Facebook crowdsourcing gives lonely boy 1.4 millions friends

Summary:

• Colin is a 10 years old boy who has Asperger syndrome, which cause him to has a hard time making friends. He often being tease by other students. He usually have his lunch in the school office because other kids won’t let him sit with them. His birthday is on March 9th. His mother, Jennifer Cunningham, asked him if he wanted a birthday part, but he said there wasn’t any point because he didn’t have any friend. Therefore, his mom decide to create a “Happy Birthday Colin” Facebook page. And in just 10 days, so many people around the world have commented on the page; they all wishing him and happy birthday and commending Cunningham for helping her son. The page has reach up to more than 1.4 million likes.

Major Point:

• Colin is a 10 years boy living in Michigan. And he is had a hard time making friend because he has Asperger syndrome.
• Colin’s mother want to surprise her son by creating a “Happy Birthday Colin” Facebook page for him. Within 10 days, it reached to more than 1.4 likes.
• People around the world come wish him on Facebook.

Potential Strength:

• After reading, people might start go posting birthday wish on his walls.
• From the article, we can see that Colin is kind of person who never give up easily. Even though he has to face with many problems, but he never whine or complain about having to go to school. As what he said “you’ve got to keep trying”. This make us know that we have to keep trying and fighting no matter what had happen, just like Colin.

Potential Problem:

• His classmate / school mate might start to tease him more because they know that no one come to Colin’s birthday party.

Discussion Question:

• Will Asperger syndrome effect his study in school too?
• Can there be any way to help him improve his social skill?

Citation:

Kerr, Dara. “Facebook Crowdsourcing Gives Lonely Boy 1.4 Million Friends.” CNET News. CBS Interactive, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Why you should never send negative emails

Summary:

• We should never send negative email even though we feel close with the person and want to share our feelings and emotion. This is because email is not a right place for sharing emotional feelings. There is one philosophy that has proven this is true, negative emails often turn out to be a very poor communication, the best way is to talked in person or on phone.

Major Concept:

• The reasons why negative emanational emails are bad..
  • Lack of tone, body language and eye contact. We can’t know how they feel; are they angry?sad? Their emotions in our of our control.
  • It can create a battle to win out. Just like in debate, we try to bring up the phrase that could be shoot down others. This would likely to turn out into a fight rather than understanding each others.
  • Ready, Set, Dwell. When we receive an emotional email, it’s hard for us to know exactly how the other person feels, because email doesn’t show expression. So we should better talk about the issue in live conversation.
  • We can be irrational in the moment. When our emotions are strong, we would tend to do things without thinking carefully. By sharing the emotion throughout emails might sometime cause us to feel regret later.
• Things that we could do instead of sending emails…
  • Just take it offline. You might write out your emotion and save as draft but don’t sent it. This could improve both your sanity and ability to work well with others.
  • Set up a regular time to share emotions. When you feel like sharing your thought, feeling, etc. you could set up a time to talk with your friends. It’s better than sending an email.
  • Write it out but don’t send it. By writing your emotion down will make you feel better.

Strengths:

• The author clearly list out the disadvantage of sending negative email.
• The author list out some way to solve the problem instead of sending emails.
• The language is easy to read and understand.

Disadvantages:

• There should be more pictures to make the article more eye-catching.
• The article is base on personal experience, so it might not apply to everyone.

Discussion Questions:

• How about the person we send the email to is a very close friend and understand us well, will this consider as bad too?
• If we send an email to sorry them after we send the negative email, is this ok?

Citation

• Spinks, David. “Why You Should Never Send Negative Emails.” TNW Network All Stories RSS. N.p., 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.