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CONTENTS
PAGES
1.0
PART A
2.0
PART B
REFERENCES
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1.0
PART A
Nowadays, the traditional family structure no longer exists in this
modern world. It's not surprising the modern family structure has replaced
it instead. In the societies we live in today, many things are not done the
way they used to be done back in the days where technology was not
present. The development of technology makes it easier for people to
communicate, to travel, to work and so on. No one can deny that peoples
lifestyles have changed significantly in the last twenty years. With
computer revolution and invention of the internet many people got pulled
into online life. This is especially visible in some families where the
amount of verbal communication has dropped significantly. To illustrate,
the computers and mobile phones makes it easier for us to communicate
all over the world. Also in the modern life, education has developed with
the use of internet. In this swift moving world, the life style has changed a
lot. Modern lifestyle has come across with new technologies and also
broadens the horizon of one's knowledge. Modern lifestyles are nothing
new to people from all walks of life. They have become so powerful and
play an essential role in our lives. From the latest gadgets like laptops,
smart phones, tablets and PCs, everyone has somehow or rather
experienced the high technology in one way or another. Research claims
that the modern lifestyles affect the relationships of parents and children.
It is also claimed that quite a number of children suffer as they do not get
as much attention from their parents as other children did in the past.
There are a few factors as to why this happens. The causes of leading the
modern lifestyles are mainly to upgrade the life of the family, to keep up
with the modern technology and to respect the childrens privacy. The
effects could be devastating when the children are neglected and face
communication breakdown with their parents.
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Firstly, the cause of leading the modern lifestyles is due to upgrade the
life of the family itself. As modern lifestyles are very technologically
influenced, family expenditure have definitely increased and so parents
tend to be too preoccupied with earning material wealth. The economic
pressure has forced both parents to work that they no longer are able to
provide sufficient care and support for their children. Parents work hard
day and night just to provide a better life for the children. They have to
work harder and harder for comfortable life and just concentrate on their
works instead of their children. Many parents think that the more money
they have, the more happiness life they achieve. They do not pay as much
attention to their children as parents did in the past. In the past, children
were left under the care of a mother while the father was busy at work.
However, that is not the case anymore. Both parents have to work in order
to cater to the childrens needs tuition fees, piano lesson, swimming
class etc. It had become a routine for the parents to leave the house in the
wee hours of the morning and come back late at night. Normally when
they come back, their children are already in bed. In some cases, there
are parents who completely forgot about their childrens important dates
like sports, concerts and even birthdays. As a result, the parents-children
relationships turn sour as the children feel neglected and unloved. Many
children tend to develop unhealthy habits such as indiscipline and truancy.
Truancy negatively impacts students in several ways. Students who are
truant are more likely to fall behind academically, drop out of school, use
drugs and alcohol, and be involved with the criminal justice system. Henry
(2007) indicates that truancys consequences are extensive, resulting in
negative implications for multiple levels of society. In the short-term,
truancy can predict maladjustment, poor academic performance, school
dropout,
substance
abuse,
delinquency,
and
teen-age
pregnancy.
Moreover, truancy exerts a negative effect on community because of its
correlation with delinquency, crime and other negative adults outcomes.
Parents may not fail in providing monthly allowance for their children but
the damage is done here. All the children need is their parents tender,
loving and care - asking how their days are and not left them under the
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care of a maid or a babysitter. Thus, parents need to stop chasing fame
and fortune and be with their children frequently.
Secondly, another cause of the modern lifestyles is to keep up with
the modern technology. Technological advancement seems important at
the time to different ages in different societies, psychologically if not
practically; in a variety of modern societies, for example, young people
presently feel a heightened empathy with the digital age (Bennett and
Maton, 2010). Technology has become the first source of information all
around the world. Owning the latest gadgets has become part and parcel
of everyones life now. Afraid of being labeled outdated, parents and
children in every household now own smart phones and tablets. The most
inspiring tool for teens and their lifestyle is the internet, mobile
technologies, and computers (Griswold, 2012). They download the latest
apps in store namely the Clash of Clans and Candy Crush games, Photo
Collage, WhatsApp Messenger and Camera 360. Both parents and
children spend a great deal of time engaging in these apps. The lack of
communication affects also relationships inside one family. It is quite
common in todays society for a family to eat dinner completely separate
from each almost purposely avoiding face-to-face communications.
