The Dartmouth 04/24/2019

MIRROR 4.24.19

MIND THE (AGE) GAP 3

GRAD STUDENT EXPERIENCE 6

Q&A WITH PROF SANTULLI 7 BRIDGET MA /THE DARTMOUTH

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Editors’ Note

Q&A

DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

We’ve all heard the saying “age is but a number,” and we see it right before our eyes here at Dartmouth. Though we are mostly all in our early 20s, sometimes it feels as if we are running out of time. Deadline after deadline, term after term, we’re always looking one step ahead, and our time here flies right past us. We worry about our summer plans in winter, what classes we are going to take next term while we’re in the middle of this term and where we’re going to be employed when we’re still students. In the face of all this planning, graduation comes along right before we know it, and we’re left wondering what the heck happened to the past four years.

For this week’s issue, we talked to couples with large age gaps, graduate students, local business owners and a professor who specializes in dementia to learn more about the significance of age and how it affects our day-to-day lives — if it should at all.

Aging is a weird thing. When we were kids, in classic “13 Going on 30” fashion, all we wanted to do was grow up. But now that we’re older, all we want is for time to slow down. It helps to remind ourselves, though, that age is really just a number.

You can be 21 with your whole life figured out or 45 with not a clue as to what to do. But for now, we still have time, and we should make the most of that. The future will come in due time — be in the moment while you still can.

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4.24.19 VOL. CLXXV NO. 23 MIRROR EDITORS NIKHITA HINGORANI KYLEE SIBILIA ASSOCIATE MIRROR SARAH ALPERT EDITORS NOVI ZHUKOVSKY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DEBORA HYEMIN HAN PUBLISHER AIDAN SHEINBERG EXECUTIVE EDITOR JULIAN NATHAN

By The Dartmouth Staff

What has been your favorite Dartmouth memory?

Claire Callahan: Getting to the [Moosilauke Ravine Lodge] after Trips — the energy was electric and so happy.

Yuna Kim: Looking back on freshman year, I’ll probably just reminisce on all the incredible friendships I’ve made.

Eliza Jane Schaeffer: I don’t believe in having favorites, but one of my happiest memories at Dartmouth is from the first nice day of my freshman spring. I was sitting on the Green with a group of friends, and someone driving by rolled down their window and screamed “People are happy!”

Sarah Alpert: Last spring term, there was one week after it got warm out when my friends and I just didn’t do work for the entire week. We just sat on the Green every day, and it was glorious.

Novi Zhukovsky: Going to the Organic Farm in the fall with my friends and making pizza.

Tell us about your most memorable birthday.

CC: On my 15th birthday, my best friend and I flew to Spain.

YK: When I was 10, I had all my girlfriends over, and we ate rainbow cake and sang karaoke all night.

EJS: I remember feeling so old on my 10th birthday. Which I now find hilarious.

SA: For my 3rd birthday, my parents hired a clown. I was completely horrified, which is probably why I remember the birthday in weirdly vivid detail.

NZ: Since I was 10 years old, every year on my birthday, I have gone to a restaurant called Alice’s Tea Cup in New York City for afternoon tea with my mother. It’s a tradition I look forward to every year.

If you could stay one age for the rest of your life, what age would it be?

CC: 30.

YK: I’d love to be 22 my whole life. It has a nice ring to it, and I don’t know — it just feels like the perfect age to me.

EJS: Definitely 5. I didn’t know how good I had it.

SA: I feel like 18 was a great year. It’s a sweet spot between childhood and adulthood, where you don’t yet have real responsibilities as a first-year college student, but you also can have amazing new experiences.

NZ: Probably late 20s.

When did you or will you consider yourself “grown up”?

CC: Maybe after college?

YK: I’ll probably feel like a real adult when I have to start paying for everything myself, though (yikes).

EJS: I can’t see myself ever reaching an age at which I’ll feel like I have everything figured out.

SA: Someone told me I was an “old soul,” when I was around 12, so I think part of me has always been “grown up” in a quiet, grandmotherly sense.

But I can’t imagine I will ever reach a point where adulthood feels real.

NZ: Once I get my own apartment and move out of my parents’ house.

Would you rather look old or

young for your age?

CC: Old. YK: At this point in my life, probably a little older. Once I pass my 20s, though, probably younger.

EJS: This feels personal.

