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All-American, All-Hackley, Apple Pie
Hackley goes on the radio
On the day before Thanksgiving break, the atmosphere in the dining room at the All-American Apple Pie Bake-off was festive and fun. “I know pies, and this is some good pie,” junior Charlie Kilman said as he took a bite of the first place red apple-and-raspberry pie created by senior Marie Brooks and freshman Phil Brooks. SEE PAGE 14 Seniors Kyle Kallman, Teddy Seem, Austin Pidoriano show off the All-American Apple pie baked by Kyle’s grandmother.
Throughout Hackley’s history, admissions advertisement has been primarily reliant on print media such as education supplements in the Journal News. However, the admissions office has recently extended its advertisement to the radio for the first time. Hackley had a 30-second spot on WNYC (93.9 FM), a public radio station in New York City that carries a mixed news and varied music format that reaches more than one million listeners each week and has the largest public radio audience in the United States.
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Vol. 112, No. 4
December 2010
tuned in
students and their unhealthy use of electronics
H
e rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, wiping away the crust forming at the edges. His eyes are bloodshot, focused solely on the glowing television in the middle of the pitch-black room. The joints of his fingers grow sore as they rapidly click the red and green buttons. He looks up at the clock. Four hours have passed since he started his gaming “break” before homework. “Maybe one more game,” he thinks, pressing the start button. For some Hackley students, electronic media such as gaming, texting, and instant messaging have morphed from an enjoyable form of entertainment into a problematic distraction. A growing body of research suggests potentially long-lasting effects on attention span, sleeping habits, and academic performance. Sophomore Michael Di Milia plays video games at least three to four hours a day on the weekends. “I usually get a lot less sleep during the weekends than during the week,” he said. In general, he gets an average of five to eight hours of sleep each night. Michael, who once failed a test the day after playing a new game all night, knows the risks of spending too much time in front of the gaming console. “It affects my schoolwork when I don’t get enough sleep because of video games,” he said. Senior Aspen Mori, dubbed the “most likely to lose sleep over his favorite television show” by the senior class, confessed to spending too much time on electronic devices as well. “There’s just so much to do with electronics, all of which is more appealing than homework,” he said. The phenomenon is not limited to teenage boys. Junior Ariana Lavelli admitted that she loses homework time because of electronics, particularly when using her computer and cell phone. “Sometimes when my friends are having problems and I’m trying to help resolve those problems, I lose study time,” Ariana said. “I feel that my friends are more important,” she added. Ariana’s focus on electronics and friends can sometimes be detrimental to her schoolwork. “I once video-chatted for four hours, and I had a comp the next morning. I figured I’d study on the bus, but I fell asleep on the bus because I stayed up too late video-chatting,” she said, laughing. English teacher Raegan Russell spends eight to nine hours a week using electronic devices, solely the “fun stuff.” But she, too, has experienced some of the negative effects. “If I play too late before bed, I get too hyped up and am unable to relax,” she said. In general, Dr. Russell claims that fewer people at Hackley than at her previous schools seem to have gaming addictions. “A lot of people don’t pick the habit up [at Hackley] because of how much
work we have,” she said. “We’re not really a nerdy population here.” But nerdy or not, students can fall into patterns of digital addiction, according to Matt Richtel, author of the New York Times article “Growing up digital, wired for distraction.” “Unchecked use of digital devices…can create a culture in which students are addicted to the virtual world and lost in it,” he wrote. The effects, according to Richtel, are long-term: digital addition can decrease students’ attention spans and brain functions. “The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks—and less able to sustain attention,” Richtel wrote. Studies around the nation have yielded similar conclusions. In a study conducted by Dr. Peter Polos from John F. Kennedy Medical Center, 40 students from a high school in New Jersey were studied, observed and questioned. The results also pointed in the direction of long-term detriments: “Kids who texted or surfed late into the night were more likely to say they suffered from anxiety, depression, ADHD, and learning difficulties,” Dr. Polos reported. But the most immediate and common impact of digital addiction is sleep deprivation. “The impact of this over time is accumulative sleep debt, which is very hard to pay back,” Dr. Polos said. In order to combat this addiction and its detrimental effects, Sophomore Nick Ambruz, another avid gamer, has learned to exercise self-control when he plays. “I usually just play on the weekends for an hour or two,” Nick said. “I have a policy that I don’t play during the week.” Psychologists trained in this area, such as Dr. Polos, advise this type of daily balance between work and electronic play. That is a lesson that has not been lost on freshman Alex Wolf. “If it’s [a homework assignment or] something I have to read, I go away from electronics,” he said. This self-control can be successful in providing a healthy and productive routine for students. “I think it’s best to schedule times to play,” Dr. Russell advised, suggesting that students can even set a timer.
Story by: Jackie Yang and Daniel Hoffman Design by: John Rapisardi and Will Ginsberg