When plates are set on the table, phones, rather than forks, are at the ready. At this point in our social media entanglement (纠缠), the fact that the camera eats first is pretty much a given. Sure, some chefs, including Michelin rated star chefs, express their displeasure at this, but efforts to make the table a screen-free domain have mostly fallen flat.

New research from Aston University has found that people are indeed influenced by the food photos that their friends post on social media. For example, for every serving of fruits and vegetables that a person thinks their friends are eating, they’ll eat one-fifth of a serving more. This number makes more sense within the context of the recommended “five a day”, meaning someone who’s being influenced would make a point of eating six portions of fruits or vegetables. Similarly, for every three portions of junk food that a person sees friends consuming on social media, they’ll eat an extra one.

The researchers have also suggested that social media can be very beneficial when it comes to people’s choices of food and their diets. Study supervisors Dr. Jason Thomas said, “The implication is that we can use social media as a tool to encourage each other’s eating choice within friendship groups, and use this knowledge as a tool for public health interventions.”

Actually, the daily food situation is somewhat different from everything else posted on social media. People also desire to copy what they see but they need good social media literacy skills in order to grasp what’s realistic and what’s absurd. It is necessary to avoid the fake perfection of social media.

It gets boring trying to figure out what to eat three times a day, week after week, so no wonder people want to take the path of least resistance and eat what their friends are eating. Unfortunately, most of what gets posted is the more time-consuming recipes or the attractively styled restaurant meals. By all means, keep your antennae (触角) out for new ideas, but gather them from food magazines, cookbooks, store flyers, reliable cooking websites, and recommended recipes from friends and family.

Something happens to many children when they are out of school over the summer months.   It is called "the summer slide". It is when children forget much of what they learned during the latest school year.

To fight its effects, students have to do much homework over the summer and parents may send children to camp or find other activities to keep them learning. However, experts say keeping children busy all the time is not good for them.

Lea Waters , an expert on human behavior, says slowing down actually helps children become the best they can be. "It's a little bit like, if you have too many programs running on your computer, your computer starts to slow down. When you shut down those programs, your computer speed up again.”

Machines needed to be reset, while kids need to goof off. "What I mean by goofing off is really allowing kids to have some downtime, where they’re not focused on a specific task, they just do what they’re interested in." She adds, "It not just decides what information to put into memory or get rid of. It's also an essential network to develop emotional intelligence, to improve the memory.”

Parents often mean well by wanting to keep their child busy. But the result is often a tired child with an overcrowded schedule, which means the opposite effect the parents are hoping for. “If you're constantly on task, in the end it doesn't help to build up strength as effectively as you might think.” Lea Waters says she hopes parents will accept the fact that children don't have to be busy all the time.

Don’t Be A Bystander

None of us like to think we’d walk on by when someone needed our help. 【小题1】

One of the most famous examples of this is the tragic case of Kitty Genovese who was fatally stabbed in Kew Gardens, New York, in 1964. Subsequent investigations concluded that several people saw or heard what was happening, but did nothing to intervene. 【小题2】The more people there are, the less likely they are to help.

There are various factors contributing to this effect — people think that others will get involved or intervene (called “diffusion of responsibility”). 【小题3】It is also partly down to “pluralistic ignorance” — since everyone is not reacting to the emergency, they don’t need to either; it’s not serious because no one else is doing anything. After a serious incident where people have been affected by the bystander effect, they are often horrified that they didn’t do anything. 【小题4】

The important thing to understand though is that other studies have shown that once people are aware of the bystander effect, they are less likely to be affected by it. Self-awareness is the best antidote to it. 【小题5】Ignore everyone else and how they are behaving and go with your gut—if you’d call an ambulance, do it. If you’d run for help, do it. If that’s how you would have behaved when you were on your own, then that’s probably the right course of action The worst that can happen is you’ll look a little foolish at having overreacted. You might also save someone’s life.