SA: Young! Someone recently said that I look like a middle schooler, and if this gap continues, it will definitely pay off later in life. My mom still got carded at restaurants well into her forties, and that’s goals.

NZ: Old until I’m 28. After that, I want to stay looking young!

Would you rather age from the neck up only, or the neck down only?

CC: Neck down.

YK: Definitely the neck up.

EJS: Definitely neck up. I can’t imagine anything worse than having the mind of a 20-year-old and the body of 80-year-old. Like at least when your body falls apart, you’re also kind of senile, so it’s less terrible.

SA: Neck up. As long as the rest of my body is young, I can run and hike and do all the activities that keep me happy.

NZ: Neck down only. I think that people’s faces are the most important feature and tell the most about them.

GRACE QU/THE DARTMOUTH

Mind the (Age) Gap: Debunking Cougar Culture STORY

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By Novi Zhukovsky

At Dartmouth, we love our icebreakers, particularly ones that require us to go around in a circle and say a fun fact about ourselves. In order to avoid the awkward moment when it’s suddenly my turn and I’ve mysteriously forgotten everything about myself, I have built up a small repertoire of fun facts I know are foolproof. Here are my go-tos. My last name (Zhukovsky) means town of beetles in Russian; they filmed 30 Rock in my apartment building; I’ve never broken or fractured a bone (knock on wood!); and my personal favorite — my parents are 17 years apart. Yes, you read that correctly.

My mother was taking her SATs when my father was born on the other side of the world.

As a child, the age difference mattered little to me. Honestly, it felt like I got the best of both worlds: a responsible mother who looked after my sister and me and the young, funloving dad who always knew how to have a good time.

Rahul Varma ’21 shares a similar experience, though his parents have a slightly less extreme age gap. His mother is a little over nine years older than his father. However, for most of his childhood, he didn’t even notice that there was a difference.

He recalls that the first time he realized the reality of their age gap was when he came to college and observed how much older the other dads were.

“My parents weren’t really involved with other parents growing up, but now, when I meet my friends’ parents, the dads tend to be older — like in their 50s or 60s — and my dad just turned 40.”

Varma also feels similarly to me about the positives of having parents with this age gap — older mother, younger dad. He claims that because of his father’s young age and childlike tendencies, his father was able to do things with him that older dads wouldn’t have been able to.

“Growing up, I got to go outside and do things with my dad, which I definitely think would be different if

he was the older one,” Varma said.

“I love having a young dad. Other people’s dads couldn’t play soccer with their kids or run around and do active stuff.”

Additionally, he suggested that his dad’s young age enables him to be up-to-date with hip trends, which is something that he said his sister really appreciates. While his mother never really has the patience to follow the latest fads, his dad plays along with them to entertain his sister.

“Having a cool dad for her is really important,” Varma said.

However, Varma did say that the large age gap poses a few challenges. Namely, during family outings, people will assume that the group consists of a mother, a son and a friend — not a father.

And yet, Varma illustrates that this misconception is partially due to the fact that his parents are of differing races, with him resembling his mother more than his father.

I too have experienced weirdness being with a very young-looking dad. (He is now 44.) There have been many occasions when I have gone out with my father and have been misidentified as his date or friend.

Needless to say, those moments are much dreaded. And there was one time when my family and I were walking down the street, and a homeless man confused my dad for a third child in the family. (While I found it hilarious, my mom was not too happy about that one.)

The way my parents met was also unusual. According to my mother, Emily Benedek, this is how the story goes: “We met in 1994, before there really was an internet, let alone internet dating. I was writing a story about computer hackers for Details Magazine, and I was told about a guy who was the best hacker in the world. I sent him a letter through a program called Elm that had been installed on my computer by a computer guy. We sent each other emails, and we could type in real time — like messages today. It was

all quite exotic.”

The veil of secrecy offered by the computer enabled them to hide their real ages. My dad claimed he was 24 instead of 20, while my mom claimed she was 34 instead of 37.

An age difference of 10 years didn’t seem too bad. But then, when she found out how old he really was, he had already moved to New York City, and by that point, it was too late.

However, my mom didn’t find that the age gap was a problem in their relationship, and she didn’t really care how others might have perceived it.

“How other people felt about the age difference didn’t really concern me. He looked young, and I looked young, so it wasn’t really important.

I liked being with a younger guy — I mean, what’s not to like?”

My sister Hannah shares my mother’s nonchalant attitude about the age gap as well.

