In simplified words, a smart home device is an Internet of Things (IoT) device that has the capability of enhancing and simplifying the way we monitor and control our home. They’re usually accessible through various smartphone apps developed for the specific smart device. A few examples on how our smart home devices benefit us are: Smart cameras and motion sensors give us security by monitoring what happens in a house, thermostats give us comfort by allowing us to adjust the temperature in our homes, and smart coffee machines give us that necessary shot of caffeine every morning! It’s pretty obvious that owning a few smart home devices are somewhat a necessity for us in today’s world of technology!

However, concerns have been on the rise about how these devices could potentially be invading our privacy, and the facts support this claim. Firstly, since these devices are connected to the Internet, if a malicious hacker gained unauthorised access to our network and found any out-of-date software with vulnerabilities on any of our devices, they could hack the devices and receive a lot of personal information about us like our names, phone numbers, passwords, emails, and payment card information. And even worse, if they got access to our smart cameras, they could monitor each and every move we and our family make around our home without your consent. Smart home devices also monitor and track our activities daily, for example when we leave and enter home, when we sleep and wake up, and how often e use certain devices. Companies could use this information and sell them to third-party advertisers worldwide.

So, with all the threats I’ve mentioned, how can we protect ourselves and still make best of our smart home devices? I’ll give you some reliable ways to protect your devices from threats so that you don’t fall victim to any of them. Firstly, ensure that all your devices are updated regularly to the latest software, as companies release these updates to patch security issues like bugs and vulnerabilities. You should also read reviews online on the device you’re planning to purchase, and always purchase your devices from trusted, reputable brands and not from any shady businesses. You should also always make sure that your network is secured to the maximum. Use the highest wireless network security encryption protocols (WPA2 and WPA3), create difficult to crack passwords with numbers and special characters, and ensure your router’s firmware is always up-to-date.

In conclusion, smart devices help us facilitate the way we monitor our home, and they are in fact very beneficial to us as long as we protect them and secure them in the right way to not expose our private information. I hope you benefitted from this article and I can’t wait for you to see what’s coming in the next!

(Writer Hilal Tariq Al Barwani is a young computer enthusiast who enjoys writing and speaking on computers and technology)

Imagine you’re at Mall of Oman. You’ve just watched the highly awaited threequel of Creed, and you’re looking for a place to dine to end your night. However, when you open your phone, you see nine missed calls from your mother. She seems worried or angry! You suddenly start panicking because you realise that you only have two per cent charge left in your smartphone. After some time, you find a charger plugged into one of the charging ports, and lucky for you, it’s a charger compatible with your phone! 

You decide to plug it in and wait some time for it to get some power so you can call your mother. After some time, you plug it out, and you’re looking for the phone app in a hurry and dialing your mother’s number. However, your phone starts getting inappropriate pop-up ads, and it heats up quickly and becomes overloaded with background applications slowing it down. This is an example of a juice jacking attack.

Juice jacking is a type of cyber attack in which a hacker infects and steals information from a device by taking advantage of a public charging station. What they do is replace the original charging cable installed by the public place with a malicious cable that looks like any ordinary cable with data transfer functionality to instal a bunch of malicious software directly into the user’s device without the knowledge of the user. 

Being a victim of a juice jacking attack has numerous dangerous consequences. For example, the hacker could steal personal information like contacts, emails, messages and even passwords! The hacker could also instal certain malicious software in your device to slow it down or to simply spy on everything you’re doing. Another major consequence is that the hacker could cause your device to be ‘bricked’, meaning that it would be completely locked or unusable, which causes all your important data like photos and messages to be locked away if not backed up.

You’ve seen how easy it is for an attacker to access your information and hack you through a juice jacking attack. However, it is easy to avoid being a victim of such attacks. Firstly, and most obviously, avoid using public charging stations so you won’t be a victim of a juice jacking attack. However let’s say you are in a situation where you really need to charge your device in a public place. In that case, use your backup charging adapter and cable which you must have with you at all times. 

