As a result of COVID-19 precautions, many of us are part of this secondary epidemic: people who really need a hug. A survey conducted in 112 countries said more than 50% of the people didn’t get enough such physical interaction as cuddling (拥抱). And that was before the pandemic set in. As the COVID-related lockdowns are taking effect, that number increases to 60%, according to a study published in the Medical Research Archives of the European Society of Medicine. Health-care professionals have given a name to this condition — touch starvation.

Touch starvation may sound emotional in the most literal sense, but the idea is supported by hard-core biology. It starts with hormones. “Cuddling increases levels of oxytocin, the bonding hormone, and decreases levels of cortisol, the stress hormone,” says Lina Velikova, an immunologist.

A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have found that this very act can help ease pain, especially if the person you are touching is someone you feel close to personally. “Even minor physical contact can be beneficial to both of you,” says Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Physical touch is an essential part of how human beings communicate. Part of the power of physical touch comes from the very fact that it does not involve spoken language. Body language is often harder to fake. The act of cuddling authentically communicates trust and safety in ways people can’t speak.

Not all cuddling is created equal, and there’s no one right way to do it. If one way doesn’t feel right, try something else. Foot rubs, head rubs, back rubs, hand-holding laying your head on someone’s chest sitting on a lap or side by side on the couch with legs touching — all these things count. For people who aren’t fully comfortable with physical touch and are not accustomed to giving or receiving physical affection, it’s important to start slowly, both in the quantity and quality of physical contact.

Mindfulness—in basic terms, the practice of being “present” in the moment and paying attention to one’s own thoughts and feelings—has seen something of a boom over the last few years. While it certainly has its benefits, some argue that it encourages blind acceptance of the status quo, taking us so far into ourselves that we forget the rest of the world. In a new preprint on PsyArxiv, Michael Poulin and colleagues from New York’s University at Buffalo also find that mindfulness can decrease prosocial behaviours (亲社会行为).

The first study was designed to look at the impact of mindfulness on prosocial activity, and in particular, whether this depends on a person’s “self-construal”. In short, if someone has an independent self-construal they see the self as separate from others, rather than thinking more collectively and conceptualizing themselves as part of a wider group.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, one oriented around mindfulness meditation, and the other focusing on a control meditation in the form of mind wandering. Those in the mindfulness condition listened to a tape designed to inspire mindfulness through mindful breathing, while those in the mind wandering condition were instructed to “let your mind wander and think freely”.

After listening to the tapes, participants read about a local poverty and homelessness charity, before being asked whether or not they wanted to stuff envelopes in support of the organisation. Participants who decided to take part were left to do so for as long as they wanted. The team also measured participants’ self-construal by asking them to indicate how much they identified with friends, family, and wider groups compared to how much they thought of themselves as independent.

Most participants (84%) stuffed at least some envelopes after the task. People who participated in the mindfulness meditation stuffed 15% more envelopes than those who did the control mediation—if they had an interdependent self-construal. But for those with independent self-construals, mindfulness decreased the number of envelopes stuffed by 15%.

As the second study took place online, participants were not asked to stuff envelopes, but instead to sign up (or not) to chat online with alumni donors to request financial support for the same charity. And similar to the results of the first study, those in the interdependent condition saw an increased likelihood of volunteering after the mindfulness task, while those with independent self-construal were less likely to volunteer after listening to the mindfulness exercise.

Mindfulness has often been positioned as a panacea (灵丹妙药), not only for anxiety or other mental health conditions but in other areas, too: productivity, creativity, personal relationships, and particular traits or habits. Rather than treating it as a wholesale good, however, it may be better to understand when mindfulness might be truly beneficial—and, importantly, for whom.

When Apple cut its expectation benefit for the last quarter of 2018 because of slow sales of iPhones, markets were shocked. The company’s share price, which had been sliding for months, fell by a further 10% on January 3rd, the day after the news came out. Apple’s suppliers’ shares were also hit. But Apple’s pain is humans’ gain. The fact that these magical devices are now so popular is something to be celebrated.

Nearly 4bn of the 5.5bn adults on the planet now have one smartphone. They connect billions of people to the internet’s huge amount of information and services. Phones make markets more efficient and inspire growth. Yes, they can be used for wasting time and spreading disinformation. But the good far outweighs the bad. They might be the most effective tool of development in existence.

Actually this slowdown is the result of market saturation (饱和). After a decade of rapid taking-in, there is much less opportunity to sell handsets to first-time buyers as so few of them are left. And replacement cycles are becoming longer as new models offer only insignificant improvements. For all but the craziest fans, the slowing pace of upgrades comes as a welcome relief.

Does that mean innovation (创新) is slowing? No. The latest phones contain amazingly clever technology such as 3D face-scanners and cameras assisted by artificial intelligence. Moreover, smartphones also provide a foundation for extra innovations, like mobile payments and video streaming, and for future ones, such as controlling “smart” home equipment or robotaxis.

As computers become smaller, still more personal and closer to people’s bodies, many scientists believe that wearable devices will be the next big thing. Even so, finding another product with the range of the smartphone is a tall order. The recent slowing of smartphone sales is bad news for the industry, obviously. But for the rest of humans it is a welcome sign that a transformative technology has become almost universal.