“Growing up, I didn’t think that it was weird. I thought it was cool and unique, and I liked telling people about it,” she said. “Maybe other people thought it was weird, but it never bothered me.”

While my father’s youth may have been a contributing factor, my mother said that the ultimate failure of the marriage after 18 years stemmed from cultural disparities.

Similarly for Varma, while age difference may be a minor cause of family tension, his parents’ differences are mainly due to their culturally different upbringings, his mother being from India and his father from Berlin. He said that his mother’s role as the more responsible parent is partially due to her older age, but also that her Indian background is a major factor for her parenting tendencies.

However, Varma has noticed that his parents’ age gap has become more prominent as his mother’s athleticism has begun to decline.

“We used to do a lot of camping and hiking together, but recently it’s become more difficult for my mother

because she’s just getting older,” he to train to be his helpmate, support, said. “She’s turning 50 this year. So sexual object and the mother of his there’s tension in that way because children. This is getting old, no?” my dad still wants to hike with the In all seriousness, however, she family, but that’s difficult for my does find the stigma surrounding mom now.” these types of relationships to be However, all in all, these emblematic of our society’s difficulty relationships seem to pose few perceiving women as autonomous negatives. In fact, Varma even said beings with as many varied drives as that he prefers having an older men. mother and “ Re l at i o n s h i p s younger dad. “Relationships are are difficult in the And yet, best of conditions. these types of difficult in the best I think as a society, relationships of conditions. I think we are slowly, slowly are often learning not to judge as a society, we relegated by the ways other people society into the are slowly learning seek happiness and category of not to judge the fulfillment,” my “taboo” and mother said. “bizarre.” The ways other people My mother wants older woman seek happiness and to make clear that she is branded does not advocate fulfillment.” with the term any particular “cougar” — arrangement and and most of -EMILY BENEDEK, NOVI’S believes that the the negative choices we make are a s s o c i a t i o n s MOTHER not necessarily more are directed at sensible than the arc the woman in of Cupid’s arrow. the relationship.

“As a society, we have begun to While Varma has never heard break down stigmas about interracial that term used to describe his own relationships and same-sex mother, he doesn’t like it. relationships, and we’re even starting “I do think it’s a problem because to acknowledge and legitimize the it’s definitely a gendered issue. You idea that some people consider their don’t see that same reference for an gender non-binary. I don’t think it older man and a younger woman, so should be too difficult to accept that I think it’s kind of a biased term.” in some cases, women are older than My sister feels similarly about the their male partners.” word and suggests that it reveals I think women should be allowed something larger about how our to engage in relationships with society views women. whomever they want, older or “I think the stigma suggests that younger, without being branded our society does not value older “cougars” or “gold diggers.” By women and has not accepted that an assigning these labels, we are only older woman can be appealing to a reinforcing stereotypes and rejecting younger man,” she said. the reality that women are human “‘Cougar?’” asked my mother, beings with varying preferences.

“I don’t even really know what So the next time we find ourselves it means. Except for maybe Kim judging a relationship with an Cattrall in ‘Sex and the City.’ And unconventional age gap, we might more power to her, what the hell. do well to remember the old Mark The 1950s model of marriage, Twain saying: “Age is an issue of which persists in some quarters, is an mind over matter. If you don’t mind, older man taking a younger woman it doesn’t matter.”

Older and Wiser: Connecting with Local Business Owners 4// MIRR OR

STORY

By Christina Barris

"Oh, I’d love to visit, but don’t you go to college literally in the middle of the woods? There’s just so much more to do in the city.”

Every time I make plans to visit friends from other colleges, they almost always insist that I go to their college. To be fair, Dartmouth’s location isn’t exactly central, so I understand the “middle of the woods” argument. After all, most Dartmouth students’ first college experience begins with First-Year Trips, during which we surrender

all ties to the outside world and disappear into the woods for five days. Yet somehow, we exit those woods with new friends and fond memories. The wilderness fosters community — it’s part of our brand.

Before starting college, I’d lived in the same small town for my entire life. I thought that I knew everything there was to know about my town: the best study spots, free parking places and every restaurant that was open past midnight.

I could not have been more

wrong. Turns out, there was a lot that I didn’t know. There were places I had unknowingly walked past each day — places I had ignored simply because I was stuck in my own routine. So, I vowed to be more adventuresome in college.