Or better still,  purchase a power bank! And let’s say you forgot your own charger and need to power up using a public wire, in which case you should power off your device while charging, because even if the wire is malicious, it will prevent installation of any type of malware when your phone is powered off. It would simply charge your device with no data transfer.

In conclusion, juice jacking attacks are on the rise. So I decided to write on it. You can defend yourself from cyber attacks. See you in two weeks with another interesting topic!

I remember my first job when I was just 16. I worked as a technician in an oil refinery. We used to work outdoors in the field in extremely hot weather when Ramadan fell between the months of June and July.

I have to admit that it wasn’t easy working in the heat but we really enjoyed what we did and had the passion to do more. This made me think deeply in today’s time whether we are actually pushing ourselves hard during the month of Ramadan doing our chores or are we just assuming that we don’t have energy and we are too tired to do anything?

Ramadan is the month of change, but if the change that impacts you is not a positive one, then you have not benefited from the blessings and the wisdom of fasting during the month.

I, personally, push myself to the limit in Ramadan. I am addicted to pressure and I love being busy throughout the day. Once, I experimented not doing anything in Ramadan – no lectures, no talk shows and no events – and I have to admit that it was the worst Ramadan ever.

Your body sends false signals to your brain – most of the time – which play a dirty game on you, leading you to believe that you either need rest or food. But the reality is that you should take control and determine what your exact needs are and not the other way around.

A piece of advice to the young people fasting this Ramadan – take advantage of every moment during the month and be as productive as possible, as it is not only a moral obligation but it is also a spiritual obligation, and we will be accountable for our actions on the day of judgment.

Hatim Harith al Abdissalaam
Motivational Speaker & member of Islamic Information Centre, Grand Mosque

As India navigates a period of global economic shocks, the country’s economic resilience has managed to hold steady. Youth and MSMEs, two foundational strengths of the country have been part of this growth story.

The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has checked several boxes, and Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director of LuLu Financial Holdings termed it a balanced budget, with equal focus on traditional and emerging sectors, agreeing that, “the way forward is to build a technology and knowledge-based economy.”

With the UN declaring 2023 as International Year of Millets, Adeeb applauded the efforts of the government to raise global awareness about India’s millet farmers, as well as provision schemes in the budget to make India a hub for millet production and research.

Touching upon the matter of financial inclusion, Adeeb, who has significant investments in India’s financial services sector in the form of LuLu Forex and LuLu Finserv – an NBFC providing micro loans, said that the move to ramp up the credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs will give a fillip to enabling faster access to financial services.
He added that the decision to expand the scope of services in DigiLocker to include MSMEs and make PAN a common identifier, will give a big boost to user documentation, supporting the onboarding efforts of NBFCs and fintechs driving financial inclusion among such companies.
Adeeb, who also has investments in the travel & luxury hospitality sector felt that the proposal to adopt an integrated and innovative approach to develop destinations augurs well for the tourism sector. “It is encouraging to note that under the Swadesh Darshan and Dekho Apna Desh schemes, the government will be rolling out physical initiatives such as the Unity Mall to raise the global profile of GI products as well as virtual assets to enhance the experience of domestic and international travelers in some of the top destinations.”
“The proposal to develop the tourism sector through the converge of public and private stakeholders will surely help generate adequate employment opportunities. The proposal to open 50 new airports will further drive more inbound traffic and add to the overall economic prospects of the sector,” he added.
Tourism is already one of the highest generators of employment in the country but suffers from high operating expenses and low margins, and Adeeb admitted that it would have been beneficial to also relook the existing GST rates, apart from rolling out sector-specific schemes to encourage domestic and foreign investment into the sector.
He also acknowledged the Budget’s focus on skill development under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 4.0 and setting up of 30 Skill India international centres, many of who can add immense value in service-based sectors. LuLu Financial Holdings has been an active participant in the upskilling of India’s youth, having partnered last year with NSDC International, a newly formed subsidiary of National Skill Development Corporation of India, for the latter’s Project Tejas to train, certify and place 10,000 Indian workers and professionals internationally.

