A friend of mine moved to a fashionable New York City neighborhood a few months ago and shared an observation about her surroundings that I can’t stop thinking about. She said, “I feel like everybody has the same face.” What does this face look like? Plump, full lips, a small nose —– and/or a nose made to look smaller with contouring makeup, apple cheeks, and thick yet meticulously sculpted eyebrows. (Think Kim Kardashian.) I realized I’d also seen this face plenty of times. Not in real life, but all over Instagram.
Social media can feel like a comparison trap, says Helen Thai, a doctoral student in psychology at McGill University. Teenagers and young adults, with their heavy social media use and still-developing brains, are particularly at risk for falling into that trap. So Thai and a team of researchers conducted a study to see if slashing time on social media platforms would improve body image for young people who were experiencing anxiety and depression.
Long story short: It worked. A few hundred college students were studied for three weeks, and the 50% asked to limit their social media use to an hour a day reported feeling better about how they looked when the study ended.
Want to cut back on your social media use? This advice works at any age, the experts say: Turn off notifications, track your screen time, and take a weekly break from screens -- also known as a “Tech Shabbat.” Here are five ways to detox from the negative effects of social media.
Sometimes the best advice is counterintuitive. In school, most of us are regularly tested to see how much we know – how many facts and concepts and skills we can absorb. Knowledge is power.
But real life is full of uncertainty. When asked for her best piece of advice, clinical psychologist and author Becky Kennedy said “It's OK to say 'I don't know. And that's exactly where I should be when I take that first step.’ ”
Our colleagues Life Kit have spent four years interviewing people who give advice for a living, and they’ve collected some gems. From therapists, mental health coaches (and one pop star), here are 10 of the best pieces of life advice you may need to hear right now.
Last year, actor Bruce Willis announced his retirement after being diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate. This year, he was diagnosed with dementia. Some reporters have talked about Willis’ “health battle,'' or his “battles” with aphasia and dementia. You’ve no doubt seen obituaries for people who “lost their battle with cancer.”
While it may sound like a fitting metaphor for an action star, medical conditions aren’t fights that can be won by force or strength of will.
Sunita Puri, palliative care specialist and author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, says she steers clear of war metaphors, because patients shouldn’t ever feel they’ve failed, regardless of the outcome.
NPR editor Marc Silver wrote a book about supporting his wife through breast cancer, and witnessed his mother-in-law’s last years of life with pancreatic cancer. Here’s what he’s learned about why words matter.
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