Nearly every person has a smart phone. They have become integral to modern life in a way few other inventions can match. The utility provided by them is truly astounding, and because of this we really do carry the world in our hands. However, this has come at a cost. These phones can easily act as portable prisons, incarcerating the user in bars of mindless scrolling.

The use of phones has increased steadily for years. In fact, it has grown about 31% from the end of last year. This by itself is not really a problem. Phones have become a new way of interacting with the world, and many of these interactions are positive. However, there are a great many that are not as great for the user. One example of this is doom scrolling. This entails continuously reading negative articles or posts on any social media until the mind of the user is either completely fried or so egregiously full of whatever negative chemical the brain can create. Becoming nihilistic, melancholic, and being unable to stop are all byproducts of this harmful practice too. It is interesting; the sheer amount of information causes a bevy of problems, especially when that information creates a negative response from the one who reads it. There are issues with too much content even if it ‘positive,’ though.

Short form content has proliferated almost every social media app. Whether it be YouTube with YouTube shorts, Instagram with its staggering amount posts, or the incredibly popular TikTok, it can be so easy to fall down a rabbit hole of constant mindless scrolling. These apps prey on the addictiveness of short content that requires almost no investment from the user. Most people find it easier to begin watching an episode of a show than sitting down to watch a two-hour movie. Personally, I find this to be because of the time investment that both options require. It is much easier to justify watching a twenty-minute episode because it is only twenty minutes. A movie requires at least four times that. Nevertheless, I end up wasting more time watching shows than I do movies because each separate decision is incredibly easy to make, and it slowly matches and eventually exceeds the time of the movie. Short-form content is exactly the same. Hours can quickly expire because the simple decision of flicking a thumb upward requires nothing but gives the user just a little more than nothing. It often feels as though many people become prisoners of this action, and phones making this content portable has kept people glued to the bright screens for a much longer time than is reasonable.

If one was to poll a random high school student, the student could most definitely answer some complex problems. He or she would likely have little trouble factoring a polynomial, listing the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, or writing a snippet on the cultural impact of Of Mice and Men. However, this same student is quite likely to struggle with basic questions surrounding financial literacy and basic life skills. He or she would not be able to cook a meal, file taxes, or properly save for retirement. Even so, this student would ‘complete’ his or her education and be thrust into the sea of life akin to that of the Bermuda Triangle. The student has a compass, but no boat to sail on.

This has been an issue that has grown substantially: the degree of people that are financially illiterate and the amount of people who cannot complete basic household chores is becoming worryingly high. Over one in three people are unable to make basic dishes like pasta!

Some action has been taken to remedy this problem. James Harden, a professional basketball player, has partnered his non-profit Impact 13 Foundation with managing partner of Awoye Capital Jordan Awoye to provide a financial literacy tour to young adults. This would teach them the value of having money work while sleeping and other important concepts to make sure that these people remain financially stable. There has been an increase in available resources to learn how to accomplish household tasks like sewing and cooking as well. However, these remedies only tackle the effects of the problem, not the problem itself. Any doctor worth their salt would scoff at such a solution. It just is not functional.

Just like in functional medicine, it is imperative that the root of the problem is found and handled. In this case, students are not being educated on how to complete basic, life-critical actions. People are taught to work, not to live. The emphasis in schools is to prepare students to succeed on the standardized tests. Classes like Physics and Calculus are respected and sometimes mandatory, but classes that teach everyday skills such as Home Economics are belittled and nearly ignored. Schools need to reverse this stigma and prioritize these ‘life’ classes as an integral part of the curriculum. They provide so much value to students, but because it does not prepare them for standardize testing, students are kept from receiving those benefits. Often, these classes are the first to be removed if a school suffers from a lack of funding. If they survive, they are severely limited. Normally, the time slots are inopportune, or the number of available classes is miniscule in relation to other classes deemed more important.

To better prepare students for life, schools need to change what they deem a successful curriculum. Not only should students be skillful in academics, but life skills as well. If institutions continue to value only the number on the score sheet, students will eventually be unable to fend for themselves. Give them the boat. A compass is useless without it!

