We often joke about awkwardness; it’s a staple of contemporary comedy. The exclamation ‘Awkward!’ functions as a light-hearted deflection, defusing social tension. The reality is heavier. - Aeon
Our dopamine-driven brains drive us to choose cheap distraction over entertainment and art. A 15-second video causes a dopamine release in the brain, which creates a desire for more stimulus, which leads to the habit of more scrolling on your phone, which leads to an addiction to more stimulus. - The New York Times
"Traditionally, we've thought of eye movements as a simple response to what's happening in front of us. But recent research shows that's not the whole story. Eye movements are as unique as personality traits. Some people focus more on faces, while others are drawn to text or other elements." - Medical Express
For some, the delight of daydreaming can turn into a curse: The fantasies become such a successful form of escape that they take over the mind, becoming compulsive and preventing the dreamer from paying attention to important facets of reality—work, school, other people. - Nautilus
How do the offices, houses, hospitals, schools, neighbourhoods and spaces that we occupy day to day affect our health? Traditionally, our understanding of how architectural design affects the human body has centred around the transmission of communicable diseases. - Psyche
"We don’t necessarily need to repeal the laws of economics or solve Baumol’s cost disease to build as beautifully as our ancestors once did. We just need to see the world more humanistically and mystically, to regard ourselves as stewards and sub-creators once again." - The New York Times
The more elite the college, the more lenient the standards. At Yale, for example, 80% of grades awarded in 2023 were As or A minuses. But the problem is also prevalent at less selective colleges. Across all four-year colleges in the United States, the most commonly awarded grade is now an A. - Yascha Mounk
“We see these celebrity replicas happening all the time, but our own data – us, the small people of the world – is being harvested at exactly the same rate … It’s not really the capacity of the technology , it’s the way flawed, dumb, evil people choose to wield it.” - The Guardian
Some education advocates tout the benefits of what’s called a “balanced calendar,” which spreads vacation time equally across the seasons—a reimagining of what school can be, for the betterment of working parents, teachers, and students alike. - The Walrus
“Vision is one of the most obvious and direct ways to process input, but when you think about it, you use your ears a lot for clues from the environment to get around. You aren’t even often aware of how you use sounds to navigate along with vision." - The Scientist
When we think about what makes our minds special, we tend to focus on intelligence. But if we want to grasp reality in all its complexity, then “cleverness is not enough.” We need to build capacious and flexible theories about the world—theories that will serve us in new, unanticipated, and strange circumstances. - The New Yorker
The intent you form, the person you are, is the result of all the interactions between biology and environment that came before.… Each prior influence flows without a break from the effects of the influences before. There’s no point in the sequence where you can insert a freedom of will. - Hedgehog Review
More than TikTok, the stage at the Reading Festival in Britain celebrates podcast stars, YouTube stars, and more. One 20-something: “Everybody watches TikTok … so to then actually see some people, and to take a break from live music - it's great times.” - BBC
I’m a serial learner and hobbyist. Maybe you’d call it being a dilettante. Over the past 20-odd years, I’ve tried my hand at painting, pickleball, chess, printmaking, rock climbing, fencing, water aerobics, crochet, table tennis, cross-stitch, lacrosse, and the violin. - 3 Quarks Daily
