I can remember a couple years ago when MySpace was the new thing to have because it was the start of social networking on the Internet. I thought it was so awesome you could have your own personal page where you can have music and a place where your friends can write comments to you. Everyone would try to compete to see who could get more friends. It was great! But then as people became more familiar with this new technology people began using it to deceive.

Problems began developing and there were many incidents, such as issues with sex offenders using MySpace to mislead people using fake pictures and fake identities. I believe this turned away many people by but because it was the only real popular social network no one had a choice of switching to a different one. As a couple of years went by Facebook came into play. Facebook was a new social network that people could use that was just as fun as MySpace, but much easier to use and safer. As Facebook was growing people began to like the fact that Facebook was very organized and more adult savvy than MySpace. It has a much more sophisticated atmosphere with its dull yet prearranged look. People began to lose interest in MySpace and joined Facebook. One of the big differences Facebook offers that MySpace does not is its live chat you can have with your friends. This was a big step because it combined instant messaging with a social network website. Facebook also has live status updates, which MySpace does not have. As all of these new things were developing, MySpace began to become threatened by Facebook and tried to compete with them by copying them in many ways including a program called Applications.

MySpace will most likely keep declining in their popularity if there is a constant continuance of new social networks being created. Of these new networks one of them is a website called Twitter. Unlike Facebook and MSspace, Twitter is more about just updating your personal status and spreading new ideas to other people. Celebrity Ashton Kutcher recently started a competition with other celebrities to see who could reach one million friends first. This act is just another distraction to lure people away from MySpace. These social networks like any other business are constantly competing with each other. MySpace is not the only one out there anymore and it is now very easy for someone to create something new and better. MySpace put themselves in a hole without knowing it because they did not make a good enough effort to make their website safe for all. MySpace is declining because of the danger behind it, its unoriginality, and the number of growing and more popular social networks.

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Sometimes when I walk around campus of Worcester Academy I hear people talking about who is going to be going to a certain game after school. Usually people’s responses are something like “NO WAY” or “I really do not care at all about that particular team.” Recently, I went to the Central Massachusetts Semi-Final basketball game at Holy Cross College. Worcester North High School was playing St. Johns High School. I could not believe how many fans showed up to the game for St. Johns. It was like a sea of white. I wondered why Worcester Academy was not the same way.

I am here to tell you the reason why WA can be known by some to have no school spirit is because of a couple reasons. 1. Because WA is such a diverse school with day borders living in towns as far as Hopkinton or Holliston, students do not want to drive really far or their parents do not want them driving to far away destinations besides school. 2. The amount of activities and homework that WA offers and gives is much more than other schools offer and give. 3. WA has a smaller student body than most schools around, so not as many people can make every game because they of the small student body.

Schools around Worcester County have one thing in common with each other usually unless it is a private school like WA. The students that attend schools around here like Burncoat, Doherty, Holy Name, St. Peter Marian, North, and South live in the area of the school. Getting to the games is not much of a problem considering the students that live farthest away from their school is about only fifteen minutes at the most. This is a problem for WA because some students do live far away and are still day students. One solution to my first problem is to develop some kind of bus pick-up system on the weekends. Not to go to each individual town, but to go to a town that is near the towns that the students live in. This way, the students can drive or get dropped off at that particular spot and get to the game that way.

Worcester Academy is known for its academics and its sports, because this school has so much to offer with its extra-curricular activities its hard for everyone to be watching a particular game because they might have their own to be at. This problem is something that really cannot be solved but shows that its impossible for everyone to be everywhere at once. Other schools around Worcester do not offer as much extra-curricular activities so not having much else to do, they just go to the games. Lastly, because of Worcester Academy’s small student body, there are not many students that can attend all of the games. This is very similar to how Worcester Academy offers so much extra-curricular activities that everyone cannot be everywhere at once. Hopefully someday, the Upper School will have over one thousand students so that more people can attend more games and no one will call WA a school with no spirit!

When Kobe Bryant’s name is brought up in any conversation, people usually say things like “MVP” or “best in the game today”, and “he is so much better than LeBron, He could eat him up!” Although they think they make a valid point, in my opinion this is totally untrue and made up. I believe LeBron James is the best player in the game of basketball today because of his speed, quickness, athleticism, and court vision.

Kobe’s career started when they were both in high school Kobe went to Lower Merion High School located in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. After that he went straight to the NBA where he excelled fast earning three consecutive championships 2000, 2001, and 2002. Ever since Shaquille O’Neal’s departure from the Lakers he has not won a championship since. At the beginning of this time Kobe did not have a good attitude towards his teammates and often played very selfish and looking for only him to score. If a guy can score 81 points in a game that means he did not pass the ball very often which is why I dislike Kobe greatly, an example of this action shows that he is very self-centered. This kind of attitude can be a distraction to the rest of the team like the Terrell Owens soap operas. He annoyed his teammates so much that many of them began to resent him. If Kobe kept this up he could wind up doing the same exact thing.

LeBron’s career started at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. He averaged 21 points there and his senior year averaged about 5 assists a game. After high school, like Kobe, LeBron went straight to the NBA to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron does not have any NBA championships but he did have a little experience with going to the NBA Finals in the 2006-2007 season playing against the San Antonio Spurs and losing that series by being swept by a veteran filled team. But the thing that inspires me about LeBron is how young he was coming into the league and how much of a good teammate he is on the floor when he is playing. He has great court vision and is able to look over the defense because of his height being 6’8” and 250 pounds, in plain English LeBron James is a beast and outweighs Kobe by 45 pounds. He also runs a 4-4, which is pretty unbelievable because Ladanian Tomlinson can run a 4-5. LeBron also is beating Kobe both in points and assists this year with 28.5 to 28.0 points and 7 to 5 assists per game according to NBA.com. LeBron is beating him in every category except three-point percentage and free throw percentage. Not bad for someone who is 7 years younger than Kobe. LeBron will be a hall of famer and in my book he is much better than Kobe Bryant by far.

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