【推荐1】Children are becoming addicted to social media for their sense of self-worth, a major study warned. It found many youngsters measure their status(形象) by public approval they get online, often through “likes”. Some change their conduct in real life to improve their image online.

The research into youngsters aged from 8 to 16 was carried out by Children's Commissioner(专员) Anne Longfield. She said social media firms were exposing children to major psychological risks, with some youngsters starting secondary school ill-equipped to deal with the huge pressure they faced online. Youngsters felt their friendships could be at risk, not responding to social media posts quickly and around the clock.

Children aged 8 to 10 were "starting to feel happy" when others liked their posts. However, those in the 10 to 12 age group were "concerned with how many people like their posts", indicating a “need” for social recognition that gets stronger the older they become.

Children tended to compare themselves to others online. "Then there is this push to connect—if offline, will you miss something, will you miss out, will you show you don't care about those you are following, all come together in a huge way at once." Miss Longfield said, "For children it’s very difficult to handle." The Commissioner found children as young as 8 were using social media platforms largely for fun.

However, the research—involving eight groups of 32 children aged 8 to 12—suggested that as they grew, they became increasingly anxious online. When they started secondary school—at age 11—children were already far more conscious of their image online and felt more pressure to ensure popularity of their posts, the research found.

Meanwhile, they still did not know how to dispose of mean-spirited jokes, or the possible sense of inability if compared with celebrities(名人) or more brilliant friends online. They also faced pressure to respond to messages at all hours of the day—especially at secondary school when more youngsters have mobile phones.

The Commissioner advocated schools and parents do more to prepare children for the emotional minefield(雷区) . "It's vital that new age-appropriate relationship and sex education lessons help equip children to deal with growing demands of social media.” Social media companies must "take more responsibility" and monitor websites better or adjust their websites to the needs of youngsters.

【推荐1】Honesty is the best policy. We may agree that admitting mistakes and behaving in a genuine way is the right way to lead our lives, but is there something in our human nature that makes us immoral? For example, in some shops and car parks you can find an honesty box — a box where you pay for something by putting money in it — but it relies on you putting the right amount of cash in. This relies on people being honest and not trying to cheat but it does provide a temptation to get away with not paying the full amount.

Philip Graves, a psychologist, suggests that this temptation is part of our evolution. He says, “We have evolved with the ability to be dishonest. It’s part of our evolutionary psychological make-up because if we can gain an advantage over the people around us, we have a greater chance of surviving.”

So why do we place such importance on being honest if we benefit from being dishonest? It’s because it is selfish behavior. If everybody acted selfishly and dishonestly all the time, the world would be a very unpleasant place. As Philip Graves says, “There is a balance to strike between the extent to which we can feather our own nest, so to speak, and the risk of being ostracized (排斥) by the group.” So, for societies to work together we need to trust each other and therefore we need to be honest.

Being trustworthy with money is of course vital for an economy to survive. But being honest with words is another matter, saying what we think to someone can get us into hot water. However, a new anonymous messaging app has been designed that lets anyone with a link to your profile (简介) send you a message without knowing who it’s from. The app now has 300 million users which perhaps indicates how honest we really like to be — but in all honesty, do you want to know what people think about you? Is honesty always the best policy?

【推荐2】America is well known for being a melting pot of different ethnic groups and cultures, but nowhere is this diversity more pronounced than in Queens, New York.

Here, second-generation Puerto Ricans live alongside third-generation Greeks and first-generation Koreans, all united by a common feeling of pride in their American identity. However, they are also proud and curious about their ancestral roots. National Geographic’s Genographic Project, also known as the Human Family Tree, set out to trace the origins by examining their genetic makeup using a simple DNA test. What interested them more was something that intrigues us all: the history of our recent ancestry. One recurring theme among immigrants seems to be the hard work and sacrifices that went into building a new life, and how their descendants now feel a duty to honor that effort by working hard too. Here is one Queens resident’s story.

Richard, 38

My great-grandfather Tomas came to America from Poland when he was fifteen. His mother had died, and his father remarried. Tomas didn’t like his stepmother, so he ran away to Belgium, where he boarded a ship to America—without a ticket. Arriving in America with nothing, he got a job on the railroads in California. Then one day he saw an announcement in a newspaper that was read by immigrants. It was from his brother in New York who was also seeking his fortune in America and was looking for him. Tomas got in touch and they had an emotional reunion in New York, where Tomas subsequently settled. This is the story that my grandmother has passed down to us, to my parents, and all my aunts and uncles. She is an amazing woman and I suppose: the one who holds us all together. She’s actually quite forgetful now, but she never forgets family details. What that has meant is that all of us have a strong family bond and a strong sense of belonging to a group that has struggled and fought together to steered here.

【推荐3】Should we focus on our goal, or on the process?

What happened to Brenda Martinez, a US Olympic runner, may provide us with the right answer. She lost her balance in the 800-meter run and failed to qualify for the Olympics. Instead of focusing on her failure, she prepared to win in the next race. “I just quickly let go of what happened in the 800m and got back to my routine, to focusing on all the little things I could do that would give me the best chance of running well later in the week,” she told New York Magazine Intelligence. She said it was this mindset that led to her wining third place in the 1500-meter race about a week later to qualify for the Olympics in Rio. Instead of attaching herself to the goal of making the Olympic team, she concentrated on the process.

There is a problem with setting goals. Researchers from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern, found that overemphasizing goals based on measurable outcomes often leads to risk-taking, unethical (不道德的) behavior and reduced motivation. Their results were published in a Harvard Business School report titled Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting.

When you become overly focused on achieving the goal, you may lose sight of your original purpose for accomplishing the goal in the first place. Another danger is actually completing the goal without setting a plan for what's next. For example, some marathon runners experience what's called the"post-race blues". Achieving your goal may cause you to drop the good-habits that got you there in the first place. Dieters often experience this in what’s called “yo-yo dieting” when they drop down to a desired weight, but then gain all the weight back when they start their bad habits again.

“After you set a goal, it’s best to shift your focus from the goal itself to the process that gives you the best chance of achieving it and to judge yourself based on how well you complete that process,” columnist Brad Stulberg wrote on the website The Cut.

Ultimately, changing your attention from goals to process will cause you to achieve little victories on your way to accomplishing long-term goals. Amy Cuddy, a Harvard Business School psychology professor, wrote that focusing on this process “leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, regardless of the measurable outcome.”