3 . During the summer of 2021, Beverly Wax, an administrative assistant for a nonprofit, had an experience that filled her with awe. Wax’s central air conditioning had broken down in the heat wave. She’d mentioned to her son that she was having trouble finding someone to come fix it quickly. He showed up with a new unit as a surprise. As she watched him sweat and struggle while pulling the unit up the stairs and fixing it in her bedroom. Wax felt a wave of appreciation.

Awe is that feeling we get when something is so vast it stops us in out tracks. Often, it challenges or expands our thinking. Research shows that awe experiences decrease stress and anxiety and increase overall satisfaction in life, according to Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology. Most of us associate awe with something rare and beautiful nature, music or a spiritual experience. But people can trigger awe too, and not just public heroes. Research shows that we can be awed by out nearest and dearest. Psychologists call this interpersonal awe.

Often, this interpersonal awe is a response to life’s big, sweeping changes, such as witnessing a baby’s first steps. For Lynn Heady, a retired educator, it’s watching a friend fight cancer and still relish (享受) life. But interpersonal awe happens in smaller moments, too. John Bargh, a psychologist, said he was truly awestruck by his then-5-year-old daughter while dining with her in a McDonald’s. When she heard another child crying across the restaurant, she grabbed the toy from her Happy Meal, walked over to the boy and handed it to him.

Unfortunately, we can’t make someone else behave in a way that’s awesome. But we can prime ourselves to notice it when they do-and take steps to boost the emotion’s positive effects.

6 . Was it probable that Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai and Western hero King Arthur meet and fight against each other? Yes. In a game called King of Glory, created by Chinese company Tencent, King of Glory has been one of the most popular MOBA games in China since 2017.

About one in every seven Chinese people plays the game, and 55 million of them play it every day. The game is easy for beginners. Social media like QQ and WeChat have also helped the game’s community grow. New players can be invited to play the game by their WeChat contacts, with some seeing it as a good way to keep in touch with old friends and make new ones.

The game has more than 60 characters to unlock and play as you progress, each with their own special styles and abilities. The characters cover different times and countries. Some are real historical characters, like Li Bai. Some are not. Players use them to fight against each other or team up to fight. The winners can reach higher ranks.

However, some people think King of Glory gives the students incorrect information about events and people in history. For example, the poet Li Bai is described as a killer; Jing Ke, the man who tried to kill the first emperor of China, is a girl in the game. But more people worry about children playing the game too much and spending too much money on it. Most of the players are below the age of 19. It’s reported that a 17-year-old boy had a stroke (中风) after playing the game for 40 hours.

To change the situation, Tencent added a time limit feature to the game to prevent kids from playing too much. From 4 July 2017, children under 12 years old can play the game for only one hour a day, while users between 12 and 18 get two hours. Those who try to play beyond the time limit will be locked out of the game.

8 . As the pandemic continues to influence consumer behavior, the use of non-plastic payment methods is rising. But does this spell the end of the plastic credit card era?

Since the first Diners Club credit card was unveiled in 1950 much has changed. Recent technological developments and in-store consumer preferences could suggest times are changing. For some years now, various founders of financial institutions, as well as industry experts, have foreseen plastic credit cards or any other means of physical payment methods including cash will not be around much longer. They based their predictions on the light-speed growth of digital payment.

At the beginning of the global pandemic, governments took measures to protect their citizens, leading to lockdowns of varying degrees. The fear of contracting the virus through high-traffic ATMs and the refusal of merchants to accept cash can only be seen as a great addition to an already declared war on cash. Meanwhile, the urgency to spend a minimum time period in stores in order to avoid interactions led consumers towards digital solutions.

Furthermore, options like QR codes (二维码), NFC, and PINs have been around for a while but a true market breakthrough seems to only have happened since the beginning of the pandemic. According to Worldpay, without these telecommunication innovations, the shift in people’s payment behavior is out of the question. 86% of contactless adapters built into smart devices have seen themselves proceed with contactless payment. This trend will help to wipe out cash and plastic credit cards.

From a different perspective, countries like France, Italy, and Germany had almost 150 million smartphone users in 2019 alone. And it’s been reported that 80% of the transactions (交易) will be done via Internet-backed devices by 2025. And this figure will keep rising as more and more cheap smartphones are pouring into the global market. It is expected that e-wallets are going to be the most preferred payment method by then.

So, will there be a comeback for our beloved plastic spending power? I would put away my cash and plastic cards, switch on my phone instead of inserting cards, and present QR codes at a self-checkout instead of queuing behind a mass of people. I believe that many people think the same way.

9 . Nowadays, children spend less time in the fresh air. Many of them are addicted to a screen either on a computer or a TV— they seem to be living in a virtual world. They have lost touch with nature.

But now 400 organizations in the UK, from playgroups to the National Health Service, are encouraging children to have some “wild time”. They want kids to swap at least 30 minutes of watching TV or playing computer games for time playing outside. Activities such as building dens, climbing trees, rummaging for conkers and playing hide and seek are just some of the things kid can do. Even if they live in a city, they can go on adventures in the garden or the park.

Children often need a helping hand from mum and dad. They need to be shown what to do and where to go. Andy Simpson from National Health Service says, “We want parents to see what this magical wonder product does for their kids’ development, independence and creativity, by giving wild time a go.”

So despite the complicated world that young people grow up in now, it seems that going back to basics and experiencing “nature’s playground” is what modern children need. David Bond from Project Wild Thing says, “We need to make more space for wild time in children’s daily routine, freeing this generation of kids to have the sort of experiences that many of us took for granted.”

This might sound a bit old fashioned to you or maybe, like me, it’s made you think about sticking on your boots, getting outdoors and reliving your childhood. There’s no age limit on enjoying yourself!