【推荐3】Open Books Writing Competition

——Sponsored by Dolores McArdle Reading Trust

To encourage and reward creative writing while at home during social distancing, reinforcing the idea that everyone has story to tell, and to cultivate a mindset of valuing the community.

All students who are in the 3rd —12th grade in the Chicago area.

Group 1: 3rd—5th; Group 2: 6^th—8th; Group 3: 9th—12th.

First prize: $ 1000 (One winner from each age group).

Second prize: $200 (Three winners from each age group).

Furthermore, all works of winners will be published in a short story anthology. Each winner will get a free copy of the anthology, which will also be sold in our Open Books West Loop book-store.

Submissions should be on the topic of the community and can be any genre(体裁) —creative fiction, personal narrative, poetry, etc.

Some ideas to get you started: write about a character that experiences the importance of the community. What does the community mean to you? Who is a hero in your community and why?

Maximum length: 2500 words (about 10 pages); no minimum length.

Submissions will be closed on May 31.

Judging will take place in June.

Winners will be announced at the end of June.

Prizes will be awarded in August.

By submitting your writing, you acknowledge that your work may be published by Open Books. All questions can be directed to writingcontest@ open-books. org.

【推荐1】Traditionally, the number of meaningful social relationships one can maintain is around 150. This concept finds its roots in the natural development of the human brain. However, in the digital age, where our social connections extend far beyond the geographical boundaries (界限), we easily create more connections with the help of the rising online platforms. Then, a question arises: Does the digital age rewrite the rules of social connection?

A study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking explored the effect of social media usage on the size of social circles and the closeness of relationships. The researchers found that more time spent on social media made for a larger number of online “friends,” but not a larger number of offline friends. Further, the findings were not linked to feelings of closeness towards online or offline friends.

Another study from the European Journal of Information Systems studied the link between social media usage and “social overload” — the feeling that too much of the energy for socializing is being used up by online relationships. The authors found that social media usage directly contributed to the experience of social overload, related to digital tiredness and dissatisfaction with social media.

With social media platforms rising, one’s ability to connect with people challenges the traditional concept. The brain, used to manage a limited number of relationships, now fights against the difficulties of dealing with a large number of digital connections, leading to a less attention and feeling investment (投入) in a relationship. And the online shallow connections can not develop meaningful, lasting relationships that stand the test of digital distance.

Therefore, in the digital age’s social whirlwind, instead of drowning (淹没) in a sea of weak interaction (互动), choose to engage in meaningful conversations and focus on the handful of relationships that truly fit your heart. Hug the beauty of face-to-face connections, allowing the richness of human interaction to flower beyond the digital world. By doing so, we create digital and physical spaces that truly improve our well-being.

【推荐3】Adulting is hard. While high school students are at the forefront of technological and learning skills, it’s often not until they leave home that they learn everyday life skills. Some believe that high schools should offer a commonsense course in which students are taught how to pay bills, change a tire or cook. Now, one Kentucky school is offering an “adulting day” to teach such skills to students in their senior year.

The class of 2019 at Bullitt Central High School in Shepherdsville, Ky., traded in their algebra and literature classes for a day to learn some positive life skills, according to Wave 3 News.

“I think that the idea occurred to me, originally, when I saw a Facebook post that parents passed around saying they needed a class in high school on taxes and cooking, ” Christy Hardin, director of the BCHS Family Resource & Youth Services Center, told Wave 3. “Our kids can get that, but they have to choose it. And “Wednesday” was a day they could pick and choose pieces they didn’t feel like they had gotten so far.”

Members of the community helped provide the lessons for the students one on one, including local police who taught them how to interact with officers during traffic stops, a speaker who explained how to decipher the difference between homesickness and depression, and others who discussed how to use credit cards, how to cook in a dorm room and how to change a tire.

While many people on Facebook applauded the idea, with some arguing, “This should be taught in every high school, ” others wondered what became of home economics.

Now known as Family and Consumer Sciences, these courses teach students how to cook, sew and budget,   along with other skills. In many districts, however, the classes are electives and students do not always choose to take them.

“About time this came back, it was called Home Economics,” one woman wrote. “In today’s diverse make up of families it would be a welcome addition.”

Another shared, “We had home economics that taught us to cook and learned how to sew. We also had business math that taught us banking and finances. Why in the world is that not taught today? I mean, a special day called adulting to teach kids this stuff should be a required class credit.”