【推荐1】Parents can use platform-level controls to set limits on which apps your kids can download. But those tools don’t allow you to manage what kids see on those apps or prevent them from communicating with strangers. In this case, parental controls come in.     1    

First, two big important rules parents should follow:     2     Apps contain default (默认的) settings that provide protections based on the declared age of the user. Do have continuing open conversations with your children about keeping safe online.     3    

Then, with those in mind, here’s what to know about social media parental controls and how to use them (take Tiktok for example):

Where to start: Read TikTok’s comprehensive Guardian’s Guide.

Default settings: For teens ages 13 to 15, accounts are automatically set to private. Other teens can change their account to public but their videos would be shown only to friends.

    4     It’s also unavailable by default for 16-and 19-year-olds but they can change the setting to allow messaging with friends.

Optional settings: With a TikTok account, parents can limit the time their teens spend on TikTok, restrict age-inappropriate content and set messaging restrictions. Parents can also determine whether their teen’s account is private or public.     5    

【推荐2】Technology dependence has been linked to anxiety and depression. Whether this comes from the fact that we are away from others, the pressures from social media, the rise of cyber bullying, or the bright phone screen that is harmful to our sleep, all of this is doing harm to our mental health.

Technology has made us much more impatient than ever before. Because people can be available and accessible at all times. Most of them may get frustrated when someone does not answer their phone right away, or if they see that someone has seen a message but has not yet responded. For many, many years, hearing back from someone could take a long time; it was the norm (常态).

Another way that our dependence on technology is dangerous is because it can impact our memory and the happy emotions that come with the memory. Since technology has given us the ability to use memory cards on a device to store our information, we have not been accessing our brain’s memory as much as possible.

Technology has increased the rate of technological addiction, which is characterized as the uncontrollable urge to constantly and consistently (持续不断地) use technological devices or the programs, apps, and platforms that come with them. Technological addiction is more common among teenagers, but children and adults are seeing the effects as well.

Then what can we do to prevent ourselves from relying too much on technology? Like with anything, moderation (适度) is a good way to not become too dependent. To reduce the reliance, we need to find a healthy balance between technology and society. This could mean limiting the amount of time you spend on your phone, and giving yourself an opportunity to find the answer to a problem without immediately searching for it online.

【推荐1】There has been an obvious drop nationwide in the rate of high school graduates enrolling (注册) in college in the fall after they finish high school—from a high of 70 percent in 2016 to 63 percent in 2020, the most recent year for which the figure is available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Many observers have suggested three main explanations for the fall: COVID-19, the smaller number of Americans under 18 and a strong labor market attracting young people straight into the workforce. But while COVID-19 made things worse, the enrollment downturn took hold well before it started. Demographics (人口结构) alone cannot explain the size of this drop. And data show that workforce participation for 16- to 24-year olds is actually lower than it was before COVID-19 hit.

Many surveys point to other reasons for the downward trend (趋势). These include widespread and fast-growing doubt about the value of a degree, impatience with the time it takes to get one and costs that have finally gone beyond many people’s ability or willingness to pay. Fewer than one in three adults now say a degree is worth the cost.

On top of all that is growing dissatisfaction among recent university and college graduates with the value of the education they received. More than four in ten bachelor’s degree (学士学位) holders under 45 did not agree that the benefits of their educations are more than the costs, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, months of discussion about whether the Biden administration will forgive all or some student loan debt(助学贷款) has had an unintended result: It has reminded potential learners just how much people before them had to borrow to pay for college and many of their parents are still paying back their student loans.

In fact, workers with bachelor’s degrees earn 67 percent more than people who have only finished high school. More than half of “good jobs”—meaning those with pay of at least $35,000 for workers under age 45 and $45,000 for people between 45 and 64—call for bachelor’s degrees.

【推荐2】There’s a recent trend of Internet users paying someone to verbally abuse (言语辱骂) someone else. However, the service is not only unacceptable, but also illegal.

