STUDYING ONLINE

     Studying online has become increasingly popular in recent years, so much so that universities are having a difficult time filling their classrooms. Nowadays,students prefer to study online rather than attend classes on campus. This essay will discuss both why students prefer online study and what universities can do to reengage students to bring them back to the campus.

     Since the early 2000s, students have been leaving the classroom in favor of studying on their computers.First and foremost, studying online is far more convenient than attending classes on campus. Who wants to drive through peak hour traffic to attend a one hour lecture when one can simply flick a switch and watch it online? Technological advances such as live streaming mean that students can participate in the classes without having to be there in person. Avoiding the hassle of attending class, which might be located a long way away, is the major reason why students prefer online study.

      Universities have very little hope of attracting students back to their classrooms.As technology progresses and computers become more and more virtual, students will want to actually attend real life classes. In the not too distant future, it is predicted that virtual reality will enter the mainstream which means that universities are fighting a downhill battle.The reality is that students will continue to study via computer technology rather than in real life.

       This essay discussed why students prefer to study online rather than attend classes at university. In my opinion, studying online is far more convenient for students and it is only going to continue to become more convenient.Universities will not be able to compete with the forces of technology and therefore it will continue to lose students numbers.

LABOR UNIONS

                                                              

                Industrialization and globalization have brought significant changes to our lives since the industrial revolution. Yet there remains some disagreement as to whether these are favorable or unfavorable especially in terms of employees. Employees have suffered for lots of reasons throughout history and they needed to protect their rights and working conditions. Due to these reasons, they established labor unions in the four corners of the world. Labor unions are defined as a group of people that get together to get better salaries and conditions from their employers. Although labor unions are seen as appealing to many people, there are advantages as well as disadvantages.

                In the first place, one of the advantages of labor unions is that labor unions protect the interests  of employees. It is clear that working conditions have detrimental effects on employees and labor unions are responsible for reducing these negative effects. Employees are the basic dynamic of industry and they should be protected from the negative effects of industrialization such as discrimination and inequality. Thanks to labor unions, employees can (gain) access (to) better conditions such as better wages, job security, reduced work hours, and safe workplaces. In addition, labour unions proved to employees that there is strength in numbers because unionized workers have more power as a cohesive group than by acting individually. This power is important especially during collective bargaining. Therefore, due to these reasons, labor unions have numerous advantages.

                When it comes to the disadvantages of labor unions, one of the disadvantages of labor unions is loss of autonomy. It is obvious that employees may disagree with the union’s decision but they have to obey, that is to say, employees are directed by labor unions (certain policies are dictated to employees by labor..). Besides, labor unions can be costly not only to the employers but also employees because there are union dues and initiation fees. Members generally complain about these issues. Due to these reasons, labor unions have some disadvantages as well.

                All that has been said raises the issue of whether labor unions are favorable or unfavorable. It is obvious that there are both advantages and disadvantages of labor unions, as a coin has two sides. Protecting the interests of employees, reducing the negative effects of workplaces, protecting employees from discrimination and inequality, and job security can be listed as the advantages of labor union.  Losing autonomy, union dues and initiation fees are the main disadvantages of labor unions. It is vitally important to shed light on the advantages and disadvantages of an issue before making a sagacious decision.

                                                                                                                                KUBİLAY ESER

CYBERSECURITY

                                                                       

                Over the past 15 or 20 years, cyberspace has brought significant changes to our lives. Yet there remains some disagreement as to why cybersecurity is important. It is obvious that people encounter computing and communication technologies every day, that is to say,  people’s personal lives involves computing through social networking, home management, communication with(their) family and friends. The ubiquitous integration of computing and communication technologies into common everyday objects enhances their usefulness and makes life easier and more convenient. On the one hand, IT is instrumental in the day-to-day operations of companies, organizations, and the government. Besides, retail consumers depend on computers and networks.   It is an undeniable fact that cybersecurity affects several factors in the four corners of the world due to the fact that a rough definition might be that cyberspace consists of artifacts based on or dependent on computing and communications technology. There is a controversial phrase about this issue: Cybercrime. No matter how well constructed, inevitably cybersystems have vulnerabilities that bad guys can take advantage of.  Cybercrime can be defined as the use of the Internet and IT to steal valuable assets (i.e. money) from their rightful owners.

