December 2011 Chatterbox - Ruston High School

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E Black Friday by Whitney Durrett Editor in Chief ditorials/Opinions Chatterbox Ruston High School December 15, 2011 Page 10 Are Video Games Healthy? by Carter Carroll Graphics Design Editor Life Without Google by Jaisle Bailey News Editor Black Friday is the official first day of Christmas shopping and sales. This day wasn‘t popular until the 1960s when retailers pushed shoppers to start Christmas shopping the day after thanksgiving, hence the extreme sales. Nearly 135 million people shop on Black Friday and in 2010 shoppers spent around 39 billion dollars on this day. Don‘t be deceived, Black Friday is not the biggest shopping day of the year! It‘s not even the second biggest shopping day of the year. The two biggest shopping days of the year are the two days before Christmas when people do all their last minute Christmas shopping. I do not shop on Black Friday. Some people shop for actual deals on Christmas gifts because they wouldn‘t be able to afford them otherwise, but some people are just greedy. The people who fight and kill each other for things like an Xbox are crazy and ruin Black Friday for the ones that have a real purpose. Black Friday has been blown way out of proportion. Why waste your time fighting crowds and people to get Christmas presents or even household items when you can easily get it every other day of the year for just a few dollars more? Video games, like many other things, are often abused. I have many friends who are, simply said, addicted to video games. I know people who will stay up all night playing. I do this on occasion; of late I have been playing Gears of War 3 for Xbox 360. The game makes me quite irritable after playing it for more than an hour or so. I wouldn‘t say that I‘m addicted to the game, but I do quite enjoy playing it whenever I get the chance. My mom keeps telling me that I‘m killing my brain cells and that video games are ―unhealthy.‖ So I began to wonder if video games truly are unhealthy for a person. It turns out that there have been several studies done on this subject. Now, we mostly hear about the studies that say that video games are unhealthy for children and teens. These studies say that video games can be addictive, make gamers irritable, and can cause all sorts of health issues. Whereas these can be true, they are not always the whole truth. There are many other studies out there that show that video games can be very useful. Many games make users solve problems, follow instructions, and use teamwork to get a task done. These skills can be developed and expanded upon by playing video games. There have also been some studies that have shown that video games can be more intellectually stimulating than school. Also, video games can help people receive a feeling of accomplishment if they play well. So are video games healthy? I‘d have to say that they are, if used in moderation. I use Google daily and at least five times a day. It is amazing to have such a vast amount of information at your fingertips. Living in the Computer Age, I have grown dependent upon search engines, specifically Google. And I am not the only one. In June 2011, Google‘s worldwide reach was estimated at one billion unique visitors a month. When asked what his life would be like without Google, junior Jonathan Verret responded with, ―Tragic. So terribly tragic. I use Google daily, and I would not be able to function without it.‖ While there are many search engines, Google is the most popular and the most advanced. Google also offers more than most search engines such as email, apps, and home pages that you can customize. So needless to say, life would be nothing without Google.