Honestly, I can’t say that I’ve completely kept that promise to myself. Routines are just too easy to get stuck in. I can’t even remember the last time I switched up my order at King Arthur Flour. But true adventure, I’ve realized, requires

more than simply switching my beloved coffee order or study spot.

So, I decided to look just beyond Dartmouth and explore the town of Hanover, making an effort to travel off the beaten path.

When talking to owners of local businesses in Hanover, it is apparent that the small size of Hanover facilitates strong relationships between business owners and customers. Michael Reed is the owner of Robert’s Flowers of Hanover, and he appreciates the

close relationships that he has fostered with his local customers because they allow him to excel in his craft and increase customer satisfaction.

“A great advantage of being in small town America is that you know your customers. Specifically, me as a florist, we’ve had relationships with local customers for 20-30 years,” Reed said. “So, in terms of me doing arrangements, I know the color of couches in people’s houses.”

Bryan Smith, the owner of

MICHAEL LIN /THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

MIRR OR //5

SYDNEY GILMAN /THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Inter national DVD & Poster, has a similar experience. Smith has the opportunity to interact with the Dartmouth students that visit his store, giving him a unique perspective on student life.

Recently, Smith even collaborated with a Dartmouth student, Sophia Bailey ’22. While she was shopping for records, Bailey overheard Smith telling another customer that he has worked with student artists and photographers in the past. While checking out, she asked him about his past student collaborations and showed him her artwork. Within a week, Bailey and Smith had chosen one of Bailey’s designs and turned it into a poster.

“It was a project I had done

where you take an old vintage propaganda poster and re-purpose it for something that you believe in,” Bailey said.

Bailey’s poster, which was based off the popular “Attack on All Fronts” WWII propaganda poster, reads “Attack the Glass Ceiling on All Fronts.”

By chance, Bailey was able to take something as simple as shopping for records and posters and turn it into an opportunity to make something meaningful and important to her.

Smith recognizes the significance of this collaboration.

“When I print it up and start selling it, it will make her a professional artist,” Smith said.

Despite this interesting interaction

between a local business and a Dartmouth student, many other stores that are off of Main Street often go unnoticed by students. As the novelty of college life begins to fade, it is easy to get stuck in a routine on campus. Because of this, not many students take the time to go off campus and discover new places in Hanover.

“One of the things I’ve noticed since we’ve opened is that we’re not seeing the students in town as much,” Smith said.

It’s ver y easy to go about my daily routine without ever leaving campus. I could spend 10 weeks within the boundaries of Dartmouth’s campus and get along just fine. Yet, when I think back to

the adventure-seeking promise I made myself last summer, staying on campus all the time seems to fall short of my own expectations.

It turns out I don’t need to travel very far off campus to discover something new.

Further more, as the college decision deadline rapidly on May 1st, millions of high school seniors across the country must make what seems like the most important decision of their lives.

The town surrounding a college is an important factor to consider when choosing a college. Smith, who has interacted with many prospective students throughout the years, has some advice.

“One of the things I always tell

every student is to walk around every campus on your own. Send family away because you’re going to be going to college on your own,” Smith said. “Trust that little voice in the back of your head. Here, you’re part of a family, part of a community — not part of a process.

A single voice can make a difference here. If you want to make a change, you can.”

Getting to talk to business owners around town was a great reminder that there is more to Hanover than the cyclical routine that I find myself in at Dartmouth. Whenever I crave variety, I know that I don’t have to travel too far to discover something new. Sometimes, it pays off to take the road less traveled.

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Demystifying the Dartmouth Grad Student Experience STORY

By Yuna Kim

Everywhere I go on campus, whether it be the Hop, Collis, Foco or any academic building, all I see are undergrads who appear to be the same age as I am. And it feels completely normal to see Dartmouth’s 4,410 undergraduate students walking around every day.

However, it is easy to forget that there are also 2,099 graduate students on Dartmouth’s campus, especially when their experiences are less visible to someone like me.

Most undergrads I know at Dartmouth see grad students as an undiscovered mystery: Where do they live? Where do they eat? Where do they spend their weekends in Hanover if not at the frats (I kid, but do I really)?

But few actually make the effort to meet and learn more about the grad student experience, something I tried to decode by meeting with students in several of Dartmouth’s graduate schools.

One of the first things I asked every graduate student I spoke with was: Why Hanover? I wondered what led them to decide to spend part of their 20s in a place where there really aren’t a ton of people in their age range. According to the 2010 census, only about 14.4 percent of Hanover’s residents spanned the ages of 25 to 44.

