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Would you be happy as a long-term single? The answer may depend on your attachment style

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christopher-pepping-1524533">Christopher Pepping</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/griffith-university-828">Griffith University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/geoff-macdonald-1527971">Geoff Macdonald</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-toronto-1281">University of Toronto</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tim-cronin-415060">Tim Cronin</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yuthika-girme-1494822">Yuthika Girme</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/simon-fraser-university-1282">Simon Fraser University</a></em></p> <p>Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make it difficult for them to find a partner or maintain a relationship.</p> <p>But is this true? Or can long-term single people also be secure and thriving?</p> <p>Our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jopy.12929">latest research</a> published in the Journal of Personality suggests they can. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, not everybody tends to thrive in singlehood. Our study shows a crucial factor may be a person’s attachment style.</p> <h2>Singlehood is on the rise</h2> <p>Singlehood is on the rise around the world. In Canada, single status among young adults aged 25 to 29 has increased from <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220713/dq220713b-eng.htm">32% in 1981 to 61% in 2021</a>. The number of people <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220713/dq220713a-eng.htm">living solo</a> has increased from 1.7 million people in 1981 to 4.4 million in 2021.</p> <p>People are single for many reasons: <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook/9780520971004/happy-singlehood">some choose</a> to remain single, some are focusing on <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-020-09249-0">personal goals and aspirations</a>, some report <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/08/20/nearly-half-of-u-s-adults-say-dating-has-gotten-harder-for-most-people-in-the-last-10-years/">dating has become harder</a>, and some become single again due to a relationship breakdown.</p> <p>People may also remain single due to their attachment style. Attachment theory is a popular and well-researched model of how we form relationships with other people. An <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=attachment+theory">Amazon search for attachment theory</a> returns thousands of titles. The hashtag #attachmenttheory has been viewed <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/20/why-attachment-theory-is-trending-according-to-dr-amir-levine.html">over 140 million times</a> on TikTok alone.</p> <h2>What does attachment theory say about relationships?</h2> <p>Attachment theory suggests our relationships with others are shaped by our degree of “anxiety” and “avoidance”.</p> <p>Attachment anxiety is a type of insecurity that leads people to feel anxious about relationships and worry about abandonment. Attachment avoidance leads people to feel uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness.</p> <p>People who are lower in attachment anxiety and avoidance are considered “securely attached”, and are comfortable depending on others, and giving and receiving intimacy.</p> <p>Single people are often stereotyped as being <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01461672231203123">too clingy or non-committal</a>. Research comparing single and coupled people also suggests single people have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2012.00793.x?casa_token=6iiCm5PjHgkAAAAA:0kBeofx3M-72YrkVppmNxdWBIAImFwm3lAakCnuiNXL20SVP1zaW7UeDIahW_43imAjSRXgtyN0hLVI">higher levels of attachment insecurities</a> compared to people in relationships.</p> <p>At the same time, evidence suggests many single people are choosing to remain single and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17456916221136119">living happy lives</a>.</p> <h2>Single people represent a diverse group of secure and insecure people</h2> <p>In our latest research, our team of social and clinical psychologists examined single people’s attachment styles and how they related to their happiness and wellbeing.</p> <p>We carried out two studies, one of 482 younger single people and the other of 400 older long-term singles. We found overall 78% were categorised as insecure, with the other 22% being secure.</p> <p>Looking at our results more closely, we found four distinct subgroups of singles:</p> <ul> <li> <p>secure singles are relatively comfortable with intimacy and closeness in relationships (22%)</p> </li> <li> <p>anxious singles question whether they are loved by others and worry about being rejected (37%)</p> </li> <li> <p>avoidant singles are uncomfortable getting close to others and prioritise their independence (23% of younger singles and 11% of older long-term singles)</p> </li> <li> <p>fearful singles have heightened anxiety about abandonment, but are simultaneously uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness (16% of younger singles and 28% of older long-term singles).</p> </li> </ul> <h2>Insecure singles find singlehood challenging, but secure singles are thriving</h2> <p>Our findings also revealed these distinct subgroups of singles have distinct experiences and outcomes.</p> <p>Secure singles are happy being single, have a greater number of non-romantic relationships, and better relationships with family and friends. They meet their sexual needs outside romantic relationships and feel happier with their life overall. Interestingly, this group maintains moderate interest in being in a romantic relationship in the future.</p> <p>Anxious singles tend to be the most worried about being single, have lower self-esteem, feel less supported by close others and have some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction across all sub-groups.</p> <p>Avoidant singles show the least interest in being in a romantic relationship and in many ways appear satisfied with singlehood. However, they also have fewer friends and close relationships, and are generally less satisfied with these relationships than secure singles. Avoidant singles also report less meaning in life and tend to be less happy compared to secure singles.</p> <p>Fearful singles reported more difficulties navigating close relationships than secure singles. For instance, they were less able to regulate their emotions, and were less satisfied with the quality of their close relationships relative to secure singles. They also reported some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction across all sub-groups.</p> <h2>It’s not all doom and gloom</h2> <p>These findings should be considered alongside several relevant points. First, although most singles in our samples were insecure (78%), a sizeable number were secure and thriving (22%).</p> <p>Further, simply being in a romantic relationship is not a panacea. Being in an unhappy relationship is linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316">poorer life outcomes</a> than being single.</p> <p>It is also important to remember that attachment orientations are not necessarily fixed. They are open to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X18300113">change</a> in response to life events.</p> <p>Similarly, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413510933">sensitive and responsive behaviours</a> from close others and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075231162390">feeling loved and cared about</a> by close others can soothe underlying attachment concerns and foster attachment security over time.</p> <p>Our studies are some of the first to examine the diversity in attachment styles among single adults. Our findings highlight that many single people are secure and thriving, but also that more work can be done to help insecure single people feel more secure in order to foster happiness.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/227595/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christopher-pepping-1524533">Christopher Pepping</a>, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/griffith-university-828">Griffith University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/geoff-macdonald-1527971">Geoff Macdonald</a>, Professor of Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-toronto-1281">University of Toronto</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tim-cronin-415060">Tim Cronin</a>, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yuthika-girme-1494822">Yuthika Girme</a>, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/simon-fraser-university-1282">Simon Fraser University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/would-you-be-happy-as-a-long-term-single-the-answer-may-depend-on-your-attachment-style-227595">original article</a>.</em></p>

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These 12 common terms started life as a real-person’s name

