Band 80-90: Please Press There

“The point is not how we use a tool, but how it uses us.” said Nick Joakvin to express his feelings about the detriments of technology and internet. As he said, it is often assumed by humankind that technology and internet (TI) are so constructive instead of thinking TI is being the owner of the world, of the people themselves. Thanks to technology(!) , on the internet everyone can share what they do, what they eat, where they go. However, people are not even aware of sharing their private life effortlessly without thinking over the significant results. Especially the youth is getting obsessed with TI more easily than the adults by overusing smart phones, smart TVs and some other deceitful tools. Not only TI is a threat for youth or adults, but also because of TI, there might be no life in the future in terms of wars and political issues. As is seen, TI is baneful for people in many ways which three of them are so remarkable; privacy and easiness, youth, wars & political issues.

First and foremost, it is a vital problem that people share their private life with the others in such a simple way. TI, which guarantees the inviolability of privacy, make people ask a reasonable question about how TI, itself, gets the information of people's private life.  If TI keeps sharing people’s private life, because of letting TI, soon there may not be right of defending our privacy. And also TI makes people consider that life is more easier on using tools but acutally people are getting lazier in virtue of TI. They do not worry or think about the problems because TI does instead of them. TI seems attractive by their easiness and privacy but in reality these two are essentially abominable.

Secondly, because of TI, youth is getting highly obsessed with technological devices. With unhealthy obsessions, in their daily life, time is being spent unnecessarily with TI; they are using mobiles, TVs, computers, laptops, headphones, wifi... There is almost no communication among teenages. The only thing that young people care about is a world of lie on the internet which made by technology. They cannot breath without Wi-Fi instead of not breathing without oxsygen. The other problem is that youth is not healthy because they do not need to move anymore. It has been thinking that everything is quite simple and available. For instance, young people do not want to climb up stairs, they use escelator. With a lot of examples like this situation that can be known nearly by everyone, might be thought as a threat of a dreadful obsession.

Thirdly, wars and political issues are the most critical effects of TI’s surrounding the world. Especially wars are not occuring like in the past centuries; weapons, people, thoughts... The weapons and even people & thoughts are developed by technology. Unfortunately these developments are so infinite and happening so fast that today these can be the reason of the end of the world. Wars that happening via TI can have an end if politicians let. However they think that as a country, if you have the weapon of TI, you have the power; If you do not, then you are not a country anymore. They want to feel powerful so they do not let the war end. If people let the war continue, TI also continue surrounding the world and the end can be dark.

All in all, besides it is thought that TI has a lot of profits, it also has curical and dreadful detriments. As mentioned before,  people should not let TI have the information of their own private life that easily. Conjointly, TI obviously make every tool slightly accesible, on the other hand, people are getting lazier by this situation. Conspicuously, the youth can be seen at the top of the laziness chart.  Moreover, not only youth are getting lazier, but also they are getting much more obsessed with TI day by day. Furthermore, wars and political issues that affect the world are the results of TI’s being the owner of the world. The most effective and healthy decision is to use TI sufficiently and effectively. As far as I am concerned, people are on the edge of a cliff and the more people let TI hold them, the less they may have the chance to live.

by Sümeyye Aydın 1st year ELT Student @ Erciyes University

band 80-90: DIAMOND OF 21ST CENTURY

        Vilifying the technology completely, ignoring the advantages or, praising it with individuals’ eyes closed is not appropriate thoroughly. The usage of technology determines whether it is useful or detrimental. Some people think that technology and internet makes our lives easier while the others say it makes us addicted and lethargy.  However, it is in our hands taking the positive sides of technology and internet by making good use of them or exposuring the harm effects of  them. Using the technology and internet is like choosing a friend. Because our friends are one of the most crucial part of our lives as the technology and internet and may affect us in so many situations. Technology and internet can ensure a lot of benefits to us, like a special companion,. However making our lives effortless, education and health are foremost ones.

        To begin with, one of the most influential advantages of using technology and internet can be viewed as making our lives effortless.. The first benefit can be identified with ‘’transpotation.’’ Looking back, people walked or got on some animals such as;horse,camel,ox to go to distant places. However, today people have a lot of transportation vehicles ranging from bus,train,car to plane. They go to somewhere even which is really remote as swift as they go to their neighbours  thanks to these vehicles. Furthermore, technology an internet are the most influential companions of people at their homes. People do things more quickly and efficiently under favour of their escorts. For instance; kitchen equipments,washing machines and hoovers are indispensable helpers for people because these stuff retrench the time and effort of people. Another point to add is that internet banking does the same thing. People do not have to go and bide in a long queue to pay their bills. Briefly stated, one of the most crucial advantages of technology and the internet can be thought as  making our lives easier.

