CNN Student News - March 12, 2017 | Is FACEBOOK Making Us LONELY?

Fridays are what?
Awesome.
Welcome to your April 17th edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS.
My name is Carl Azuz.
March 10, 2014, was the first time we reported on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It had vanished
two days earlier in flight from Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia to Beijing, China.
More than a year after that, officials say they`ve covered most of the priority search
zone in the Southern Indian Ocean. Still no sign of the
aircraft and its 239 passengers and crew. Authorities say if they haven`t found anything
by the time they finish the current search area, they`ll
double it in size to an area bigger than the state of Pennsylvania and keep on looking.
Government officials from Malaysia, China and Australia say they`re committed to finding
out what happened to Flight 370 and bringing closure
to the families and loved ones of those aboard.
It was another week of good news/bad news for SpaceX, a private space exploration company
that has a $1.6 billion contract from NASA.
The good news -- it got an unmanned spacecraft off the ground and into orbit this week. It`s
headed for the International Space Station, bringing
along supplies, research equipment and an espresso machine for astronauts. SpaceX is
trying to perfect a reusable rocket, one that softly lands on a
platform in the ocean after getting the cargo ship into orbit.
The bad news -- it will have to keep trying. The one that launched on Tuesday reportedly
made it to the platform but then tipped over and
exploded. A similar incident happened in January, but SpaceX isn`t giving up, hoping one day
to land rockets back on the ground if they master
landings at sea.
This month marks a couple of major events in U.S. Civil War history. On April 9, 1965,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000
remaining troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. It was the end of major hostilities
in the War Between the States, though some skirmishes and
additional Confederate surrenders continued afterward.
Five days after Lee`s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 14, 1865, President Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated. His legacy is still very
much alive in America.
The bells of Washington, DC tolled to remember Lincoln. It was 150 years ago when this nation
lost
President Abraham Lincoln to an assassin`s bullet. The man who held the Union together
and freed the slaves still captivates us. Do you all have tickets?
His legacy drives sales -- books, movies.
And a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Decades later, the silk has worn, but his hat remains instantly recognizable to thousands
of tourists flocking here to buy
tickets to get a glimpse of where it all happened, in Washington, DC`s Ford`s Theatre.
Most people don`t realize that it was John Wilkes Booth and a handful of his colleagues
and friends,
they were going to kill the vice -- the president, the vice president and secretary of State
and really this -- their concept was take down the
entire Union government and hopefully the South would rise again.
I had an ax put into my hands at once.
Today, Ford`s Theatre is equal parts playhouse, museum and shrine. Paul Tetreault is the director
and something of a historian. We
asked him how the assassin got so close to the president.
John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor of the time. I mean I often tell people today, imagine,
you know, if Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp
went after the president.
The president`s valet actually let Booth into the president`s box. Booth squeezed the trigger
on this single shot Derringer pistol and
shot Lincoln in the back of the head.
This was the bloody knife that he had cut Major Rathbone. He held that up when he landed
on stage and yelled, "Sic semper tyrannis,"
which, of course, is thus always to tyrants. That`s the actual knife.
Lincoln was taken across the street to The Petersen House. He never regained consciousness.
Why does every presidential candidate running, why does every president wrap themself in
Abraham Lincoln?
Because he still matters.
Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln.
Land of Lincoln.
Everyone wants to follow in his footsteps.
Lincoln`s words and ideas and memory still hold and form us and shape us and likely will
for the next 150 years, as well.
Roll Call
Schools from China, California and Mississippi are filling the Roll of today`s Roll Call.
First up, from Zhongshan Guangdong, China, hello to everyone watching at Zhongshan Overseas
Chinese Secondary School.
Across the Pacific, from Santa Rosa, California, it`s The Falcons flying high over Rincon Valley
Middle School.
And in the Southeast, from Byhalia, Mississippi, we`re happy to see The Indians from Byhalia
Middle School are watching today.
You`re not going to be surprised by the headline, "People Are More Connected Than Ever." Take
social media. What might surprise you is that
some doctors say we`re more lonely than ever. And a recent study suggested that our interactions
online, our social media communications may be making
us feel worse.
There is a simple step that can help with loneliness for ourselves and for others. Just
say hello.
For details on the campaign, we called the doctor.
Everyone gets lonely from time to time. We`ve all had that experience.
But when -- when does become a medical condition?
What`s the danger of sustained loneliness?
What I found most remarkable is that loneliness can be physically painful. The same parts
of the brain that
light up when someone has physical pain are the same parts that light up when someone
is lonely.
So to say that loneliness hurts is a, you know, I think it`s a real -- it`s -- it`s
true. We can see it in the brain.
We can reach more people than ever on a computer, on a phone. You have two million Twitter followers.
I have -- I have a few less than
that.
But if we`re so connected, why -- what`s the difference between saying hello in person
and saying hello online?
You know, one thing I -- I sort of realized when I was researching this is that I don`t
know that we`re so much more connected. I
think we`re able to interact with j with people that we don`t know sometimes, followers on
social media, all of that, better than ever before.
But that`s not the same as connection. You know, physical human connection, the way we
human beings evolved, to be able to touch and -- and
feel and look someone in the eyes and -- and have that -- that experience is a different
thing, I realized.
So you can have a lot of interaction and very little connection. So you could have all these
followers and be out there on social media, but
still be an incredibly lonely person.
So how does the Just Say Hello Campaign address that?
Well, we wanted to be very simple with this. You know, the -- I think there`s so many times
when, you know, you want to say hello to
somebody, but you just don`t. You might even look at them in the eye for a second and look
away. And -- and the idea that if you just say hello to
somebody, you -- you`ve done a lot. You`ve made that person feel better. But you`ve also
made yourself feel better, because by -- you`ve created a
connection so it may -- it may address some of your own loneliness, as well, just by simply
doing this.
I think that`s it`s -- it`s -- it`s one of these things that if people did, you`d start
to reduce a lot of the -- the more broad feelings and
impact of loneliness in big, big chunks of our society.
What about Skype in classrooms?
There`s a Skype component to this?
There`s a Skype component, which was really interesting. And I think the -- maybe one
of the best uses of something like Skype. And
that is more of a mystery Skype. So you Skype with other children or people around your
own age who -- who are in maybe different parts of the
world, different parts of the country, people you don`t know. And all of a sudden, you get
to meet somebody and have this -- this conversation via
Skype about things and with people that maybe you never even dreamt of.
So it`s -- it`s really -- it`s -- it`s fascinating. That -- that more -- that`s more of the sort
of connection that I think we need.
Before We Go
Before we go, my producer had me at first donut in space.
What more do you need to know?
Well, for one thing, it`s a science experiment. According to a Swedish news company, two brothers
attached a donut and a camera to a
weather balloon.
Why?
Because, first donut in space. It ascended almost 20 miles before the balloon burst and
the contraption fell back down toward Earth and landed in
a lake. The soggy donut was still in one piece, which shows no matter where it goes, it looks
delicious, don`t it?
We love to sprinkle our newscasts with sweet food stories. They`re perfect for Fried days
- right before the wheat end and hopefully keep you
from glazing over.
Those puns dope.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN STUDENT NEWS.

CNN Student News - March 12, 2017 | Is FACEBOOK Making Us LONELY? | CNN 10

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