<p><strong>Oscar</strong></p> <p>And the Academy Award for the ‘Golden Statuette’s Eponym’ is … a mystery! But, there are a few theories circulating. Actress Bette Davis supposedly claimed that the statue’s backside bore a striking resemblance to her husband Harmon Oscar Nelson. </p> <p>While Sidney Skolsky, a columnist, gives himself the title of ‘eponym creator’ because he thought the nickname negated pretension from the esteemed award. And the Academy’s librarian Margaret Herrick reportedly declared that the statuette reminded her of her uncle, Oscar Pierce. We may never know its true origins.</p> <p><strong>Shirley Temple</strong></p> <p>Your favourite childhood mocktail was definitely named after none other than the curly-haired child star, Shirley Temple. The story goes that the wait staff at a Hollywood restaurant overheard the little girl whining when her parents wouldn’t give her a sip of their old-fashioned cocktails. </p> <p>A member of the staff mixed up a kid-friendly version made with a splash of grenadine, a cup of ginger ale, and garnished it with a signature maraschino cherry to emulate the old-fashioned cocktails her parents drank. One sip of the sweet, fizzy drink was all it took to quiet her cries.</p> <p><strong>Boycott</strong></p> <p>During the 1870s, history began to repeat itself as another agricultural crisis wreaked havoc in Ireland. The crisis threatened to recreate the horrific famine and mass evictions that occurred a mere thirty years prior. In an effort to campaign against rent increases and evictions by landlords, the Irish farmers banded together to form the Irish Land League. </p> <p>The group targeted one apathetic English land agent, in particular, Charles Cunningham Boycott, a man responsible for kicking out tenant farmers who refused to pay their rents. Boycott’s angered laborers and servants quit, his crops rotted to the ground, and the word ‘boycott’ defined as ‘refusing to deal with a country, organisation, or person to protest or punish them’ was named after him. In a way, karma got him good.</p> <p><strong>Dunce</strong></p> <p>No one wants to be crowned the dunce of the group, in other words, the dumb, dopey one. But there was a time when being called a dunce was the greatest form of flattery. Long ago, everyone wanted to think just like John Duns Scotus, the greatest medieval philosopher of his time. In fact, his followers referred to themselves as ‘dunsmen.’ </p> <p>Unfortunately, Scotus’ beliefs faded with the times and soon people criticised his convictions as being antiquated and dumb. Thus, ‘dunsman’ was shortened to “duns” – no longer a term for a great thinker, but instead a slow-witted person.</p> <p><strong>Bloomers</strong></p> <p>The women’s rights activist, Amelia Bloomer, helped popularise the bloomer craze, despite the fact that other progressive women wore them much earlier than she did. As part of a women’s dress-reform movement, Bloomer started wearing loose-fitting blouses and short skirts with long pantaloons underneath to protest the heavy petticoats and bone-crushing corsets that women were forced to wear in the 1850s. </p> <p>Many people ridiculed her outlandish outfit that went against every gender norm. She lashed back at her critics in an article she wrote for a women’s rights newspaper that said, “Let men be compelled to wear our dress for a while, and we should soon hear them advocating for change.” Soon after the article’s publication, everyone called the pantaloons ‘bloomers’ – a new symbol for women’s rights.</p> <p><strong>Cardigan</strong></p> <p>Your favourite winter knit-wear wasn’t named after a seamstress or fashion designer. In fact, you can thank British general, James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan, for reportedly popularising the timeless fashion item. During the Crimean War in 1854, Cardigan’s regiment donned wool knit waistcoats, which were later called cardigans, to keep them warm on the battlefields of the Crimean Peninsula. </p> <p>No one is sure why cardigans were named after a man who didn’t invent the article of clothing. But some people theorise that his highbrow tastes for elegance and extravagance amongst his troop’s uniforms helped cardigans gain traction as a fashion statement well after the war.</p> <p><strong>Saxophone</strong></p> <p>This object was actually named after its inventor, Adolphe Sax. The Belgian-French instrument maker wanted to combine the best of brass, woodwind and stringed instruments into one masterpiece. By 1841, he had created his first working model of the bass horn, the saxophone’s former name. </p> <p>But a French reporter had a much ‘saxier’ name for the instrument and dubbed it the saxophone. Sax patented the saxophone in 1846 and the name has stuck ever since!</p> <p><strong>Sideburns</strong></p> <p>Sideburns were all the rage in the American Civil War well before Elvis Presley was even born. The popular male hair trend of bushy whiskers on the cheeks was originally called burnsides after the Union Army General Ambrose E. Burnside. </p> <p>His wildly different facial hair first caught people’s attention during a parade in Washington DC as he led his regiment of Rhode Island volunteers. By the 1880s, the name was switched to sideburns.</p> <p><strong>Silhouette</strong></p> <p>Before there were selfies, painted or paper cut-out silhouettes were the most affordable portraits that adorned people’s homes during the 18th century. Many people loved their silhouette selfies, but the man for who they were named after was anything but loved. </p> <p>France’s finance minister at the time, Étienne de Silhouette, had a reputation for being a frugal French man and was often seen making the cut-paper shadow portraits, himself, in his free time. Because of his cheap ways and favourite hobby, the French phrase “à la Silhouette” came to mean ‘on the cheap’ and the shadow portraits were named after Silhouette to poke fun at him as well.</p> <p><strong>Sandwich</strong></p> <p>John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich who lived from 1718 to 1792, may have created the classic lunch staple. It was no secret in town that Montagu’s vice was gambling. </p> <p>Legend has it that the gambler once spent an entire 24 hours at the gambling table eating nothing but slices of cold beef wedged between two pieces of toast. And if the story bears any truth, it’s how the sandwich was invented.</p> <p><strong>Casanova</strong></p> <p>You may have dated a casanova or two in your life. Giacomo Girolamo Casanova inspired the well-known term for a promiscuous male. The Italian adventurer and author wrote a memoir that bragged about his many ‘conquests’ along his travels.</p> <p><strong>Dahlia</strong></p> <p>The vibrant flower with colourful hues from Mexico was named after Anders Dahl, an 18th-century Swedish botanist. Dahl must have been a highly admired plant expert of his time because many botanists have been credited for bestowing his name upon the flower.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/culture/12-common-words-that-were-inspired-by-real-life-people?pages=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

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What is ‘reverse racism’ – and what’s wrong with the term?