       Second major factor that is related to advantages of using technology and internet can be regarded as the possibilities in education.Pupils have  innumerable facilities in terms of using technology and internet for their educational life. For instance, students use internet not just because they are  accustomed to using it for fun but they use internet as an assitant  for their homework. There are plenty of sites and online classes, owing to them pupils have a chance to see different types of questions and to learn new knowledge. Moreover, these classes and websites are practical for  the teachers,too. Instructors do not have to grade so many assignments  thanks to them.  Additionaly,  scholars can reach a great deal of information from online encyclopedia instead of gathering information from the books. With the help of this, they reach the information quicker than it used to be. In a word, education is one of the fields people can take advantages of internet and technology.

The third of the most considerable  advantages of using technology and internet might be health facilities. So many people suffering from diabets and high blood pressure have some achievabilities.To illustrate, these people are not obliged to go to any health care center or hospital, since they can easily  access  blood-pressure and blood- glucose  monitor at their homes. To boot, many diseases such as cancer  and allergic cases can be noticed and  cured early  thanks to health assistance  equipments.With the help of this, survival rates of the patients are increasing more and more. Furthermore, people  can handily get an appointment on the internet rather than going to hospital  too soon.  They do not have to bide wantonly at hospital owing to online appointment  system. In a nutshell, internet and technology contribute a lot of  opportunites in the fields of health and these opportunites are unignorable.

         On the whole, making our lives effortless, education and health are just three out of many other profitable advantages of technology and internet . The most influential advantages of using technology and the internet can be regarded as making our lives facile. Owing to this influence, individuals are accustomed to utilising them in every part in their lives. Education is one of the most widespread area which is made use of technology and the internet, as well. Another point is that health is impressed from technology an it has significant effect on the lives of humans. ‘’Technology and the internet are so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete alteration on human beings.’’

by Ayça Solsun 1st year ELT student @Erciyes University

Band 90-100: THE NEW ERA: TECHNOLOGY AND INTERNET

      Technology and internet have a great importance in our lives because they are a milestone like renaissance, reform, industry revolution. Both of them contribute to our lives with significant improvements. They have developed and continued to developing gradually from past to present. In previous years, whereas technology and internet progressed slower and more ineffective, nowadays they advance more effective and faster. Moreover, fast and impressive progress of technology and internet have impacts on our lives. Internet and technology provide us various services in some areas. Thanks to these services, technology and internet manage to penetrate the world that we live. Technology and internet, which change and improve our lives, offer a range of benefits in some remarkable fields, such as in business life, social life and in the field of education.

       One of the most considerable benefits of technology and internet can be observed in business life. As internet and technology provide facilities in numerous fields, they put forward some facilities in business life. The more new devices and machines, the more level of productivity increases. This makes it easy to reach the product that we want. For instance; when industry revolution occurred, machines were made and production started to get faster. Moreover with improvements of technology and internet, new working fields occur for people such as defence industry, manufacturing industry, information technology. For example; nowadays, the demands for information technology brings new working fields in this area. Thanks to this, firms are established for producing smart phones, smart TV, the latest technological devices. Competition occurs among countries and it supplies more durable and authentic products for customers. Furthermore, thanks to internet, business people connect with their customers directly. Customers can obtain information about products that they will buy. Also, customers can buy their goods on internet or they can sell their goods via internet. Internet and technology offer beneficial services for all people. We can see the advantages of them in business life.

        In the second place, technology and internet have significant impact on social life as they become part of life. Compared to past, people tend to make use of  internet and technology for many purposes. For example; people can contact with their friends, family and relatives, via technological devices and internet supplied. People can communicate by video, telephone, messages etc. and therefore are always in touch with one another owing to technology and internet. Moreover, many people can obtain information about whole world, their countries and their cities. People can be aware of all events by using routinely technology and internet to follow the news, weather forecasts, sport news. Additionally, people use internet and technology to enjoy, by watching videos, various movies, surfing on social networks. For instance; many people frequently share their photos or videos via social networks to keep people following them updated. Many people spend their time thanks to internet and technology. Existence of internet, invention of technological devices, discovery of social nets, affect social life which become comparatively easier and more enjoyable, accordingly in parallel with those improvements.

