People have many different ways to relax during break time at work or school. Smartphones are probably the number one choice for a quick mental vacation. Although it might seem like a good time, the result is opposite, according to a recent study from Rutgers University.

For the study, more than 400 students were asked to finish a set of 20 word puzzles. Halfway through the task, the students were divided into three groups. One group was allowed to take a break and use cellphones to buy things online. The second group was asked to have a rest and buy things using a computer. The last group didn’t take any break at all.

Surprisingly, the group that used their cellphones during the break went back to work feeling the most tired and least motivated to continue. They also had the hardest time solving the remaining word puzzles.

Terri Kurtzberg, co-author of the study, explained that they assumed looking at cellphones during a break would be no different from any other break — but instead, the phone may cause increasing levels of distraction(使人分心的事) that make it difficult to focus attention on work tasks again.

"Cellphones may have this effect because even just seeing your phone activates thoughts of checking messages, connecting with people, and more, in ways that are different than how we use other screens like computers and laptops," Kurtzberg said.

This is echoed by a recent study from the University of Chicago. It found that even if cellphones are turned off or turned face down, their mere presence reduces a person’s cognitive capacity.

Happy, angry, amazed—these are some of the emotions we like to express these days when we’re sending a message on our smart phones! That’s why many of us now add little pictures to our texts to brighten up someone’s mobile screen but we’re also using them as a quick way of telling someone how we’re feeling. Yes, emojis (表情符号) have become a popular tool for communication.

The emoji was first invented in Japan in the late 1990s and the word “emoji” comes from the Japanese words for “picture” and “character”. The number of different images has greatly increased since then and now we have a picture for nearly every mood or situation.

Why are emojis widely used today? Professor Vyv Evans says, “Increasingly, what we’re finding is that digital communication is replacing face-to-face talk in some ways. One of the reasons why emojis are so interesting is that they really do enable us to express our emotional selves much more effectively.”

Another advantage of emojis is that they are an international language—they don’t use words but tell a message with pictures so they can be easily understood whatever your native language is.

But as linguist (语言学家) Neil Cohn says, “To many, emojis are an exciting evolution (进化) of the way we communicate; but to others, they are linguistic Armageddon.” It does show by using emojis, there is a lot more to our communication than words alone, but does this also mean that the traditional writing will die out one day?

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To battle the plagiarism (抄袭), some schools in America have responded to ChatGPT by taking action, according to the New York Times.

New York City public schools, for example, recently prevented ChatGPT access on school computers and networks, saying “concerns about negative influence on students learning, and concerns about the safety of content.” Schools in other cities, including Seattle, have also limited its use.

A US’ online course provider Study. com recently asked 1, 000 students over the age of 18 about the use of ChatGPT in the classroom. The responses were surprising. Around 89 percent said they’ve used it on homework. Over 50 percent said they used ChatGPT to write an essay, while 22 percent admitted to having asked ChatGPT for a paper outline.

While the chatbot (聊天机器人) is raising fears of academic cheating on schools, some educators believe introducing the Al-ended tools to the academics could even overturn the traditional education.

“For researchers, finding valuable scientific problems and solving them in creative ways come first, and then writing academic papers. Some AI-enabled writing tools can create words or even write long text based on a few keywords shortly,” said Zhu Wei, a law professor in China. For example, ChatGPT helps writers gather writing materials for their papers, which not only increases the efficiency of the work, but also allows researchers to devote more energy to more creative work.

“Whether to use ChatGPT depends on whether to use it correctly. For those students who just use it to deal with homework or exams,” Zhu said, “this is putting the cart before the horse, which should be limited.” To avoid this problem, Zhu suggested introducing soft wares to help educators. He believes schools should accept ChatGPT as a teaching aid to unlock creativity in students. “The most important part of such tools is not to replace human thinking, but to improve human thinking.” Zhu said.