January is always a most peculiar month.

It marks new beginnings, and yet, despite our farewells to December, once the celebrations give way to silence, we never quite seem to completely start anew – whether it is because we still find ourselves unconsciously typing in the previous year’s last digit as we date documents, or because we gradually come to realise that our resolutions for the New Year are much harder to implement than we had initially thought.

The end of January is more peculiar still.

Within a month of our brave, new beginnings, through the clamour of human affairs and the exigencies of life, long gone are our new year resolutions, with our old habits quietly reclaiming the seats from which they had been displaced, and we soon start looking forward to the chance for yet another new beginning at the start of the next year. At the dawn of February, in the most human of paradoxes, we find ourselves neither having surrendered to the old, nor are we still militating for the new – limbo appears to be quite a comfortable residence, after all.

When it comes to education and, in fine, to development – as conferences have, over the years, succeeded conferences, and declarations have repeatedly risen from the ashes of their predecessors –, it appears that we have collectively been oscillating, in a perpetual loop, between the beginning and the end of January, with February remaining a promised land on which we never quite disembark.

Perhaps it is because there is no such a thing as an entirely new beginning, for the past, ironically, refuses to die. Or, possibly, because we are, regardless of our firm belief in the contrary, too attached to the past to truly let it go – the devil you know, as they say.

Yet another probable diagnosis is that we may simply need a gentle reminder, without the pressures of a midnight change of year, and a tender push towards the new.

This last conclusion, in any case, was the noble motivation of the Organisation of Education Cooperation’s (OEC’s) General Assembly of Member States and Associate Members in proclaiming – through a resolution of its own, in December 2021 – every 29^th of January as the International Day of Balanced and Inclusive Education (IDBIE).

This annual commemoration is not an occasion for celebrations glowing with the blinding light of excessive optimism, nor is it designed for commiserations proper to those who have been vanquished or have resigned before the struggle itself. No – the IDBIE is an opportunity for us to collectively take stock of our progress and lucidly recognise where our efforts have proven fruitless (the gentle reminder), and with this balance of accounts, to engage in true exchange and dialogue, ratifying our commitment and resolve to remedy our shortcomings (the tender push).

Much like balanced and inclusive education (BIE) itself, in fact.

As a transformative vision – adopted by leaders and organisations from across the Global South, on the 29^th of January 2020, in the form of the Universal Declaration of Balanced and Inclusive Education –, BIE does not accept the prescription of settling for the good enough that the reality of the past few years has come to impose, nor does it seek to do away with the history of our past, of which it takes due and respectful note. For in the words of the Declaration itself, “Humanity’s conflicted history informs and guides it, but its future is not condemned nor pre-determined by its past.”

As a paradigm, balanced and inclusive education recognises the paradox (yet another) of education: it is both the bearer of the promise of a better future, and, in the present, an industrial factory reproducing our societies with all their injustices and inequities. The transformative potential of education, it legitimately affirms, is only confirmed when it is itself transformed.

As a conceptual and technical framework, BIE provides us with the tools to build the education we need, if we are to shape the future we want. And this education we need is one that recognises our cultures, identities, and experiences – who we are as peoples and individuals, as well as our millenary interdependence with the rest of Humanity –, so that we may become who we strive to be; one that prepares us for the complexity of reality – not one that transmits fragmented knowledge through segregated disciplines, and hence fragments our understanding of the world –, so that we may transform it; one that devolves to both educators and learners their humanistic vocation – not one that dehumanises the former into obsolete information-sharing instruments, and the latter into empty receptacles to be filled with cold facts and data –, so that we may all truly contribute to the continual reconstruction of society; one that adapts to our planetary imperatives, national priorities, local realities, and individual aspirations – not one that alienates us by indiscriminately imposing a one-size-fits-all model –, so that we may all move forward, differently, yet together.