       Lastly, technology and internet provide highly vital advantages in the field on education. They have undeniable importance for both students and teachers. Technology and internet offer educational opportunities such as online courses, specific webpages, e-mail communication, and tools used in the classroom like smartboards, calculators, laptops, presentation hardware. Online courses have positive effects on students because every age group of people can attend the courses and they can choose any course they want. Furthermore, students can access datum from various sources, webpages, news sources and educational videos. Information is available and updated on websites and online library in any time. This can be illustrated by online library. Instead of going local library, students can access more rapidly to online library and so they can save their time. Likewise, many students can make use of internet and technology to complete homework. Find research or information required for projects. Importantly, student can contact other students and teachers through e-mail and teachers can also contact parents easily. It is important to highlight that teachers can make use of technological devices and internet by using animations, pictures, documentaries and slides. For instance; while they are explaining any subject, they can use actual photographs. Thanks to this, classes are mostly permanent for students. Due to these benefits of technology and internet, education is more influential an organized for teachers and students.

       Overall, technology and internet impress us in various areas; nevertheless, importantly, they penetrate in the fields of business, social life and education. People use internet and technology due to a range of facilities. In business life, internet and technology offer opportunities such as fast production, durable goods, different working areas. In social life, we can see the benefits of technology and net like swift communication, enjoyable times. Also, technology and internet have useful sides namely, online courses and library, the latest technological tools, e-mail communication in the field on education. Technology and internet provide such a comfortable life that this makes them invaluable thus people cannot give up these facilities. Easiness attract people inasmuch as they do not want to experience tough events. When people experience difficulties, they start to look for solutions to sort out them and make them easy. Since internet and technology were revealed, they have offered convenience means and comfort to us. Internet and technology appeared that they become a revelation for people and with time they evolved, this is an enormous evolution. They revolved and become a revolution for all human beings. Revelation of technology and net convert into an evolution, evolution transform into a giant revolution.

by Hatice Demiral 1st year ELT student @ Erciyes University

Band 90-100: BENEFITS OF TECHNOLOGY AND INTERNET

"The number one benefit of information technology and internet (TI) is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they did not think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about the potential." said Steve Ballmer. As can be seen, technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes while internet is the practical part of technology which moves them related. In other words, technology and Internet can be considered as the two sides of the same coin that they cannot be seperated. Both of them have brought  a revolution in the modern World and they have made the World global village. Without the progression of TI, our World would be slow-paced. We can take from many examples in health and health industry, source of faster communication and information.Also taking upon the fruition of encouraging innovation and creativity takes a huge role in our society.

       First of all, technology and Internet have changed health and health industry and play a crucial role in all around the world. TI is also becoming advanced and designed to make our health industry more convenient. For instance, you have better and more accessible treatment, because TI gives opportunities to open up many exploration and research that allows doctors or experts to make healthcare more effectively. Furthermore, the use of TI have made patient care safer with high-technology equipments, so doctors can detect your cure easily. Another thing is that patients can use TI with some mobile applications in the healthcare sector to learn their personal health information. For example, they can control their daily sleep patterns, count calories, research treatment options and even monitor their heart rate. Therefore, thanks to the continuous development of technology and Internet in the health industry, countless lives have been saved and technological innovations in the medical field continue to provide doctors or experts with new ways to improve the quality of their patients'care and improve the global healthcare.

          The second benefit of technology and Internet is the source of faster communication and information. The web is at the heart of many ways in communication and information. It makes things in life faster and more efficient. For instance, you can search everything about what do you want to know, you can find and read many documents, books, news. You can keep in touch with family or do business with colleagues. Moreover, you can hold everything you need to palm of your hand thanks to mobile phones with applications,such as, finding and booking hotel, checking in to your flights, paying the bills, searching for jobs.Another key area is that TI have an enormous effect on social networking. Social networking is all about sharing and it provides you to share your moments with photos, thoughts,videos and more. It gives you many opportunities communicate with people more quickly and more often in various social networking sites,such as, Facebook and Twitter. As can be seen, technology and Internet breakdown barriers of distance and helps to make you more connected in communication and information.

        Last but not least, the third benefit of technology and Internet is encouraging innovation and creativity which help us to build new ways of thinking or doing something. TI allows for the development of online working, so you can do your own business while you stay at home. For instance, you can use various websites to sell products, or you can create new projects and share with other people on the Internet easily. Furthermore, you have the capability to create higher quality ideas in less time thanks to TI, because TI gives opportunities to find many sources for your development such as, online books, training and career courses, documentaries, materials and more. Moreover, effiency and productivity take place in our lives through the use of TI. For example, farmers use TI to produce more food and they also use TI to develop agriculture  and create facilities for animals. There is no doubt that TI helps for the improvement of innovative and creative things and TI moves us, our country and our world forward.

