The Challenges of Internet Addiction 

   “The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free” is what Nassim Nicholas Taleb says about techonogy addiction. Nowadays the internet helps us achieve great things but it is also destroying important aspects of our life. Especially in teenagers and in all those who are “learning from home” the problem is becoming very serious. First of all, teenagers don’t concentrate while studying anymore, secondly people are not used to socializing anymore and thirdly many people are experiencing more health issues than before. 

     Nowadays it is surely harder for students to concentrate on studying when they have to attend classes and do their homework online. Many young students have a difficult time staying focused on their classes when they are using the same device they use to normally relax and play videogames. Many times while in school they receive a notification from a friend who is playing or a chat request from someone which makes it hard just to concentrate on work. Some experts say that some tips that could help students are to find what works best for each person, to sort the room and desk before studying and to make  a timetable. (Shearing). 

     Internet addiction is also not helping people socialize, even more during this pandemic people have not had the chance to go out as much and speak to people face to face. This will probably create even bigger problems for those who are introverts. A study demonstrates that poor social skills are associated with internet addiction. The absence of face-to-face interaction reduces social skills in the real world.(Chou)

     Health  issues are also an important consequence of internet addiction. Headaches, backaches and vision problems are all related to the fact that people spend too many hours online in the same position. During the last year things have been even worse because people are not able to go out and walk or go running so many people who would spend time outside, during the lockdown, spent more time online instead of taking breaks and moving around. Internet addiction not only causes physical  problems but also psychological ones and some studies show that many young people suffer from these effects. (Alavi)

     In conclusion, the internet can be very helpful but also very bad. It all depends on the use each person makes of it and on how time we spend on it daily. The current situation is surely not making it easy for people to use the internet less but we should all realize how much damage it can do to us. 

Alavi, Seyyed Salman et al. “The Effect of Psychiatric Symptoms on the Internet Addiction Disorder in Isfahan's University Students.” Journal of research in medical sciences : the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences vol. 16,6 . 2011. Web. 15 March 2021. 

Chou, Wen-Jiun et al. “Social Skills Deficits and Their Association with Internet Addiction and Activities in Adolescents with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.” 2017. Web. 15 March 2021. 

Shearing,Hazel “ Covid: How to Actually Concentrate and do Some Online Uni”. BBC News. 9. Dec. 2020. Web. 15 march 2021. 

Food Waste 

Did you know that 88 million tons of food are wasted each year in Europe? And these are  some reasons why there’s so much food waste. 

  In countries that aren’t as developed and there isn’t as much wealth there’s more food waste because infrastructure, storage, and merchandise transport isn't the best quality and are not as advanced so they don't have cooling systems so the food spoils at a faster rate. 

 Not only that food is wasted because we spend resources on feed and growing those aliments, let's say we want to feed livestock for nine months the resources that we spend our water, arable land, time and energy, and oil to transport that meat, even if we don't eat a piece of steak we are throwing away all those natural resources making the earth carry more weight for the ecosystem. Each year millions of km square are cut down from Brazil and Argentina just to grow soy for cows, sheep, and pigs.

 Cutting down these large proportions make the land less fertile, the oxygen created by the trees reduces, biodiversity loss, and many more.... 

  Many big supermarkets companies and big international producers  waste a lot of food, companies have a certain regulation on the size, color, shape, what does this mean? This means that companies will not accept let's say a yellow apple that isn't round, small, or anything that isn't perfect,many of these products get discarded.

              

 Instead supermarkets buy in large quantities getting discounts on the products, having such large numbers of products with time passing  they start to spoil, making food waste even worse, not only that it employs.

 People get confused with two certain meanings of these two frases “Best Buy” and “Use By”, many people might think that they have the same meaning but it isn't true Best Buy means:”the quality of that product is at it’s best before that date but it can still be eaten after the date but it will not be at his best quality”.

Use by:”This product has to be used within the date, or if you use it after it may be dangerous”.

And here are some reasons food is wasted, see you next time!

                            FOOD  WASTE 


In no longer than half a century we will no longer have all the food  resources we have today, so we have to stop the food waste.We can stop this terrible future from happening by doing three things: making a shopping list, using leftovers, and finding alternative sources of food.