Finally, as a collective construction, BIE demands from us to emancipate ourselves from the inherited status quo and its siloed initiatives. It recognises that, at the national level, to speak of education requires speaking of health, of the economy, of social cohesion, and of everything that living in, and making, society entails. At the international level, it demands a renewed, vibrant multilateralism, imbued with the spirit of equality (amongst parties), equity (in their relations), and solidarity (rather than charity). In sum, it is – with unwavering devotion to the human dimension of our universal ideals – a resolute pledge to return Humanity to its rightful place at the centre of all our collective and individual initiatives.

In other words, balanced and inclusive education is – and I dare write it, unashamedly – a revolutionary undertaking by countries from across the Global South, which – guided by the noble aspirations of their Peoples – founded and found in the OEC their common, solidary instrument.

And accordingly, on this upcoming International Day of Balanced and Inclusive Education, as Governments, civil society organisations, youth movements, and communities enter into revived communion to renew their commitment to this humanist edification, we are keenly aware that revolution is not everything that has already been achieved – impressive and noble as that may be –, but everything that is yet to be achieved.

For ours is the multilateral effort, of which the OEC is only the platform and servant, to transition from planetary sleepwalking towards a future that seems as remote from our aspirations as it is bleak in its promise, to one that heralds a third way of development, materialising the future we want, and that we deserve. Ultimately, our choice is between shaping the future, or passively allowing ourselves to be shaped by it.

The choice is clear: we must collectively ensure that this 29^th of January marks a true, new beginning – for education, and beyond.

**Sheikh Manssour Bin Mussallam is the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Educational Cooperation (OEC), an international intergovernmental organisation founded by countries across the Global South– Latin American,Caribbean, African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Pacific Islands– in January 2020. The OEC’s objective is to contribute to the equitable, just and prosperous social transformation of societies by promoting balanced and inclusive education, in order to attain fundamental rights to liberty, justice, dignity, sustainability, social cohesion, and material and immaterial security for the peoples of the world.

How often have you seen advertisements for yoghurts, fibre-rich breakfast products or nutritional supplements that “strengthen the body’s natural balance”? We have long known that bacterial culture in our intestinal flora are important for our health but the potential of these microorganisms has now really gained momentum, as advanced medicines based on our microbiome are just around the corner.

The human microbiome is the term for the diverse collection of microorganisms that reside on and in the human body. Research efforts in the area are extensive, with a focus on identifying these microorganisms and their influence on our state of health.

Visionary researchers, pharmaceutical companies and startups are in the process of developing advanced products and forms of treatment based on research in the field. An early example (around 1950s) is Fecal Microbial Transplantation, where intestinal bacteria are transferred to a patient from a healthy donor. The field has developed significantly since then. Technologies under development are drugs based on sophisticated collections of specific health-promoting bacteria and metabolites, better known as postbiotics, that can cure, for example, cancer.

The potential is enormous, and researchers around the globe are working to develop solutions.

For example, it is expected that a microbiome-based drug for the treatment of infectious diseases will soon be in the market. The drug will be able to fight bacteria that is one of the most common causes of diarrhoea.

At the same time, promising studies indicate that the microbiome has an impact on, for example, COVID- 19 in addition on a wide spectrum of other diseases from cancer to mental disorders to autism.

The microbiome has also created a new level of competition between dietary supplements on the one hand and pharmaceuticals on the other. Probiotics, which are described as live bacteria that aim to change the microbial gut flora, have been marketed for years by nutritional companies, while the field is new to the pharmaceutical sector.

While microbiome-based medicines are driving pharmaceutical companies into foodtech and the nutrition industry, innovation in the field of nutrition is increasingly leaning on the pharmaceutical industry. This is reflected in the partnerships that are currently being established across the two industries. A major player Nestle?, for example, has entered into a multi-million dollar strategic collaboration with the Boston-based biotech company Seres Therapeutics.

Renowned venture capital fund Flagship Pioneering, based in Boston, US, was one of the first to see the potential in the field with its investment in Seres Therapeutics way back in 2012.

Another Boston-based venture capital fund called CARB-X has recently invested in the fast-growing Danish company SNIPR BIOME, which will use CRISPR technology to precisely and effectively kill harmful bacteria in the microbiome.
Home to numerous microbiome startups and frontrunners in drug development research and innovation, Boston is undeniably the global centre for biotechnology.