       To put in a nutshell, TI is similar to a spider web which covers every part of our lives. Spider webs have a spectacular view and they have different purposes to attract,capture or store spiders'preys.TI also use the same method to gather and present information to people in great ways.When the webs of TI begin to grow, they affect and surround many sections in the World, like health and health industry, the source of faster communication and information, encouraging innovation and creativity.As far as I'm concerned that health is the golden key of all these locked areas and health industry is on the cutting edge of which is quite improving many sources to make our lives more convenient. TI is required to increase the quality of life and health but do not forget the best ideas always come from healthy minds.

by Hilal Demir 1st year ELT Student @ Erciyes University

Band 80-90: INTERACTION AMONG PEOPLE: FRIENDSHIP

“A good friend is a connection to life, a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” says Lois Wyne. The scientific connection between a mother and a baby is an umbilicial cord but the emotional thing that they are connected is “friendship” between them. To tell the truth, the interaction among people is necessity for human being. Wherever you go all around the world, this interaction will find you because as even animals have an interaction among one another, how could not people have an interaction? Hence, this interaction starts with ‘encountering a friend’. For instance, when even a kid starts a primary school, s/he looks forward to finding a friend inasmuch as s/he does not want to be lonely. Yet, every human has an outlook about “friendship”. This may vary from a person to the other person. Considering all of these aspects like honest, supportive, and enjoyful can be three fundamental features that are regarded as a true friend while choosing a friend.

First of all, honesty representing loyalty and trust in one’s character is one of the most outstanding characteristic features for a friendship that has strong bond for being a long-term relationship. It does not bring more friends, on the other hand, it always provides to get loyal and trustworthy friends. For one thing, having loyal friends makes you feel confident. Hence, they do not tend to leave you alone, in contrast, they are always with you under any circumstances. This can be illustrated by the fact that a friend who has some dreadful behaviours such as using drugs, smoking, gambling will absolutely influence on you tremendously. On one hand, you try to give him/her up from these behaviours instead of neglecting him/her. That is to say, loyal friends make you withhold to mess with wicked habits. Another point to consider is that a friend should be a person you can trust. This friend is someone you can conveniently share you daily feelings. If you have a friend, s/he mainly must be honest and also trustworthy person who does not twist the truths and loyal person who makes you feel safe.

Secondly, a compliment, a smile or even a shoulder to cry can make a world of difference for a friend who needs your support. For one thing, a friend needs to hear your encouraging words when struggling with stress-filled situations. For instance, your friend copes with tough tasks and s/he does not put up with them and decides to give up them. In the midst of all this, you had better turn into a cheerleader of him/her and you had better support him/her with strong sides of your positiveness. Hence, both of you are at each other’s back. Moreover, a friend can intuit his/her emotions and s/he had better be an active listener to make them real. You should show that you understand his/her concerns by validating his/her feelings with phrases such as ‘I see that you are suffering…’ Thus, your friend will realize that when s/he needs a back, you are always somewhere here.

Thirdly, if you color your life, nothing beats having an entertaining friend. While your life is getting tedious, a friend comes and pulls you out this life. That is an enjoyful friend. For instance, you are abandoned by your beloved man at the wedding table and you are so heartbroken. Even in this case, you need to back your friend to life. Another point to consider is that in my opinion having a funny friend is unique because making somebody laugh is a mountain to climb. This person must have a good sense of humour. Hence, if you need to smile or want to get rid of troubles, this has a cure. Furthermore, while you are hanging out together, you notice that you have some similar interests such as going to cinema, swimming and so on. This kind of activities make you closer. Thus, the more you spend time together, the more you enjoy. As is obvious that you should find an enjoyful friend to breathe your life into something.

