Helping break the cycle of nicotine

ment, Kayla Fuller; Sports & Entertainment, Alex Miller.

Educational Achievements

Zachary Cothran, of Evergreen, was named to the University of Mississippi’s fall 2022 Chancellor’s Honor Roll, which is for students who earn a GPA of 3.75 or higher.

Margaret Cadilli, of Morrison, graduated from Fort Lewis College on Dec. 16, 2022. Cadilli graduated summa cum laude with degrees in business administration and economics.

Nils Aberg, of Evergreen, was named to Fort Lewis College’s dean’s list for the Fall 2022 semester. Aberg’s major is psychology. To be eligible for dean’s list, a student must have a 3.6 or higher GPA. McCue Behrhorst, of Evergreen, has been named to the dean’s list at Hamilton College for the 2022 fall semester. To be named to the dean’s list, a student must have 3.5 or better GPA. Behrhorst, a senior majoring in neuroscience, graduated from Colorado Academy.

Being a life-long learner, a ritual I love opening my day with is reading the MerriamWebster email with the day’s word. Sometimes it is one with which I am familiar, but often it is a word whose de nition I have forgotten or am unacquainted with. Merriam-Webster is not my only source for expanding my vocabulary. I learn new words while reading books, essays and even op-ed columns.

I was introduced to one in an article about the escalation of teen loneliness and its correlation to the smartphone: phubbing. It is a portmanteau, a word formed by combining elements of two di erent words, like smog or brunch. In this case, the words combined are phone and snubbing.

Phubbing is the act of ignoring others by focusing your gaze on your smartphone. While adults are becoming more practiced in the art, teens have perfected it, much to their social and psychological development detriment. It has a precursor that evolved with the invention of the elevator. e uncomfortable quiet we experience on a ride between oors is understandable given the con ned space. But it tells us something about our nature: We have an innate need and even compulsion to communicate with others, and when we enter a complex in which the normal rules of chitchat are not applicable, we become uncomfortable. Ignoring people in close quarters feels unnatural. e saving grace for elevator passengers is that uncom-