to Stanford University,† not only are people obsessed and over use it, but they are actually becoming addi cted. There are several online social medias that people are becoming addicted to; the five most prevalent are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dating sites and online gaming, in particular Warcraft. Anyone who has access to technology, a computer, smart phone etc. and access to the internet is at stake in this new-aged addiction, regardless of age, race or gender. Social Media Addiction is now being recognized as a psychological disorder all over the world, not just here in the U.S. In the 90’s studies were focused on Internet Addiction (IA), but the new decade with its advances in social media sites have now added yet another addiction to study. Facebook seems to be the number one social web site that has the highest addiction count. Facebook has 800 million active users, two billion posts are liked and commented on per day and approximately 10 billion minutes (all together) are logged on the site each day. It is so addictive for so many that is has been said to be as addictive as smoking. Studies have revealed that people feel upset, fidgety and agitated if they are denied access to the internet and their social media sites. Some even stating that they feel lonely, depressed and anxious if they are unable to access their Facebook account. Like other

Functions of Human Resources Free Essays

Human Resources, or HR, can at times, be something of a mystery if you have not had any reason to interact with the human resource staff. What do they accomplish in the human resources department? What is their contribution to the company? Every day the human resources department is making decisions that affect the employees. Wages and salaries, hiring and firing, handling employee grievances, and employee training are functions of the human resources department. We will write a custom essay sample on Functions of Human Resources or any similar topic only for you Order Now Wages and Salaries Human resources follows the patterns of other employers to help them determine what they pay the company employees. Competitive wages are important to employees when they are job searching or moving up within the company. According to the HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector, â€Å"Salary surveys are conducted with employers in the same labor market to determine pay levels for specific job categories† (â€Å"Wages,† â€Å"n. d. ,†, p. 2). Surveys are a function of HR to determine if they are offering competitive wages with other companies. Hiring and Firing Hiring new employees is directly affected by human resources. Creating job descriptions and determining the skills needed to qualify for a position is a function of the human resources department. Job descriptions describe what is expected from the person applying for the position. This written job description also gives the human resources guidelines if discipline is needed in the future. Established expectations are used to coach an employee and if necessary fire the employee. Firing Firing an employee is not as easy as it may seem. Documentation is necessary to build a history of coaching an employee into the correct behavior. If the correct behavior is not reached a historical case has been created to support firing the employee. If the action or behavior violates company policy, immediate firing of the employee can happen. Employee Grievances Listening to employee grievances is an important function of human resources. Linking management with workers who have an issue that needs addressing is handled within human resources. Management may not be aware of an employee’s grievance without the connection that human resources can make between the two levels of employees. Documentation of the grievance and steps toward a solution is a function of human resources. Employee Training Training employees and supplying current job information should be a continual process of the human resources department. Keeping employees trained is a vital step in running a good company. â€Å"In order to improve the efficiency level of the employees they have go undergo regular trainings and development programs† (â€Å"Training,† â€Å"n. d. ,†, p. 2). Employees who can complete their jobs to the highest level possible keep the company running efficiently. It is the responsibility and function of the human resources department to supply training to the company’s employees. Conclusion There are many functions of the human resources department. Hiring employees, training, and coaching are a few functions of human resources. Human resources support the company in ways not always seen, but the effects are implemented with the workers. Creating a productive work environment requires constant work from the human resources department that may not always be noticed. How to cite Functions of Human Resources, Papers

