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April 11, 2007

OPINION
Are You Plugged In?
We are a generation of iPod users, were losing ourselves in the process.
BY CHRISTINA SUAREZ
Daily Titan Freelance Writer
opinion@dailytitan.com

Why is it that everyone on planet earth seems to have an Apple iPod? All of my friends have them and even most of my professors, yet I do not. People think I am absolutely crazy when I tell them I dont have an iPod. ey ask me, Why? ey ask me how I listen to music if I dont have an iPod? As if the iPod created music! While standing in line on campus to get food one day, I looked around and realized I was the only one without ear buds in my ears and an iPod in my hand. I felt like I was an outsider because I was not following the trend. A girl standing in line behind me was humming away to a tune. A guy in front of me was standing there with no emotion listening to his iPod. It was there in line that I realized we have become the iPod generation. But I am not a part of this generation and it is my own decision. I refuse to become so addicted to

a device. One of my nearest and dearest friends has to have her iPod with her 24 hours a day, seven days a week or she feels incomplete. She even has to have it in class, on her desk or in her pocket, so she feels whole. What kind of a society have we become if we are so dependent and addicted to such devices? In most of my classes the professors are putting their lectures up on podcasts. Lookout, there may be a big drop in attendance for many classes. Why do I need to go to class when I can just download the lecture onto my iPod? Students, go to class. An iPod cannot give us everything. I think we should put down our iPods for a minute and retreat back to the way life used to be before these things. Remember when we stood in line on campus without the humming and clicking of an iPod? An iPod does not complete you and you will not die if you do not have it with you at all times. is may sound surprising, but music exists outside of your iPod. Try and remember that thing in your car called a radio, it plays music too. When you start to feel incomplete without it, please do not forget that your iPod does not complete you!

Titan Editorial
Providing insight, analysis and perspective since 1960

The Advocate
BY Robert

Moran
the word autism, our self-centered way of thought is understandable but not excusable. Autism can be broken down into the prex auto and the sux ism. Auto is dened as self while ism means the state or quality of being like. In other words autism means the self-state. I sometimes feel that this selfstate is a world where we dont follow the rules of proper behavior. Teamwork and camaraderie are rules that everyone must follow. e need to be the shining star is not conducive to these rules. It can lead to conict and to the false perception that we are arrogant and uncooperative. Since people who are autistic have so much attention devoted to them throughout their life, the adjustment to the real world is dicult for those who do venture outside their doors and outside themselves. Many people have asked where my impairment lies. It lies in one simple phrase: Autism is a world. My suggestion to the friends and co-workers of people who have Aspergers is to be patient with us. Be cognizant of the fact that we are trying to learn to adapt to the rules of your world. Dont react to us with the scorn and disdain that is common in your world. e best defense for those of us with Aspergers/autism is the other people around us.

Damn
So Anna Nicole Smiths babys daddy was unmasked as Larry Birkhead. Watching the whole proceeding was a little like a reverse Scooby Doo episode. Instead of meddling kids unmasking the Phantom Duck Hunter or what have you, everyone wanted to be unveiled as Smiths daughters father by that meddling DNA. And you know what? Big deal. Heres a list of news stories that got bumped o evening newscasts by the pressing question, Which hanger-on had the most virile sperm?: e president of the Ukraine dissolved the countrys parliament. e Bush administration may have been using a private e-mail system to illegally talk shop, sidestepping federal disclosure laws. Prison guards in Guantanamo Bay are force-feeding

at DNA
inmates to keep them alive during hunger strikes. Were all a little used to media circuses now. From Jacko to O.J., the media waves have been saturated with absolute lth for long enough. Even on 24-hour news networks, theres only so much time in a day. When important stories, ones that may have a direct impact on how you and I live, are being bumped o the air over incidental u like who gets Anna Nicoles kid, theres something wrong. When the nation was ga-ga over the O.J. Simpson trial, the Rwandan genocide was occurring. e death of two people somehow trumped the death of millions. is isnt the publics fault, but it falls to all of us to aect change. Demand that media covers real news rst and foremost. Dont settle for reality Scooby Doo.

Autism is a World
Being autistic, the world revolves around me. I say that to be understood, not to use my disability as a crutch or to blame if for who I am or can still be. I make personal choices and am responsible for my actions and attitudes. No matter what the challenges in life are, they can be overcome. Ever since I started working at the Daily Titan, I have begun to learn what camaraderie is and what teamwork is. We autistics are people that spend a lot of time by ourselves. is is mostly due to shame and embarrassment caused by teasing and ridicule at an early age because our social skills have been delayed or impaired One thing we need to realize is that we are not the center of the universe. But on the other hand, those we work and socialize with need to understand that these behaviors, while caused in part by our disability and by people that we have previously known, are not caused by you. We are also working hard, trying to unlearn these behaviors. A friend once told me that life is about perceptions. If we, as people with Aspergers, view people as our enemies, they will be our enemies. at also applies to people who are not disabled. If we let our perceptions get the best of us, no matter if they are based on ethnic, religious, cultural, behavioral or appearance, we become truly disabled. Still, considering the roots of

Robert Moran writes a weekly column on life as a disabled student living with Aspergers Syndrome. He is available to answer all questions for those interested in. Email him at opinion@dailytitan.com