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mario-peucker-192086">Mario Peucker</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/victoria-university-1175">Victoria University</a></em></p> <p>“Reverse racism” is sometimes used to describe situations where white people believe they are negatively stereotyped or discriminated against because of their whiteness – or treated less favourably than people of colour.</p> <p>“Reverse racism” claims have surfaced in the current debate around the <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-questions-about-the-voice-to-parliament-answered-by-the-experts-207014">Voice to Parliament</a> referendum. “The concept looks racist to me,” <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/building-a-voice-to-parliament-into-our-constitution-would-divide-us-along-racial-lines-and-do-nothing-to-change-the-past/news-story/794a86f16d664e6a4ebfbed589b27a01">wrote Sky News commentator Kel Richards</a> last August.</p> <p>Such views misrepresent the Voice as preferential treatment of First Nations peoples, falsely suggesting it would somehow weaken the political say of non-Indigenous Australians.</p> <p>Complaints of reverse racism can be found in the community more generally, too. “I think average, working-class, white Australian males have it the hardest out of anyone in society,” said one 23-year-old man in a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/3/1/19">2023 study</a> of Australian men, “we are the victims of reverse racism”.</p> <p>“Reverse racism” is an idea that focuses on prejudiced attitudes towards a certain (racialised) group, or unequal personal treatment – namely, discrimination. But it ignores one of racism’s central markers: power.</p> <p>“Prejudice plus (institutional) power” is the widely accepted basic definition of racism. Or, as <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-07453-002">two researchers defined it</a> in 1988: “Racism equals power plus prejudice.”</p> <p>In a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jun/04/aamer-rahman-reverse-racism-comedy-tour">famous 2013 sketch</a>, comedian Ahmer Rahman said, yes, reverse racism is possible … if you go back in a time machine and convince the leaders of Africa, Asia and the Middle East to invade and dominate Europe hundreds of years ago, leading to systemic inequality across every facet of social and economic life, “so all their descendants would want to migrate [to] where black and brown people come from”.</p> <p>Put simply, the concept of “reverse racism” – or “anti-white racism” – just doesn’t work, because racism is more than just prejudice.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dw_mRaIHb-M?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Comedian Ahmer Rahman unpacks ‘reverse racism’, and why making it real would need a time machine.</span></figcaption></figure> <h2>Why ‘reverse racism’ is a myth</h2> <p>Prejudice and discrimination are inherently tied to historically rooted and entrenched, institutionalised forms of systemic racism and racial hierarchies, injustices and power imbalance.</p> <p>The continuing lack of diverse representation in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/25/the-47th-parliament-is-the-most-diverse-ever-but-still-doesnt-reflect-australia">political</a>, social and economic positions of influence is just one of many indicators that we’re still a long way from living in a post-racial society.</p> <p>White people may be called a derogatory name with a reference to their whiteness. They may be discriminated against: for example, by an ethnic business owner who prefers to employ someone from their community background.</p> <p>This may sometimes be unlawful. At other times, it may be a lawful form of “positive action” or “affirmative action”, aimed at reducing historically entrenched, intergenerational and systemic inequalities.</p> <p>But in all these instances – and regardless of whether it’s lawful or not – the term racism, or “reverse racism”, would not apply.</p> <h2>How common are reverse racism claims?</h2> <p>A representative US survey, conducted by PEW in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/">2019</a>, found that around 12% of respondents believed “being white hurts people’s ability to get ahead in the country nowadays”. Among white Republicans, the proportion was 22%. It was only 3% among white Democrats.</p> <p>A more recent US survey, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/poll-reveals-white-americans-see-an-increase-in-discrimination-against-other-white-people-and-less-against-other-racial-groups-185278">2022</a>, concluded that 30% of white respondents saw “a lot more discrimination against white Americans”.</p> <p>Representative data on these issues is lacking in Australia. But there is evidence a significant minority of Australians seem convinced anti-white racism is a thing.</p> <p>A 2018 <a href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/128799/4/Reverse%20racism%20and%20white%20victimhood%20in%20Australia%20JIS%20March%202018%20clean.pdf">Australian survey</a> found that around 10% of respondents who stated they had witnessed racism as bystanders said the victim of the allegedly “racist” incident was a white person.</p> <p>Another recent (non-representative) <a href="https://periscopekasaustralia.com.au/papers/volume-10-2-2023/demarcating-australias-far-right-political-fringe-but-social-mainstream/">survey</a> of 335 Australian men in 2021 showed that one in three respondents agreed with the statement: “white people are the victims these days”.</p> <p>Australian senator <a href="https://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-built-a-political-career-on-white-victimhood-and-brought-far-right-rhetoric-to-the-mainstream-134661">Pauline Hanson</a> has been complaining about “reverse racism” since her maiden speech to parliament in 1996, when she described “the privileges Aboriginals enjoy over other Australians”. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hansons-1996-maiden-speech-to-parliament-full-transcript-20160915-grgjv3.html">She said</a>: "We now have a situation where a type of reverse racism is applied to mainstream Australians by those who promote political correctness […]"</p> <p>Gamilaraay man <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/its-time-to-put-an-end-to-the-gaslighting-that-occurs-every-day-in-australia">Joshua Waters says</a> most First Nations Australians have heard this kind of sentiment, and statements like: “Uh, I’m not racist. You’re racist for calling me racist. Actually, that’s reverse racism!”</p> <p>But as he has argued, “To be called racist for identifying actual racist behaviours and rhetoric is not OK.”</p> <h2>Backlash against racial justice</h2> <p>“Reverse racism” sometimes reflects a naïve but profound lack of racial literacy. But more often, it’s a defensive backlash against societal reckoning with racial injustices, both past and present.</p> <p>And it’s often an expression of “<a href="https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116">white fragility</a>” in the face of an <a href="https://scanloninstitute.org.au/mapping-social-cohesion-2022">increasing awareness</a> of racism in Australia – as epitomised by Hanson’s political career.</p> <p>“Reverse racism” claims are often strategically adopted by right-wing populist political actors and far-right fringe movements, to garner support and recruit new sympathisers and members. This can manifest in political stunts such as the infamous “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/australia/pauline-hanson-white-australia-intl/index.html">ok to be white</a>” motion Hanson put to the Australian Senate in 2018, which claimed to condemn alleged “anti-white racism”.</p> <p>The phrase “it’s OK to be white” had <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/origins-of-its-ok-to-be-white-slogan-supremacists-united-states/10385716">previously been used</a> by white supremacists in the US.</p> <p>Anti-white racism claims have also been expressed in more explicit, aggressive and extreme ways: as threats of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-believers-in-white-genocide-are-spreading-their-hate-filled-message-in-australia-106605">white genocide</a>”, a core neo-Nazi belief.</p> <p>In far-right extremist movements, in Australia and globally, these conspiratorial narratives are commonly used to mobilise – and in some cases, have become crucial drivers for – white supremacy terror attacks, like the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, which killed 51 people and injured 49.</p> <p>“Reverse racism” is a skewed, reductionist and ultimately inaccurate understanding of racism.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208009/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mario-peucker-192086">Mario Peucker</a>, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/victoria-university-1175">Victoria University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-reverse-racism-and-whats-wrong-with-the-term-208009">original article</a>.</em></p>

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What are the long-term effects of quitting social media? Almost nobody can log off long enough to find out

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-malouff-313652">John Malouff</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-new-england-919">University of New England</a></em></p> <p>Being on social media has become synonymous with living in the 21st century. Year after year, we see new platforms and smarter algorithms roping us into highly addictive online worlds.</p> <p>Now, a growing number of people have noticed this trend and are actively making an effort to resist it.</p> <p>Anecdotally, a case can be made for quitting social media, and there are myriad reasons why someone might want to. But is there evidence that doing so is good for you in the long term?</p> <h2>Drivers for quitting</h2> <p>Although there are too many social media platforms to name, most people tend to think of the “big five”: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.</p> <p>Research has found people have various reasons for quitting one or more of these apps. Many quit over concerns about negative impacts on their mental and physical health. For example, studies have shown adolescent girls in particular can experience negative body image as a result of viewing manipulated <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-have-all-heard-social-media-can-impact-womens-body-image-but-it-isnt-all-bad-205214">selfies on Instagram</a>.</p> <p>People also <a href="https://www.qscience.com/content/journals/10.5339/connect.2023.spt.3?crawler=true">choose to quit</a> due to disliking ads, feeling like they’re wasting time, or if they’re worried about their privacy. The question then is: does quitting social media resolve these concerns?</p> <h2>Mixed research outcomes</h2> <p>It’s difficult to determine whether there are clear and lasting benefits to quitting social media – and a look at the research explains why.</p> <p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17459435.2020.1817140">One 2020 study</a> found people who had quit social media saw improvements in their close relationships, and were pleased to be free of comparison with others. But some also said they <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17459435.2020.1817140">missed</a> the informational and entertainment aspects of it.</p> <p>In a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328838624_No_More_FOMO_Limiting_Social_Media_Decreases_Loneliness_and_Depression">2018 study</a>, researchers assessed the psychological state of 143 American undergraduates before randomly assigning one group a daily ten-minute limit for Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, per platform. Three weeks later, those who limited their social media use showed significantly lower levels of loneliness and depression. However, there was no significant effect on anxiety, self-esteem or wellbeing.</p> <p>And in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0217743&amp;fbclid=IwAR1oLvPyeJDwMhD4WlODKU1A360ttIcaV_tManJs1_qEr-VAVZPsD0xQjq0">one 2019 study</a> with 78 participants, half were asked to take a one-week break from Facebook and Instagram. To the researchers’ surprise, the users in this group who were generally active on social media experienced <em>less</em> positive psychological effects than those in the control group.</p> <p>With research findings painting several different pictures, it’s safe to say our relationship with social media – and how it affects us – is very complex.</p> <h2>Research constraints</h2> <p>There appear to be no published studies that have assessed the long-term impacts of permanently quitting social media. This is probably because it’s difficult to find participants who will agree to be randomly assigned the task of dropping social media forever.</p> <p>One important consideration is that a percentage of individuals who quit social media will eventually <a href="https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/992039/viewer">go back</a>. Reasons for returning include feeling left out, fearing loss of connections, wanting to regain access to interesting or useful information, feeling social pressure to rejoin, or simply feeling that quitting wasn’t the right choice.</p> <p>Even if researchers do find a large enough group of people willing to quit social media for good, conducting long-term follow-ups would be highly resource-intensive. Beyond that, it would be difficult to figure out how much of a participant’s increase (or decrease) in life satisfaction is due to quitting social media, and not other factors.</p> <p>As such, there’s currently no evidence that quitting social media comes with concrete long-term benefits. And in the short term, results are mixed.</p> <h2>To quit, or not to quit?</h2> <p>However, that doesn’t mean quitting (for a short or long period) wouldn’t be beneficial for some people. It’s likely that any potential benefits will depend on the individual doing the quitting, and why they’re doing it.</p> <p>For instance, consensus that does emerge from the research is that <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-social-media-make-us-more-or-less-lonely-depends-on-how-you-use-it-128468">the <em>way</em> you use</a> social media plays a significant role in how negative or positive your experience is. By <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305120919105">using social media mindfully</a>, users can minimise potential harms while retaining the benefits.</p> <p>For some, it may only be one platform causing unease. If you strongly dislike Instagram’s tendency to be hyper-focused on people’s private lives, then you could simply stop using Instagram.</p> <p>Another technique is to curate your social media feeds by engaging only with content you find useful and positive. For instance, many young women take steps to avoid seeing <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-have-all-heard-social-media-can-impact-womens-body-image-but-it-isnt-all-bad-205214?fbclid=IwAR3cX7l116GAj0nnKDAk16x6GP6iRCxH_VutjIbxOiCij1yCqWmeOK0s0f0">perfect bodies all day</a> on their social media.</p> <p>If you’re still wondering whether quitting might be good for you, the simplest way to find out is to <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/10/i-ran-4-experiments-to-break-my-social-media-addiction-heres-what-worked">experiment</a> and do it.</p> <p>Take a break from one or more types of social media. After some time ask yourself whether the benefits seem worth it to you. If the answer is “yes”, make the break permanent.</p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-malouff-313652">John Malouff</a>, Associate Professor, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-new-england-919">University of New England</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-long-term-effects-of-quitting-social-media-almost-nobody-can-log-off-long-enough-to-find-out-205478">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Technology