Examine the Key Ideas of Utilitarianism free essay sample

Examine the key ideas of utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a relativist, consequentialist and teleological system of ethics based on the idea of ‘utility’. This means usefulness and utilitarian suggest that everyone should be the most useful thing. The theory was devised by Jeremy Bentham who said â€Å"an action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number†. He believed human beings are motivated by pleasure and pain. Bentham lived in an era of great social and scientific change and unrest; he wanted to produce a modern and rational approach to morality. He was hedonist and believed that humans naturally pursued pleased and tried to avoid pain, he created the hedonic calculus in which happiness is measured with seven different elements including duration of happiness, the intensity of it and the purity of it. His theory is also known as the act utilitarianism – this is the belief that solutions to situations might change depending on the consequences of the act. He says ‘by utility is meant that property of any object whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness’ which summarizes Bentham’s view on his entire belief of utilitarianism. John Mill Stuart modified the theory and criticised Bentham’s theory of utilitarianism and maintained that the well-being of a person was the greatest importance as Bentham’s theory allows sadistic pleasure for example, under Bentham’s theory, if 10 rapists were to rape the same woman, then using the hedonic calculus their action would be justified because more people are gaining pleasure at the pain of one woman, however, this would be morally wrong. Mills then developed higher pleasure and lower pleasure; lower pleasures would be physical pleasures such as sex, alcohol while higher pleasures would be things like love and friendship and believed everyone would desire higher pleasure ‘it is better to be a pig dissatisfied than a pig satisfied’. Therefore, rule utilitarianism fits more with John Mills theory as this means moral rules are formulated based on utilitarian principles and the individual can apply these situations to judge whether the act is acceptable or not. Preference utilitarianism believes that you should take into account the preferences of the person concerned in each case until they are outweighed by the preference of others. This allows people to define what pleasure and pain is for them. R. M Hare argued for preference utilitarianism as he believes the â€Å"right thing† to do is to maximise the satisfaction of the preference of each individual involved. Peter Singer states ‘our own preferences cannot count any more than the preference of others’ showing that he was more concerned about the best possible consequence rather than ‘the greatest good for the greatest number. There is also negative utilitarianism which aims to bring about the least amount of pain or to prevent the greater harm for the greatest number. However, there are good things that cannot be experienced without some element of pain and a final branch of utilitarianism is descriptive utilitarianism which analyses how we behave rather than prescribing what we ought to do. Utilitarianism doesn’t say that the moral action is the one that maximizes the benefits or happiness of the person doing the action. It must be the benefits and the happiness of everyone involved and each person count equally. All consequences must be counted including short-term and long-term consequences so that the extent can be foreseen. To what extent has this theory survived the challenges which it has faced? A straightforward advantage to the theory is that it’s based on a single principle of minimising pain and maximising pleasure and happiness; a system which obviously aims to create a happier life for individuals and groups. Nevertheless, Bentham’s theory can be viewed as a swine ethic where there is a lack of protection for the minority like Phillip Petit says ‘so long as they promised the best consequence, it would forbid absolutely nothing: not rape, not torture, not even murder’ because under this theory if 10 rapists were to rape 1 woman, their action can be justified. Other advantages to the theory are that it encourages a democratic approach to decision-making as the majority’s interest is always considered therefore it’s likely to yield results that are in line with common sense. However, approaches to the theory are subjective, for example John Mills theory is based on lower and higher pleasure to which Henry Sidgewick stated â€Å"in practice it is hard to distinguish between higher and lower pleasures† because of the subjectivity of ‘pleasure’ not everyone would find the same things pleasurable. The theory also brings about other ethical issues such as â€Å"prima-facie† duties – deciding between someone that might bring about the greatest good such as one family member or a man with the cure to cancer; one would be inclined to ave their family member. Therefore, the theory seems to ignore the importance of duty. In contrast, preference utilitarianism gives the valuable principle of being an impartial observer as it thinks about others interest or preferences as long as one also includes behaving justly which is what Bentham’s theory fails to bring across. In conclusion, it seems that the theory hasn’t been a ble to survive the challenges which it has faced. The fact that Bentham’s theory allows for sadistic pleasure makes it seem extremely immoral. Whereas, Mills theory provides no option out of Bentham’s theory as it lacks the flexibility to make sensible choices in different situations. Moreover, the whole theory is based on the principle of pain and pleasure which is very subjective and therefore not everyone would believe in the same thing and for the theory to work; everyone would have to agree with each other. Although it does have its strengths, the flaw lies in the key features and as such it’s not practical and it’s very difficult to apply.