1 . I dropped “rizz” into a conversation at home as a test to see my son’s familiarity with Internet slang. “Don’t say that,” he said. “You sound terrible.” In terms of ego, it was a failure. But as a test of generational differences in language use, it was a success.   

I read in a newspaper that Oxford University Press had chosen “rizz” as the word of 2023. Short for charisma, rizz is defined as “style, charm, or attractiveness”. Internet slang has been confusing and difficult for me to understand. Considering it enjoys great popularity among Gen Z associates, as a Gen X director, should I keep up with the Internet slang and be prepared for it at work?

One thing is clear: The attempt to resist is in vain. Internet slang is a product of its time. Technology makes humour more important. Slang, says Erica Dhawan, author of Digital Body Language, “can create closeness with colleagues when body language is no longer the primary communication”.

That doesn’t mean Gen X leaders should be trying to drop “rizz” into conversation. It is embarrassing. Partly it seems fake, but also because it is hard to keep up with the way language changes if not immersed in it. Tony Thorne, of the Slang and New Language Archive at King’s College London, says Gen Z is “heavily influenced by viral trends, it is not strictly only verbal ... it always has one eye on visual metaphors and allusions (影射) too”.

Workplace norms evolve. Just five years ago senior leaders were complaining about headphones in the office, Dhawan points out. “Now they’re normal.” So too with language. Slang slips into common usage quickly. Oxford University Press’s past years words include “vax”, “toxic” and “climate emergency”, all of which seem fairly mainstream now. Who signs their emails with “Yours faithfully”? Far more common is: “Thanks”, “Kind regards” or “Best wishes”.

I still frown when I see signoffs like KR or BW-but give me another year, Thx.

Digital devices are increasingly taking up our lives these days, to     1     many, if not most of us, are addicted. New studies spring out with alarming frequency about the dangers to our physical and mental health of being glued to small screens. Children who expose     2     (they) to digital devices are not exercising; people are worrying about their body image because of online pressure     3     “perfect body” sites. In a study of 1,000 adults, researchers discovered that nearly 50 percent of the participants got addicted to smartphones, but     4     (be) unaware of their smartphone     5     (depend). The study is one of many calls for “digital detox” to become part of our lives.

The practice of digital detox varies, including     6     (switch) off from the Internet to enjoy something called “real life”. This also involves the bygone custom of conversing with people face to face and doing     7     (day) things. The organization Digital Detox said, “We want detox to inspire people to rethink their distance from their devices… to set aside time to get enough rest.” People need to rely less on digital devices     8     (avoid) the new phenomenon of “nomophobia”—NO MOBILE PHOBIA (恐惧症). Last year, psychologist Dr Kia-Rai Prewitt     9     (warn) of the dangers of being too absorbed in smartphones. She wrote, “If you ignore responsibilities at home or work because you have spent     10     large amount of time online, then consider a digital detox.”

4 . A shortage of semiconductors (半导体) has helped firms such as Nvidia, whose chips (芯片) power everything from video gaming to machine learning and data centres. But boom time for sellers means misery for buyers. Carmakers, whose products have become computers on wheels, are among the victims. Analysts say the industry might build around 5 million fewer cars this year, all for want of the chips. Apple and Microsoft have also warned that they will be affected.

The shortage is the result of a sudden rise in demand. Chipmaking has been enjoying strong growth for decades as computers have stepped into every corner of society. But there was a strong upward trend during the pandemic. Locked-down consumers shopped online, had meetings remotely, and killed time with video-streaming and videogaming.

The crisis has had three consequences, two encouraging and one less so.

The first is an investment boom. Big producers such as Intel, Samsung and TSMC are planning to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on extra capacity (产能) over the next few years. As in many markets, high prices are the best cure for high prices.

The second is that the chip industry’s customers are adapting. too. When demand fell early in the pandemic, carmakers cut their orders with chipmakers. Following Tesla, Volkswagen has announced plans to develop driver-assistance chips in-house.

Unwelcome effect has been a sudden rise of techno-nationalism. America is planning to hand out billions of dollars to attract chipmakers back from East Asia. Europe wants to double its share of global production, to 20%，by 2030. Even Britain has declared the fate of a small chip factory in Wales to be a matter of national security.

Chips have come to occupy what used to be called the “commanding heights” of an economy, in the way that car factories did in the 20th century. But as last century’s governments discovered, subsidies (补贴) lend 10 oversupply. Personally, the chip shortage is mostly a self-solving problem. Governments should resist the temptation to scc themselves as saviours (救星).

5 . In previous recessions (经济衰退), billionaires were hit along with the rest of us; it took almost three years for Forbes’s 400 richest people to recover from losses caused in 2008’s Great Recession. But in the coronavirus recession of 2020, most billionaires have gotten richer than ever before.

Billionaires increased their new billions just as millions of other Americans ran into terrible financial problems. More than 20 million people lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic. Food banks across the country are preparing for another great increase in demand. Why are American billionaires doing so well while so many other Americans suffer? People may find part of the reasons from the following fact. Stocks (股票) are overwhelmingly owned by the wealthy, and the stock market has recovered from its early-pandemic depths much more quickly than other parts of the economy.

But some billionaires are also benefiting from economic and technological trends that were accelerated by the pandemic. Among these are the owners and investors of retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree and Dollar General, which have reported huge profits this year while many of their smaller competitors were defeated completely as the coronavirus spread.

Then there are companies that have bet on the rapid digitization of everything Eric Yuan, the chief executive of Zoom, became a billionaire in 2019. Now he is worth almost $20 billion. Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Quicken Loans, was worth less than $7 billion in March, now he commands more than $43 billion. But there is a great deal of stratification (层化) even among billionaires—richer billionaires got even richer in 2020 than the poorer ones did. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s funder, was worth about $113 billion at the start of the pandemic. Now he is worth $182 billion. Two years ago, Bezos was the only “centibillionaire” on earth—the trendy neologism (a new word) for people whose wealth exceeds (超过) ￥100 billion.