Bhargava Thyagarajan, a PhD student studying physics at the Guarini School of Advanced Studies, received his undergraduate degree at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune, India, before deciding to make the move to Hanover upon discovering what he called “unique environmental draws” and “niche research opportunities” here at the College.

“Once I got accepted here, I looked up the area and thought it was a great place to live in, especially considering I love the outdoors,” Thyagarajan said. “Also because Dartmouth has such small programs, that leads to a very close-knit community and a collaborative work environment, which I was looking for.”

Thyagarajan said that what especially piqued his interest after growing up in India was the beautiful

four-season experience Hanover offers, which was completely different from what he had been accustomed to his whole life.

“Coming from India, I like to say we only really have three types of weather: hot, hotter and hottest,” Thyagarajan said. “Here there’s winter, which is a whole different experience of getting outside, and I love it.”

Unlike Thyagarajan, Mo Zhu, a master of engineering management student at The Thayer School of Engineering, chose Dartmouth for the parallels he drew to his undergraduate lifestyle. Following his four years at Williams College, Zhu decided he preferred schools located in small, rural towns such as Hanover.

Contrary to his undergraduate experience, however, Zhu said that much of his graduate student experience has taken place off-campus, with parties and other get-togethers happening in students’ apartments throughout the week. Zhu also mentioned that some MEM students occasionally meet on the weekends, playing board games and spending time together in the MEM-specific area within Thayer.

“Compared to in undergrad, we definitely spend a lot more time away from campus,” Zhu said. “We’ll often go to restaurants in Lebanon or out in Vermont and generally take a lot less part in on-campus activities.”

Reed Bratches, a student at The Dartmouth Institute working on his master’s degree in public health, voiced similar thoughts on being off campus.

He, too, felt that much of life as a grad student is very individualized, with few all-campus interactions happening outside of special college-sponsored events.

“You’re in kind of your own little world as a grad student,” Bratches said.

When the College does host events, however, Bratches shared that the turnout is notable.

“The school-sponsored parties that happen a couple times a year are wild, actually,” Bratches said. “At the Halloween party, for example, they clear all the tables and everything out of Foco, stick a bar at either end, and

it really goes.”

W h i l e T hy a g a r a j a n , Z h u and Bratches all received their undergraduate degrees from other institutions, another grad student, Syed Rakin Ahmed, had quite a different experience. As a Dartmouth ‘18, Ahmed has already spent four years here at the College. On top of that, however, he plans to spend four more years in Hanover for his MD at The Geisel School of Medicine, as well as two years at Harvard University for his PhD. However great their love for the College might be, agreeing to spend eight years in Hanover is a big decision for any Dartmouth student.

And not only is Ahmed still here as a grad student, he is also still living in the dorms with other undergraduate students as a live-in advisor for the Global Village living and learning community in McLaughlin. Ahmed said that he felt strong enough ties to the institution and the people he met over the years here that he felt it worthwhile to stay a bit longer.

“For me, it was the pockets of community that I found at Dartmouth that I really treasured and identified with,” Ahmed said. “I felt that these pockets were sufficiently strong enough to make me want to continue my stay here.”

This continuity probably contributes to Ahmed’s opinion that life as a grad student does not feel all too different from life as an undergrad. He did, however, note a few key differences in the two experiences.

“I think the ability to spontaneously meet people was a lot easier to do as an undergrad as opposed to as a grad student, where we’re certainly a little far off,” Ahmed said. “I also think there generally is a separation or divide between how the undergraduate students are catered to versus the graduate students.”

One of the most distinct and lifechanging differences that Ahmed noticed immediately after postundergraduate life was having to prepare his own food daily.

“Definitely the biggest change for

me was staying at and eating at the dining halls versus having to cook for myself now,” Ahmed said. “It feels like a big step toward adulthood.”

Exploring the grad student experience encouraged me to reflect on how truly segmented my view — and probably a lot of other students’ views — of Dartmouth and the Dartmouth population might be.

While Dartmouth feels small to me, I realize that sentiment may not be because of the nature of the school but rather because of my own somewhat repetitive and predictable lifestyle as an undergrad. Although Dartmouth is a majority-undergraduate school, I think it’s important to remind ourselves that there are communities outside of our own who help comprise the population of Hanover. By making an effort to meet more people in communities that may be outside of our own social circles, we can all contextualize our experiences within the Hanover bubble, and widen our knowledge to those with previous experiences outside of it.