                In the first place, one point which is believed to be absolutely pivotal is the fact that threats to national security are the main reason for cybersecurity. It is important to emphasize that armed forces depend heavily on IT for virtually every aspect of the nation’s capabilities weapons system; system for command, control, communications, and intelligence, system for managing logistics, and the system for administration. As can be seen above, in the modern world or the twenty-first century, armies consist of several interwoven competencies or distinct types of sensitive data. Due to these reasons, it is an undeniable fact that national security cannot be ignored and precautions should be taken to prevent the negative effects of lack of cybersecurity.  Otherwise, countries may be confronted with the unwanted consequences like in the case of espionage, hacking, misuse of employee privileges, loss of privacy, and misappropriation of intellectual property. These attacks can be defined as one nation’s or third parties attempts to gather, identify, and record information, intelligence, trade secrets, and other product or software information. Therefore, all policies and precautions should be in accordance with Cybersecurity policies to counteract the negative effects of attacks of these types because it is clear that all pieces of information are related to national security, trade, and foreign affairs.      

                When it comes to the second point, at the heart of the matter lies another contributing factor: cybersecurity potentially has negative effects in other areas such as economics, innovation, civil liberties, etc. It is an undeniable fact that cybersecurity is related to future possibilities and it is regarded as a part of risk management with all of the demands for a share of government budgets and attention from senior policymakers but decision makers discount future possibilities so much that they do not see the need for present-day action. On the other hand, the private sector is constantly trying to bring forward new applications and technologies but attention to security can slow the process of bringing new products and services to the market, therefore, new technologies and applications are offered for general use without effective security. In addition, some measures which are proposed to improve cybersecurity for the nation potentially infringe on civil liberties, such as privacy, anonymity, due process, freedom of association, and free speech.

               

By way of conclusion, the obvious conclusion to be drawn from all these points that have been explained so far is that cybersecurity is a controversial issue due to the fact that computing or communication technologies are indispensable factors for people, governments, companies, and organizations and contain sensitive data, therefore, cybersecurity is a fundamental component of cyberspace.  It is not wrong to say that cybersecurity is the main threat to national security and has negative effects on economics, innovation and civil liberties.

KUBİLAY ESER

GUN OWNERSHIP

Criminal events are increasing in the whole World. One of the most important reasons for criminal events is gun ownership. Gun ownership is restricted by laws in some countries contrary to other countries where governments let people use guns/allow people to use guns. The latest incident in the US leads to debates regarding gun control. A person carried out an attack with guns in a school. Therefore, the government has enforced/passed a law according to which teachers can be trained in the use of guns. However, gun ownership involves a lot of/ both advantages and disadvantages.

First of all, gun ownership has a number of benefits for people. Criminals will always find a way to obtain guns; therefore, banning gun ownership prevents innocent people from getting killed or hurt. Gun ownership is very easy now. Many people can obtain guns  in illegal ways. For example, in the latest violent attack in Australia, an attacker had a number of guns which are used by military forces and armies. It is seen that it is impossible to prevent people from having guns. On the other hand, women and weaker individuals may have no means of self defense from rape or other crimes. Gun ownership provides innocent people with protection from attacks. Consequently, there are a number of advantages of gun ownership.

Secondly, gun ownership leads to a number of drawbacks for the society.  Many crimes are committed with guns. Thus, restricting gun ownership will likely reduce the number of such crimes; that is, gun ownership is the main source of criminal events. Only the security forces must have guns. Trained people such as armies and the police have to have guns. At the same time, suicides and crimes of passion are higher with gun availability. If people have guns, they can easily commit these crimes. For example, people can feel deep depression; in this case, people can kill themselves with guns. Consequently, gun ownership has a number of disadvantages.

To sum up, criminal events are on the agenda. Especially, one reason for the increase of criminal events is gun ownership. The right of defense is valid for all people. However, gun ownership is not the solution to the problem of criminal events. Governments  all over the World have not an effective programme to control gun ownership. Checking all people who have  guns is not possible. Therefore, no matter what happens gun ownership should  not be allowed  by law.

 NİLÜFER ÇAVUŞ

EMOTIONAL COURAGE

    There are several forms of courage. The most powerful one is emotional courage. It briefly means to be open to both positive and negative emotional experiences. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is to challenge the fear. The only emotion in life is not fear. There are core emotions such as anger, shame, sadness, happiness, enjoyment. Emotional courage appears when we face these emotions. Showing emotional courage is not always easy. However, there are some ways to practice it.

First of all, we should not suppress negative emotions such as sadness, grief, fear to develop emotional courage. It is not possible to always be happy every moment of our lives. What makes life meaningful is our emotions, both positive and negative. For instance, courage does not mean fearlessness. A brave man is not someone who is afraid of nothing; he is someone who conquers that fear.