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Calling drag queens ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ is the latest in a long history of weaponising those terms against the LGBTIQA community

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/timothy-w-jones-11557">Timothy W. Jones</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p> <p>Drag queens around the world are currently being accused of “grooming children” through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_Queen_Story_Hour">drag storytime events</a>. These accusations curiously associate public book reading with child sex offending.</p> <p>We know from <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/the-sexual-abuse-of-children/">decades of research and inquiries</a> the places that young people are most at risk of sexual victimisation are their home or an institution of care (such as a school, orphanage or church). The people that most often offend against children are family members and care providers.</p> <p>However, this recent panic about drag queens reading in public libraries is actually typical in the history of child sexual abuse. This history has involved repeated moral panics that distract from the alarming data regarding child sexual abuse in the home. Instead, these narratives locate the threat to children outside of the home - to gay men, “stranger danger” and even satanic ritual abuse - rather than confronting the situations and protecting children where they are most at risk.</p> <h2>Moral panic</h2> <p>In the 1970s, feminist attention to domestic violence, sexual assault and the patriarchy created the conditions that enabled the sexual assault of children in the home to be put in the spotlight.</p> <p>It wasn’t long, however, before attention was shifted elsewhere. In the 1980s, fears about a new form of abuse spread. <a href="https://theconversation.com/satanic-worship-sodomy-and-even-murder-how-stranger-things-revived-the-american-satanic-panic-of-the-80s-186292">Satanic ritual abuse</a> was thought to involve large numbers of victims and perpetrators, but was <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/jscp.1997.16.2.112">“so cloaked in secrecy and involve such precise concealment of evidence that almost no one knew about it”</a>.</p> <p>Satanic ritual abuse captured headlines and people’s imaginations with tales of particularly painful, depraved and degrading practices. Research has shown that reports of abuse initially came from adults who “regained memories” of experiences of satanic abuse in their childhoods. Additional reports clustered in the periods after media attention on initial cases.</p> <p>The consensus in medical literature that emerged in the 1990s was there was a tendency of some individuals, especially clients of particular psychotherapists, to manufacture memories of abuse which never occurred. Corroborating evidence of abuse was not found, leading sceptics to account for these <a href="https://journals-sagepub-com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.2466/pms.1994.78.3c.1376">“pseudomemories” through “misdiagnosis, and the misapplication of hypnosis, dreamwork, or regressive therapies”</a>.</p> <p>Subsequently, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Organised-Sexual-Abuse/Salter/p/book/9781138789159?gclid=CjwKCAjwjYKjBhB5EiwAiFdSflzGRpk-QL7yO8HrAOZbbtD-okQbGIOYC47WI3m-obre71DXVhs7_hoCfwcQAvD_BwE">satanic ritual abuse controversy</a> and “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924933816020824">false memory syndrome</a>” have been used to discredit hard-fought feminist recognition of the gravity of child sex offending</p> <h2>A deviant lifestyle</h2> <p>There is also a long history of using paedophilia and ideas about child grooming in homophobic and transphobic ways to oppose the recognition of the civil rights of LGBTIQA people.</p> <p>Campaigns to decriminalise homosexuality often struggled against attempts to impose unequal ages of consent in reform legislation. In 1967, for example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967">homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales</a>, but men had to wait until they were 21 to legally consummate their love, five years longer than straight lovers.</p> <p>In Tasmania, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Pink_Triangle.html?id=Wp6cPAAACAAJ&amp;redir_esc=y">the last Australian state to decriminalise sex between men</a> (in 1997), a heated public debate frequently raised issues of child protection. Letters to newspapers claimed that decriminalisation “would only open the floodgates and allow the very young to become prey to those who have chosen to lead this deviant lifestyle”.</p> <p>The idea was that young people are vulnerable to becoming homosexual and shouldn’t be allowed to consent to sexual activity until they were much older than their heterosexual peers.</p> <p>Sitting behind this notion of the vulnerability of young queer people is the <a href="https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbtq/orientation">false idea</a> that LGBTIQA status is a sign of moral failing, illness or perversion.</p> <p>Further, it perpetuates the myth that queerness or transness is somehow transmissible. This is the somewhat fantastical idea that everybody has the latent potential to become queer or trans, and all that is needed to convert is exposure to a queer or trans person.</p> <p>These fears have fuelled repressive legislation, such as the notorious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/section-28-protesters-30-years-on-we-were-arrested-and-put-in-a-cell-up-by-big-ben">Section 28</a> in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UGANDA-LGBT/movakykrjva/">Ugandan</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_gay_propaganda_law">Russian</a> laws banning the promotion of homosexuality, and the “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/17/florida-advances-dont-say-gay-bill?gclid=Cj0KCQjwsIejBhDOARIsANYqkD1-IyOtYIl1WefomHHCyNZ0t88GRQTVciS7iJFoUslPSu4In5ayS3IaAqadEALw_wcB">don’t say gay</a>” laws in the United States.</p> <p>Ironically, these strange and harmful ideas are also behind the ineffective, discredited and dangerous attempts to change or suppress LGBTIQA people’s sexuality or gender identity.</p> <p>In these instances of so-called “conversion therapy”, it is <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/IESOGI/Academics/Equality_Australia_LGBTconversiontherapyinAustraliav2.pdf">often religious conservatives</a> who <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1201588/Healing-spiritual-harms-Supporting-recovery-from-LGBTQA-change-and-suppression-practices.pdf">“groom” young LGBTIQA people</a> in attempts to make them straight and cisgendered.</p> <p>Such change and suppression practices are now thankfully <a href="https://www.humanrights.vic.gov.au/change-or-suppression-practices/about-the-csp-act/#:%7E:text=Practices%20that%20seek%20to%20change,preventing%20and%20responding%20to%20them.">against the law</a> in many jurisdictions around the world.</p> <h2>A kinder and gentler future</h2> <p>Despite periodic moral panics, the history of gender and sexuality since 1970 tends towards a kinder, gentler future. People have generally become more accepting of LGBTIQA people’s human rights, and are more welcoming and celebrating of sexual and gender diversity.</p> <p>The pace of change has been fast, however, and some groups of people haven’t gotten used to contemporary community standards of acceptance, such as the move towards marriage equality around the world.</p> <p>Because of this history of growing acceptance, young people are feeling more comfortable and safer to explore their identities at younger ages. They are thus more visible than they used to be in the past.</p> <p>However, they’re also more vulnerable as they explore sensitive aspects of their inner selves at younger and potentially less resilient ages. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00615-5">Research shows</a> the impacts that homophobic and transphobic messaging can have on young people, proving they need to be protected from this harmful rhetoric – not from drag queens.</p> <p>Drag storytime events are an age-appropriate way to celebrate diversity. They benefit all children – gay, straight, transgender and cisgender – with education about consent, human dignity, self determination and human rights.</p> <p>This <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681811.2021.1978964">knowledge is one of the best protective factors</a> against child victimisation.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205648/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/timothy-w-jones-11557">Timothy W. Jones</a>, Associate Professor in History, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/calling-drag-queens-groomers-and-pedophiles-is-the-latest-in-a-long-history-of-weaponising-those-terms-against-the-lgbtiqa-community-205648">original article</a>.</em></p>