Another thing that needs to be changed are the quantities of food that are wasted. There are many ways in which we can reduce waste, for example write a list of things you really need before shopping, to avoid buying unnecessary things that are going to be thrown away. Another way can be rotate the food that is in your cupboards and fridge, put the new food
at the back to reduce the risk of finding something mouldy in your food storage compartments.(European Commission)

Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, they can be used for lunch the following day, if you bought something extra you can freeze it, cured meats can be put under “vacuum”,  and old bread can be put in the oven. The last thing we can do is start to use the doggy bag more frequently when we go to places like restaurants, where usually a lot of food is left. People don't ask for it because they think it can seem rude, but is not, it's just a way to prevent all that extra food from being thrown away. (Italy Adopts)

An alternative source of food could be insects, because unlike what people think, a diet based only on the consumption of insects could fully  compensate for not eating meat. There are some reasons why people think eating insects is even better than eating actual meat like the fact that people can contract diseases such as salmonella, the lonely worm 
and many others. Another reason why according to some people eating insects is better than eating meat is the big waste of resources like water and everything that the animals eat because if we give 10 k of food to cattle, 9 of it become manure, and only one kilo becomes meat. (Dicke)


So at the end these are all things that even if we are not used to doing and can be difficult, would help a lot in reducing the problem of food waste. From doing this we could even get some benefits, for example avoiding losing money when we go shopping and removing the meat would also be very useful for health as it would help prevent the risk of developing diseases such as diabetes, heart attack and cardiovascular problems, obesity and cancer.





                             MLA

 (Italy Adopts) https://www.google.com/search?q=Italy+measures+agains+food+waste&oq=Italy+measures+agains+food+waste&aqs=chrome..69i57.5295j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8




 

An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, one-third of all food produced for human consumption(world). People continue to underestimate this topic and in fact, the food wasted every year increases more and more. According to the statistics of many web sites and also, in my opinion, we will have a severe food shortage in the next 100 years, so to stop this tragedy we should change our attitudes and begin to stop food waste at home in three easy steps.


One way to waste less food is to make the shopping list. It seems obvious but the shopping list is the first way to do the shopping in an intelligent way by adding to the cart only what you actually need. Before going shopping we should check in the refrigerator and mark on the list only what we need and what we need. We should go shopping when we are not hungry because when we are hungry we tend to fill the trolley more.




Another alternative could be also to not throw away the leftovers into the bin. If food is leftover for lunch or dinner, it can be reused for the next meal, if properly stored. The ripest fruit and vegetables can be used in smoothies, centrifuged, savory pies and minestrone. For example, hard bread can be recycled to transform it into breadcrumbs or as an ingredient for all new recipes such as in the dough for a cake. People should buy a doggy bag and then put the leftovers in it. Doggy bags are fairly common in a lot of countries in the world and allow diners to take home food they haven't eaten from the restaurant. For example in Italy the use of doggy bags is not frequent and now, after a successful regional pilot, the scheme will be rolled out nationwide, backed by a €1m campaign (Italy).




Another way could be also to take small portions of food. Dishes full of food are really a way of wasting food because most of the time you cannot consume all the food on the plate. For example, when you are in a canteen it is better to reduce the portions and if you are really hungry you can always ask for an extra helping.

In conclusion there are many ways to waste less food. I have shown only three but there are many more. To sum up, if we all collaborate in not wasting food, in the coming years we can also be a little more relaxed and not worried about the future we will have.



"Top food waste". ec.Europa.eu. Europian commission. 2019. Web. 31st Mar 2020.

FOOD WASTE

FOOD WASTE is one of the most important ISSUES that the WORLD is facing now and YOU, with little effort, could SOLVE it. About 88 tonnes of food are wasted every year only in Europe. This is a big problem in our society. Now I'm going to talk about some causes, some effects and some solutions to reduce food waste.

As I said before 88 tonnes of food, which is equivalent to 88000 Kg, are wasted in Europe and about 1.3 billion tonnes are wasted in the world every year. Most of that food is wasted in supermarkets, cafeterías, and cantines (in schools or big factories),... In supermarkets the food that doesn' look good, they just throw it away because they won't be able to sell it. In the cafeterias or restaurants the food that isn't eaten by the customers is  also thrown away.

