Writing Feedback / TOEFL Writing 2: In the past, young people depended too much on their parents to make decisions.... [2]

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
In the past, young people depended too much on their parents to make decisions for them; today young people are better able to make decisions about their own lives.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Over the last few decades, many things in the world have changed which have greatly impacted our lives such that our current lifestyle differs from the lifestyle of our parents in many aspects. One of the paramount aspects is independence that many people believe that today's young people are not much dependent on their parents like the past and they make important decisions by themselves. I strongly agree with this statement due to two points which I will explain in the following essay.

To begin with, in recent years, educational systems have changed a lot and try to prepare children for real life. One of the utmost important topics that children learn about in schools is independence. Children are taught how to make decisions while they consider positive and negative aspects of their decisions. The result of such training is evident in increasing the number of youngsters that choose to live alone or even immigrate to a foreign country. Certainly, parents of many of them have disagreed with their decisions due to various reasons, however, since youngsters are now more independent, they have followed their own decisions to make their dreams true.

Additionally, self-confidence is another prominent factor which makes people feel positive about themselves and take risks on their lives by making their own decisions. I am of the opinion that today's young people are more self-confident than previous due to two reasons. First, current parents have let young people make their own decisions when they were kids. For instance, all of the current young people have chosen the color of their clothes since they were teenagers or even smaller. Second, by the development of technologies, there are many resources available which help people to be aware of their surroundings. Having much information helps persons to be more self-confident and consequently be more independent. As an example, when I was about to choose my major in university I searched about different majors and listed all advantages and disadvantages of various majors, afterward, I declared my decision to my parents. Although my parents liked to see me educating in another major, they supported me and agreed with my decision.

To sum up, in my point of view, today's youngsters are more independent that youngsters were in the past which is the result of the quality of education they received as well as their high self-confidence.

Writing Feedback / Some people spend a lot of time watching sports programs on TV or following their favorite sports .. [2]

Q: Some people spend a lot of time watching sports programs on TV or following their favorite sports teams. Does this have a negative influence on the lives of these people?

People have their own entertainments to perform in their leisure time and these hobbies usually make them fresh and joyful. Among entertainments, following favorite sports teams is one the most popular activities which youngsters enjoy it a lot and do it along with their peers. Even though some people believe that following a favorite team can be worthwhile, I, personally, believe that this activity has several negative influences on the lives of people and change their behaviors badly over time. I feel this way due to two reasons which I will explore in the following paragraphs.

To begin with, as I have witnessed, when people are watching a live contest, they scream, shout, and cry loudly and it does not matter where they watch the match, either at home or a club. In this situation, they make lots of noise which sometimes bother the other people who are present near to them. In my own experience, when I was a senior in high school, my brother, who is 4 years older than me, was watching a live soccer game which was an important match between local teams. As I remember, he shouted and cried all 90 minutes of the match such that I could not study even one page of my mathematics course during the match. It really annoyed me because I had an exam the next day and I needed a silent zone to focus on my course.

Secondly, when their team wins, the people are happy and so excited and when their team loses, they are angry. In this way, their extraordinary happiness or anger can negatively affect their lives. For instance, I have an uncle who is an actual fan of a Volleyball team and always follows its matches. Two years ago, his team had a very important match in the world league and he was really excited thanks to the match. Fortunately, his team won the game and at the time my uncle was very joyful about it. As his wife told us, after the game, he had started to call many of his friends and invited all of them to a luxury restaurant. He had paid much money, virtually half of his salary in a month, to show his happiness to his friends! Or in another example, his wife told us after a match, which his favorite team had lost the game, he had become very angry and upset, afterward, his behavior with his wife and his children had been awful for 3-4 days!

To sum up, although having something to follow can be entertaining, sometimes they negatively influence the lives of people. People should be strongly careful about the effects of being a fan of sports teams. They must watch their own behavior during and after the matches.