ELSA ERICKSEN /THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

MIRR OR //7

Q&A with PBS Professor Robert Santulli Q&A

By Katie Cline

“I’m too old for this!” I have exclaimed in frustration time and time again as I open my phone and bounce between four different apps before eventually putting my device down in defeat. Why did I open my phone again? Mindlessness and forgetfulness can plague even the most Type-A college student. Though I am only 20, I swear on my life that my memory is not nearly as good as it used to be. But how much of that cod psychology can be written down to confirmation bias?

In order to learn more about the brain of college students and the science of forgetting, I spoke to Psychology and Brain Studies professor Robert Santulli, who specializes in aging, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

What can you tell us about the cognition of the average college student?

RS: In general, people are cognitively at their best in their college years and for a few years thereafter. Cognition gradually declines in the years and decades afterward so that, by late middle age, most people are aware that they are not as sharp mentally as they once were; they don’t think as rapidly, aren’t able to multi-task as effectively and so forth. However, there are some issues which will impair cognition even in college students, and these should be noted. One is excessive use of alcohol. Not just when one is intoxicated, of course, but for some time thereafter. If students drink heavily every weekend, this will affect their overall mental sharpness adversely. It may be noticeable, or not, but it very definitely occurs.

Sometimes students don’t realize the impact on their cognition until they stop drinking completely and then realize how much sharper their thinking has become.

Another is inadequate sleep. This is a very widespread problem, not only at Dartmouth, but at other colleges, I’m sure. Just because you think you can stay up until 4 a.m. and still function well the next day doesn’t mean you really can. It should be obvious that getting only a few hours of sleep at

night makes thinking worse. You can only very partially reverse this with coffee. For most people at this age, that is in the range of eight hours.

Depression, or other significant mental stress, is another issue. People of any age who are depressed don’t remember as well, have difficulty putting in the mental effort and often lack the motivation to try. Decisionmaking is impaired, and the ability get excited about something intellectually disappears. Mental health issues are widespread and probably on the rise in college. Cognitive impairment is not the only reason to be concerned about this, of course, but it is important to realize that it is usually a significant component of depression or any other serious mental stress.

How do environmental or behavioral factors impact the mechanisms in the brain which create memory?

RS: I addressed the important ones in the first question. While they are common in young people, these things can occur at any age. Other factors that contribute to poor memory and an increased likelihood of developing dementia are poverty and racism.

There are multiple factors involved here, including diet, stress, medical illness, education and so forth. But it is an unfortunate fact that dementia — while it can and does affect people from all backgrounds — is significantly more common in blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and the poor. There may be some biological or genetic contributors, but overwhelmingly, this has to do with socioeconomic factors.

In addition, researchers suspect that as-yet-unidentified environmental toxins may contribute to dementia, although we don’t really know what these are, and this is not really proven.

How can younger generations take preventative steps against Alzheimer’s?

RS: Unfortunately, there are no definitive ways to “prevent” Alzheimer’s, only to lower the risk.

Education is important. Not only in younger years, but throughout life, exercising your brain by learning new things helps build what is called “cognitive reserve,” which will help prevent, or at least delay, the onset of dementia. Other important factors include staying physically healthy, moderate exercise throughout life and avoiding the issues I mentioned in the first question. And the other thing I like to emphasize that people can do to help move toward prevention is to give money to organizations, like the Alzheimer’s Association, that help fund research into the disease and

its causes.

There is a conception that my generation, with our iPhones and 24-hour news cycles, has a shorter attention span. Is this true?

RS: This hasn’t been proven yet, but many people suspect it’s true. I’m all for new technology and rely on my iPhone a great deal, but it’s important to be able to disconnect oneself from it when other things are going on, like being in class or trying to do homework, for example. If you can’t do anything without having the phone in your hand

and constantly checking messages, Facebook, Instagram, et cetera, then your attention is continually being divided. This certainly will contribute to poorer overall cognitive ability. Even if you think you can do all of this multitasking without losing your mental sharpness, you can’t. It’s important to try to be able to set the phone aside when appropriate and to learn to really focus for a prolonged period of time. This will be necessary and valuable not only in college but throughout life.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

8// MIRR OR

Through the Ages PHOTO

By Divya Kopalle