Consequently, they are not communicating with each other.
Even if they
do spend time together watching television in the living room or having a
dinner at a restaurant, none of them will communicate as they are too
engrossed with their gadgets. Undeniably, the modern lifestyles affect the
relationships
between
parents
and
children
as
they
face
with
communication breakdown. Not communicating properly or failing to
communicate enough with your children can cause your bond with your
children
to
diminish.
Without
having
regular,
open
channels
of
communication with parents, children can feel as though they are lacking
guidance and support in their lives, which can lead to them developing
low self-esteem and not having a sense of direction or purpose in life. Poor
communication with children can also lead the children getting into
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dangerous activities like drinking alcohol, doing drugs, having unprotected
sex and unhealthy relationships. Unlike in the past, family time was often
spent doing chores, and children had expectations to meet on a daily
basis. The dining room table was a central place where families came
together to eat and talk about their day, and after dinner became the
center for baking, crafts and homework. As humans we rely on
communication and social bonding with other people, especially with
other members of our family. Through thousands of years this became our
human nature, but this natural process can be disrupted by overuse of
social networks. They are highly addictive and consume big amounts of
time. Consequently, children get less affection from their parents, which is
essential at their early age. Our modern lifestyle tends to change the way
we communicate. These days it not always considered abnormal if parents
communicate with their children through smartphones even if they are at
the same house. In this way parents distance their children, which can
cause
in
kids
variety
of
emotional
problems.
In conclusion, children rely on affection and effective communication with
their parents. Some modern habits, like social networks can create a gap
between parents and their children, which is hard to fill. To reach a
consensus, parents should use these technologies wisely and teach their
children to act accordingly. Improper use of technology can expose a child
to numerous risks. Children who use technology may unwittingly share
information that can put them in danger.
The anonymity of technology
can also make it easier for people to bully others online. Overuse of
technology can also affect a childs own mood. A report from the United
Kingdom revealed that kids who use computer games and their home
Internet for more than four hours do not have the same sense of wellbeing
as those who used that technology for less than an hour. One expert
explained that with less physical contact, children might have difficulty
developing social skills and emotional reactions.
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Thirdly, giving more freedom to the children and respecting their
privacy are also the cause of the modern lifestyles. Parents want their
children to be independent by giving them freedom. It is common to see
parents allowing their children to ride motorcycles to school without a
valid license. Parents also do not ask much about their childrens friends
and whereabouts. Their intention here is to give their children freedom
that they never had from their parents before. Nevertheless, excessive
freedom is sometimes misused by children. They tend to do whatever
they want and never consider how it may affect other people, thus lack of
respect for anyone is real problem for children nowadays. As a
consequence, the children often go overboard as they feel that their
parents do not care about them. Some will resort to smoking and worse
involve in drugs. These children become the victims of their own actions.
Hence, parents need to control giving freedom to their children in order
not to let them suffer in the future.
By giving more freedom to the
children, parents cannot control and discipline their children and parents
will lose the good connections if they give more deliverance to their
children. So, children dont obey their parents and they will take their
opinions by themselves. For example, nowadays, the parents cannot
control their children because the connections between the children and
the parents are very weak. Even though the children and the parents live
in certain place, they dont have any connection between them.
Consequently, the relationship between them becomes weakly. Because,
children will refuse any order from their parents and do not obey them at
all. The freedom for the children is very substantial. However, more
freedom gives negative results for the childrens behavior. The parents
shouldnt give more liberty to children for many reasons, such as, the
society affects, influences of spending money and the parent will lose
their dignity behind their children.