Caring

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9 medical reasons your short-term memory is getting worse

<p><strong>What is short-term memory?</strong></p> <p>Short-term memory is the type of memory you need to accomplish your immediate goals, explains Dr Patrick Lyden, chair of the department of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. That may be working your way through tasks during the workday, remembering someone’s name, email, or phone number, or recalling where you tossed your keys when you got home.</p> <p><strong>Where is it located in the brain?</strong></p> <p>When someone rattles off their phone number, you file it away in brain circuits that include the hippocampus (your memory centre) and the amygdala (your emotional hub). Depending on how important the short-term memory item may be (your address, someone you call all the time), it can be converted into long-term memory, says Dr Lyden.</p> <p><strong>How does short-term memory work?</strong></p> <p>Short-term memory isn’t just about being able to quickly recall new info; there are three phases. “You have to register the information, store the information, and retrieve the information,” says Dr Lyden. Registering means that you’re paying attention in the first place. Storing the info means you’ve filed it away in your brain. Retrieval is the ability to access the memory again. Any of these steps can break down, he says.</p> <p><strong>Is your memory okay?</strong></p> <p>Many people assume they have a memory problem when the explanation is something else entirely, says Dr Lyden. Maybe you’re not paying attention because you’re gazing at your phone or texting, for example. The first step to figuring out if something is going on is to “pay closer attention,” he says. Repeat the new information three times to commit it to memory.</p> <p><strong>When it may be time to worry</strong></p> <p>If you can’t pass the “pay attention test” despite repeating the information, your next step, advises Dr Lyden, is to determine if your problem is storing new memories or retrieving them. If you’re having a problem remembering a new acquaintance’s name, ask them to give you three choices – like Carrie, Lauren, or Janet. If your problem is storing new memories, you won’t be able to remember. But if your problem is retrieval, you’ll remember that her name is Janet once you hear the correct name.</p> <p>Having trouble with retrieving a short-term memory isn’t as serious as being unable to store them. “The storage problem is a serious problem, and you should see a neurologist,” he says.</p> <p><strong>Inactivity</strong></p> <p>Blood flow is good for your brain – it keeps it young. “Exercising boosts blood flow to your brain. If you stay active, you’ll have a better memory,” says Dr Daniel G. Amen, author of <em>Memory Rescue: Supercharge Your Brain, Reverse Memory Loss, and Remember What Matters Most</em>. Dr Lyden suggests daily exercise and it doesn’t have to be intense. “A one-kilometre run daily is better than a 10-kilometre run one day a week,” he says.</p> <p><strong>Substance abuse</strong></p> <p>According to Dr Amen, marijuana a toxin that impairs memory. “Marijuana lowers every area of the brain and ages it. On average, pot smokers have brains three years older than non-smokers,” he says. Alcohol abuse can also harm your memory.</p> <p><strong>Mental health conditions</strong></p> <p>People tend to miss their own depression. But if you’re suffering from depression, anxiety, or chronic stress, get help or your memory can also pay the price. “These conditions may all hurt the brain,” says Dr Amen. Getting relief will not only improve your life and outlook but save your brain.</p> <p><strong>Lack of sleep</strong></p> <p>When considering short-term memory loss causes, poor sleep is a big one. “If you don’t sleep seven hours a night or more, you’ll be in trouble. Your brain cleans itself at night. When you don’t get enough, it’s like the garbage collectors didn’t come to clean up,” says Dr Amen.</p> <p><strong>Dementia</strong></p> <p>Before you panic, there’s some good news: “The vast majority of people who are healthy will not have a degenerative neurological condition causing short-term memory loss,” says Dr Lyden. But dementia or Alzheimer’s is a possibility in some groups. If you’re over 60 and have risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity, then you may be more prone to problems and need to be evaluated, he says.</p> <p><strong>Medication</strong></p> <p>If you lead a healthy lifestyle, eat right, exercise, and go easy on alcohol and other substances that can harm memory, yet you still feel like your memory if failing, talk to your doctor about your medications – prescription and over-the-counter, advises Dr Lyden. Cholesterol drugs, painkillers, high blood pressure pills, and sleeping pills are among the drugs that can trigger memory issues.</p> <p><strong>Hypothyroidism</strong></p> <p>When you have an under-active thyroid, everything in your body runs slower. Your digestion will slow and you can become constipated; cell growth slows and can lead to hair loss; your metabolism becomes sluggish, triggering weight gain. And you may be plagued by muddied thinking or forgetfulness. Often, medication to restore thyroid hormones can help alleviate symptoms and help you feel better all over.</p> <p><strong>A poor diet</strong></p> <p>Inflammation is bad for your body and your brain. “The higher the inflammation levels in your body, the worse your memory will be,” says Dr Amen. Eating an anti-inflammatory diet, like the Mediterranean diet, and avoiding foods that increase it (highly processed foods, loads of sugar) is key. He also recommends taking fish oil and probiotics.</p> <p><strong>Lyme disease</strong></p> <p>Lyme disease is transmitted through a tick bite, and causes early symptoms like fever, chills, headache, and fatigue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Later on, without treatment, some people also may notice short-term memory problems. Dr Amen points out this may include trouble with attention, focus, and organisation. Keep in mind that the types of tick that carry the bacteria are not native to Australia and it’s not likely you can catch Lyme disease in Australia.</p> <p><strong>When to seek help</strong></p> <p>Along with the self-test mentioned earlier, think about how you perceive your short-term memory. Ask yourself: Is it getting progressively worse? Is it worse than 10 years ago? Are other people noticing a problem? “Those are things you should take seriously,” says Dr Amen.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/healthsmart/9-medical-reasons-your-short-term-memory-is-getting-worse-2?pages=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

Mind

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AI to Z: all the terms you need to know to keep up in the AI hype age

