5 . Since the early to mid-2010s, social media apps have made a permanent home in many people’s phones, and spending time on social media has become as much of a daily activity as drinking water. Since so many people are on it for much of their days — especially kids, teens, and young adults — there is increased concern over what social media is doing to people.

Many argue that social media is an unhealthy way to pass the time, and that false information from online is causing confusion and panic. This type of thing happens with every generation when something new that people don’t understand comes along. So many people thought rock-and-roll was making teens morally bad, which really wasn’t the case. It is fair to say that the teenage years are hard, and that teens need an escape. Back before phones, teens would listen to rock music as a form of escapism, or they would watch TV, go to the movies, skate around, or dress up in crazy clothes. Unfortunately, all of those things at one point in time were blamed for being a bad influence on young people. Social media is the new tuck-and-roll: it’s a new thing, and people demonize (妖魔化) change.

For example, many believe that everything on social media apps is filtered (加滤镜) and that seeing perfect people and their perfectly edited lives often leads to lots of negative emotions. However, models, magazines and movies have been using retouching (修整) tools for photos and media since Photoshop and other post-production services were invented. Social media has made it easier to see more edited pictures, but social media itself isn’t making people want to look a certain way. People should acknowledge that these pictures aren’t authentic, and the posts are made to look good on purpose. Social media is hot to blame for body confidence issues when the things people want to look like aren’t even real in the first place.

It seems like most issues around social media are user errors, like anyone complaining there are too many people being addicted to social media. However, not everyone is addicted to social media; people who have any grasp on reality wouldn’t spend every waking second on the phone. It is really up to the individual how they use social media. Keeping up with the flood of posts, stories, and photos takes a lot of time — many young people admit that they spend hours on their phones every day. Yet, this seems like an easy problem to solve when the solution is simply clicking off the phone a couple hours early. So it is clear that moderation is the key to dealing with all the issues around social media.

6 . “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 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 Tellstrom, 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 Tellstrom. “And in a society that values equality and independence, people don’t want to put a burden on someone or feel like they owe someone something.” However, it wasn’t a universal 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 Tellstrom. “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 entirely disappeared, says Mohini Mehta, 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 dine 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.

7 . A new front has opened in the battle to dominate digital entertainment. Netflix announced earlier this summer that it was investing into video games. Last month it acquired game developer Night School Studio for a secret sum. Amazon, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into gaming, finally had a hit with new online game New World.

The video game industry has become one of the world’s most popular and profitable forms of entertainment. Video games generated nearly $178 bn in global income last year, according toa market research or on That fire is estimated to outweigh $200 bn by 2023.

For Amazon and Netflix, adding games to their platforms could attract more subscribers. Or at the very least dissuade existing ones from leaving. After a jump caused by pandemic in users, Netflix dropped 430,000 subscribers in the second quarter but regained some of these in the third quarter. Netflix has said in the past that in the “attention economy”, it competes against videogames just as much as video streaming services.

But gaming is a difficult market to enter. For every successful game, there are thousands of failures. Netflix hones to translate the success of shows like Stranger Things into video game hits. But good games need more than recognizable names. Development requires different infrastructure and talents.

Just ask Disney. The entertainment king shut down its games studio in 2016 and transformed into a licensing model. Also, Amazon spent near $1bn acquiring video-streaming service Twitch, launched gaming streaming service Luna and canceled at least four video games before New World.

Established game makers such as Sony and Microsoft all make money from selling games and consoles (游戏机). Free-to-play mobile games get users to make in-game purchases. Netflix’s plan is to add games for free and as a loss leader to win more subscribers.

The sweet spot may not be in making games at all. Apple and Google sell and distribute games from their app stores and take a cut of as much as 30 percent from each sale. No wonder established game makers are more concerned about middlemen than new entrants.

8 . Early surveys of employees and employers found that remote work did not reduce productivity (生产力). But a new study of more than 10,000 employees at an Asian technology company between Apr. 2019 and Aug. 2020 paints a different picture.

The firm uses software installed on employees’ computers that tracked which applications or websites were active, and whether the employees were using keyboards or mouses. The research concluded that the employees were working hard. Total hours worked were 30% higher than before COVID-19, including an 18% increase in working hours outside normal working hours. But this extra effort did not translate into any rise in output.

