2 . TikTok has pushed a new safety update to its app that allows parents to take more control of their teenager’s accounts, as social media companies come under increasing pressure to make their platforms safer for children.

The company said that its Family Pairing now enables parents to turn off comments on their children’s videos entirely or limit them to friends only. Parents whose accounts are linked to their kids will also be able to set their accounts to private ones, turn off the search function for content or users, and limit who can see which videos their children have liked.

The Family Pairing lets parents see how long their children are spending on TikTok each day and limit the content they can see.

TikTok allows children to register (注册) and create an account if they’re over the age of 13. All they need to do is provide their date of birth. However, because TikTok doesn’t require registrants (注册人) to prove their identities, some children under 13 have registered by lying about their age, according to U.K. regulator Ofcom (英国通信管理局)

Alexandra Evans, head of child safety public policy for TikTok in Europe, told CNBC that Family Pairing has “put itself in parents’ shoes”since it was launched. “If we’re thinking of it as a toolbox, we want to offer more tools,” she said on a video call ahead of the announcement.

3 . Chinese culture values family bonds (纽带) very much. Family members don’t just gather during the holidays, in fact they often live under one roof all year round.

Different cultures have different family values.     1    

In most East Asian cultures, extended families (大家庭) are common.     2     According to the Atlantic, 90 percent of children in Shanghai and 70 percent of children in Beijing were cared for by their grandparents. Chinese people believe that “a grandparent is a treasure to their family”.

In many Western countries, most families are nuclear families (小家庭). These are only made up of children and their parents.

Additionally, the duties parents have toward their children can also differ.

    3     It’s normal for parents to pay for their children’s college, help them find a job, or buy them an apartment. Chinese adults also follow their parents’ opinions when making major life decisions, more often than not.

In most Western countries, however, kids usually move out of the house after they turn 18.     4     Also, if they choose to keep living with their parents after becoming an adult, it can be seen by some as a failure on their part.

While the East cares more about close family bonds, the West values privacy and independence.     5     Families will always be a source of love, warmth, and care for people around the world.

6 . Smartphone Stress: Are You a Victim of “Always On” Culture?

You are on holiday but secretly check your work emails the moment you wake up.You get anxious if there’s no Wi-Fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain.     1     And you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you’re not there. There are the typical signs of “always on” stress induced by smartphone addiction.

Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was so worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends that he developed an app — Moment — to monitor his usage.The app enables users to see how much time they’re spending on the device and set up warnings if self-controlled usage limits are offended. His website explains, “    2     Some time on your phone; some time off it, enjoying your loving family and friends around you.” And some employers are acknowledging that getting the work-life balance right isn’t so easy. They need help.

    3     You are not giving your body time to recover, so you’re always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make.     4     The fact that we can stay connected to the workplace wherever we are in the world is feeding deep-rooted insecurities.

We now consume media for more hours than we sleep.     5     It actually makes it more difficult to make decisions and many are becoming less productive because they’re overwhelmed by it all and feel they can never escape the office.

9 . In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, there’s a famous saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” The surprise is part of the fun. Now blind box toys are bringing the magic of surprise to online shopping.

A blind box toy is hidden inside similar boxes but invisible from the outside. You don’t know what will be inside, although the toys typically come from pop culture, ranging from movies to comics and cartoons (动漫).

Blind boxes have become popular since they were first introduced from Japan to China in 2014. According to a 2019 Tmall report, the mini-series of Labubu blind box, designed by Hong Kong-born Kasing Lung, was named Champion of Unit Sales with 55,000 sold in just 9 seconds during the Singles Day shopping event. Most customers for blind boxes are young people aged 18 to 35.

According to The Paper, blind box toys are popular in part because of their cute looks. The typically site cartoon figures come in very small sizes, making them suitable for display almost anywhere. Even if blind boxes are not their top choice for decorations, the mystery and uncertainty of the process also attracts people. It’s the main reason why people buy blind boxes one after another.

“Expectíng the unknown is always a part of the box-opening process (过程),” said Miss Cao,24、who lives and works in Shenyang, speaking to Sina Nows. She said: “Until you open all the boxes, you cannot know what it is inside.”

Opening a blind box is a happy little surprise for our boring daily lives, something small but fun to wait for each day, week or month. When people open this simple little box, they may be disappointed, but the uncertainty is part of the fun. People will open more blind boxes and hope for a better result.

When someone remakes Forrest Gump, don’t be surprised if he says, “Life is like a blind box.”

10 . Many people like to explore the Internet. Exploring the Internet is one of the most important activities of the day. The Internet brings the outside world closer to people’s homes. Some people say the world is smaller than before because of the Internet.

What’s going on in other countries? How do people live in faraway places? Is there a good sports game somewhere? What’s life like in the deepest part of the sea? If you want to answer all these questions, just come to the Internet. Of course, people can also learn through reading or listening to the radio. But with the Internet they can learn better and more easily. A lot of information can be collected at a great speed.

Can we go shopping without leaving home? Can we see a doctor without going to the hospital? Can we study without going to school? All these things seemed to be impossible, but now they have become true.

The Internet helps us to open our eyes. The Internet also helps to open our minds. The Internet often gives us new ideas. In a word, it helps us in many ways. Great changes have taken place in our life since the use of the Internet.