Letters To The Editor


“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson



The downside of online gaming

Today, the Internet offers a variety of online games for everyone. There are harmless cartoon-like games for young generation as well as aggressive and violent examples. Whether it is a small kid or an adult man, every person will find anything to his taste. Students are also active players in online games. There is nothing surprising in the fact that they may spend the whole day or night playing online. However, such passion for online games may result for them negatively. It goes without saying that spending too much time playing online will make a negative impact on a student and usually it can result in lack of time for more important activities like studying or outdoor games, addiction, aggressive behaviour and even isolation from society. One of the most serious problems connected with online games is an addiction. People become obsessed with the virtual world, lose a sense of reality and spend all their time on playing. Most often it concerns gambling, online casinos but simulations and other games may be dangerous too. If a person can be easily influenced, the probability of him to get addicted is much higher. Many students are so influenced by games they play online that they transfer their virtual characters into reality. They get used to solving problems as their nasty heroes and this aggressive behaviour becomes a customary thing for them. Such bursts of aggressiveness should be eliminated immediately or they might grow into a habit. While online games have their benefits as they are a perfect way to get rid of stress, exhausting assignments, and keeping a student motivated, but despite the big number of benefits brought about by online games, it is important to schedule your time of playing or negative consequences will outweigh all the benefits greatly.

Hamna Badar,
Karachi.

Social media scams

How much do you use social media? Many of us have come to rely on the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay connected, to follow the news and even buy things. But with their rise in popularity comes an increased risk of fraud. These types of scams are getting more and more sophisticated, often using brand logos and false terms and conditions to appear genuine. There are different types of social media frauds. Often a fraud is done via apps. These apps ask you to give your personal information. Sometimes an app that seems real will actually download malware onto your device. Before getting new apps, ask yourself if you trust the source, do your research and avoid third party app stores – stick to the one given to you by your phone provider. Online questionnaires are yet another way of social media scam. These quizzes promising to tell you your personality type, which celebrity you look like or give you a too-good-to-be-true prize, come with hidden threats. They usually include terms and conditions which allow the data you enter to be sold to third parties. It also means the app developer can obtain a lot of information about you from your profile, friends and IP address. Avoid any short quizzes advertised on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Also beware of clicking on shortened URLs which hide the full location of the webpage. They are very common on Twitter and while they could innocently direct you to the correct site, there’s always a chance they might divert you to one which installs malware. Be wary of what you click on, check if the post is typical behaviour from the account publishing it and make sure you have real-time protection against spyware and viruses.

Hira Sikander,
Karachi.


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