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Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer
If you’re like many people, you may have decided that you want to spend less time staring at your phone. It’s a good idea: an increasing body of evidence suggests that the time we spend on our smartphones is interfering with our sleep, self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity and problem-solving and decision-making skills. But there is another reason for us to rethink our relationships with our devices. By chronically raising levels of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, our phones may be threatening our health and shortening our lives.
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Have smartphones really destroyed a generation? We don’t know.
Teens in the United States are coming of age at a time when digital technology is truly ubiquitous, where smartphones are our “constant companions.” These youth are also, according to national surveys, increasingly in crisis. Here are some of the most troubling statistics. Between 2009 and 2017, the number of high schoolers who contemplated suicide increased 25 percent. The number of teens diagnosed with clinical depression grew 37 percent between 2005 and 2014. It could be that more teens are willing to admit they’re struggling and are seeking help. But deaths by suicide among teens have increased as well.
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The Surprising Boost You Get From Strangers
We were five minutes into the worst turbulence I’d ever experienced—approaching Boston’s Logan International Airport in a severe winter storm—when I turned to the woman next to me and said: “Hey, would you mind chatting with me for a few minutes? I’m really nervous.” We hadn’t spoken much during the flight, other than the usual pleasantries. But my seatmate seemed friendly. And I suddenly felt desperate for a human connection. “Sure, my name is Sue,” the woman replied, smiling warmly. “What brings you to Boston?” I started to explain that I was on a business trip.
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Want To Stifle Your Team’s Creativity? Do These Things
The slate of companies going public this year— Pinterest, Slack Technologies, and Uber, to name a few—should silence anyone who doubts the power of a bold idea. After all, one seemingly crazy brainstorm can up end an entire industry, keeping innovation top of mind for every executive. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a coding genius in a dorm room to birth a breakthrough, says Harvard Business School Professor Teresa M. Amabile, who has studied the interplay between creativity, productivity, and innovation for more than four decades.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring symptoms of mania in depression, sample sizes for studies of treatments for depression, brain activity related to psychopathic traits, and links between catastrophizing and PTSD.
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I Loved Her, I Loved Her Not: How Current Thinking Can Sway Our Memories of Love
As our memories fade, we rely on our current assessment of a person to remember how we felt about them in the past, and this extends to some of the most central figures in our lives: our parents.
