Online thrift (节俭) store thredUP has released its tenth annual Resale Report. The study, which assesses trends in the secondhand clothing industry, has an obviously positive tone. Resale is booming in the United States, as well as globally, and the secondhand market in the US is expected to more than double by 2026, reaching an impressive valuation of $82 billion.

This is serious growth that indicates a real shift in the way people approach shopping for clothes. For most, it’s a way to save money in an inflationary (通货膨胀) economy. Forty-four percent of shoppers say they’re cutting back on buying clothing-more than any category apart from restaurants. Some say secondhand is enabling them to keep enjoying the brands they love.

When choosing what to buy, people are increasingly careful about what can be resold. More than one-fifth of Gen Z (网络新生代) shoppers said they’ll pay more for an item that they know they can resell, and 36% of Gen Z shoppers stock and clear their closets at the same monthly or weekly rate. More than half resold clothing last year. As resale becomes more accessible thanks to mobile technology and online platforms, increasing numbers of customers are keen to turn over their closets, which fuels the industry and keeps the market full of fresh finds, bringing people back for more.

Secondhand helps to relieve people’s climate-related concerns. Thrifting is far better for the environment than buying new. As thredUP reported in 2021,buying used reduces an item’s carbon footprint by 82%. Choosing used over new displaces 17.4 pounds of CO2 emissions. It requires far less water and energy to produce, and it spares that item from going to landfill, where it will break down and give off methane, a greenhouse gas more powerful than CO2.

It’s great to hear such positive news. Thrifting is a no-brainer, when you stop to think about it-well-made and good-looking fashion that helps the planet while saving us money. The more mainstream it can get, the better off we’ll all be.

6 ways our post-pandemic (疫情后) world will be different

The future has never been easy to forecast, and the coronavirus makes life even more unpredictable. To gather informed views on how we most likely will live, learn, work, and communicate when we reach the new normal, National Geographic interviewed a range of experts and leaders.

New Ways to Learn

【小题1】 Although equal access to tech remains a barrier, tools will be designed that may bridge divides. Students will use technology to help with homework, set goals, and measure progress.

Balance Work and Life

The future of work won’t be fully remote, but it won’t be limited to offices, either. It’ll be a mixture. Smaller offices will be centers for occasional in-person collaboration, while improved digital tools—such as better video chatting—will support workers at home. Besides, more emphasis on balancing productivity with personal needs will allow employees to organize their work hours to fit their schedules. 【小题2】

Tech Leads the Way

Broadband(宽带) access has never been equal. 【小题3】 Yet advances in high-speed 5G telecom networks will fuel an increase in fields from telemedicine to banking, education, and transportation. This will be a tidal wave of change. More efficient networks will reduce costs and help small businesses affected by the pandemic reach new customers and grow.

Get Out and Stay Out

U. S. national parks saw dramatic drops in visitors last spring—but then numbers exploded this spring, as did sales for RVs and bikes. 【小题4】 People are going outdoors more often this year and also shifting from adventure sports requiring travel—skiing, climbing, backpacking—to closer-to-home activities such as bird-watching, gardening, and bike riding.

【小题5】

Public concern in the United States about global warming hit an all-time high last November, according to researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities. Large majorities of Americans think human-caused global warming is real, and they feel worried and even personally responsible. Surprisingly, a survey in April found that COVID-19 hadn’t replaced concern over the climate—though it had reduced media coverage of it.

Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, texting or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new “species” of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name — phubbers(低头族).

Recently, a cartoon made by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities（身份）are buried in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie(自拍照)in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually destroys the world.

Although the ending sounds overstated(夸大), the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. “Continuously stretching(伸展) your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck,”   Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. “the neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching.” Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.

But that’s not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.

It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed(抢劫) of their cell phones in broad daylight.