My love for dogs goes as far back as my first memory. As a little girl，I collected dog toys. At 5 years old，I was ready and willing to run away with the family dog after the threat of giving him away when he chewed up the sofa. Luckily he stayed and my affection for man's best friend continued. As an adult，my reasons for wanting to adopt a dog were purely selfish. I wanted a companion. I wanted a young，energetic dog that would need long walks or runs to help keep mc active to stick to an exercise routine.

Little did I know that my four﹣legged friend and love for dogs would help me feel more at home in and fall in love with my Shanghai community. It seemed to me that being a tall blonde didn't already attract a lot of curious stares；add a 12﹣kilogram black dog that believes everyone is his best friend to the picture and locals seem even more intrigued. The decision to adopt Xiao Hei definitely fulfilled those early selfish desires，but the experience has also brought me closer to my neighbors and made me feel more at home.

A few months after I first brought Xiao Hei home，I spotted the group of elderly Chinese people who gather at the park. After realizing they go there most weeknights，I decided it would be a good way to help Xiao Hei socialize with other dogs. After a few visits，it was not only an opportunity for him to play but also a chance for me to practice my Chinese. "Most Chinese give their dogs English names，but you've given him a Chinese name. Very interesting，"they laughed. With that simple laugh，it seemed that barriers were broken and with each visit I felt more a part of the community.

Whenever we see a button, we want to press it because we know that something will happen. This is true in most cases, for example, on a doorbell. But some buttons are actually fake (假的), like the “close” button on a lift.

Many people are in the habit of pressing the “close” button because they don’t have the patience to wait for the lift doors to shut. But lifts’ “close” buttons are a complete trick, at least in the US — the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.

It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only US firefighters and repairmen can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys.

But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren’t completely useless. According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control.

“A sense of control is very important. It reduces stress and increases well-being,” said Ellen J. Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard University. Experts also added that a lot of buttons that don’t do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose.

For example, pedestrian crosswalk buttons don’t live up to their names either. Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computer controlled traffic signals were introduced.

But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little “white lies’’, they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

Are you a social media addict? Are you always checking your smart phone to see how many “likes” you’ve received for your latest post? Maybe you feel comforted by the sound that someone has sent you a message?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We check our phones an average of 150 times a day, and around 30% of the total time spent online is devoted to social media. Some experts now fear this habit could be damaging our mental health.

This is something particularly bothering young adults, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh. It found the more they used social media, the more likely they were to be depressed. In tests, those people who checked social media frequently were 2.7 times more likely to be depressed compared to those who spent most of their time generally surfing the Internet, who had just 1.7 times the risk.

Some of us certainly feel sad when we’re ignored on social media sites, or when we see someone else having a better time than us. But depression is a more serious condition and clinical psychologist, Abigael San, recently told the BBC that, “It’s a real issue, and it’s been getting significantly worse over the last 5-6 years. You can get so hooked that it takes you away from your real relationships.” However, Abigael does admit that social media is more likely to worsen pre-existing issues than directly cause them.

Other research by the University of Glasgow found that teenagers are affected by the 24-hour demands of their social media accounts. It found that those with higher levels of emotional investment in social media, and who use it at night,were more likely to feel depressed and anxious.

Despite these warning signs, why do some of us continue to keep clicking? Well, I suppose we all want to be liked and we don’t want to miss out on a conversation that’s taking place online. But we need to know when to switch off our virtual online world and connect with the real world instead.