A few months ago, there is a new virus that came from China, known as Corona or COVID-19. This virus has spread so fast that it even affected the EU and the US. Many companies have been shut down, and the stock of these company decrease significantly. People now scared to be outside of their house; they started self-quarantine. Because of that, they start looking for new things to do, like learn how to edit videos, photoshop, making cake, cooking. But there is something that almost teenagers will do when they quarantine themselves at home is playing game.

According to Steam, one of the most popular gaming online stores, they have gained a lot of customers because people now stay inside and find a new game to have something to do when they self-quarantine. That true when young people, especially teenager, they can not remain still at home when they get used to hanging around with friend our going outside so that they need to find another way to get them out of the boringness. In my perspective, I think it is a good way to save humanity since the out-break. They can still get fun and enjoy themselves at home. More of that, they can not be affected by the virus, also they will not spread the virus to other people if they have it.

Grasping customer demand, a lot of service entertainment industry makes a move to encourage people staying at home to avoid the virus. And the gaming industry is also not an exception when they have made a lot of money during the out-brake buy using some strategies like sold-off game or give away games.  

Due to the booming of information technology, you may ask: “What is Facebook?”, You will give answer: It is a face of someone and a place belongs to personal category which is used to connect with community.

Facebook is not only totally free, but it is also one of the best mediums for communication. Facebook is a helpful website that allows people to build relationships and stay in touch with friends and relatives. This gives you the opportunity to learn more about the culture, values, customs, and traditions of other countries—a modern-day pen-pal service without the hassle. Personally, I am an international student who had to leave familiar things and face the impossible while having homesickness. But thanks for Facebook, the demand for communication with my family has become easier.It keeps me from losing touch with my relationships “flow between flesh and technology more easily everyday” because staying in touch with people online builds the relationship when finally seen face to face. Besides, through Facebook, I can access the internet anytime, anywhere to keep up with the latest news from my friends, my relatives. Moreover, it is a great way to share feelings and what’s happening in your daily life. 

            It only takes 5 minutes to sign up for a Facebook account. But not everyone knows how to use social networks properly and efficiently. Facebook has come to be probably the most commonly used social networking site. It is nearly impossible to go a day without hearing something about technology on the news in some form, whether it is good or bad. Sharing everything, being extremely concerned about updating and creating a favorable image on Facebook are becoming a “hot trend” for young people. Perhaps Facebook has created a virtual world where the personal information is being violated, also where people can show the “great things” to receive commendation from netizen but hide away their true feelings. Because Facebook is free so everyone can show up on it, the posts and share content can easily form a movement and comment from the Facebook community, even brick and mortar. People just comment and share which depend on their senses without deeply understanding. 

The customer demand for stream game service is high that leads to a new type of service is born, which is “live stream.”

The word “live stream” is mean you listen and watch a video in real-time, which is uploaded on the internet. The most common morphology is news, sporting events that show up on TV or a concert… “Live stream” is come out because people need to contact others via video, but with the development of technology, live stream extends coverage to many other areas. Some live stream platform like Youtube live, Facebook lives, Instagram, Twitch, …  

“Live stream” creates a significant evolution of the gaming industry. There were 100 million people watched “League of Legend” World Champion, and at peak time, more 1.9 million people were watching Dota 2 The International. Which means there are more people watching gaming that people are actually playing it. In my opinion, there are no problems with watching other people playing video games. Watching live streams or other people playing video games. I think we should consider being a hobby when you are in your free time. It just like watching other people playing sport or watching some entertaining movies. If people accepted watching sport without playing it, so why don’t people do that with video games?

There are several reasons to watch others playing video games. Maybe you want to get better, understand deeply about that game, or just want to be entertaining. People desire connecting when playing game, so watching the live stream can be considered one of the reasons why people are watching live streams more and more.

I decided to participate in a challenge where I would force myself to try a new experience every day for a month. My challenge is No social media for 7 days. No posting on Facebook, no checking out on Instagram, no random rants on my Twitter page.

How times flies! Taking a 7-day break from social media had a stunning impact on my life. My morning ritual had changed from waking up and checking all social media, to only checking Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The first day wasn’t so bad when I stopped using social media. I deactivated all of my accounts, all apps were removed on my phone. And, I felt freedom without social media. Day 2 was a drag. I got bored in the afternoon and had no idea what to do. After that, I decided to cook and clean up my room.  In the evening, I walked around Troy campus with my friend. He realized my disappearance on social media. He said that even if he doesn’t see me one day, he still knows what did I do because I’m always share something on Facebook. When I told him the reason why I did that, he totally agreed with my decision.  My brain was going crazy on the third day which was on Wednesday, I miss my Facebook so much. I decided to make a coffee and read a book. I chose “ The Witcher: The last wish ”  which was written by Andrzej Sapkowski. In the next three days, I still spent time reading that book. Due to reading a book, I totally forgot about social media.