In the future, medicines will be more tailored to you and your unique needs. Researchers have so far worked to characterise an individual person using genetics and environment but with the great knowledge we have about the microbiome, our intestinal flora will also be included in future.

The microbiome stands to bring a new dimension to personalised medicine in relation to both the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases.

Sequencing each patient’s microbiome may in the near future become common practice to help select optimal treatment for the individual, and microbiome-based drugs are expected to be a part of and complement current treatment methods.

Innovation in the field of the microbiome will thus play an important role in accelerating the development of drugs and treatments that reflect our unique genetic profile and lifestyle.

The development work to realise personalised medicine requires strong collaboration across disciplines and building of platforms that require the integration of health data.

Oman can play an essential role, as our health system and nationwide patient data create a basis for a huge data platform that can position Oman as a leading country for data management and clinical microbiome research. Higher educational institutes can be of great help in this regard. We have some of the appropriate tools to unearth what can be described as a biological gold mine.

(The writer is the founder and CEO of Integrated Real Estate Services LLC in Oman)

Many property management firms overlook the importance of the property life and focuses more on the occupancy levels and related paperwork that comes with it. We cannot generalize, but most property management firms’ general mindset relaxes after achieving their desired occupancy levels.

Although it is important to have an occupied building with a steady long-term income to the landlord as to meet the financial goals or obligations. But most of the property managers do not focus on increasing the asset life and maintaining the property in a manner that allows a stable rent and a well-maintained asset that does not consume the income generated over the long-term.

The companies attending maintenance calls as a reactive measure to an incident do not actually keep a maintained building for a long period.

What should they do?

A property manager has a duty to the landlord to maximise profits, financial accounting of the operations and to ensure that the operations are within the constraints of objectives of the owner and in line with the governing law, market, and the lease agreements provision. The property manager also has a duty to the tenants to ensure that they have a safe, secured stay along with ease of terms of the lease or rental agreements that are carried out.

Property managers must manage operations efficiently and focus on increasing the return-on-investment of the asset with primary goal to improve the asset value. Tracking the performance of the property sites is a key element to performance while making sure that anticipated revenues are achieved through the set operational procedure. They should focus on maximising potential values of the sites/assets while maintaining a long-term relation with both owners and tenants.

Lastly, property managers should ensure that rents remain steady/competitive between other competing buildings while managing the cost of maintenance and improving the expenditure frequency and severity.

Facilities operations managers are responsible for ensuring periodic planned maintenance and repairs on equipment within a facility, and that the facility is always clean and orderly. They also oversee renovation or remodeling efforts and, in some positions, the maintenance of yards, gardens, walkways, and other outdoor spaces.

Facility managers in most companies focus more on routine work of maintenance i.e care or upkeep of a property and all its components rather than focusing on implementing a risk management programme that aims in controlling or reducing risk to acceptable levels which reflects on the asset life.

Facility managers focus more on implementing a reactive/corrective maintenance programme rather than implementing a planned preventive/predictive programme which by default results in the short life of an asset.

Failure to manage facilities properly increases the overall cost ownership of facilities and assets. This results in lower profit margins, which compensates for the lack of profit by increasing commodity prices.

Tenants look for comfort

Customers’ convenience is everything. If maintenance such as plumbing, HVAC, lighting system or electrical equipment fail, tenants will not be happy. Your facility should allow tenants to stay longer and encourage them to have long-term relation being in your asset i.e., their homes. Poor management of facilities will lead to malfunctioning, forcing the clients out of their door and into their competitors’ arms.

Either new or existing tenants are attracted by their experience in facilities. Managers must understand why the customer experience affects the management of properties and how customer interactions may be used to enhance these properties.

Poor service and cleanliness and inefficiency are associated with the greatest levels of customer dissatisfaction. In addition, poorly managed maintenance decreases the tenant’s satisfaction and increases overall maintenance expenses on the longer period.