All in all, Thomas Aquinas says “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” Yet, these three characteristics features of a friend, like honest, supportive and enjoyful, are of the most significant. The foremost of all is honesty that is a crucial step  while making a friend. Maintaining this honesty requires a mega effort to tell the truth and keep your word. You can rely on and be loyal to one another in order to have an honest relationship. Moreover, being a supportive friend also forms a basis of camaraderie. A friend had better motivate his/her friend under any situations. Importantly, a genuine supportive step is to listen. Sometimes only listening is the best healer and also sometimes  having an enjoyful friend gives a meaning to you. This person is your life and soul of the party. Every moment you spend and eveything you achieve together is worthwhile for you. If you feel as if you are in a desert island, you should find a genuine friend promptly since s/he will bring out the best in you.


by Rümeysa Aktaş 1st year ELT Student @Erciyes University

band 60-70: CRITERIA FOR A GOOD FRIEND

        When we think ticklish sides of the world, we need somebody to cope with difficulties. We want to trust him/her and share our problems and our happiness with him/her. Therefore, we are always looking for the most suitable person. Of course, it is not easy as we thought but we might try to recognize people and decide which one suits us.It is also crucial that this person must give you confidence,love and listen you and make feel that s/he is always with you.Person who you choose as a friend must be like a father and always tries to protect you against harmful situations or must be like a mother and be compassionate.Of course there are a lot of criteria for a good and real friend but being always reliable,honesty whatever happens and keeping secrets can be the basic criteria.

        First of all, one of the features of a wanted friend is being always reliable because reliability is one of the most crucial qualification that is expected from a friend.For instance, when you need somebody in any situation,there must be somebody who is always near you and supports you.You must have a friend protecting your private goods when you entrust them to him/her.For example,when you are away,your friend must protect your goods. There must be a friend who you can go anywhere with him/her without hesitating. So,reliability gives you durability and makes you feel in secure.

        Secondly, honesty may be one of the qualifications which affects a person.Everybody can tell good sides of you but a good friend tells you bad sides,as well because his/her aim is not deceiving you.For example there is a problem about your friend and you realize that but you think if you mention about it,s/he can take offense but you think you should be honest about it because this problem can affect his/her life negatively.You choose your best words and tell. Maybe at fist s/he can get angry with you but then s/he will realize that you are right.Because of your honesty your friend will start to behave carefully. Relationship between you and your friend will be more durable thanks to honesty.

        Thirdly,keeping secret is one of the features which is wanted from a good friend.For example,when something bad happened although you are cross with your friend,you are comfortable that your friend is a real and good friend and will not tell your secrets to anyone.Secrets are sometimes can be too heavy incubus to live with them so you need to share them with a trustful friend.For instance,you heard a very terrifying admission from somebody and you learned it but it is too heavy to hide it and you tell it to your friend and feel that your incubus decreased.After that you start to feel more comfortable and also trustworthy. That is to say, secrets sometimes can be very crucial for our lives,finding a good friend to keep them is also significant.

        All in all,being reliable,honesty whatever happens and keeping secret are the most important qualificaions of a good friend. Everbody wants to be with a reliable person.’’When ditrust began,friendship disappeared.’’said Epicure. Reliability is equal to friendship so we must rely on somebody and try to find a real person. In my opinion, nobody rejects a person who is honest. If there is something bad or wrong,being honesty solves all the problems. Honesty shows that a person is moral.Everybody has secrets and sometimes we need to share them with somebody but this person is not be an ordinary one.We want to choose a trustful person who can keep our secrets. These criteria can hold friends all together.I mean,go on a long journey and in this journey eliminate handicaps,in the end you will reach an infinite sea then resign youself to the sea.

by Merve Cukaz 1st year ELT Student @ Erciyes University.

Band 70-80: FRIENDSHIP

          There is a fact that people have been interacting with one another for ages. This interaction has been engaging people not in the real life but also in their minds and dreams. This simply makes the interaction cover people’s lives to a large extent during their lives. In line with this, the interaction among people is so important for them in the world, where interpersonal relations prevail, that it brings with some strong emotions for people over time. These emotions also generate close relationship as we can label ‘’real friendship''. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, ‘’Friendship is always a sheltering tree’’. As can be understood, the friendship that people gain great experience forms a crucial part of communication among people because people are born, grow mature, and die with their friends. Nevertheless, having a real friend might require some criteria for people such aspaying special attention to personality features, mutual respect and social relations of your potential friend.

           To begin with, personality feature is a crucial criterion for people who are on the verge of making a friend. This feature forms a basis for a permanent friendship. There is a range of personality features with the inclusion of being supporting and encouraging, sharer and honest. Having a supportive friend hits the spot for people when they confront with a vague problem. In such cases, the friend manages to raise people’s moral and encourages them. For instance, while I was getting prepared for the university exam, I had low scores in earlier exams. However, my sister struggled to encourage me to succeed by heeding my trouble like a close friend and consequently, I coped with the exam. Another feature to consider is about being sharer. Being sharer may be crucial to you. Sharing includes not only property, but also emotions. As long as people share their friends’ happiness and sadness, they will be more pleased in the life. For example, I was staying at dormitory in high school years and we were always celebrating our friends’ birthdays, so we shared one another’s happiest day and consolidated our friendship. The last thing would be related to having honesty. As it forms backbone of friendship, even tiny lie may damage the friendship, so people should love each other without profit. Otherwise, they may not have even a friend. In short, above mentioned personality features are vital to make friends.

