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Could setting our clocks ahead and back soon be a thing of the past?

For high school teacher and mother Jennifer Shaffer, time and sleep are two precious commodities. So with the end of daylight saving time approaching, the busy mom says she dreads changing her clock.

“It’s definitely going to throw a curveball at us and it’s going to mess us up for the next few days, even a week,” Shaffer told CBS News.

She’s not alone. According to a poll conducted by Monmouth University, six in 10 Americans said they preferred making daylight saving time permanent — ditching the biannual clock changing practice created during World War I to conserve energy.

Setting our clocks ahead and back could soon be a thing of the past — if some lawmakers have their way.

This year, Congress brought the issue into the spotlight when the House energy committee heard testimony in a formal hearing about how clock changing is linked to increased risk of depression, stroke and sleep disruption. According to Children’s National Hospital sleep expert Dr. Tyish Hall Brown, changing clocks can have an impact on the body.

“We have an internal kind of rhythm to our body and to our health,” Brown said. “And every time we move forward or backwards, that has to adjust as well.”

In March, the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent passed legislation without warning to make daylight saving permanent as of 2023, should the U.S. House and president agree.

Michigan congressman Fred Upton said the effort will likely come up short in the House, partly because some people in the western section of time zones say they are concerned that permanent daylight saving could make for very dark and late mornings.

“Not only would [school buses] be running in the dark, the kids probably would be in second or third hour while it was still dark,” he said.

Nearly 15 years ago, Upton championed an energy saving bill that stretched daylight saving time even later into November.

“Particularly with global warming, climate change is real,” he said. “Why not take advantage of that extra hour of sunlight.”

An ‘influencer’ degree? Colleges bet on content creator major as critics question its value

Ask a teen what they want to be when they grow up, and there’s a fair chance being an influencer is on their list. Digital media and the people who star in it have been cultural mainstays for teens’ entire lives, so creating social media, video or podcast content seems a natural, albeit nontraditional, career path. And now they can earn a college degree in that very field. Arizona State University recently launched a new bachelor's degree in content creation, offered through its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The curriculum overlaps with that of ASU's mass communication and media studies degree, with the major departure being a slate of specialized electives on podcasting, studio production and on-camera presence. ASU’s announcement was met with swift criticism from many sides — from people who feel content creation is not a legitimate profession to those who question the value of a college degree in launching a social media career.
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