PDBY

Instagram, X, TikTok. These days, there are many places to get news from, and it seems like the world is at our fingertips. But what about the good old-fashioned newspaper? The feeling of the paper on your fingertips and the smell of the fresh pages – nothing compares to it. However, it seems that we hardly see anyone reading the newspaper these days. Except at UP, where we get everyone’s favourite paper, PDBY, regularly delivered to us by smiling faces across campus.

In 1925, Kollege residents organised a first-year initiation ceremony in the old Pretoria Church Square that members of the public could pay to watch. According to UP archives, this raised £197. This tradition continued for several years and eventually, in 1931, it was formalised into a university-wide event after TuksRes students held a procession through the streets of Pretoria to collect money for a nearby hospital.

In 1989, the World Wide Web was invented. It was groundbreaking. In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first successful cloning experiment. It was historic. In 2007, the first iPhone was released, changing and ultimately reshaping the world as we know it. Every generation grows up convinced that they have reached the pinnacle of progress. And technically, they are right.

From the President closing his addresses with “God bless South Africa and her people” to Kendrick Lamar describing hip-hop as his “b*tch”, gendered signifiers have long been used to describe non-living ideas and objects. But who decided that South Africa and other countries are women? What about hip-hop makes it feminine? Metaphorical gender is the assignment of gender to sexless, abstract objects.

Most, if not all, students have a preferred study method that is usually carried over from high school. Many of these “traditional” study methods have been modified into virtual versions of themselves. Instead of flashcards, we have Quizlet. Instead of hand-drawn notes, we have computers. Instead of tutors and teachers, we can just ask ChatGPT. The list goes on… These newer study methods are often seen as more efficient, but are they more effective?

We are all performers. Or rather, at some point, we all perform versions of ourselves to fit in. Maybe it means trying a hobby that everyone on TikTok is doing. I mean, everyone and their mom has picked up a crochet hook in the last two years or read a book in a café. These are not extraordinary activities invented by a cool 22-year-old wearing Sambas. These are things that have been done and brought joy for ages.

Do you know what the actual effects of global warming are? Climate change, pollution, and global warming are more than just buzz words for the environmentally conscious. They have actual consequences that are vast and varied. According to Ivan Farkas’s article published in Nature Communications, human-inflected climate change has an effect on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) system. In fact, it is making it slow down.

What do you say to your mother when she tells the whole street you are going to change your family’s life and you have not even figured out where the lecture hall is yet? For thousands of South African students, that is not a rhetorical question. It is the first week of first year, and it lands hard.

Dear You, Hi. I wonder where this letter finds you today. Maybe you’re wearing the clothes you always wished for, sitting at a desk in the job you worked so hard to attain. Maybe you’re backpacking across the world and your socks are wet. Or maybe you’re right where you’ve always been – a student in university and living with your parents, wondering what’s next. Either way, if you’re reading this, you’re alive. And I think that’s reason enough to stay a little longer.

When last did you leave the house without your phone and genuinely not know where anyone was or where you were going? For one generation, that was not hypothetical – it was an ordinary afternoon. Walking to a friend’s house hoping they would be home, knocking, and simply hoping. No text to check first, no little “seen” tick to tell you they had read your message and ignored it. You either found your friend, or you did not, and either way, you had worked it out for yourself by walking there.