The demand for maintenance is becoming increasingly significant and as well difficult due to poorer conditions resulting from negligence in following a proper maintenance plan.

Direct effect on asset

Over the life cycle of a building, maintenance of properties are necessary to preserve and enhance the usefulness of the building. Lack of proper funding by landlords and poor services provided by property management firms can be related to a major factor of improper management of facilities, services include financial and human capital as well.

There are also other causes for the bad management across firms, as well as budget limitations on maintenance expenditures, lack of information on the maintenance of a property by the facility manager and delayed maintenance by the facility owners or managers.

Building performance is a behavior of a product in use. Cost performance is one of the key principles that reflects the overall performance of the property or construction project.

The expense factor

The life cycle of a property is like the human life cycle. Affected by age, properties may suffer physical deterioration, leading to functional and external obsolescence which then affect a building’s usability. Therefore, long-term planning and maintenance management are quite important.

The more systems and planning programmes are in place, the less expenses will be incurred throughout each year. Maintenance plans are not in place to get things fixed, they are in place to monitor, evaluate and maintain each asset within the property and overcome the costly reactive or corrective approach.

The functions for which a facility has been developed and created include an array of services, capabilities, procedures, and instruments required to ensure the built environment remains for a longer life.

Property management and maintenance typically include the day-to-day activities necessary for the building/built structure, its systems and equipment, and occupants/users to perform their intended function. Property management and maintenance cannot operate at peak efficiency without being maintained; therefore, the two are discussed as one.

(The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Muscat Daily or Apex Press & Publishing)

Though many of us “use” words each and every day, seldom do we know or enquire about their origins.

There’s an interesting example that relates to the word ‘Croatia’. As described in the British scholar Noel Malcolm’s invaluable research into the racial relationship between Iranians and some ethnicities of the former Yugoslavia: “The name Croat, or Hravat in Serbian, is not a Serbian word. It is similar to the Iranian name Choroatos, found on tombstones of Greek dwelling regions of south Russia.”

He goes on to add that the original form of the word is “Khoravat” as mentioned in Avesta, meaning “friendly.”

Malcolm also wrote that Iranians migrated from Iran towards the area known, until 1992, as Yugoslavia. They wore a scarf around their head and rode horses or camels. Once they arrived at their destination, they knotted the scarf around their necks. They were known subsequently as the Croavatis.

Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, wearing a tie has been seen as an insult to Islam. It is sad to see that people rarely conduct serious research into the roots – and foundation – of countless words we use throughout the world. If we did, I assume many Iranians would be proud to learn of the legacy of their nation and would, perhaps, wear a tie in respect of their old traditions. Till today, many family names in Croatia have their roots in Persian history.

Another interesting story about the etymology of a particular word now recognised globally comes from Hassan Sabah, a 12th century Persian general. Sabah was a friend of the famous poet, Omar Khayyam, who lived in Samarkand. He was leading a small army of soldiers in Alamut, a location west of Tehran. The soldiers were tired and unfit to fight income enemy determined to capture Alamut Fort.

It is said that Sabah had created an amazing garden filled with beautiful animals, birds and a particular “dry herb.” This dry herb was the outcome of compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant.

Yes, Sabah had cannabis planted in order to produce “hashish” in his private residence on top of the fort. One night, he called ten of the soldiers and introduced them to ten beautiful girls, in addition to enough hashish, which left them “speechless” upon their return to camp!

When the soldiers finally woke up, they were told the experience was a sample of what awaits them in heaven. The soldiers narrated their experience to other soldiers and they all decided to become martyrs in order to benefit from the advantages of paradise. They were originally named the “Hashashin,” which later developed into the Order of the Assassins or simply the “Assassins” – a derivative term indicative of the ruthless carnage they exacted on their enemies.

It is interesting – if not fascinating – to discover the origins of not only words but also terms, phrases and idioms! It is through reading – listening, speaking and writing – that we gain rare insight into the etymology of words we use today and maybe, just maybe, a new perspective of just how intricate, comprehensive and sophisticated language has become on a global scale.

