-
Feel Like You’re Going Out of Your Mind? Consider Your Mind-Set
About 13 years ago I made a mistake in a column written for this newspaper. In the hierarchy of errors, it wasn’t a major one, but it was embarrassing. I said daylight saving time had begun when it actually had just ended. And making matters worse, it was in the opening paragraph. A correction had to be written and affixed to the bottom of the article, where it will remain for as long as the article exists. I was deeply annoyed with myself. As I sat there a few days later ruminating about the correction and my self-directed anger, I began to wonder why so many of us hate our mistakes so much.
-
Beware of Corporate Promises
Change is afoot in corporate America. For the past two months, everyone from Chevron to Comcast and Hershey’s to Harvard Business School has put out statements containing the phrase “We stand in solidarity with the Black community,” or some very close variant. The sudden outpourings of corporate sentiment were widely dismissed as meaningless, hypocritical, opportunistic, or all three. But there’s reason to believe that such vocal calls for change from corporations could actually be worse than meaningless—and in fact damage the chances that corporations will follow through on meaningful change in the months and years ahead. Why?
-
Were French People Born to Speak French?
Linguistic anthropologists have observed that people all over the world perceive languages, and speakers of those different languages, as fundamentally different from one another. When people listen to others’ speech, they hear discrete categorical boundaries even when differences in speech exist along a continuum. Our minds, and not just our ears, perceive these differences: we think of language X as being fundamentally different from language Y. From there, it is not a big leap to think of groups of speakers as being essentially different from one another: speakers of X are fundamentally different from speakers of Y.
-
The Strain the Covid Pandemic Is Putting on Marriages
For Kristin and Ilya Shapiro, the Covid pandemic has created new tensions. Lately, the spouses have argued about Mr. Shapiro’s travel schedule: Ms. Shapiro doesn’t like that it creates child-care headaches. But Mr. Shapiro says it’s important to his work as a Washington, D.C., think tank director, and offers emotional respite too. “I would be lying if I said there haven’t been tears,” says Ms. Shapiro, a 37-year-old attorney. She is confident they will make it through together. But for now, their stress level is high. “This has been a very difficult period,” she says. Even in the best of times, marriage and relationships are hard work.
-
Misdiagnosing Our Cyberhealth
As schools and universities closed across the country, the #ClassOf2020 challenge went viral, with graduates taking to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to mark the rite of passage online. Using the hashtag, they posted photographs of themselves in cap and gown, holding their diploma and surrounded by loved ones. Millions of people shared #ClassOf2020 images, which included smiling selfies taken in graduation regalia, proud parents hugging their children, fizzing bottles of champagne and tassels flying high above caps tossed in the air. It was a moment of joy captured amid global crisis.
-
Why the Teenage Brain Pushes Young People to Ignore Virus Restrictions
Monica Sager didn’t see her boyfriend for four months after she moved back into her childhood home in Pottstown, Pa., in March. She also didn’t go to any friends’ houses or social events. Now, her parameters have started to shift. Her boyfriend visited from New York over the Fourth of July weekend, and in August she will move into an apartment with roommates in Worcester, Mass., when she returns for her senior year at Clark University. Ms. Sager, 21, knows that social distancing is key to keeping Covid-19 from spreading. And she’s been talking with her roommates about how they can entertain responsibly. But she can’t ignore her need to be around friends. “I’m getting antsy.