These bad habits are influencing the world because they are wasting food that is one of the most valuable resources that humans need. According to the FAO, the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations, more than 40 countries need urgently food in order to survive. With about 650 million tonnes, half of the average wasted food, It would be more than enough to stop the hunger in the world.

You could help the world by putting in practice little things that could help a lot. One of them, the one that I found more common but there still people that don't do it, is using the "Doggy bag".This consists un when you go at a restaurant or somewhere to eat, if you don't finish all your lunch you just take it at home in a container instead of throwing it away.(European Comision) 

In conclusion food waste is very serious and you should start worrying more and taking more measures to stop it.

Food waste
It is incredible to think about how much food we each waste everyday. Sometimes we forget to eat it on time, we forget to cook it or we buy it twice because we don't remember we already had it there  are many simple ways for families to avoid food waste, one is rotating foods in the fridge,freezing what we don't eat and making a list when we go grocery shopping.

Rotating foods consists of moving the new food we buy to the back of the fridge and putting the older ones in front. In this way, we prevent foods from expiring and that we have to throw them out.

Freezing foods we do not eat helps us avoid waste by allowing us to cook and prepare meals and to keep them in our freezer. It is also a good way to save time when we do not have time to cook.

Making a list before going grocery shopping helps to only buy things we do not have, so we do not waste the food at home.

In conclusion, food waste is important , everyone should be more careful and use these methods to reduce food waste.
It is possible to solve this problem if we all collaborate a little.

European commission, food sustainability
https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/fw_lib_tips_stop_food_waste_en.

Food Waste

Food Waste :

How can we increase our impact on #reducefoodwaste ? The restaurants waste far too much food. We need to find solutions because it's our planet that is at stake. Restaurants can start reducing food waste in three main steps : they could propose different sizes of portions of food, offer more often family bags, and they could  propose fewer choices to the customers.

First, restaurants should start giving a portion guide to the customers for every dish, because when people don’t finish their dishes the restaurants automatically need to throw them away. So giving the choice for the customers to choose their  portions can be a good alternative. Especially when we know that most people don’t finish their dish. “Most restaurateurs say that bigger is better but it’s false. Because when you have a big portion you don’t appreciate it as much as if it was smaller. Restaurateurs always want to serve bigger portions, but customers are not of the same opinion.”(Juul)

Next, the family bags also called more often doggy bags are bags used by a restaurant customer to take home leftover food. This is a very good idea because it could help the restaurants to reduce their food waste and you to save your money. “ So don’t be shy about asking for a doggy bag in the restaurants : you deserve a round of applause”(Cloake). As we use family bags, we contribute to the help of your planet and reduce food waste. In addition, you can still appreciate your meal at home later with the family bag. “The new law obliges restaurants in France with over 180 covers a day to a doggy bag, a container to take home the leftovers of one’s meal, to any customer requesting one” (Gattone). I think everyone should do the same. It’s a very good procedure.

Last but not least, restaurants should propose fewer choices to customers, so the menu will be shorter. I think this is one of the biggest problems. Because restaurants propose a large choice of dishes, that means that they are going to need a lot of ingredients. Often, they prepare more food that their customers eat. And because often the food is fresh, they need to throw it away. As a result, if the customers have fewer choices in the restaurants, the people running the restaurants have less variety of food to buy so at the end less food to waste. 

In conclusion, we could start saving our planet by reducing food waste. The restaurants also could help with this by doing simple things. So if restaurants stop wasting food or limit their wastes, we have come one step closer to a better planet

• Cloake, Felicity. “Don’t Be Shy about asking for a Doggy Bag: You Deserve a Round of Applause.” theguardian.com, The Guardian. 13 May 2019. Web. 2 Mar 2020.

• Gattone, Luisa. “If You Respect Food, Ask the Restaurant for a Doggy Bag for Leftovers.” lifegate.com, LIFEGATE. Web. 2 Mar 2020.

• Juul, Selina. “How To Control Portions and Reduce Food Waste ?” huffpost.com, Huffpost. 20 Jan 2016. Web. 2 Mar 2020