1 . Twelve-year-old Catherine has a lot of friends—632, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.

But is it possible that Catherine’s online friendships could be making her lonely? That’s what some experts believe. Connecting online is a great way to stay in touch, they say. However, some experts worry that many kids are so busy connecting online that they might be missing out on true friendships.

Could this be true? During your parents’ childhoods, connecting with friends usually meant spending time with them in the flesh. Kids played Scrabble around a table, not words with friends on their phones. When friends missed each other, they picked up the telephone. Friends might even write letters to each other.

Today, most communication takes place online. A typical teen sends 2,000 texts a month and spends more than 44 hours per week in front of a screen. Much of this time is spent on social media platform.

In fact, in many ways, online communication can make friendships stronger. “There’s definitely a positive influence. Kids can stay in constant contact, which means they can share more of their feelings with each other,” says Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation.

Other experts, however, warn that too much online communication can get in the way of forming deep friendships. “If we are constantly checking in with our virtual world, we will have little time for our real-world friendships,” says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University. Rosen also worries that today’s kids might mistake the “friends” on the social media for true friends in life. However, in tough times, you don’t need anyone to like your picture or share your blogs. You need someone who will keep your secrets and hold your hand. You would like to talk face to face.

2 . What makes a person a giver or taker? The idea of “give vs. take” take shape in all interactions and relationships of our lives. We’re either giving advice, making time for people, or we’re on the receiving end. We keep changing between the two based on different situations on a daily basis, if not a hourly one.

According to Adam Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, most people are matchers. They make careful observations on takers and make it a point for them to pay something back. They hate to see people who act so generously towards others not receive any rewards. Actually, most matchers will try hard to promote and support givers so that they can get the good they should get.

Is there a gender factor (性别因素) that plays a part in this?

A study led by Hannah Riley Bowles, a professor at Harvard University, focused on this question. She asked 200 senior managers to sit down in pairs where one person would act as the boss and the other as a worker to discuss salary promotions. Male “workers” asked for an average salary of $146k while the females asked for only $141k. But why did they not bargain as hard as the men? Simply because they were more likely to be givers.

As a woman, I do enjoy the act of giving up my time, my knowledge, and my care and attention to others. I don’t expect anything in return, but I do tend to pull myself away when I feel like I’m being taken for granted (理所当然). I also tend to get upset when I see a loved one’s continuous actions of kindness go unnoticed. So, it’s safe to say I’m 50% giver, 35% matcher and 15% taker.

I do know someone, however, who is 99% giver. They’re constantly giving their time, sharing valuable ideas and going our of their way for everyone who crosses their path. Although they’re changed the lives of many people , they rarely see any of it returned. But the universe is slowly repaying them; they’re now extremely successful, well known for what they do.

3 . “One day I went to a Swedish friend’s and while we were playing in his room, his mom yelled that dinner was ready. And check this. He told me to WAIT in his room while they ate!” an Internet user shared on a media platform. Consequently, there was a lot of criticism (批评) of the Swedes. Many said they wouldn’t dream of being so mean in their culture. Would a host in Sweden really not invite a guest to join their meal if it’s dinnertime?

It does happen, says Richard Tell Strom, a food historian at Stockholm University. He says this so-called “non-hospitality” was customary when he was a kid in the ‘60s and ‘70s. If he was over a friend’s house and it was time for dinner, he would go back to his own house to eat. Or he would stay and wait in another room while his friend finished his meal. Then they’d continue playing.

“Some Swedes think feeding a guest creates a sense of duty.“ explains Telstra.” And in a society that values quality and independence, people don’t want to put a burden on someone or feel like they owe someone something.” However, it wasn’t a common rule. Families in the countryside, for example, were more likely to feed guests. People lived farther apart, so it wasn’t as easy for people to go home and eat. The “no dinner for you” policy has slowly faded, says Tell Strom. “Since the 1990s, food has become a new symbol in society. We have open kitchens. People like to dine there and show off their cooking.”

But non-sharing hosts haven’t completely disappeared, says Mohini Mchta, a food scholar. She admits she had a tough time adjusting to life in Sweden when she moved there in 2020. She was used to cooking dinner every day for friends and hosting dinner parties almost weekly in India. She learned that in some cultures, like her own, sharing a meal with someone is a way to break the ice-but this isn’t always the case for Swedes.

4 . How to Avoid an Internet Addiction

It may seem like everyone surfs the web these days. But if you can’t have interest in other aspects of your life because of the Internet, you may be on your way to an Internet addiction. You might fear you’re the only one who has experienced that feeling.    1     Luckily, there are some ways to avoid living your life in front of the computer.

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More and more people in the world are becoming addicted to the Internet, and you are not the only one with this problem. So do not be embarrassed. Just be brave to admit that you are on your way to an Internet addiction. And then find others with the same problem and help each other beat it.

Set aside limited time for computer use.

Make sure not to turn it on too many times a week. If you have a laptop, make sure to put it somewhere that you can remember but not somewhere that you see every day. Try keeping the lid closed when you are not using it.     3       If you have a desktop PC, try not to go near it or put something over it like a sheet.

Call people instead of sending instant messages or texts.