Secondly, we should act on our emotions even if we are afraid of the outcomes. For example, let's assume that you will go to a job interview. Even if you know that you may be rejected, you should go to that interview. Developing emotional courage starts with taking risks. This is also valid in interpersonal relationships. We should not always think about negative things. We need to be able to think that we will feel good afterwards.

Lastly, we should be able to be open to vulnerability. We cannot always be strong or resistant against all situations. We can be down, we can be disappointed or we can make mistakes. However, what is important is to be aware of faults and not blame others for failures. We should learn from our mistakes without punishing ourselves or avoiding them. We should be honest with ourselves about what we can do or not do.

In a nutshell, emotional courage is not to escape our emotions. It is to know that all emotions are worth living. Therefore, to improve emotional courage, we should not suppress either negative or positive emotions, we should act without fear no matter what results are and we should be vulnerable, truthful and honest with ourselves.

                                                                                                                                       Seher Çakmar

                                                                                                    

WHY WE NEED ART IN OUR LIFE

There is no doubt that man is a civilized creature. One of the components of  civilization is art. While other components deal with man’s environment and man’s outside world (the outside world of man) , art examines the inner world of human beings, and shows the good and the bad in people. Thus, art creates a second nature and beautifies the inner nature of human. Even though there are several reasons why people need art in their life, increasing of man’s capacity and development and transfer of culture can be claimed to be the most important two.

To begin with, the increase of man’s capacity is known to be the primary reason why people need art in their life. Art provides a problem and then solves this problem. For example, if a curriculum includes arts such as making statues, painting, pottery or dance, these are the kinds of things that lead students to view the world differently. These abilities give young people a chance to really develop a vision of self. Artistic activity matures the kids passions and thanks to it, young people feel that school is about making different things. Another point is that, being able to imagine has a vital role in man’s life. It is a fact that arts distinguish human beings from other species. A man devoid of imagination  is unthinkable , because man’s dreams allow him to find new things, make innovations and improve them. Shortly, art enables people to think outside the box.

Furthermore, development and transfer of culture seem to be the second reason why people need art in their life. People use hundreds of different languages to communicate. Someone has to learn his language to transfer information or an emotion to a stranger. However, artistic activities, just like  science, are universal. To exemplify, music that caresses the spirit of humans in Austria influences all people positively, not just now but forever. Moreover, art engages with society and it engages also with the key issues that affect people all day. Although the works of art seem to belong to a person, in fact they carry the traces of the depth of history. Therefore, feelings similar to each society can be revealed in the works. In brief, art is universal and leads to connections between the past, the future and the present.

All in all, increasing of man’s capacity and its universality are said  to be the most common reasons why people need art in their life. I think, art is a phenomenon where our dreams and our emotions reach their peaks and we must value it very much.

Burak Özçifçi

JOINING THE EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union is a de facto confederation of 28 member countries in Europe, started in 1957 as the European Economic Community. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands are the founders of the European Union. Turkey is not yet a member of the European Union. The membership to the European Union is leading to many debates. While some of the people support the European Union, some of them are not willing to join the European Union for various reasons.

Some people would question whether Turkey’s economy will improve with the introduction of Turkey into the European Union and whether exports will increase. This idea is a misconception in its simplest definition. The best example of this is the Greek economy. Greece, which joined the EU in 1981, has one of the worst economies in recent years. With the wrong practices in the Greek economy, the country has reached the point of sinking. In short, being an EU member country does not mean that the country will be an economically successful country.

Some people strongly oppose Turkey's EU membership. When Turkey becomes a member of the EU, they claim that some industrial companies, such as car factories, that are unable to compete with EU products, will suffer or even shut down. It is perfectly natural to have such concerns. The market for EU countries is very attractive and remarkable. If Turkey is a member of the EU, Turkish citizens will demand the goods of EU countries rather than the goods of their own country. As a result, our domestic and national products will not be produced because of the lack of demand. This will adversely affect the Turkish economy. So it's normal for people who think like that to worry.

Another reason why you don’t want to be a member of the EU is the possibility of unwanted impacts on economic relations with non-EU neighbors. For example, if Turkey joins the EU, it will ally with countries like Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. As is known, these three countries are hostile to Russia. If Turkey is allied with these countries, relations between Turkey and Russia, especially the S400 missiles agreement with Russia and natural gas projects will be reduced and perhaps the two countries will become enemies. This landscape is very frightening.

As a result, although Turkey’s accession to the European Union seems to be in favor of Turkey, it is clear that this is not a good idea in the long run. The European Union has already proved its unity and togetherness with Brexit events in recent years. If Turkey wants to make an alliance with a group, it should not be with the European Union.

                         Gülis Beyza Yıllar