         Another point to consider in making friends is the mutual respect. This point is effective for long-standing friendship. For one thing, racial discrimination is a disruptive attitude in friendship, so you should not give priority to people’s appearance and races in making friend. The thing that you need to care in making friend is to have mutual respect. For example, a lot of blackish people may go to your country to work or study. However, when you run across these kinds of people in your circle of friends, you should never give prominence their races to make friendship. It is because people’s races are not important for friendship and people should be judged with their behaviors not races. The other point to consider is about empathizing with people. The empathetic understanding provides to continue your friendship for a long time. For instance, if your friends make a decision which you do not appeal, you should empathize with her/him to see the point instead of being angry with her/him. The last thing would be related to choosing

your words carefully in conversation. While you are in communication with your friends, you should think twice your words which will say. Otherwise, you cannot draw back your words and consequently, you may be on the brink of disagreement with your friends, so talking carefully in friends is an important criterion. To wit, mutual respect is also crucial criterion in making a firm friendship.

        Thirdly, social relation is a critical matter for a peaceful friendship process. As you know, every person wants to make a friend who is compatible with her/his circle. Nobody wants to be harmed or killed because of their friend acquired, so people care about their friends’ social relations in making friend. For example, some people come across a person who has been in the prison because of committing offense and the situation precludes making friend due to people’s prejudices against the person. In addition, people’s relationship with their families is a crucial criterion for friendship. For instance, every person cannot get on well with their families. This disagreement brings about great problems for them like not staying at their home, staying at their friends’ home or living rough and consequently, this situation causes to be approached against the people with bias in the way of making friend. Above mentioned reasons, social relations have crucial role for an impeccable acquiring friends.

          To sum up, making a friend includes criteria like personality features, mutual respect and social relations. When we look in general, these species of criteria vary from person to person. The reason of variability in making a friend stems from having different qualifications like personality features. These features are enough for people to give confidence one another. Mutual respect is a crucial criterion in terms of being understanding and not being prejudiced for people’s appearance and behaviors. Social relations are also vital matter about making a reliable friend and not being exposed to threats by friends people have. I think, while comparing the criteria, personality features are the most inclusive criterion in above mentioned criteria. Having mutual respect and good social relations will be also inevitable in making friend if people have decent personality features. In short, as Aristotle said ‘’Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit’’. As can be understood, this qualification diversity that people have causes to process slowly period of making friend. Therefore, it takes time to find a friend who has an excellent feature.


by Çetin Özgür Düzgün 1st year ELT Student @ Erciyes University

Band 80-90: The Sharpest Sword or The Mightiest Shield

            Friends are as effective as a sword that is being used to attack us or a shield that will protect us from the attacks in the battlefield that we call 'life'. They help us getting through hardships, cheer us up and when we need, they become our back-ups. But when picked carelessly our friendships may backfire and leave us in a tough situation. There are many kinds of friends; colleagues, friends met through social media, neighbors, classmates. Each of them has their significant role in our life. Some of them helps us doing home works, some of them are always upbringing and cheers us up, some of them accompany us when we are alone and depressed. But we must be careful on friends whom we will completely trust and share our private matters. We must judge their characters well. One might look different than he or she really is. There are qualifications that we must find in a real friend who we can trust such as characteristic features, social interactions and maturity.

            First of all, characteristic features of a person whom you will choose as a friends is a crucial matter which you should be aware of. Every person is different from the other hence characteristic features differ from one to another. If one does not act strictly when judging characteristic features of friends around, s/he might be lied to or even get betrayed. For instance if you keep trusting a person who does not value loyalty, you will eventually got betrayed from that person like Julies Caesar, who said ''You, too, Brutus?'' as his last words. In addition to loyalty, honesty is also vital characteristic feature to find in a real friend. The lack of honesty can cause insecurity between friends and that leads to parting ways with each other. Overall, one must be aware of what are the characteristic features of the people around him/her and choose friends depending on these qualifications.

