Read the following text.
The other day, I found myself listening to my parents ramble away about the apparent «good ole' days».
To hear them talk, you'd think it was a time of peace and tranquility.
There were no cell phones, no video games and no Internet.
Back then, this was a time when the TV took 5 minutes to «warm-up».
How could this boring simplicity possibly compare to the technological tools we have at our disposal today?
To us teenagers, the technology our parents used when they were young now seems basic and out-of-date.
They lived in the age where the World Wide Web was a myth about some giant spider web circling the globe.
If you ask anyone about the main difference between this generation and the last, the first answer in anyone's mind will be the change in technology, which has created dangerous trends.
For example, today people join online communities to meet and stay in touch with friends.
However, if we all just stepped away from our computers for one minute and thought, we would realize that we are fooling ourselves in thinking that we are being social, when in reality we are being anything but that.
Not only has modern technology changed how we interact with others, it has also changed our attitude towards truth and honesty.
Little lies have now become more acceptable in our everyday lives.
For instance, many of us put «away» on our msn even when we are not away because we don't want to chat at that moment.
These smaller fibs are now able to morph into bigger problems such as using technology to cheat in school.
Every day, companies are coming out with faster computers and faster ways of doing things.
On the one hand this appears positive, while on the other hand it has our society running to try to keep up.
Our world has become so competitive that no product can be considered new for more than a week.
Everybody wants the most popular item, the newest gadget.
So, how can our parents' era possibly compare with our technological generation of today? In many ways, it can't.
Our similarities are not important; it is our differences that make us who we are.
Currently, we are moving too fast into the future and this is changing the world we live in.
It is the dangerous trends that are appearing that we need to eliminate.
Sebastian DeLuca, http:
//contracostayouth.
net (abridged and adapted)
1.
Identify the paragraphs where the author expresses the ideas below.
Write only the letters and the paragraph numbers.