<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming ever more prevalent in our lives. It’s no longer confined to certain industries or research institutions; AI is now for everyone.</p> <p>It’s hard to dodge the deluge of AI content being produced, and harder yet to make sense of the many terms being thrown around. But we can’t have conversations about AI without understanding the concepts behind it.</p> <p>We’ve compiled a glossary of terms we think everyone should know, if they want to keep up.</p> <h2>Algorithm</h2> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-an-algorithm-how-computers-know-what-to-do-with-data-146665">An algorithm</a> is a set of instructions given to a computer to solve a problem or to perform calculations that transform data into useful information. </p> <h2>Alignment problem</h2> <p>The alignment problem refers to the discrepancy between our intended objectives for an AI system and the output it produces. A misaligned system can be advanced in performance, yet behave in a way that’s against human values. We saw an example of this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/12/google-racism-ban-gorilla-black-people">in 2015</a> when an image-recognition algorithm used by Google Photos was found auto-tagging pictures of black people as “gorillas”. </p> <h2>Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)</h2> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/not-everything-we-call-ai-is-actually-artificial-intelligence-heres-what-you-need-to-know-196732">Artificial general intelligence</a> refers to a hypothetical point in the future where AI is expected to match (or surpass) the cognitive capabilities of humans. Most AI experts agree this will happen, but disagree on specific details such as when it will happen, and whether or not it will result in AI systems that are fully autonomous.</p> <h2>Artificial Neural Network (ANN)</h2> <p>Artificial neural networks are computer algorithms used within a branch of AI called <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/deep-learning/">deep learning</a>. They’re made up of layers of interconnected nodes in a way that mimics the <a href="https://www.ibm.com/topics/neural-networks">neural circuitry</a> of the human brain. </p> <h2>Big data</h2> <p>Big data refers to datasets that are much more massive and complex than traditional data. These datasets, which greatly exceed the storage capacity of household computers, have helped current AI models perform with high levels of accuracy.</p> <p>Big data can be characterised by four Vs: “volume” refers to the overall amount of data, “velocity” refers to how quickly the data grow, “veracity” refers to how complex the data are, and “variety” refers to the different formats the data come in.</p> <h2>Chinese Room</h2> <p>The <a href="https://ethics.org.au/thought-experiment-chinese-room-argument/">Chinese Room</a> thought experiment was first proposed by American philosopher John Searle in 1980. It argues a computer program, no matter how seemingly intelligent in its design, will never be conscious and will remain unable to truly understand its behaviour as a human does. </p> <p>This concept often comes up in conversations about AI tools such as ChatGPT, which seem to exhibit the traits of a self-aware entity – but are actually just presenting outputs based on predictions made by the underlying model.</p> <h2>Deep learning</h2> <p>Deep learning is a category within the machine-learning branch of AI. Deep-learning systems use advanced neural networks and can process large amounts of complex data to achieve higher accuracy.</p> <p>These systems perform well on relatively complex tasks and can even exhibit human-like intelligent behaviour.</p> <h2>Diffusion model</h2> <p>A diffusion model is an AI model that learns by adding random “noise” to a set of training data before removing it, and then assessing the differences. The objective is to learn about the underlying patterns or relationships in data that are not immediately obvious. </p> <p>These models are designed to self-correct as they encounter new data and are therefore particularly useful in situations where there is uncertainty, or if the problem is very complex.</p> <h2>Explainable AI</h2> <p>Explainable AI is an emerging, interdisciplinary field concerned with creating methods that will <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-explainable-artificial-intelligence-can-help-humans-innovate-151737">increase</a> users’ trust in the processes of AI systems. </p> <p>Due to the inherent complexity of certain AI models, their internal workings are often opaque, and we can’t say with certainty why they produce the outputs they do. Explainable AI aims to make these “black box” systems more transparent.</p> <h2>Generative AI</h2> <p>These are AI systems that generate new content – including text, image, audio and video content – in response to prompts. Popular examples include ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney. </p> <h2>Labelling</h2> <p>Data labelling is the process through which data points are categorised to help an AI model make sense of the data. This involves identifying data structures (such as image, text, audio or video) and adding labels (such as tags and classes) to the data.</p> <p>Humans do the labelling before machine learning begins. The labelled data are split into distinct datasets for training, validation and testing.</p> <p>The training set is fed to the system for learning. The validation set is used to verify whether the model is performing as expected and when parameter tuning and training can stop. The testing set is used to evaluate the finished model’s performance. </p> <h2>Large Language Model (LLM)</h2> <p>Large language models (LLM) are trained on massive quantities of unlabelled text. They analyse data, learn the patterns between words and can produce human-like responses. Some examples of AI systems that use large language models are OpenAI’s GPT series and Google’s BERT and LaMDA series.</p> <h2>Machine learning</h2> <p>Machine learning is a branch of AI that involves training AI systems to be able to analyse data, learn patterns and make predictions without specific human instruction.</p> <h2>Natural language processing (NLP)</h2> <p>While large language models are a specific type of AI model used for language-related tasks, natural language processing is the broader AI field that focuses on machines’ ability to learn, understand and produce human language.</p> <h2>Parameters</h2> <p>Parameters are the settings used to tune machine-learning models. You can think of them as the programmed weights and biases a model uses when making a prediction or performing a task.</p> <p>Since parameters determine how the model will process and analyse data, they also determine how it will perform. An example of a parameter is the number of neurons in a given layer of the neural network. Increasing the number of neurons will allow the neural network to tackle more complex tasks – but the trade-off will be higher computation time and costs. </p> <h2>Responsible AI</h2> <p>The responsible AI movement advocates for developing and deploying AI systems in a human-centred way.</p> <p>One aspect of this is to embed AI systems with rules that will have them adhere to ethical principles. This would (ideally) prevent them from producing outputs that are biased, discriminatory or could otherwise lead to harmful outcomes. </p> <h2>Sentiment analysis</h2> <p>Sentiment analysis is a technique in natural language processing used to identify and interpret the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/sentiment-analysis/">emotions behind a text</a>. It captures implicit information such as, for example, the author’s tone and the extent of positive or negative expression.</p> <h2>Supervised learning</h2> <p>Supervised learning is a machine-learning approach in which labelled data are used to train an algorithm to make predictions. The algorithm learns to match the labelled input data to the correct output. After learning from a large number of examples, it can continue to make predictions when presented with new data.</p> <h2>Training data</h2> <p>Training data are the (usually labelled) data used to teach AI systems how to make predictions. The accuracy and representativeness of training data have a major impact on a model’s effectiveness.</p> <h2>Transformer</h2> <p>A transformer is a type of deep-learning model used primarily in natural language processing tasks.</p> <p>The transformer is designed to process sequential data, such as natural language text, and figure out how the different parts relate to one another. This can be compared to how a person reading a sentence pays attention to the order of the words to understand the meaning of the sentence as a whole. </p> <p>One example is the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT), which the ChatGPT chatbot runs on. The GPT model uses a transformer to learn from a large corpus of unlabelled text. </p> <h2>Turing Test</h2> <p>The Turing test is a machine intelligence concept first introduced by computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950.</p> <p>It’s framed as a way to determine whether a computer can exhibit human intelligence. In the test, computer and human outputs are compared by a human evaluator. If the outputs are deemed indistinguishable, the computer has passed the test.</p> <p>Google’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/17/google-ai-lamda-turing-test/">LaMDA</a> and OpenAI’s <a href="https://mpost.io/chatgpt-passes-the-turing-test/">ChatGPT</a> have been reported to have passed the Turing test – although <a href="https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-trouble-with-the-turing-test">critics say</a> the results reveal the limitations of using the test to compare computer and human intelligence.</p> <h2>Unsupervised learning</h2> <p>Unsupervised learning is a machine-learning approach in which algorithms are trained on unlabelled data. Without human intervention, the system explores patterns in the data, with the goal of discovering unidentified patterns that could be used for further analysis.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-to-z-all-the-terms-you-need-to-know-to-keep-up-in-the-ai-hype-age-203917" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Technology

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How to make the most of your hard-earned savings

