A recent study found that kindergarten children who are exposed     1     electronic screens for more than an hour a day have a     2     (significance) increase in mental health risk regardless of the content viewed, and the risk worsens as the duration of screen exposure increases.

According to the study     3     (conduct) by experts from the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, children     4     (watch) entertainment and non-child-directed programs have     5     (great) mental health risks than those who watch educational programs.

A paper about the research,     6     involved nearly 16, 000 kindergarten children from Shanghai for three continuous years,     7     (publish) on the website of the journal JAMA Pediatrics early this month.

The new study was designed     8     (find) whether the associations between excessive screen time and mental health risks differ by the content viewed.   Screen exposure time was collected when the children were aged 3, 5 and 6, and their mental health was reported by parents using     9     standard questionnaire. Experts reminded parents and guardians that children under 2 should only use electronic     10     (device) to conduct video calls when necessary. They also suggested that for children between 2 and 5, parents should accompany and communicate with them when they are in front of screens.

6 . If you’re stuck in what seems like an endless cycle of procrastination (拖延), guilt and chaos, you might be wondering “Why am I so lazy?”. Despite that common belief, laziness usually isn’t the reason behind procrastination, said Jenny Yip, a clinical psychologist. “Laziness is like, ‘I have absolutely no desire to even think about this.’ Procrastination is, ‘It troubles me to think about this. And therefore, it’s hard for me to get the job done.’ That’s a big difference.”

Knowing why you procrastinate and learning how to fight against it are the only ways to change your behavior. Psychologist Sapadin sought to help this self-improvement effort with her book How to Beat Procrastination in the Digital Age. You could be the perfectionist, the dreamer, the worrier or the defier (对抗者) — these are all procrastination styles that Sapadin lists in her book. Both perfectionists and worriers might put off starting tasks due to a fear of failure or criticism. And like a perfectionist, a dreamer might always want something better. As for the defier, they tend to view life in terms of what others expect or require them to do, not what they want. This pessimism weakens their motivation to complete tasks.

Procrastination can have practical consequences, such as falling behind at work or failing to achieve personal goals. But there are also emotional or mental impacts. It has been associated with depression, anxiety and stress, poor sleep, inadequate physical activity, loneliness and economic difficulties, according to a January study of more than 3,500 college students.

Knowing why you procrastinate can make you self-aware, but you still need strategies to break the habit. In such cases, “consider contacting a professional, like a psychologist, who might be able to help you,” said Shatz, a creator of the website Solving Procrastination. “Visualization (可视化) works,” Shatz added. “If you can imagine Yourself completing a task, then it becomes more achievable simply because you have an idea that it can be done.” At the end of the day, how you approach life is “all about your belief system”. If you believe you can, you can. Whatever you believe, you’re right.

7 . Zibo has long sought to publicize its unique idea on roasted skewers (串肉扦) of meat, vegetables, seafood and other foodstuffs in the hope of attracting business. But it was only in March, when college students tried the barbecue food, took videos of themselves enjoying it, and posted the clips on social media that it went viral. Since then, young people from across the country have flocked to Zibo to try its barbecued food.

During weekends last month, Yang Benxin, who has run a barbecue restaurant in the city for nearly three decades, used a loudspeaker to tell people waiting in line for a table to choose another restaurant because the meat at his business had sold out. Yang’s restaurant has 200 tables, which can accommodate about 1,000 diners. But almost every weekend for the past month, the number of people visiting the restaurant rose beyond its capacity, forcing him to tell those waiting to try elsewhere.

In Zibo, the food on barbecue skewers is 70-80 percent precooked before it is brought to the table, where diners complete the cooking process on small stoves fueled by hot coals. Zhang Hanzhe, 27, who visited Zibo with friends from Jinan, capital of Shandong, during the May Day holiday to try the city’s barbecued food, said, “We prepared the food according to our own tastes, and it’s also affordable.”

The authorities in Zibo have been quick to gain a further advantage from the sudden inflow of visitors. The market supervision and public security authorities acted to ensure food safety and reasonable pricing in the barbecue sector, while the city’s public transportation company launched bus routes especially for people visiting barbecue restaurants. The city issued a notice ahead of the May Day holiday, warning that hotels in Zibo that raised their room rates by more than 50 percent during the holiday would be punished.

Qu Chuang, a professor at Shandong University’s School of Economics, doubted whether the barbecue craze in Zibo would last long, but said the city’s biggest gain is that it is now known by more people.

8 . In 1991, the American band The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy called television “the drug (毒品) of the nation.” But more than 30 years later, more and more people are turning away from their televisions. So, has the world kicked the TV habit?

Well, many of us might not be watching regular TV, but instead we’re relaxing ourselves from streaming services and mobile devices (设备). In February 2023, Insider Intelligence foretold that in the US in 2023, for the first time ever, people will spend more time watching digital video than traditional TV. So how did we get here?

It was the Scotsman John Logie Baird who built the first of all televisions in 1925. Progress was quietly being made. Just after World War II, around 8,000 homes in the US had a TV. By 1960, this number had risen to more than 45 million - and the television had overtaken the radio as the device to gather around. TV watching became part of the family habit. And when choice was limited in its early days, millions of people watched the same shows together - something we might now call “event television ” Cable (电缆) and digital TV, with hundreds of programs, began to change that, and event television is now hard to find.

While the popularity of streaming and short online videos comes recently, perhaps the move away from shared TV began when television sets became cheaper and families could afford to buy an extra one for the bedroom or the kitchen. There was no more fighting about what to watch - but also less watching together. Now, with younger generations used to immediate access to content, television as we knew it shows little sign of making a return.

Will it die? No, but it will certainly change. Experts say TV has a future with sports and news. But scripted (有剧本的) shows like talk shows and TV series will be seen more on streaming services, and less on TV.

9 . As the Internet becomes a bigger part of our lives, more of our data (数据) becomes publicly easy to get.     1     So, how can we protect our online privacy?

If you have ever searched how to learn German on the Internet, you will find an advertisement (广告) for a book and an app called German for Beginners immediately appear. Later the same day, while you’re sending an email, you see an advertisement for a local language school. How did they know?     2     At all stages of your search, your computer, websites and applications are collecting data on your preferences and tracking your behavior online.

Every search you make, service you use, message you send and something you buy is part of your “online footprint”. Companies and online platforms (平台) use this “footprint” to track exactly what you are doing.     3     Knowing so much about you gives online platforms and companies a lot of power and a lot of money.

Some of the time our personal data is shared online with our agreement. We post our birthday, our photos and even our opinions online. We know that this information can be reached by the public.     4     It can be used in ways we did not mean.

As people increasingly know about and worry about data protection, governments and organisations are taking a more active role in protecting privacy. For example, the European Union passed the General Data Protection Law.     5     However, there is still much work to do.