Editor's note: All opinions, columns and letters reflect the views of the individual writer and not necessarily those of the IDS or its staffers.
Jack Davis: The iPhone vs. Android debate is silly. As someone who has had both types of phones, it doesn't make that much of a difference. Though I prefer my iPhone over the Android that I had before, I don't get the reason for tribalism surrounding types of phones. There are reasons to like both products!
Eric Cannon: People walk around glued to phones (sometimes, in collision courses) and stare at them before classes begin, but the best place for a phone is a pocket, not a hand. Call it Pandora's pocket because, when opened, a phone unleashes inhuman (and inhumane) amounts of information into our brains. The whole world and the endless doomscroll are at our fingertips, but we all need more time to detox from tech, slow down and connect with real things in the real world that the algorithm doesn’t feed us.
Jacob Lubarsky: Social media has plagued our world in an unimaginably powerful way. It has divided us further in political and social ideology more than any one political or social campaign, has significantly deterred us from interacting with the non-virtual world and is a leading force of a negative mental health pandemic. Social media has inadvertently acted as one of the most influential concepts ever created and will continue to shackle and dismantle the human spirit and mind.
Joaquin Baerga: Short-form content is a double-edged sword. You have TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts. They have contributed to the short attention span epidemic and given birth to so-called "brain rot." However, when these platforms are used smartly to produce short, engaging and informative content, they can help people make sense of the world around them. There's a reason why The New York Times has a TikTok account.
Ayzah Khan: An Apple Watch is just a $400 notification for your iPhone — it's like carrying a second, smaller phone on your wrist that isn't of much use. Sure, it tracks your steps and helps out with your fitness goals, but most people use it to read texts, ignore calls and perhaps feel slightly cooler. But let's be real: even if it's marketed as an essential, the Apple Watch is pretty much just a glorified bracelet.