Schools should make Family and Consumer Science courses, such as home economics, mandatory, as they provide many skills that are necessary for life outside of school and away from parents’ support.

Due to the lack of basic skill classes, many students are not prepared to handle the simple yet imperative facets of life, and they struggle to adapt to living in the ‘real world.’

Factual Claim: According to a survey, over a quarter high school students believe that they will be unprepared for their future finances. They also demonstrated poor financial literacy when questioned about general concepts.

Value Claim: Classes such as home economics provide immense value to students because it prepares students for life without their parents supporting them. Students would learn skills such as managing checking accounts, cooking, and other skills that are incredibly useful.

Factual Claim: The number of students that take Family and Consumer Science courses has been dwindling. In 2012, there were only 3.5 million students enrolled in FCS secondary programs. This was a reduction of 35 percent over the decade prior to the survey.

Causal Claim: “The government’s continued emphasis on career-focused education and its refusal to fund life-preparedness programs has created and exacerbated a very real problem: People don’t have basic skills.” Schools and education metrics have remained eerily focused on only providing specific education. This has led to other life skills being underutilized and forgotten. The education system is focused solely on teaching students how to work, not how to live.

Factual Claim: Findings from the Flat World project discovered that financial literacy was at crisis level. A baseline was set using three criteria to determine if someone was financially literate: his/her understanding of numeracy (things such as interest rate calculations), his/her understanding of inflation, and his/her understanding of risk diversification (such as in an investment portfolio). Using these three tests, it was found that only around 30 percent of people were able to successfully answer questions regarding these three topics. Only 50 percent were able to answer two out of the three.

Policy Claim: Schools should be provided more funding for FCS and financial literacy classes because they are so integral to life once out of school. Lack of funding has led to these classes being taken away, which ultimately hurts entire cities worth of students who will eventually become adults. These adults will not have the skills necessary to live, which should fly in the face of the education system’s goal. However, this problem is almost entirely ignored.

I am absolutely livid. Big surprise: Disney has done something moronic again. I am in shock. Truly, I am completely flabbergasted by this occurrence. Now, if you couldn’t tell by the sarcasm dripping from these words, I got a story to tell that boils my blood. Let me regale you with a tale of stupidity that exceeds what I had thought possible.

Recently, I have watched a show called The Owl House. I had seen a few clips of it on YouTube and it looked interesting, so I decided to take a look. I was expecting a fun little show that would be mildly entertaining, but what I got was an emotionally gripping story with some of the best character writing and development I have ever witnessed (Specifically season two is where it really shines. The first season was still great though). It is extremely close to usurping Avatar: The Last Airbender as my favorite piece of visual media, and that show has stayed at the top since I watched it as a child! I had just finished the second season of The Owl House and had begun to wait for the eventual season three, but I read something that made my heart sink. The show got cut. In the blink of an eye, an entire season of one of the best pieces of media I had experienced was shortened to only three slightly enlarged specials. I was dumbfounded; I could not for the life of me think of any reason to cancel the show that had been nominated for many awards and had won both a Peabody Award and the BMI Cable Television Award. That was, until I stumbled upon a reddit post written by the creator of The Owl House, Dana Terrace.

Within this post, she answers many of the questions that the community had been asking regarding the cancellation, and none of them inspire much confidence in Disney moving forward. A prevailing theory was that of the LGBTQ representation in the show causing some misgivings with the Disney brass on high, which would be somewhat typical for the company. Dana does not outright contradict this statement. Rather, she is just “not gonna assume bad faith against the people I work with in LA.” Other theories included the Covid epidemic causing budgeting problems and the possibility of ratings not being up to the standard that was necessary, but Dana shot both of these down. It seems that compared to other shows, The Owl House performed well both on the screen and in production during Covid. So, if none of these are to blame for the cut, what is? Branding.

At the end of the day, there are a few businesspeople who oversee what fits into the Disney brand and one day one of those guys decided TOH didn’t fit that “brand”.

