<p>I did the free practice test on the College Board's website. The Computer Grader gave me a 12, but I challenged a lot of controversial topics, so I would like another opinion:</p>
<p>Prompt:
Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations</p>
<p>Essay:
Most certainly, the advent of technology and mass communication has led to a decrease in the amount of things that people keep private. Technologies such as television, Facebook, and Twitter make it easier for people to not only share private information, but also for it to spread in an extremely rapid manner. The world today would be a significantly better place if more things were kept private. The people of today's world should make an honest effort to attempt to keep some things private. When one views scandals such as extramarital relationships in today's world as compared to the past, one will see a significantly greater degree of exposure in today's world. Great men such as Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, hundreds of political figures in the United States, and hundreds of heroes to the youth of the national are frequently exposed. Does this exposure bring good to the country? Or should the people who know of these things keep them private? Looking back at the "Camelot" Administration of John F. Kennedy, one will see that Kennedy had the respect of a great majority of the citizens of the United States. Although it was later revealed that Kennedy had several extramarital affairs, did this do any harm to the country once it was revealed at a latter time? But, when the wrongs of Clinton, Woods, and many others were revealed, this had a direct impact on the world at the time, lowering the views of these people in the eyes of the American people and creating poor role models for the youth of the nation. Although the people who commit these wrongs are by NO means morally correct in doing so, even more harm is done when their secrets are revealed to the public. The world would be better if they were kept quiet. Another example supporting why secrets should not be directly revealed can be seen with the rise of Wikileaks. Wikileaks has revealed thousands of top secret, confidential documents from the government of the United States. One could defend Wikileaks by calling the first amendment rights of "freedom of the press", but the fact remains that these documents are doing much harm to the state of the country. Is it right for one to practice their "freedom of speech" by yelling "FIRE!" in a large room filled with people, thus endangering their lives? The same logic applies here: the people revealing these documents, particular Wikileaks, should remain quiet and keep their secrets private. The advent of computer technology such as Facebook and Twitter has allowed people's private information to spread like wildfire across the Internet. In a recent commercial on television, two skiers are seen, with one asking the other for "permission" to go on a date with his old girlfriend. Although the one friend is quite angry at the fact that his friend is now with his old girlfriend, he becomes enraged when his former girlfriend "tweets" a message saying that she never truly liked her old boyfriend. Was this good to reveal in such a public manner, or should it have been kept quiet? Obviously, the latter would have been better for the two friends. As shown above, people in modern society should make an honest effort to keep more things private. When compared to the world just fifty years ago, the advent of technologies has helped private information to spread quite quickly in the world. One could say that some of the secrets being revealed are good for the world, but the fact remains that the world would be a more peaceful place if they were not revealed.</p>