PAGE 4 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY & ANSAN opinion Text your FFA submissions to (785) 289-8351 or at kansan.com Until basketball starts, KU quid-ditch is #2 in the world currently! Alright, who took all the toilet paper in Anschutz? Can I get some sort of extra credit for coming to class the day after my marathon? If the person who wants a CWB is a girl I'm game! My latest show I'm watching is The killing. First comes nap time, then comes food time and then comes food nap time! That is my favorite time of them all. -Caboose, RvB WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014 I actually woke my phone while teaching today to check the time and found porn staring back at me. 100 points for every professor who gives one point to Gryffindor. I will make you a deal, bees of Jayhawk Blvd. You do not sting me, and I will let you live. When chem professors lecture on illegal drugs, I wonder if they're trying to say something about their past... What I learned in boating school is I hate to break it to everyone, but the band does the woo. Always. Specifically, the clarinets. If you're still bringing up Burritu- gate, you really need to get over it. Showers y'all, they're not an option. Was ganna say this bus has no chill, but it does. A literal chilf, diddaf. What's wrong with cargo shorts?? They're comfortable, efficient and don't have a ridiculous name. *coughChubbiescough* Instead of putting up more dorms and buildings how about we just renovate the crappy ones we have The absolute worst part about living off campus is having no leadership around to kill spiders. Thank goodness for my apartment manager today, or I would be dead via one very large, black, fuzzy spider. Follow @KUSenate on Instagram! WeWorkForYou Dear girl who trashed the ladies bathroom stall. You could at least flush the toilet. Just saw the largest cockroach in the Dure bathroom . Might have just seen a little I love how the weather in October feels like spring! #Perfection The amount of roadkill on K-10 disturbs me. Future is much brighter than movies and shows display Remember when the future was bright? It used to seem that every futuristic film or show was teeming with some truly exciting ideas flying vehicles, robot maids and intergalactic voyages, just to name a few. Happiness and comfort seemed to abound, with technology doing away with the problems of the past and logic paving the way for a better future. Despite the dire nature of the near past, with nuclear extinction previously seeming like an imminent possibility, predictions of the future were almost entirely upbeat. In recent years, however, it seems popular expectations of the future have been reduced to a dystopian wasteland. Film after film has depicted humanity destroying itself in one way or another. If it hasn't exhausted Earth's environment, then it's unleashed a zombie apocalypse. If aliens haven't destroyed us, then a dystopian order has oppressed the world. Indeed, it doesn't seem any optimistic depictions of the future exist anymore, leading many to become pessimistic about the future. An endless barrage of bad news from the media seems to validate this belief. After all, how can one be hopeful when vicious animals like ISIS haunt the Earth and diseases like Ebola continue to claim thousands of lives around the world? Despite these difficulties the perception of futility is seriously misguided. We live in an age of unprecedented progress. According to the World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Team, global economic inequality has declined substantially since the 1990s as developing nations are catching up economically. Global poverty has halved from 43 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2010, according to The Economist. Medical advances and growing access to food and water have pushed the global life expectancy to 70 years, up from 63 years in 1990, according to The World Health Organization. are certainly not causes for pessimism. Beyond the numbers, look at the situation that faces our world today. The main threat that faces us is not a nuclear contest between superpowers or an all-out global war. No, it's a scattered array of extremist thugs who distort religious doctrines in order to justify violence. Environmental consciousness is higher than it's ever been. Civil rights, both at home and abroad, continue their slow march forward. We walk around with electronic devices that were just pure fantasy a generation ago — these Indeed, when one steps back and looks at the big picture, there appears to be very few reasons for pessimism. It would be nice to once again see films that show us the boundless potential of the future, rather than the cynical underbelly of possibility. It would be nice to see what we might all accomplish together one day. Jesse Burbank is a sophomore from Quinter studying history and political science Unplug yourself from social media, other technology I was assigned to "unplug" myself from social media for as long as possible. Doing this made me realize how obsessed I am with social media. It is how we keep in touch, how we know what's going on in the world, and how we find the answers to all of the questions we constantly have racing through our minds. Embarrassingly enough, I lasted more than two hours without using any technology, and boy was it rough. How pathetic, right? I'm sure I wasn't the only one who didn't last very long in this challenge. We are all guilty of being too wrapped up in our different technologies. Every morning I wake up and immediately want to begin my day by catching on gossip on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. When I couldn't do that, it was torture. Simple things like getting ready for class were difficult without technology because I couldn't check the weather. I was hoping and praying I had worn enough clothing to keep me warm for the trudge to class. You don't realize how many advantages media brings you until you are suddenly without it. Not only does my phone inform me of the temperature outside, it By Molly Smith @mollmsmith with more technological advances each year, it will only get worse. Many professors have required me to use some form of media by having more tests, quizzes and assignments online.I truly believe someday classrooms won't even exist due to technological advances. Technology makes things like assignments, getting places and communication much easier. This is why we, as a nation, can't help but take advantage of it. helps me find my way around town when I am lost, and it even reminds me of all the important things I need to do in order to keep my life in check. It was crazy how "naked" I felt without checking social media for that short period of time. But even though we choose to consume ourselves with technology, we can't take all the blame for our fascination; we are completely surrounded by media everywhere we go. Our world revolves around technology, and Our generation is so different from past generations. We've grown up with technology,so it's really no surprise that we can't handle being without it for long periods of time. Children now are more wrapped up in media than ever before, to the point that a cell phone in the hand of an 8-year-old isn't an uncommon thing to see. Since this assignment, I have realized we all should spend more time interacting in person and enjoying life, rather than constantly being preoccupied by the social media on our phones. Molly Smith is a junior from Lenexa studying speech, language and hearing sciences KANSAN CARTOON CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK When was the last time you went without using technology? Send letters to opinion@wanssan.com. Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the email subject line. Length: 300 words Emma LeGault, editor-in-chief elegault@kansan.com Madison Schutz, managing editor mschutz@kansan.com HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR Hannah Barling; digital editor hbarling@kansan.com @Ben_Samson The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters @KansanOpinion I go without electronics for roughly 6 hours a day during that time I like to sleep. Cole Anneberg. art director canneberg@kansan.com Christina Carreira, advertising director ccarreira@kansan.com Follow us on Twitter @KansanOpinion. Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them. 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