            Secondly, social interactions of a friend is way too pivotal to ignore when choosing a friend. The way your friend interacts with other people will eventually influence your own relation with those people too. If your friend is acting hostile towards someone then that person will probably feel resentment towards you too since s/he sees you with your friend. On the other hand, your friend's positive interactions will benefit you. For instance, when your friend acts respectful towards your elders then they will think that you are such a kind person too unless you disrespect them. Human nature mostly been this like this; people will usually judge you with what you look like or especially with whom they see you are close with. Overall, a friends interactions with others are another compelling matter that you must not miss when choosing a friend.

            Lastly, maturity is a must-have prerequisite in choosing a friend. The way your friend reacts to the events (which are occurring around you and your friend) will shape your own reactions too and being mature helps us with our responsibilities or problem solving abilities. Thus progress will be made within our life. As an illustration, a mature friend would not make biased decisions and think twice before deciding while considering every circumstance. On the other hand, an immature friend who rushes every decision with a lack of the grasp in the matter would also abash the harmony of your decision making thus make you vulnerable to the negative consequences of your wrong moves. The aforementioned reasons are why you must be vigilant about maturity of a person when choosing a friend.

            In epitome, the process of choosing a friend has three main points: characteristic features, social interactions and maturity. You must pick friends attentively and look for at least these three qualifications since friends are like double edged swords. Characteristic features are what makes someone worthy of others respect. A friend must be equipped with good characteristic features to avoid bringing harm to others. A friend who has pleasant interactions with others will raise the quality of your life, as well. And a mature natured friend would help one to cope with unexpected events that we face within our lives. Since a human being cannot live a  life without interacting with others nor live without a friend, every single person must be cautious when choosing a friend otherwise you would find yourself sinking in a swamp; thinking about how you ended up in that situation while going down.

by Kadir Akkaya 1st year ELT Student @Erciyes University

Band 90-100: Best Decisions and Best Friends

My grandfather always says ‘the bond of communion is more significant than kindredship’.  Kindredship, blood relationship, is involuntary but friendship is in your hands. Real friends are like your siblings without ties of blood. Sometimes, your friend knows you better and h/she is closer than your relatives or even your family.  Besides, you choose the person to be your friend whom you will build strong and deep bonds. How strong the bond of friendship depends on how you choose your friends. Choosing a friend wisely makes camaraderie last forever, however, choosing him/her carelessly makes it go down in flames.  That is why criteria of choosing friends are immensely crucial. In parallel with this, there are some criteria about what makes a person a good friend. By taking into account his or her characteristics, life style and point of view, you can decide whether a person will be a good friend or not.

First of all, for choosing a superb friend, one of the remarkable and pivotal criteria should be characteristics. The steadier his/her characteristics are, the more durable your friendship would be. S/he should be understanding when you make a mistake or take a decision. A real friend thinks that you have a strong reason for what you did or asks why you did so and tries to understand your situation. Otherwise, h/she can easily cut the painter in every mistake you made. Likewise, a friend should not be revengeful after you do something wrong. Such a negative and hazardous personality can harm both of you. Also, a real friend is not self-seeker as your success should be his/her happiness. If not, friendship does not last for a long time. For instance, I had a friend who blamed me for being overambitious whenever I wanted to get higher marks and I was happy, she would be upset and said I was selfish and did not understand how she felt. In such circumstances, friendship would probably end with an irrelevant pretext. When considering the criteria for choosing a friend, characteristics of your potential friend can play a big part in it.

Secondly, life style is another crucial criterion for choosing a real friend. The proverb ‘if you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas’ verifies this criterion. How they live can have an enormous impact on your life, your friendship and your personality. Specifically, a true friend should not have bad habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol. Even if you avoid these habits, after a while, such bad habits would seem good and you would get used to them. Indeed, the significant reason for getting into the habit of smoking and alcohol or drug dependency is mainly related to choosing friends carelessly. Moreover, if you are shy and asocial, it is important to have a friend who always socializes with people and loves outdoors. Such friends could provide you to get rid of your shyness and to learn how to communicate. Importantly, having hobbies that both can enjoy would improve your friendship. Hereby, you can have good time and become real friends in time. Also, h/she knows what can entertain you when you are in a bad mood. By looking at such details, life style can definitely be a decisive criterion to take into consideration while picking a friend.

