Cigarettes are so harmful or even more prejudicial than marijuana according to this site: http://patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com/marijuana-info/marijuana-vs-cigarettes/. However, why do most of people, in Brazil, accept cigarettes and not marijuana, if both of them are unhealthy? It is just a matter of time to people get used to any idea; for example, not much time ago it was considered immoral a woman wearing pants, but today nobody thinks it is relevant because it is something that has already been absorbed by culture and popular thought. If cigarettes were prohibited by law in the country, moreover, people were not accustomed to the image of smoking in the streets; probably they would have the same rejection that marijuana has today. Everything depends on the society’s point of view, it will determine what is acceptable or not.

People say that is a waste of time to watch television or to surf on the internet; that we should optimize our free time reading books, studying, practicing some sport or playing some instrument. It is completely acceptable to say it, considering that many people dedicate much more time to TV and internet, instead of the other cited things and consequently it indeed becomes a waste of time when they perceive that they have been watching cute kitty videos at YouTube for two hours. Internet dependency is verified again, when people come back tired from work and the first thing they do is to pass hours in front of the computer, updating the Facebook. It would be much better just to sit down on the sofa and relax, or to take a bath and go to sleep. I am not saying that internet must be abandoned forever; what people need is to have a balanced life in which there is time to do whatever they want, but in a healthy way. The concept of balance, besides being applied to the case of Internet, should be considered every time in our lives, because everything without balance is harmful.

What many people have pointed out is that using social networks could be positive and negative, which varies with the way we behave when sharing online. Therefore, caution is demanded when it comes to our privacy; the users must be conscious of the consequences of turning personal things into public issues. However, what bothers me is that social networks, more specifically Facebook, provides its users some dangerous tools such as mapping their location or detailing their address and phone number. Just because of the fact that these kinds of tools are among the options, Facebook, is already expecting people to fill out the information. Primarily, the protection of the users should be ensured by making the advises and descriptions more visible.

Plastic bags, as it has already been discussed at length last year in São Paulo, are very harmful to the environment. They are not biodegradable, demand lots of energy and petrol to be produced, cause obstruction in the waterway and beyond that, can cause the death of many animals, which, under the sea, easily mistake plastic bags for food. It may even be truth that banning plastic bags is another way to collect our money by using an environmental argument, however, in my opinion, we are paying to save the environment.

Despite influencing children, I would not say that advertisements impose toys and clothes to them. Most of the ads concerning girl’s products use pink and really catch the attention. However, it does not mean that a girl must necessarily choose a pink toy because she watched it on TV, for example. Of course the ad affects them, but it does not determine their likes and choices, considering that there are all kind of girls, those who enjoy playing from toy cars to dolls, respectively seen as boy and girl toys. I believe that actually, who imposes choices to children are the parents, when they buy something and do not pay attention to what their kids really want.

Considering that since 2003 the Brazilian law states that alcoholic beverages are prohibited in stadium, if the selling were liberated to World Cup in Brazil, it means that there is the possibility that all soccer games, even after this World Cup period would be allowed to have alcoholic beverages to. I believe that after this period, the legalization would promote a confusion concerning the selling of these products, and maybe this could be a strategy of alcoholic beverage producers to introduce it again in all Brazilian games.

It is noticed that consumerism interfers on the behavior or even the character of the teenagers, when we see for example, these Japanese girls (check the picture out: http://closetdemadame.com.br/wp-content/ uploads/2011/06/decora.jpg )wearing exaggerated make-up, colorful clothes and many accessories that they clearly do not need. In spite the fact that this kind of culture is strange to us, in Japan is perfectly normal to see a girl dressed like this. Furthermore, according to the way they are dressed, it indicates a style which they belong to, and this is what defines them. Consequently, considering that they are so involved by this extreme capitalism, it is so difficult for them to find their own identity far from consumerism, that in the end, most of them are absorbed by it.

In our society, beauty is enormously connected to youth. In spite of the fact that plastic surgeries, Botox applications and liposuction are the solution to people who suffered accidents such as burning or other kind of deformation, many times they are strategies that people use to look younger and consequently beautiful, according to society standards.

The old age is seen as a terrible thing which humanity is bound to pass through and there is no scape, unless they attempt to slow down the aging process, doing from a plastic surgery to a simple hair coloring when it becomes white.

People do not accept that one day they will have their shape modified, that this life is not forever and they need to hide the old age anyway. Because of it, everybody wants always to have a young physiognomy, or at least to have the illusion that it is possible.

Mariana Nakamura