You've already been thinking in rhetorical terms about what captures attention: color, arrangement, variable font size, easy to understand, word choice, credibility, etc.

A consistent lack of proper sleep can have many negative effects, particularly among young adults. These include, but are not limited to, a weakened immune system, reduced cognitive function, poor mental health, weight gain, high blood pressure, and hormonal imbalances. Bringing attention to this issue and providing students with valuable tips and support can help to mitigate this epidemic and increase overall happiness, performance, and health across college campuses.

What many students don’t realize is that eating these processed foods can affect how we feel day to day. These foods are linked to things like low energy, trouble focusing, mood changes, and feeling burned out. When students are already under academic and social pressure, these effects can make college life even harder. Instead of questioning why we feel tired or unfocused all the time, many students just accept it as “normal college life.”

This issue matters because food directly impacts our energy, focus, and overall well-being. By raising awareness about what ultra-processed foods are, how to detect them, and how they affect the body, students can make small, real changes that improve how they feel.

As every aspect of everyday life is digitized, this has become the silent reality. Instead of owning hundreds of CDs, vinyl records, and DVDs with only the things we care about, access to everything is now offered to us with only a tap through streaming and the internet.

While trading ownership for convenience seems like a good deal, what we lost in the process was control. If we don’t own any of the things we consume, then how can we fight back against ever growing corporate greed.

Just this month, Tesla announced that the full self-driving feature of their cars (one of their main selling points) will now be moving to a subscription model. People who have already bought lifetime access now have to pay a monthly fee for access to a service they have already paid for. Their purchase was made meaningless with no warning.

The only way to protect yourself from falling victim to these tactics is to make a personal push towards ownership. Buy the things you care about and keep a local library of what matters to you. Ownership ensures access, stability, and freedom in a world of scams.

According to The Sleep Foundation, most college students need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. This is far from the norm. In fact, at least 60% of college students have poor quality sleep, according to the CDC. The epidemic of sleep deprivation on college campuses stems from many common issues, such as phone addiction (“doom scrolling” before bed), late-night studying (“cramming”), and social pressures (“FOMO” or fear of missing out).

The effects of poor sleep are detrimental. Students who do not receive enough sleep are likely to form a dependency on caffeine, have increased stress, see a drop in their GPAs, and be more susceptible to disease. The University of South Carolina can help address this issue by providing support to students through the Health Center, increasing awareness of its services, and conducting surveys to gather valuable insight on necessary changes that can be made. 

College students especially struggle with trying to balance their mental health needs with constant academic and social responsibilities, and while we tend to acknowledge that we could be healthier mentally, we tend to not actually do much about it. As we continue navigating through life’s challenges and opportunities however, mental health betterment will be instrumental in avoiding burnout while continuing to stay productive and chase our dreams. By starting to understand mental health improvement now, we will have more time to experiment and figure out what methods work best for us.

WTC with this topic will allow us to learn the most effective ways to improve mental health while also recognizing that we are individuals and not every method will work for each person. Additionally, by sharing what we learn, we can continue to push mental awareness while also having a positive impact on the USC student community by informing and persuading them on mental health betterment.

But Do You See?

The world we live in today is something we as humans have built from the ground up. The roads we drive on, sidewalks we walk across, houses we live in, halls we take food from, all of it was made with the brilliant minds and strong hands of humans. The world has so many marvelous things to see and is bustling with people and activities that we were granted the mind and eyes to see and experience. But how much of it are we truly experiencing? How much of our time and attention is being consumed by one of the most impactful inventions of the modern age: the world beyond a screen? In the hours we spend on our phones, our laptops, and our tablets, how much of the real world are we sacrificing to the digital? In our pursuit of discovery and electronic knowledge, we have lost connections between people and the tangible world we live in. People have stopped interacting with one another, choosing to comment on social media posts and scroll through the abyss rather than meeting others. We have stopped appreciating nature while we are in it, choosing to muffle the sounds of the world with music or pressing our noses into screens when a rainbow may be just overhead. The increased use of technology and subsequent dependence on it has created a world in which many people do not even know who is walking beside them on the street. It is important that we as a society learn to separate the benefits of technology from the dangers and reconnect with the world around us. The use of technology has hindered our ability to communicate with others, meet new people, and experience the world around us. It is because of this that we as a society combat our dependence on technology and instead, learn to evolve amongst each other in the ‘real world’.

The prevalence of phones creates an environment of nonstop stimulation that fragments attention and makes focusing on demanding tasks feel overwhelming. Instead of starting assignments, many students often turn to their phones for quick distraction, telling themselves they will begin “in a minute.” That minute frequently turns into hours of lost time.

 This pattern reduces focus, shortens attention spans, and increases reliance on external stimulation just to stay engaged. As work is delayed, academic pressure builds, leading to rushed, lower-quality assignments and heightened stress. Rather than easing anxiety, scrolling often worsens it by creating a cycle of avoidance and procrastination. 

Because this behavior is becoming so normalized among students, the academic consequences of lost productivity, increased stress, and difficulty starting work continue to exist entirely unaddressed, even though they are directly impactful to a student success.

When ICE detains or deports people, families may be separated with little to no warning. Children may come home to find a parent missing or live with constant uncertainty about whether their family will stay together. This fear can affect students’ mental health, concentration, attendance, and overall sense of safety. S

This issue is not just about politics or debating immigration policy. It is about understanding how fear and instability affect young people and their ability to succeed in school as well. Schools are meant to be places of learning, growth, and support. When students carry fear into the classroom, it challenges those goals. By recognizing the human impact of ICE on families and students, schools and communities can work toward creating more supportive environments.