E ditorials/Opinions Chatterbox Ruston High School December 15, 2011 Page 11 Why We Need a College Football Playoff by Reed Malek Sports Editor On January 9, the eyes of the college football world will be on the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana as the sport crowns another champion. Or, rather, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) will crown a champion, because the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is the only college sport in which the NCAA itself does not determine a champion. It is also the only college sport lacking a tournament playoff system in its postseason. As ridiculous as this sounds at first, it gets even worse. The FBS postseason consists of bowl games, comprised of teams from various conferences with various season records. The ultimate prize, the crystal ball known as the "Coaches Trophy," is awarded to the winner of the BCS National Championship Game, which is played between the two best teams as determined by the BCS. No playoff is employed to determine which two teams will play in the game; rather, the two highest-ranking teams in the BCS standings face off, fresh out of their regular seasons. Take this year for example. There are multiple teams in the top 10 of the final BCS standings whose records have only one loss. However, only one of these one-loss teams will be given the chance to play against the undisputed, undefeated top-ranked LSU Tigers. In a postseason playoff, there are myriad different possibilities for the two teams who play each other for the title since both teams have to fight through the other elite teams in the sport. The current BCS system obliterates this possibility, leaving teams in the dust whose records and bodies of work are almost identical to those of the teams playing in the championship game (i.e. Oklahoma State, Stanford). The smaller schools in the less relevant conferences never get their chance to put up a fight against the big boys of the SEC, Big 12, etc. because of the lack of a playoff system. Now, don't get me wrong; I love Bowl Season as much as anybody. The huge variety of bowl games and the excitement of knowing a game is the last of your season rivals the excitement of a playoff system. Bowl games also bring in huge amounts of money for schools. The system also makes every game of the regular season much more important to a bid for reaching the championship game. The advantages of a bowl season are many, but fairness is not one of them. Too many teams finish the season with similar records for only two to be picked out of the crowd and given the chance to be college football‘s ―champion.‖ College Football Playoffs - Not Part of the Game by Lloyd R. Bruner Chatterbox Adviser The opinion of the majority is not always right. The opinion of the uninformed majority is what it is. It is a given that the majority of people who have an opinion on whether or not college football should have playoffs would say that they agree that there should be a playoff system. It is just as much a given that the same majority watches only a few games every week, that the games they watch only involve their own favorite teams, and that they have reached their opinion based on what other ―experts‖ tell them. Going against the majority, I do not believe that college football should have a playoff system. Go ahead - laugh, holler, shout - but read on. Be warned though - I am just going to hit the highlights and not the details as I could write a book on why college football playoffs are a bad idea for everyone. One thing that RHS promotes is a word called ―tradition‖. Mess with our traditions, and many get upset. Well, college football has traditions as well, and one of the most longstanding traditions are bowl games that have some tie-in with conferences. Why? Well, it‘s tradition. Most major colleges and colleges that have had football programs for years have always found regional rivalries and conference competition to receive the most attention and as the years went by, these traditions grew stronger. If you will monitor the calls for a playoff system - you will see that it is usually done by newer college football programs or sadly, by traditional programs that argue against it until they have that year in which they themselves are on the bubble. Aside from tradition, we must remember that college football is all about the money as much is it is about the game. Conference rivalries, bowl alignments, playing big name teams on national TV, sports attire - you name it. The traditional conferences (even as they change) still base all of their decisions on money. College football is what funds almost all sports in most colleges, and as anyone who understands money knows - you don‘t mess with your money maker. Winning is a big part of college football and every team wants to win - but it is about the money. Disagree - explain why small market teams agree to travel to schools such as LSU, Alabama, Ohio State, etc. to get pounded every year. Don‘t say it‘s the love of the game and to play spoiler (seldom happens). It‘s about the money! The BCS system isn‘t perfect but a playoff system would have even more problems. How many would play? If we allowed only conference champions into the playoffs, this year‘s # 2 team, Alabama, would not even be bracketed because #1 LSU won the conference. There would be no #1 vs. #2 showdown. Imagine the uproar from SEC fans if only LSU went this year. Again, back to tradition, conferences would fall apart as there is no way that all the SEC teams would stay in one conference under that scenario. Finally, let‘s be real and remember that college football is really about money. Imagine no polls, no constant positioning by coaches and sport‘s writers, and no argument about who is deserving to be in the BCS championship? Sports networks would have less to talk about, promoters at colleges and in conferences throughout the nation would have no purpose, and millions of dollars would be lost. Do you think that will ever happen? Do you think the big money schools and programs will ever allow that or set aside tradition? No, not today, not tomorrow, and not until someone comes up with a better system and not just holler ―playoffs.‖ Sometimes doing nothing is the best choice. The Chatterbox reminds all students that everyone has a right to an opinion on issues. If you have an opinion and wish to write an article, the Chatterbox reminds you that all submissions are subject to staff, editor, and administrative review to ensure that the article provides information or promotes school pride, and does so without materially disrupting work, does not cause substantial disorder, or does not invade the rights of these.
Page 1 and 2: Box Tops Bearcat News (2) Academia
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December 2011 Chatterbox - Ruston High School

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