This behavior is often conducted on social media where some people sell the service. People who seek this service pay them a certain amount of money to have them insult (侮辱) the target online.     1    

“These insults usually hurt their right to reputation, which can lead to civil liability (民事责任),” Xing Junxia, a lawyer, told the press.     2     For instance, the offender has to formally apologize to the victim. Also, both the attacker and the payer bear civil liability as they plan and carry out the verbal abuse together.

    3     For example, the Internet security department in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, arrested a man who had been selling this service online. Despite knowing it was illegal, he believed it was an easy way to make money. In the end, he was fined 500 yuan apart from handing over all of his illegal earnings.

In the most serious cases, according to Xing, “the verbal abuse can lead to online violence.     4    ” In this case, the attacker will face criminal liability which can lead to a prison sentence.

“The Civil Code includes the principle of public order and good customs,” Xing added.    5     “If your behavior is against public order and good customs, you should also bear certain civil liability,” Xing explained.

【推荐2】Several studies have shown that listening to music can be highly beneficial. One study revealed that music could improve blood flow in ways that decrease levels of stress-related hormones and ease pain. But even without the knowledge of these research outcomes, we all know that music holds great power over our lives. How many times has music cheered us up when we were feeling down?

The Croatian architect Nikola Basic understood the importance of music in people’s lives. So, he came up with an unusual collaboration between an object and the ocean. In 2005, he designed a 230-foot morse orgulje, also known as the sea organ (风琴). The musical instrument is made up of a system of pipes and whistles that plays actual music as the waves of the Adriatic Sea push air through it.

At first glance, this invention might appear like an ordinary set of white stone steps, but its bottom stairs are covered in various holes. Water and wind enter through these openings, leading to chambers (室) within the giant instrument that connects to 35 organ pipes. As the waves flow, the air pushes through the inner channels, while the holes in the above steps sound out calming tunes.

This sea organ’s home is in Zadar, Croatia, which faced complete destruction during the Second World War. The city was eventually rebuilt, but it was filled with dull concrete structures that robbed the place of its natural charm. Seeking to restore it back to its former glory, local authorities brought in award-winning architect Nikola Basic, who, inspired by the hydraulis, an instrument built by the ancient Greeks that used water to push air through tuned pipes, designed and overlooked the construction of the sea organ.

Thanks to Basic’s artistic creation, life and joy have been brought back to the 3,000-year-old city. Now, it is a popular lunch place for tourists who want to feel the refreshing wind of the sea and hear the beautiful sounds coming from the sea organ.

【推荐3】A newly developed algorithm (算法) can spot depression in Twitter users with 88.39% accuracy. Developed by researchers at Brunel University London and the University of Leicester, the algorithm determines someone’s mental state by analyzing the 38 data points from their public Twitter information, including their posts, their posting times, and the other users in their social circle.

“We tested the algorithm on two large databases and compared our results with those obtained by other depression detection techniques,” said Prof. Abdul Sadka, Director of Brunel’s Institute of Digital Futures. “In all cases, we’ve managed to make it perform better than existing techniques in terms of their classification accuracy.”

The algorithm was trained by using two databases that contain the Twitter history of thousands of users, as well as additional information about those users’ mental health. Eighty percent of the information in each database was used to teach the robot, with the other 20% then used to test its accuracy. The robot works by first excluding (排除) all users with fewer than five posts and running the remaining information through natural language software to correct for misspellings and short-form words. It then considers the 38 different data points—such as a user’s use of positive and negative words, the number of friends and followers they have, and their use of emojis—and makes a decision on that user’s mental and emotional state.

The team says that such a system could potentially mark a user’s depression before they post something into the public websites on the Internet, paving the way for platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to proactively (积极行动地) warn users about their mental health issues. What’s more, the robot can also be used after a post has been made on the public platforms, potentially allowing employers and other businesses to assess a user’s mental state based on their social media posts. It could be used for a number of reasons, the researchers say, including the use in emotional analysis, criminal investigation or employment screening.