Spreadsheets

One might think of businesses when discussing spreadsheets, but all people can find use for them. Teenagers are no exception to this. For example, if a teenager is working part time, they can create a spreadsheet to keep track of their salary and hours. They can also use it to manage their grades and averages in school. If they're supporting their family they can use them to keep track of spending in grocery stores, restaurants, or rent.


An example of an allowance spreadsheet (source)

Cyberbullying

If I had a friend that was being cyberbullied, I would first advise them to block or cease contact with the person doing it. I would also tell them not to take anything the person is saying to heart, because it's likely they're just insecure about their own self. If the situation continued to escalate, I would tell them to talk with a parent or guardian and confide in them about it. Should any threats of violence occur, I would also recommend they get in contact with law enforcement. If the situation continued to persist, I would lastly recommend they make their social media private or take some time away from it to let the situation die down.

(source)

Is technology hurting society?

  Technology, specifically electronic technology, has further advanced us as a society more than anything else. It has connected us to much more than ever thought possible, yet some people still believe it is doing more harm than good. They believe we've become dependent on it, and that it is impersonal and rude to use technology to communicate rather than talking face to face. I disagree with this notion.
  Technology has allowed us to connect with people far, far away from us. In older times, people would have to write letters than would take weeks or even months to be delivered, not including how long it would take for a reply. Now, I could send a text to one of my friends in England, and I would probably get a reply back in a minute depending on what they were doing. It's faster, it's more efficient. And should texting not be your cup of tea, there is skype. You can talk to each other out loud, you can see each others faces, and it's free regardless of where they are. I consider sending letters much more impersonal. Think of families with members abroad, fighting in the army. Skype and phone calls are sometimes the one way they can communicate, and when they can, it's a beautiful thing. Not to mention people who have disorders that impair them in social situations, like anxiety, autism, or selective muteness. Some of my best friends live across the country, and they are not any less of friends to me because I use technology to talk to them.
  You could say technology is causing students' writing skills to decline, but that would mean to ignore everything technology has done for the writing industry. Kindles, Mac books, portable devices designed to help you read and write on the go, wherever you are. Applications made to help with writer's block and lack of inspiration. In my opinion, the best thing to happen to the writing industry is technology.

(source)

How safe is the information we store online?

There's a lot of media buzz about the release of personal information and photos of celebrities and companies via various phone hacks. An article on mashable.com questions the safety of many storage programs such as iCloud and Dropbox, and how you can prevent your own private information from being released to the public. Apple, at least, has a very good multi-step security check on their servers for iCloud. The program itself probably isn't what you need to worry about being safe, it's actually your password and how much information you put about yourself online. When choosing a strong password, make sure it's not related to anything you've put on any public blogs or social media accounts. Reusing the same password for numerous websites also puts you at risk to be hacked, according to mashable.com. At the end of the day, you're only safe as you make yourself to be. The less personal information you put about yourself online the less at risk you are.


iCloud's storage security. (Image: screenshot from apple.com)

Internet Laws

I don't believe the government should regulate the internet. It's a place to not only voice your creativity, but to be able to voice it with others. If you put regulations and laws on something people use to express themselves, you'll just be taking their voice away. When it comes to cyberbullying, it's no different. Death threats and severe hate groups are one thing, but online criticism and politics are opinions and you can't ban someone from having their own opinion. People should not be restricted from online websites or forums because someone else doesn't like it. The internet is not exempt from free speech laws. Everyone has the right to their own opinions, their own sites, and their own beliefs. It makes no sense to take that away from people in reality, and it makes no sense online, either.

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Introduction

My name is Ellie, I'm a high school student taking Computer Literacy. I created this blog to help me through the course.
I know quite a lot about computers, specifically HTML and website design. I run two tumblr blogs and taught myself HTML to create themes for my blogs.
In this course I would like to learn more about CSS and PHP. While I am very familiar with HTML and the basics of it, I am not as good with these two, and I believe the knowledge of them would help me with designing themes.