Avocado, salary, uppity, moron. Look up these words and their past. You just might be surprised of where they come from.

Saleh Miri, Muscat Daily columnist, is an architect who came to Oman in the early 1980S

Well, it’s possible through a technology known as virtual reality. Earlier, teachers in school used blackboards and a chalk to explain concepts to students. This later evolved to teachers using whiteboards and markers. However, in a few schools here in Oman, including the school I go to, we’ve started using smartboards, which use touch functionality instead of chalks and markers to explain and interact with students. Will virtual reality be the next evolution in schools? Let me first explain what virtual reality is all about.

Virtual reality (VR) is a system that gives humans the ability to experience a virtually simulated environment which can be explored in 360° using a virtual headset. Instead of using a joystick to control a particular character, with VR you can become the character, explore the world he is in, and interact with the available artificial environment included in the simulated world. However, other than gaming, there are plans to use VR in the education sector. Theorists predict that in the near future, students will be able to attend class, interact with books, and communicate with teachers and classmates, all virtually in the comfort of their homes using VR.

VR has numerous advantages that we can benefit from. The thrill of being in a virtual world – where you can do almost anything you want – can feel amazing. However, like everything else in technology, if abused, it can have disadvantages as well. One of the many disadvantages is that excessive use of VR can lead to addiction. As humans get addicted to VR, gradually they will not want to engage in the real world anymore. Another disadvantage is that using the virtual headset for an extended period of time can impact the human body, causing nausea, dizziness, and headaches.

VR can also lead to deterioration of relations, as most relationships and friendships are strengthened by personal human communication, and meeting each other in real life rather than through a reality that isn’t even real. Another major disadvantage of VR is that if the software being used malfunctions or crashes, or the headset breaks, it can lead to many problems. For example, if a student needs to attend class to revise for an upcoming exam, and he spills juice on his virtual headset, unless he has an extra pair, he’ll have to miss class, which can lead to a bad grade for his exam.

In conclusion, like any other technology, VR should only be used for its advantages. In my opinion, with the evolution of gaming and teaching in schools, who could ever disagree that VR could be the future of gaming, schooling and interacting with one another without having to meet people personally! Stay tuned as virtual reality becomes the norm in schools.

Hilal Tariq al Barwani

More and more children are starting to suffer from myopia, because they are getting used to looking at things from a short distance, like watching television or playing with their iPads or using their mobile phones. In the past, children played outside and watched things which were far away, like the mountains, the sky, tall buildings etc, and consequently required no glasses. Negative effects such as depression, wrong posture, sleep problems and lack of activities have followed.

Using technology throughout the day has resulted in families not talking directly with each other, but rather exchanging messages through their phones, even when they sit next to each other at dinner. In the past, before sending a letter or sending a message, we would ensure that what had been written really corresponded to what we wanted to say. Today, technology prompts words and phrases, which sometimes get sent without corresponding to our intentions.

Some movies use this subject to show a world where technology runs the life of humans. If we are not careful, this can become a sad reality.

Technology derives from the Greek word techno and logos, meaning the science of utilising and promoting science. It can help us with many applications, such as distant education, cloud storage, making purchases and payments without going anywhere, talking to several people at the same time, getting directions to reach an address, using drones and 3D printing. What was a very good intention quickly allowed abuse of the system. Bank accounts can be hacked, personal information can be stolen from your Internet activities and privacy is slowly disappearing.

People can find partners through social networks, but around 15 per cent of those who meet this way, divorce after three years. The youth of today do not want to marry unlike the past.

Although so many aspects can be considered positive changes for our world, dangers persist, considering the fact that we are less and less in charge and technology has taken over. We tend to believe the information provided to us by a single source, rather than verifying several sources to ensure that we have accurate news.

But, if we are not careful, technology will determine who we should have friendly relations with, where we should go on vacation, decide what we should wear, what we should read etc.

If we do not remain in control of technology, we will become robots and the meaning of life will change. It is important to remain alert and question any new tech development.

Saleh Miri