Lastly, the less effective but consequential criterion for choosing a friend is point of view of your potential friend. Friends may have different enjoyments, and they may (dis)like different things nevertheless they would not be close friends unless they have similar point of view to yours. If a thing is absolutely wrong for one and the thing is certainly wrong for another, one day, they would conflict with each other. In particular, doing something behind someone’s back or lying should be wrong for both of them. Also, your friend’s point of view on life impacts you. It is significant that your friend is whether optimistic or pessimistic. Joel Osteen says ‘’you cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life.’’ Accordingly, negative people consume your energy of life. Moreover, if a person thinks himself/herself superior, it is difficult to be his/her friend because the person cannot accept that h/she is wrong or you are better at something. Such a friend always underestimates you and causes to lose your self-confidence.  Although people do not exactly pay attention to point of view when they choose a friend, it influences not only friendship but also their life.

In a nutshell, choosing a person whom you can call a real friend can probably be based on his/her characteristics, life style and point of view. Of course, we do not think about the criteria while becoming friends at first. However, these criteria might help you decide how you can select a person whom you will let him/her know all about you and have remarkable effects on your lives. Especially, characteristic has great importance in friendship because it determines their life style and point of view. In addition, characteristics are corner stones of camaraderie and steady characteristics lay the foundations of strong friendship. If you bear this criterion in mind when choosing a friend, your friendship stays strong for years like a well based building. As Rashida Rowe said ‘friends are angels who lift our feet when our own wings have trouble remembering how to fly.’


by Zarife Nur Göveç 1st year ELT student @ Erciyes University

Band 90-100: Elected Features for a Selected Friend

        Considering humans as social beings, there are certain and crucial requirements for them to survive, ranging from fundamental physical necessities to emotional ones. These emotional needs are based on building healthy relations with others as a part of the psychological aspect of human life. As is known, relation is the bonds in family, between spouses, even colleagues and of course between friends. There is no possible way to determine our parents, still we can be quite selective on the matter of accepting someone as a friend. Although, there are several specific features we look for on someone to build up the friendship bonds, the following three would be the basic but common ones for many; personality, point of view and life style. 

        First of all, it is certainly inevitable to observe the personality of someone before setting up a close relationship with him/her. Indeed, there are various attitudes that can be treated as the components of personality such as being supportive, trustworthy, thoughtful, forgiving, genuine and kind. For instance, having supportive and kind manner may be the essential ones for some considering that people need emotional support in most cases and wish to have it in the kindest way possible. In similar to this, being accused of the unintentional mistakes is purely severe; therefore, a person who is forgiving and gracious would be what many people look for. Another point to consider is that, imagine someone who is far away from being judgmental conversely and s/he cares about other`s thoughts by being a good listener, all could determine the significance of personality of a desired friend.

        Secondly, another crucial point to take into consideration while choosing a friend is perception of life. To be clearer, it is the fact that people see and approach the events and others in numerous ways. For instance, people tend to see the glass either half full or half empty. This perspective may determine whether someone seeks the good and illustrates the bright side both in people and in themselves. In relation to this, the attitude of a person towards the life would basically influence the others around. Indeed, “the way the people around us respond to stressful events — whether those people react negatively or positively — may be contagious” *, a new study says. Therefore, to avoid negative thoughts and to embrace a healthy and glamorous mind and life, it is critical to opt someone who is glowing with a sparkling light and inspires around to be the same.

       Thirdly, it is possible to count the life style as a distinctive determiner in point of choosing a friend. Certain habits like eating healthy food, sleeping times, engaging in profitable issues in spare times could be thought as the life style. In particular, the activities or hobbies one perform in his/her spare time are extremely important because people generally spend their free time together by doing the things they enjoy. If two people do not have any kind of pleasure in common, probably, having time together will be suffering for them. Another point to take into account is eating habits. Since there could be wide variety of food choices range from healthy, organic to rubbish, fast-food types, it is essential to select someone who shares the similar eating habits. As it will eventually influence your body and health. Hence, the way we choose to live the life had better be similar to him/her whom we choose as a friend.

        All in all, personality, point of view and life style could be the foremost criteria inquired by the majority before commencing to build up a friendship. Therefore, it is highly important to bear in mind them with respect to one`s priority. As point of view and life style are bound to personality, they could be shaped or built according to personality. Hence, it is highly possible to suggest that personality could be the one which is mostly required to be prioritized. Yet, being over selective could result in solitude, impact of which is negative on people`s daily lives. As Mark Twain stated “Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide with it” *. The key point is to hold the balance between being fussy or being hasty for the purpose of living and cherishing the life with its entire sense.

  

References

*1: www.livescience.com/28877-negative-thoughts-depression-contagious.html

*2: www.quotationspage.com/quote/31084.html 

by Sema Akbaş 1st year ELT Student @ Erciyes University