<p>When you have a lump sum of money, it can often be very confusing to know what to do with it, when putting it into a bank offers little in the way of interest or reward. Chances are you might have been neglecting your savings, leaving them languishing in accounts that pay very little, if anything at all. But there is a better option that could see you drastically increasing your savings.</p> <p>A term deposit taker, such as boutique investment company Blue Sky money, can offer you far greater returns on your deposit – an impressive 7 per cent, around twice that which banks offer. Better yet, with all profits staying within and benefiting the community, you can also enjoy the knowledge that you’re helping to make a difference to New Zealanders while growing your nest egg.</p> <p><a href="https://blueskymoney.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/12/Blue-Sky-7.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="1062" /></strong></a></p> <p><strong>Set and forget</strong></p> <p>Most of us are far too busy and time-poor to spend too much time tending to our finances. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to see them grow! At Blue Sky money, with a minimum deposit of $30,000 and a minimum 12-month fixed term, you don’t need to think about anything. You’ll have your own personal customer service agent, and can just sit back and watch as your interest is calculated and paid into your account monthly – no fees, no charges.</p> <p>Believing that looking after your finances should be a pleasure, not a chore, Blue Sky money prides itself on offering a superior service and being far more user friendly than banks, so not only will your money work harder, but you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of feeling part of a financial family that truly cares about your wellbeing.</p> <p>Blue Sky money can also assist with small to medium loans for land, houses or other assets, are on hand to help with reverse mortgages and are even investing in retirement villages. And in an exciting new addition, from 2023 Blue Sky is launching its own travel club for all those who place their deposits. You’ll receive special deals and tour packages, ensuring your money goes even further, while enjoying everything the world has to offer.</p> <p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/12/money-laptop-happy-GettyImages-1307391886.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p><strong>Improving New Zealanders’ lives</strong></p> <p>And while getting some much-needed extra cash seems like a pretty good deal all on its own, you’ll also have the piece of mind of knowing that with Blue Sky money – a family run business owned by Blue Sky charity, which is registered in New Zealand – all profits stay within New Zealand. With a philosophy of trying to make the world a better place, Blue Sky invests in research and development to better New Zealanders lives – everything from groundbreaking cancer treatment using ultrasound, to sustainable energy, sea trailers and indestructible home builds.</p> <p>Blue Sky money can also assist with small to medium loans for land, houses or other assets, and are available to help with reverse mortgages. And in an exciting new addition, from 2023 Blue Sky is launching its own travel club, where you can receive special deals and tour packages.</p> <p>So if you’re looking to make your savings work harder for you, while aligning yourself with a humanitarian company that’s working to improve the lives of New Zealanders, be sure to get in touch with the Blue Sky team at <a href="https://blueskymoney.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blueskymoney.co.nz</a></p> <p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/12/tropical-island-GettyImages-1360554439.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p><em>Images: Supplied. </em></p> <p><em>This is a sponsored article produced in partnership with <a href="https://blueskymoney.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blue Sky money</a>. </em></p>

Money & Banking

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Explainer: why, exactly, is alcohol bad for us long-term?

<p>What, exactly, makes alcohol unhealthy?</p> <p>After a big night, the answer to this might seem obvious – or perhaps more disturbingly, not obvious at all. But even in moderation, alcohol carries longer-term health risks too.</p> <p>So what are they, and why do they happen? Cosmos investigates.</p> <h2>Why is alcohol bad for you long-term?</h2> <p>The biggest culprit is a substance called acetaldehyde.</p> <p>Alcohol – or strictly speaking, ethanol – doesn’t stay that way in the body for long. The body metabolises it and turns it into a few different compounds, mostly acetaldehyde.</p> <p>As well as causing a lot of the symptoms you’d experience during a hangover, like headaches, nausea, and facial flushing, acetaldehyde is a carcinogen.</p> <p>“Acetaldehyde is highly reactive and extremely toxic,” says Dr Leon Booth, a research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney.</p> <p>“It binds to different proteins, or to DNA, and it can impair enzyme and cell functions.</p> <p>“Essentially, because it’s so reactive, it increases the risk of cell mutations and therefore increases the risk of a cancer developing.”</p> <p>Globally, around 4% of cancers can be attributed to alcohol. The Lancet estimates that in 2020, there were 741,300 new cancers around the world that came from alcohol consumption.</p> <p>“A lot of them are in the digestive tract, which kind of intuitively makes sense, because that’s where the alcohol is coming into contact with the body,” says Booth.</p> <p>“So there’s an increased risk of cancer in the throat, mouth, oesophagus, liver, in the colon and for females, quite an increased risk for breast cancer.”</p> <p>One study estimates that a bottle of wine per week is roughly the equivalent of smoking 10 cigarettes per week for women, or five cigarettes per week for men.</p> <p>Acetaldehyde doesn’t stay in your body forever: an enzyme called acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, or ALDH, turns it into largely harmless acetic acid, and then eventually on to carbon dioxide and water.</p> <p>But here’s where genetics can play a role in your susceptibility too: some people have a genetic mutation that makes their ALDH enzymes less effective.</p> <p>This gene is particularly common among people of East Asian descent, which is why some East Asian people flush red after only a small drink. Unfortunately, there’s evidence that people with this gene are also more susceptible to cancer.</p> <p>“In studies of Asian populations, they seem to have a much greater risk of getting cancer from alcohol,” says Booth.</p> <p>While cancer and acetaldehyde draw the most attention, alcohol can have other long-term effects too – like high blood pressure and increased risk of strokes.</p> <p>“If you drink heavily and consistently, you get scarring in the liver – cirrhosis, which is also linked to an increased risk of cancers in the liver,” says Booth.</p> <p>Alcohol can also interfere with hormones, causing poorer sleep or – once again – a higher risk of cancer.</p> <p>It’s also linked to mental health issues, like anxiety and depression, but Booth says this can be a “chicken-and-egg situation”.</p> <p>“There’s a lot of literature to suggest that people with mental health issues drink to help cope. But unfortunately, it tends to make things worse.”</p> <p>All in all, not a great wrap. Is there any good news?</p> <h2>Isn’t low or moderate drinking a little bit good for you?</h2> <p>We’ve all seen – and Cosmos has published – headlines about low and moderate drinkers (around 10 or fewer standard drinks per week) doing better in some health metrics, particularly heart disease.</p> <p>Does this really mean that regular low-moderate drinking might be better than not drinking at all?</p> <p>“Long story short, I think the jury’s probably still out on that one,” says Booth.</p> <p>The trick is that a lot of non-drinkers avoid alcohol for health reasons. This is called the “sick quitter” effect.</p> <p>If you develop a health condition, or discover you’re at an increased risk of something like heart disease, often one of the first things a doctor will recommend is that you stop drinking.</p> <p>“What that means is, sometimes when you do these big population studies, the people who don’t drink alcohol can look less healthy than the people who do drink alcohol,” says Booth.</p> <p>While many of these studies have tried to control for the sick quitter effect, and still produced some compelling evidence that low or moderate drinking helps, other studies have found the opposite.</p> <p>“My overall opinion would be that it’s just a bit too early to know, and to really understand that relationship,” says Booth.</p> <p>“And even in those studies, once you get beyond that moderate consumption, alcohol does seem to be really detrimental to cardiovascular health.”</p> <p>So, for now – other than the benefit you get from spending a night at the pub in good company – you probably can’t claim alcohol’s improving your health. We’re as sorry about this as you are.</p> <p><strong>This article originally appeared in <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/explainer-alcohol-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian.</strong></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Body

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5 legal terms you need to understand