In conclusion, although the busy lifestyle has resulted in a situation
where families are less close than before, I also believe that there are
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cases where parents extremely busy but still managed to be involved in
their children`s life. It should be the parent duty to balance their working
and family life particularly if they decided to have children. It cannot be
denied that many parents leading modern lifestyles have little time for
their children and so they suffer in different ways.
Children begin to
develop social skills in infancy from their earliest bonds, relationships and
interactions
with
family
members.
They
perceive
and
discover
communication, collaboration and cooperation by both observing parents
and siblings as they interact with each other, and by engaging directly
with different members of the family. Families that treat each other with
respect and love promote a positive example of social interaction for very
young children. Families that spend quality time together, enjoying
activities together and sharing meals at the dinner table, for example,
also promote healthy socialization development in young children by
fostering group bonding, communication and sharing. It is undeniable that
the roles of parents and children have changed in this fast changing world.
They are no longer like the ones in the past, staying at home parents who
looked after their children. The children themselves are no longer confined
at home like the yesteryears. They are always on the move to keep
abreast with the modern world.
Modern lifestyles are here to stay,
neither it could be changed nor dismissed. Parents, on the other hand
need to put their acts together to ensure that modern lifestyles do not
interfere with the welfare of their children. The role and responsibilities of
parents in these modern times is indeed more challenging and is an
absolute necessity to ensure children do not become victims of modern
lifestyle. We should remember that the future society is completely based
on today's children. Therefore, although parents today success at work is
important, they also should pay more attention to their children.
(2,052 words)
OUMH2103
2.0
PART B
Date : 19 Mac 2016
Title : Consumers Spending in Five States for Three Items in 2014
The stimulus presents a table on consumer spending on different
items in five different states in 2014. The survey was carried out in the
states of Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan, Johor and Kedah.
In general,
consumers prefer to spend their money on essential items like food and
drinks, clothing and footwear and leisure and education.
First of all, according to the table, a significant number of consumers
in Kelantan of about 30% spent their money steadily on food and drinks
compared to 29% of consumers in Johor. Next, the percentage decreases
slightly to 28.9% and 27% both in Sabah and Sarawak respectively.
In
addition, the least number of consumers who spent their money on food
and drinks was recorded in Kedah with 26.9%.
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Based on the table, the highest percentage of consumers who spent
their money on clothing and footwear was recorded in Sarawak, with the
total number of 9%. In contrast, the least percentage of consumers was
reported in Kelantan, around 5.5% of them spent on these two items
minimally. Meanwhile, the percentage of consumers who spent on these
two items increases significantly in Sabah. A total percentage of 6.5% of
consumers was recorded. In the same way, Johor documented 6.9% of
consumers who bought clothing and footwear items followed by Kedah
which listed 7% of consumers spending on these items.
Besides, the highest recorded percentage of consumers who spent
on leisure and education was in Johor. It was noted that 7% of its
consumers prefer to spend on these two items. The percentage declines
slightly to 1% in Kedah and drops dramatically to 4% in Sabah. It is clearly
seen from the table that leisure and education were not favoured by the
consumers in Sarawak and Kelantan when the percentage continues to fall
from 2% to 1.9% inconsiderably.
To conclude, basics items like food and drink, clothing and footwear
were preferred by customers more than leisure and education. However,
consumer spending varies mainly based on the size of households and the
income of the households.
By:
Name
Signature
:
(361 words)
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REFERENCES
Bennett, S. and Maton, K. (2010). Beyond the digital natives debate: Towards a more
nuanced understanding of students' technology experiences. Journal of Computer
Assisted Learning, 26(5), pp. 321-331.
Henry, K. L. (2007). Whos skipping school: characteristics of truants in 8th and 10th. The
Journal of School Health, 77,29-35.
Griswold, W. (2012). Cultures and societies in a changing world (4th edn). Thousand Oaks,
CA: SAGE
[Link]
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