Dana Terrace

Evidently, because the shows audience skewed to an older demographic and because it is a serialized show (meaning that it has a story that unfolds episodically), it wasn’t worth letting it be finished. That is asinine and inconsistent. A few years ago, no one would have said that Star Wars would have fit under the Disney “brand,” but that didn’t stop the company from purchasing and preceding to push out the most mediocre movies on the face of this planet to make a quick buck. This is a completely arbitrary reason to cut a show; in fact, I hesitate to call it a reason at all. It feels more like an excuse. I just really do not understand.

Ain’t that wild? Really grinds my guts, boils my brain, kicks my shins, all the things.

Dana Terrace

I couldn’t agree more, Dana. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to give The Owl House the final season that it deserves, but I know that I will sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to be captivated by whatever magic Dana is able to create. The show is all about magic and witches, and I am just glad that some of the enchantment of that universe has leaked out for myself and others to enjoy. Please give The Owl House a shot! It is on Disney+ just begging to be watched. I promise you won’t regret it.

We live in a society where all of our desires are layed out on shelves just begging to be purchased. It is with ease that we can purchase that tantalizing glazed doughnut or gain social status with certain indulgent apparel. However, this ease of living has brought to the surface the gluttony of the people, especially those in the United States. More than 2 in 5 people are considered obese! That is over 40% of people that are extremely overweight. These people have increased risk of heart disease and death, and yet there seems to be frighteningly little done to improve this metric. It appears that no one cares about the weight of the situation. Pardon the pun. Evidently, something needs to be done to help stymie the spread of this sickness.

Normally I would view this situation as a product of the lack of personal responsibility. This is still somewhat true, but it is not the entire picture. Truthfully, obesity is a multifactorial disease that cannot be simplified and narrowed down to one single aspect. Genetics plays a part, as well as social interactions and, most notably, environmental situations. Though we all have the ability and responsibility to restrain ourselves, the way society pushes its most unhealthy options to the forefront is despicable. Fast food options line the streets of every city, preying on the everyone’s lack of time. Healthy food options are much more expensive, leading to people having to purchase the vastly inferior options just to save a few bucks. This is the aspect of obesity that needs to be targeted fiercely. The responsibility of public health, to a substantial degree, needs to be placed on the companies and governments that abuse the public for profit.

The topic of obesity is widespread and enveloping. It has seeped into the current society like ink on paper, and unless there is some action taken, it will continue to get worse. There are some people, however, that view obesity in a positive light. Held under the guise of ‘body positivity,’ they champion their gluttonous selves with glee. There is no need to sugarcoat this; this idea is completely moronic. Though it is not completely one’s fault when they are overweight, one still has some control over it. Body positivity is a great idea for aspects of ourselves that we have no control over. Not ones that can be changed. To truly stop this epidemic, the food must become better and healthier, and the people need to become better and healthier.

Art is human. There is no better way to put it. A machine, unless we figure out how to imbue humanity into it somehow, is incapable of producing anything more than a picture of ones and zeros. However, there has been a recent development that challenges this opinion. The Colorado State Fair holds an annual art competition, and this time, an AI-generated picture took home the blue ribbon for digital art. This raises many questions about the legitimacy of AI-generated art and how the expansion of such technology will affect current artists and their work security. If this piece is considered valid in such a competition, how is it that humans are to compete with AI’s efficacy? Furthermore, does this render all artists obsolete? An AI can create hundreds of pictures faster than human can create one. It seems like a losing fight.

As you’ve guessed from my writing above, I am of the opinion that this piece created from the AI MidJourney is not art; it is simply a representation of what a software believes humans see as art. No humanity equals no artistry. It really is that simple. Though I find it hard to believe my opinion will ever be swayed, there are a few interesting ideas to keep in mind about the possibility of these pictures being art, or at least becoming art.