The interesting thing is why this happened. The academics were able to analyze how much time the employees spent in “collaboration (合作) hours”, defined as various types of meetings, and how much time they had as “focus hours”, when they could pay attention to their tasks. Despite working longer hours, the employees had less focus time than before COVID-19. Instead, all their extra time was taken up by meetings.

One possibility is that managers are less certain of their team’s devotion and are holding more meetings to check on them. Another is that managers call so many meetings to prove their own existence when they are not in the office. However, the academics suggest the greater need for meetings is the result of the greater difficulty of coordinating(协调)employees when they are working remotely — another sign that the process is inefficient.

This seems a raw deal for the employees. They received no more money for the overtime. Although they saved time spent traveling between home and the office, this did not balance the extra hours spent in meetings.

Not all workers behaved the same way, however. Those who had worked at the company the longest tended to be more productive, suggesting that they found it easier to manage the difficulties of home-working. Employees with children worked around 20 minutes a day more than those without, showing an even greater fall in their productivity, probably because they were distracted (分心) by child-care duties.

It is hardly surprising that there would be some problems involved with remote working. The practice was, after all, carried out suddenly. The way to improve the efficiency of remote working is simple: fewer meetings, shorter meetings.

9 . Society tells us we should socialize to the fullest, and that those who are surrounded by people are the most successful and the happiest. These days, we’re almost always connected, whether in person or through our phone screens and online social networks. But there’s something to be said for solitude (独处) Being alone “ doesn’t necessarily mean ” being lonely”. In fact, spending time by yourself is an essential element of self-care.

Around the globe, different cultures have wide-ranging perspectives on what it means to spend time alone. If you live or have spent time in the United States, you’re probably aware that Americans tend to reject solitude. For many younger people, weekends are packed with social activities, ranging from brunch with friends to dinner parties to game nights to drinking at bars and everything in between.

The United States isn’t the only place where you’ll find a heavy emphasis on social time. Across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom is known for being an extremely extroverted (外向型的) country. A survey of Brits found that more than half had never done and would be unwilling to do activities like going to theme parks or seeing live music alone. Most Brits spend almost twice as much of their leisure time socializing with others a as they do being alone.

The home can be a place of rest, relaxation and recharge-that is, if you live by yourself or have the space to be alone in your home. The country in which people are least likely to live alone is India, at about 4 percent of the population. China is also quite fond of multiple-person households, with only about 10 percent of people living by themselves. In more collectivist cultures like these, many aspects of life revolve(围绕) around community. Thus, spending time alone isn’t as ingrained (根深蒂固的) as a social convention in places like these, and the good of the group takes priority over the needs of one person.

10 . It seems as if social media platforms have taken over our lives. According to a study, there were over 3.6 billion social media users in 2021. And that number is only expected to grow.

Although social media platforms have helped to keep friends and family connected, there is also a dark side to social media. To put it simply, it is a money making machine. This is partially because of social media influencers. A social media influencer is someone “who can shape audience’s attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media”. You may be asking yourself, “Why would they want to do this, though?” The answer is simple: to make money. Social media influencers make money by promoting brands among their followers. In fact, influencer marketing is so profitable that the study reported that the industry is expected to reach $15 billion in value in 2022.

Social media influencers are now being called out because some of their actions have started to negatively impact the environment. One man in particular, who goes by Steve to remain anonymous (匿名的), noticed that some online influencers failed to follow rules when they went to national parks or public places. This included things like leaving garbage behind, or using drones (无人机) to take pictures from the sky.

Because of this, Steve made it his mission to stop social media influencers from hurting the environment with their bad behavior in order to get the “perfect shot”. In 2018, he made the account “Public Lands Hate You” to name and shame influencers who failed to follow the rules made to protect the environment. The account now has over 85 thousand followers.

He hoped that it could help some influencers find the light and right their wrongs. Steve said, “If everybody thought just a little bit more about their small actions and the impact those actions have on the environment and the people around them, I think that a lot of our bigger problems would be much more easily solved.”