If you are free on weekends, call friends and ask them to go outside to do something you enjoy, like playing a sport. This will take your mind off the computer.     4    

Use an alarm clock or timer (计时器).

Before using your computer, decide on a time limit such as 30 minutes. Set the clock or timer and make sure that you get away from the computer when the time is up. Alternatively create a shutdown timer on your desktop.     5    

5 . There’s a new AI bot: ChatGPT, and you’d better pay attention, even if you aren’t into artificial intelligence. The tool is an AI chatbot system that OpenAI released in November 2022 to show off and test what a very large, powerful AI system can achieve.

ChatGPT remembers the thread of your dialogue, using previous questions and answers to inform its next responses. It derives its answers from huge volumes of information on the Internet. ChatGPT is built on top of the OpenAI GPT-3 family of large language models and is fine-tuned (a method of transfer learning) using both supervised and reinforcement learning (监督和强化学习).

You can ask ChatGPT anything, like explaining physics, asking for birthday party ideas and getting programming help. Perhaps it’s not smart enough to replace all humans yet, but it can be creative, and its answers can sound downright authoritative. A few days after its launch, more than 1 million people were trying out ChatGPT. UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley estimated in February 2023 that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly users in January, accomplishing in 2 months what took TikTok about 9 months and Instagram two and a half years.

ChatGPT is free to use at the moment because it is still in its research phase. But when too many people hop onto the server, it overloads and can’t process your request. It just means you should try visiting the site at a later time when fewer people are trying to access it. If you want to skip the wait and have reliable access, there is an option for you. As of Feb. 1, 2023, OpenAI has a ChatGPT pro plan, ChatGPT Plus, which allows users to have general access even during peak times. This service does come at a cost of $20/month.

However, ChatGPT can not replace Google. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence robot that provides solutions to your questions, but Google is a search engine in which you can search for as much information as possible. ChatGPT has limited knowledge due to its programming but Google has unlimited knowledge which is updated every day.

6 . “I can’t live without my mobile phone!” is what I often hear people say as they talk about how mobiles have become an essential part of their lives.

The all so common sight of heads bent, eyes staring at mobile screens and fingers busy tapping away repeats itself across major cities around the world. Whenever there is a moment to spare while on the train, taxi or waiting in a queue, people busy themselves with their mobile phones.

Some people believe our unhealthy obsession with mobile phones is destroying how we appreciate the little things in life or miss the moments that matter. The truth is that technology overall should be seen as a tool to improve our lives.

Mobile phones have certainly had a great influence on our lives, but I truly believe it’s for the better.

It’s changed the way we communicate, whether for work or play. We are now less constrained (限制) by time and geographical location. With my mobile phone, I can dial into conference calls while stuck in a traffic jam, or reply to urgent e-mails while on the go. I can send a text message or share photos and videos with friends who aren’t living in the same country. My phone calendar keeps my life organized, and even Facebook. Twitter, and instant messaging are now accessible from mobile phones!

The mobile revolution isn’t just changing the lives of urbanite like myself. I know of a young Bangladeshi woman named Shompa Akhter who is crazy about fashion and design. She dreamt about starting her own business and she did just that, opening a shop in Kushtia featuring her own creations. Dealing with suppliers in different towns was a problem for Shompa-purchase orders had to either be hand delivered or mailed out to suppliers. Shompa also found it tough publicizing (宣传) her business to potential customers outside her town. But once she learnt to operate the mobile phone, she was addicted. The 25-year-old businesswoman now stays in touch easily with her suppliers. Mobile e-mail is a blessing in her life. Who would have thought that mobility could bring about such enormous change? It shouldn’t really be a surprise though.

7 . We know more about the surface of the planet Mars than we know about what is at the bottom of Earth’s oceans. Until recently, scientists had mapped only about 20 percent of the sea floor. But our knowledge of the deep sea is changing because of information from satellites. Scientists have produced a new map that provides a detailed picture of the oceans.

The new map is twice as detailed as the map made 20 years ago. David Sandwell is a geophysics professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceangraphy at the University of California. He and other scientists worked on the mapping project. He says they turned to space to look deeper into the ocean.

“The way we’re doing that is to use a satellite altimeter (测高仪) a radar (雷达) to map the topography (地形) of the ocean surface.”

The scientists collected and studied information from two satellites. One was the European Space Agency’s Cryo-2 satellite that was placed in Earth’s orbit to watch sea ice. The other satellite is the American space agancy’s Jason-1, studying the surface of the oceans. Scientists combined the satellite data with images gathered by equipment on ships. The equipment works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit something, its existence is confirmed.

The new map shows the sea floor as it has never been seen before. In one place ,three mountain ridges (山脊) join at the same area. “It’s called the Indian Ocean Triple Junction. It’s one of my favorite spots in the ocean. You have three plates — the African plate, and the Indo-Asutralian plate and the Antarctic plate — all connected at this one point in the center of the Indian Ocean,” says David Sandwel.

The map is powerful tool for those interested in protecting the environment and for oil exploration. It also can help ships travel safely and improve scientific projects worldwide. Of course, scientists will make many more discoveries as they examine the new map and the information it provides.