An article from Wired takes a look into this. What is most interesting about this article is how it views the act of using the AI as the creative/human part of the process. In particular, a principal designer at Adobe Research named Aaron Hertzmann was quoted saying that “Craiyon and other image-generation tools are enabling new forms of exploration, something inherent to creativity.” Taking this into account, it could be argued that the ones and zeros of the pictures that are created aren’t a visual artform at all; maybe it is a written one. They say a picture paints a thousand words. A thousand words should also then paint a picture whether in a textbox of a software or not.

Even with this information, I still hold the belief that these productions are not art, and as such should definitely not be winning any art competitions. It seems that Hertzmann would agree with this sentiment, even with his statement above. In one of his papers titled “Computers Do Not Make Art, People Do”, he states that “art can only be created by people (or other independent actors) capable of these kinds of social relationships.” The social relationships he is referring to are those of romance, competition, and conversation among others. Until an AI is capable of these relationships, any and all productions will remain hollow. They will always miss that one little bit of soul that is so invaluable. There needs to an effort made to classify these pictures as what they are: impressive feats of software. They are nothing more and nothing less.

Recently, the 9-time Pro-Bowler and Superbowl champion Russell Wilson signed a humongous deal with the Denver Broncos. After being traded from the Seahawks for a haul of picks and players, it was inevitable that he would be extended at some point. It came as a bit of a surprise, though, that the contract came before this season. With the numbers finally out, I wanted to take a look at the contract and how it will affect both Wilson and the Broncos for the next near decade. Spoiler, it looks pretty darn good for both.

All of the numbers for Wilson’s contract were taken from Spotrac. Firstly, let’s take a look at the guaranteed money. Regardless of what happens, Wilson will be $161,000,000 richer upon the completion of his contract. This number is actually surprising considering another quarterback, Deshaun Watson, had recently received a fully guaranteed $230,000,000 contract. (How in the world is that a thing? Seriously…) Normally, once a contract like that is struct, it influences the market greatly. But in Wilson’s case, it seems that either he was unable to make the Broncos budge or decided to take less guaranteed to allow the Broncos to be more flexible with the cap and free agency during his tenure as their quarterback. Either way, this is huge for the Broncos. All you want as a GM of a team is the ability to maneuver the pieces available to you to produce the best team possible, and this contract provides that pliability.

The cap hits are also done wonderfully in the contract. This was simply an extension, so Russell Wilson will still play the remaining two years of his previous contract. Those have cap hits of $17,000,000 and $22,000,000 respectively, chump change in the world of franchise quarterbacks. To put it in perspective, Patrick Mahomes’ next two years have cap hits of $35,793,381 and $46,793,381, respectively. The Broncos will have ample space to be major players in free agency with the room provided from this. It does get a bit tighter after that, as Wilson’s cap hit jumps to $35,400,000 the year after and will eventually hit $58,400,000 in 2026, but at that point, the salary cap will have increased, and those numbers will feel much more workable. All in all, the contract has smaller cap hits towards the beginning of the contract and only begins to grow as the salary cap grows. Very well done by the Broncos, and Wilson definitely is not getting walked over here either.

Okay, the contract looks good, but what if Wilson doesn’t towards the end? Maybe age and the hits he’s accrued catch up with him later. Where is the out for Denver? For all intents and purposes, this contract acts as a pseudo 3-year extension. The final two years of the deal, if Wilson were to be cut, leaves the Broncos with a total of $17,200,000 of dead cap. That is easily sustained across two years if Wilson loses a step. The contract gives Wilson security, the Broncos flexibility, and Broncos Country something to cheer for. It is looking pretty good!

When I was in 6th grade, I had the opportunity to join the school band. They sat everyone that was interested in the auditorium and told us to go to certain areas depending on which instrument we wanted to play. Tubas were at the top; flutes were at the bottom. In the middle were the percussion hopefuls, and that is where I somewhat sheepishly plopped myself down at. The teacher who was organizing everyone looked at the ten or so students that had lined up to join percussion, and laughed quietly. Percussion was always a pretty popular section, and it showed.

