Racial issues must be addressed
Letter to the Editor
December 2, 2015
In response to “The Racial Reality“
This is a real issue that must be addressed especially in a school that claims to be “progressive”. Out of all the people that were interviewed, all of them believe that diversity is vital but there doesn’t seem to be any plans to change the racial breakdown within the teaching staff. Everyone is comfortable talking about what a shame it is the teaching staff isn’t representative of what society is really like, but when it comes to actual change and action, everyone falls silent.
Derek • Apr 20, 2016 at 1:04 PM
In response to “Phones can create stress”. I definitely agree that teenagers are often overwhelmed by the mounting tide of distractions cell phones bring along with the consequences. However, we must not forget that our smartphones have the potential to create a mental prosthesis that expands the power of our individual connections. We all have a handful of strong ties, trusted friends or family, but we can have hundreds of weak ties. Weak ties, which is essentially what social media is composed of, have high values as multipliers for our attention capacity and as a source of tips for good shopping deals, job possibilities and dating patterns. Therefore, some might say that the use of smartphones is actually improving our lives, hence relieving stress. In the article, it’s mentioned that there is a correlation between cellphone use and stress. However, correlation does not mean causation. Blaming technology seems to be the immediate scapegoat when it comes to being driven to stress, but the problem is not a technological one rather a cognitive one. People need to learn when its is or isn’t appropriate to use cellphones as suggested in the article.