After one week, I turn on my social media account again because I need to keep in touch with my family. And I realize I can do a lot of thing without using social media all the time.

PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds or known as PUBG is a game that is too familiar when surpassed many e-sport games in Steam like CS:GO and Dota2. Moreover, PUBG was the most favorite game in Korea, more than Overwatch and League of Legend in late 2017. However, this game considers being “dead” after two years on Steam.

According to Steam, in early 2018, PUBG had more than 3 million people were playing at a time. But after two years, PUBG only reaches 6 thousand players at peak time. To compare with other games like Dota2 and CS:GO, Dota2 has more than 6 thousand whereas CS:GO has 9 thousand, but the thing is both Dota2 and CS:GO has been published almost ten years (Dota2 – 2010, CS:GO- 2013) but they still attract more players than PUBG which publish in 2017. Moreover, there are more and more streamers, which is one of the most advertising element of a game and effect thinking of gaming community, stop playing or steaming PUBG. Also, some professional gaming company retires their PUBG team to focus more on developing other game.

So why was PUBG lost a lot of players like that? First, hack and cheat. There were so many hacker and cheater in middle and late 2018. In the shooting game, only one cheater can ruin all other experiences. I don’t know does the developer have any action on that, but it seems to be the same. Second, the developer ignores community opinion. There are several bugs on the game, but patch to patch, that bug remains still there despite more than 3gb update. Even there is no hack and cheat, the gaming experience is still be affected because of that. Moreover, form the beta till now, there is nothing new and unchanged about gameplay. We only the new expensive costumes. Third, competitors. After PUBG, many battle royale game has been released such as Fortnite, Apex Legend, Call of Duty,… which has better graphics, easier for new players …

If anyone asks me, does PUBG “dead”? My answer is, “Yes, it is totally dead by now.”

Changing behavior is one of the hardest things any of us will ever try to do. As Jim Rohn said :

“ If you will change, everything will change for you. Don’t wait for things to change. Change doesn’t start out there, change starts within… All change starts with you. ”

When I decided to participate in a challenge where I would force myself to try a new experience every day for a month, I wasn’t too sure how it would go. My challenge is No social media for 7 days. No posting on Facebook, no checking out on Instagram, no random rants on my Twitter page.

The reason why I decided to quit social media for a month because I realized that most of us are addicted to social media, but no one wants to admit it. I got this idea from my friend when I talked to him.

Action Plan:

1. Study for the next exam
2. Deactivate my Facebook
3. Remove social media apps from my iPhone
4. Spend time for healthy living
5. Learn a new language
6. Learn how to drive a car

Due to the development of technology, Artificial Intelligent (AI) may affect many aspects of human life.

Imagine someday, after going back from work, and then your kid said he doesn’t want to go to school because the teacher teaches too fast, and he can’t follow. It is hard when you are between the school and your son. But with the help of AI, it will understand where your child doesn’t understand or understand things through analyzing the emotion when your child faces it. From that, it may find you a teacher that fits for your child the most. With AI, your child will have a pleasant experience with studying, which motived them to study harder and get a better score.  Not only changing in education, but AI can also improve all the medication system by predicting the illness of the patient through small signal, which makes people more time to prepare or to treat.

More and more AI functions make AI become popular in many areas of life. Making AI is the most talked-about in social media, news, magazine, … Despite many lousy predictions like it will control humanity, or it may destroy all humanity, AI still has a big impact on society and to many firms. It is nearly impossible to find a technology firm without AI.  

“Money can not buy anything. It can not buy happiness, it can not buy love,” “Money can change the humanity” … to be honest, I think money is the most challenging thing to talk about because everyone has their perspective about this kind of thing.

In my opinion, even I know money cannot buy anything, but I still think money is necessary. It can change many aspects of our life. Living in a country without money is hard to get other respect and trust; however, it can be changed if you get a lot of money. You can give your kid a better condition with a good school, a good quality of life. You can also help your family, help your parents, treat them immediately if they got sick. Moreover, money can make peace in the family. I have seen a lot of couples fighting with each other just because they do not have money or the husband stole the money from his wife to go to the bar or club to have some drinks. It creates temporary happiness among family members. Money can pay for their vacation, make people get closer to family members. Sum up, money does an important role in our life. However, it depends on what people think about it. Some people do not need to have a vacation, do not need to buy expensive clothes. Then for them, it is not important but for me it is.

So what do you guys think about money? Do we have the same thought or do you have any different perspective about money?