Once everyone had decided where they wanted to be, it was time to tell them where they were going to be. Most people got the instrument they signed up for, but the ten person group that wanted to be percussion had to culled down to four people. The director pulled us aside, and asked who had at least a B grade in math class. I did, so I was accepted. I have no idea why the director used that as the deciding factor; it does not have any bearing on one’s ability to be a successful percussionist, but it worked out for me!

I am so glad that I signed up for band and have this story to tell. I participated in the school band through middle school and high school. I am actually still part of the marching band in college too! There have been so many positive experiences that have come from band, and I hope to see more people join and participate.

Personally, there are two major reasons joining band is beneficial. I truly believe that it betters those who participate by teaching discipline and camaraderie. Secondly, you are going to have a lot of stupid stories to tell. The stereotypical sentence “this one time, in band camp” is a stereotype for a reason. Everyone is a little crazy, and that makes everything just that touch more chaotic and fun. There is nothing like putting in effort to perfect your marching style only to fall face first because you tripped over a tuba or having a crash cymbal part in wind ensemble practice and crashing just a beat late. It teaches you to dust yourself off, have a laugh about, and come back and nail it a second time. I have learned a lot from being a part of school bands for nearly 12 years. I wouldn’t trade it for a thing!

In the age of technology, precious items in the abstract have become all the more valuable. Simple ideas are worth thousands of dollars, and programs and software are truly indispensable. Even digital currency has begun to take root! However, with value comes those who wish to consolidate it all for themselves. In doing so, the world is robbed of progression through collaboration. Many programs have the ability to change people’s lives for the better, but they remain privatized and unavailable. To be fair, the amount of work that goes into these creations is immense; I would know, I study computer science and create programs frequently. It would be remiss of me to say that all of that work should go unrewarded in a society that, in a way, values avarice above helping others. However, it should be the top priority of the people to help those around them, and if a program has the ability to do that, it should be open to those who need it.

It is for this reason that I adore what the company DeepMind has done. They have created a software called AlphaFold that can dynamically predict the shape of different proteins from just a basic genetic sequence. I am by no means a biologist, so the total breadth of this software’s applications may be lost on me, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that this can help the field of biology in a major way. I first stumbled upon this software while reading a recent editorial published by Nature. I was intrigued, so I took a closer look, and even a few days after seeing it I am still impressed. With a simple search of an organism, the program pulls up all of the associated proteins and is able to show a 3D model of what every single one is projected to look like. This can be done with over 200 million different proteins! It gets even better, too; the whole program is open-source, and the database is just as accessible.

Nature is able to see the value in this openness.

“Their data, and their software needs to be freely shared — enabling development of the next generation of AI tools.”

This quote is in reference to not only DeepMind but any software company, and I could not agree more. The entire editorial holds this opinion with tenacity; collaboration will help the field of biology and others drastically. It is difficult, in my opinion, to see how any other conclusion can be drawn. A software like AlphaFold has its value because it is able to assist so many researchers and scientists study these normally imperceptible proteins. Without its reach, the software becomes grossly less effective. Nature does a fantastic job of explaining this throughout the editorial, and I found it to be illuminating and well worth a read!

Twitter is a huge part of many people’s daily routine, and yet most would say that it doesn’t provide much serotonin for the brain. I tend to agree with this sentiment. Often, I will simply mindlessly scroll through the doldrums of the app until a glimmer of interest shines through. I’ll jump on it like a starved coyote, devour it in a second, and then return to the mindless and fruitless action of dragging my thumb downward for the next morsel. Thankfully, I’ve been given an opportunity to turn those morsels into sufficient meals; these ten accounts will spice up your feed and make the time spent on twitter worthwhile!

1.David Perell is a writer and a business mind. If you want to improve your writing in any way, following him and consuming his articles and tweets will be extremely beneficial. He is also fairly humorous, so don’t expect it to always be drab and serious!

