【推荐1】The term “social distancing” has been at the center of public conversation for a while. But it’s not “social” distance we are trying to promote. It’s physical separation. In fact, preserving social ties — even at a distance — is essential for both mental and physical health. The results of an analytic review done in 2017 indicate that a lack of social support is on a par with smoking cigarettes as a risk factor for health.

Given this fact, how might we best stay connected to others while maintaining physical distance? Would we be better off e-mailing a friend? Making a phone call? Setting up a video chat? In our study, Nick Epley and I tested whether the media through which people interact affects their sense of connection — and how expectations about certain technologies impact the communication media they choose to use.

In our experiment, we asked participants to reconnect with someone that they hadn’t interacted with recently, either through e-mail or over the phone. Participants first made predictions about what it would be like to get in touch if they reached out in these two ways. They generally believed that they’d feel more connected when interacting via the phone than over e-mail. But they also predicted that talking on the phone could be more uncomfortable than sending an e-mail. Although these participants believed that talking encouraged stronger bonds, most of them said they’d rather send an e-mail than call the person up. Fears about awkwardness, it seems, push individuals toward text-based methods for communicating.

In the next part of the experiment, we had participants actually reconnect using one randomly determined mode of communication and then followed up with them after they had done so. We found that people do form meaningfully stronger bonds when interacting over the phone than over e-mail. Importantly, though, there was no difference in the amount of discomfort when reconnecting on the phone.

The next time you think about how best to connect, consider calling or setting up a video chat. Feelings of social connection are preferably facilitated by voice rather than a keyboard.

【推荐1】In 1920, Walt Disney moved to Kansas City and worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. There he became interested in animation and started to experiment with his stories. Soon he opened up his own animation business. Later, Disney and his employee, Fred Harman, made a deal with a Kansas City theatre to screen their cartoons. They were very popular, and Disney used the profits he made. to start his own studio. Afterwards, he expanded his business, but, by 1923, had to declare bankruptcy (破产).

Moving to Hollywood with his brother Roy, they. started the Disney Brothers Studio — which later became The Walt Disney Company — to produce films. From there, they were on their way up. They made the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and, soon after, created Mickey Mouse and associated characters, with the first successful Mickey Mouse film being a short called “Steamboat Willie”.

After some setbacks (挫折), such as the character of Oswald having its rights stolen by his distributors, Disney soon found himself and his studio well on their way to great success. From there, Disney went on to create hundreds of movies, as well as Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida.

Walt Disney’s story is a great inspirational story. It’s about a man who had a dream and put his entire effort into making it happen. Whenever there were setbacks, Disney kept going to make his dream come alive.

The inspirational message to take from Disney’s story is to keep your dream in your sights and to go after it with all of your faith, trust, belief and joy. If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

【推荐3】Jerome Kern is often called the father of American musical theatre. Kern is remembered for the hundreds of songs he wrote for musical plays and movies. To a great extent, he led the development of the first truly American theatre music.

Jerome Kern began his career as a songwriter in theatres in London and New York City. Success came quickly. By the early 1920s, Kern was a successful young composer for Broadway musical comedies. He worked with each song until he was satisfied that the music was perfect.

American musical plays at that time were still usually copied from European ones. Kern wanted to try something completely new. He thought a musical play should be a real work of art, not just a collection of songs and dances. He thought songs should help move the action of the play along, by showing a person’s feelings. Kern wanted to do a truly American musical, with real American characters and real situations.

In 1927, he found the story he wanted. It was the book Show Boat by American writer Edna Ferber. Show Boat takes place in the 1880s on a passenger steam boat that travels along the Mississippi River. The boat is called a show boat because singers and dancers entertain the passengers. The captain of the show boat has a daughter who is a singer on the boat. She falls in love with a man who earns his money by gambling with cards.

The story dealt with some unusually serious issues for a musical. It showed the hard lives of African Americans in the South. And it showed marriage between people of different races, which was against the law at that time. Although serious in places, Show Boat was not a tragedy. The public and critics loved it. Show Boat became the greatest work of American musical theatre. Music critics said Kern’s effect on musical theatre was revolutionary. It was Kern’s music that made the show a great success, which has been performed thousands of times all over the world.