Read to collect the dots, write to connect them pic.twitter.com/YbgnKKFUNn

— David Perell (@david_perell) July 5, 2021

2. Adam Schefter is the one and only follow for all of your American Football news. He is plugged into the entire scene and has the information out as fast or faster than anyone else. If you are at all interested in football, you would be remiss to ignore this one.

Analysis of today’s brawl between the Rams and the Bengals on ESPN’s NFL Live: pic.twitter.com/WZked4ovG8

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 25, 2022

3. Tommy Norberg is currently a teacher of level design. He has worked as a lead level designer before and uses that knowledge to educate his students and his followers. His students are to find jobs in the industry and succeed because of his teachings. I am a huge gamer, so getting the inside look to how these artworks are created is incredibly interesting.

I'm just stopping by to proudly announce that ALL of "my" leveldesigners that I have been educating now are sucked into and assimilated with the games industry!

feeling like a proud parent! 😍🤩🥳 https://t.co/3kltvVmvJv

— Tommy Norberg (@the_Norberg) May 27, 2022

4. William J. Pulte is a wealthy philanthropist that has dedicated his twitter account to helping people less fortunate than himself. He has created a community of people that want to help others without expecting anything in return. There are not any other communities like this on Twitter.

You are my teammate. What is a teammate? A teammate is a DIFFERENT WAY OF LOOKING AT THE WORLD. Take the "follower" thing and THROW IT OUT the window! So sick of that crap! We are in THIS LIFE TOGETHER. We are HUMANS. We are on the same team. Let's help some people.🎤drop

— Pulte (@pulte) August 28, 2022

5. Reggie Fils-Aime was the president of Nintendo of America. Even though he is retired, he still takes time to make an impact on the gaming community through his words and actions. He often pulls down the curtain of the gaming industry and is overall a fun personality to keep an eye on!

👇🏼 Get your questions ready! https://t.co/4HcUBuaqI5

— Reggie Fils-Aimé (@Reggie) August 19, 2022

6. Richard Branson is a dream seeking philanthropist. He is an incredibly optimistic and hardworking person, and those qualities are infused into his twitter account. He inspires people every day to better themselves and to succeed. He has been to space, and he wants you to know that you can too.

There are no words to describe the feeling. This is space travel. This is a dream turned reality https://t.co/Wyzj0nOBgX @VirginGalactic #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/moDvnFfXri

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 12, 2021

7. Bill Gates is a uh… You know what? I think you already know. One of the most successful people on the planet, if not THE most successful, Bill is worth a follow just to learn from his experiences. You should know about the man who has the world in his hand.

It’s encouraging that there’s more public support for taking big steps to avoid a climate disaster than ever before. My book suggests a lot of ideas – and it’s now available in paperback: https://t.co/PpoWh22buC pic.twitter.com/Un1BME9sst

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) August 25, 2022

8. With any social media, clickbait is rampant. That is why I recommend following Saved You A Click. This account focuses on giving you the need-to-know details of those articles that have painstakingly crafted their titles to be as ambiguous as possible. This account will streamline your Twitter experience, letting you actually get to the important content.

can’t spell padres without PEDs https://t.co/qAOSX0Cajf

— Saved You A Click (@SavedYouAClick) August 12, 2022

9. Ashley C. Ford is an author and journalist. She comments on social issues and uses her writing skill to both inform and entertain.

https://twitter.com/iSmashFizzle/status/1425875714004377611?s=20&t=cqI1db-gLeVp2G9Ao0m_ng

10. Lin-Manuel Miranda is an ultra-talented musician and producer. You may know him from the musical Hamilton and recently Disney’s Encanto. Both are brilliant and display his skills wonderfully. On his twitter, he promotes other musicals and mixtapes that will brighten your day and give you something to talk about!

Don't let the headline fool you: this is a KANDER & EBB MUSICAL. Better yet, a NEW KANDER & EBB musical directed by STROMAN! Rejoice! I was happy to pitch in some lyrics on a couple of new tunes bc writing w/ John is one of the all time joys of my life. Can't wait to see it! -LMM https://t.co/J5ZDUwqDJi

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) August 25, 2022