<p>As we grow older we’re required to make a range of decisions regarding our health, wellbeing and assets that will be some of the most important we make in our life.</p> <p>So it goes without saying it’s important to understand the terms.</p> <p>We’ve taken a look at five legal terms every Australian senior needs to understand. Becoming acquainted with these terms is the best way to get the ball rolling. </p> <p><strong>1. Power of Attorney</strong></p> <p>Varying somewhat from state to state, a Power of Attorney is a legal documents giving someone legal authority to manage your financial affairs. This is useful if you find the demands of financial management too much or if you don’t want to burden certain member of your family with the responsibility of looking after your financial affairs.</p> <p><strong>2. Will</strong></p> <p>Generally speaking, a will is a formal document that’s designed to provide direction for the distribution of a person’s property and assents when they pass away. Making a will is no simple task, and requires the consideration of a range of complex financial, legal and tax issues, to ensure that your estate is distributed in accordance to your wishes.</p> <p><strong>3. Beneficiary</strong></p> <p>A beneficiary is the person who receives your assets when you pass away. It’s essential to make sure you have the correct names and details on your will to ensure the right beneficiary receives the right assets, as that is a mistake a lawyer can rarely fix.</p> <p><strong>4. Testamentary trust</strong></p> <p>Testamentary trusts are set up to protect the assets in a will, taking effect when the person who has created the will passes away. A trust is administered by a trustee (appointed in the will), who looks after the benefits of the beneficiaries until the trust expires.</p> <p>A testamentary trust is useful in the following instances:</p> <ul> <li>Beneficiaries are minors or have diminished mental capacity.</li> <li>Beneficiaries are not trusted to use inheritance wisely.</li> <li>Avoid split of family assets in event of a divorce settlement.</li> <li>Avoid split of family assets in event of bankruptcy proceedings.</li> </ul> <p><strong>5. Enduring Guardian</strong></p> <p>An Enduring Guardian can makes decisions on your behalf when you lose capability to do so. And Enduring Guardian has the capacity to make a range of important decisions regarding lifestyles, healthy and medicinal treatments, so it’s important to choose the right person.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Legal

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Savings accounts or term deposits: where should you put your cash?

<p>Whether you’re saving money for the short or the long term, choosing between a <a href="http://mozo.com.au/savings-accounts-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">savings account</a> or a <a href="http://mozo.com.au/term-deposits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">term deposit</a> should be a considered decision.</p> <p>The key differences between the two need to be balanced against your financial goals to help you decide which way to go.</p> <p><strong>Access to your money</strong> –Term deposits lock your money away for a period of time starting at a minimum of one month and up to as long as several years. So make sure you won’t need to get your hands on your cash for a while.</p> <p>Savings accounts give you more direct access to your money but generally offer a lower interest rate than their term deposit counterparts. They let you take your money out when you need or want it.</p> <p><strong>Interest rates</strong> –Savings accounts have variable interest rates, so they can change. Some rates are introductory so they’re only held for a certain amount of time, then they drop to a lower variable rate. Read the fine print to see if and when the rate changes, and to what amount. Some savings accounts give you bonus interest if you don’t make a withdrawal or you make a minimum monthly deposit. Be aware too that some accounts might reduce your interest if you withdraw too much or too often.</p> <p>Term deposits offer fixed interest for the length of your term. So once you’ve opened a term deposit, if rates go down, your money isn’t affected because the rates are locked in. Usually the longer the term you choose, the higher the interest rate on offer (although it’s not always the case).  It’s worth keeping an eye out for special interest rate offers, too.</p> <p><strong>Starting amounts</strong> –Term deposits generally have a minimum amount that you need to start with – often it’s at least $1,000. You can start a savings account from zero.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> <p><strong>Flexibility</strong> –Savings accounts let you add more money whenever you like. Term deposits generally don’t.</p> <p><strong>Which suits</strong> –You need to ask yourself what your savings objectives are. Accessible cash for immediate requirements through a savings account is attractive but for longer-term objectives such as that trip or new car you’ve been eyeing off, the term deposit attracting higher interest and forcing you to refrain from dipping into your account will have you winning in the long run.</p> <p>If you open a term deposit, it’s good to maintain a savings account as well. That way you can keep adding to your savings and when you reach a certain amount, you’ve got the option of possibly starting another term deposit.</p> <p>If you’ve got enough for a term deposit now, shop around for the best deal. There are savings account and term deposit comparison websites which can help make this easier, but it’s also worth checking out different banks and other providers too.</p>

Money & Banking

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How an Aussie senior inherited her long-term home from her landlord

<p dir="ltr">An Australian senior has finally been able to retire after she received an incredible gift from her long-term landlord. </p> <p dir="ltr">Jane Sayner, 74, was used to a life of waking up to her 3am alarm to go and work at a fruit and vegetable market in Epping in order to pay her rent and make ends meet. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, Jane has now been able to turn off her early morning alarm for good after inheriting her home from her late landlord. </p> <p dir="ltr">Jane rented off St Albans multi-millionaire John Perrett, who famously left his $18-million fortune to the Royal Melbourne Hospital when he died in 2020.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Perrett was the local pharmacist in the suburb of Melbourne, but made his riches through clever investing, all while continuing to live humbly in the neighbourhood.</p> <p dir="ltr">While the majority of his generous donation to the hospital has gone towards technology and research in the renal department that delivered him a kidney transplant, his philanthropic nature wanted to ensure Ms Sayner did not have to worry about finding a new place during her own health battle.</p> <p dir="ltr">After renting the two-bedroom St Albans unit for 23 years, Jane was shocked to receive a call from her landlord before he died after a battle with Parkinson’s. </p> <p dir="ltr">While the pair were on good terms, Perrett’s offering was next level, as he left the home to Jane. </p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Perrett also left another property to another tenant in St Albans, while another flat he owned similar to Jane’s was sold for about $400,000 to go towards the hospital donation. </p> <p dir="ltr">Jane paid $250 a week in rent, which barely rose over the last two decades, and would never have been able to afford anything like what she had if her home had been sold following her landlord’s death. </p> <p dir="ltr">Instead of still having to wake up at 3am to work at the market full-time, Jane now enjoys the simple life of a retiree as she tends to her garden and dreams of travelling to Canada. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: realestate.com.au</em></p>

Real Estate

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Labels like ‘psycho’ or ‘schizo’ can hurt. We’ve workshopped alternative clinical terms

<p>It is common to hear people use stigmatising, discriminatory and hurtful labels such as “psycho”, “schizo” or “totally bipolar”. Others might minimise conditions by saying they too are “a bit OCD” because they value structure and organisation. </p> <p>This kind of <a href="https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-7-97">everyday use of pseudo-clinical terms</a> can be upsetting for young people who are struggling with these conditions. Worse still, it can stop them seeking care.</p> <p>Clinical terms can have the same effect. For our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092099642100356X">recent research</a>, we worked with young patients, carers and clinicians to develop new mental health vocabulary that carries less stigma, but remains accurate.</p> <h2>Mental health labels have pros and cons</h2> <p>Labels can provide concise and understandable descriptions of clinical and theoretical ideas. Diagnoses enable patients and health professionals to follow evidence-based advice for effective care, because <a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/">best practice guidelines</a> are available for all labelled medical conditions.</p> <p>In other words, naming a condition is the first step towards identifying the best treatment available. Labels can also help create communities of individuals who share a similar clinical description, and reassure individuals they are not alone.</p> <p>On the other hand, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1925070/">labels</a> can result in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/should-we-be-concerned-about-stigma-and-discrimination-in-people-at-risk-for-psychosis-a-systematic-review/0E3509EA0A8E19293077C2645D643350">stigma and discrimination</a>, poor engagement with services, increased anxiety and suicidal thoughts, and poorer mental health.</p> <p>The process of posing a diagnosis, may treat an individual’s strengths or their vulnerabilities as abnormalities and pathologise them. </p> <p>For example, a young person’s vivid imagination and artistic drive – strengths that allow them to produce wonderful artwork – might be recast as a sign of illness. Or their experience of growing up in poverty and disadvantage, could be seen as the cause of their mental illness, rather than environmental factors that may have merely contributed to it.</p> <p>As such, clinicians should seek to understand a person’s difficulties through a holistic, humanistic and psychological perspective, prior to giving them a label.</p> <h2>New terms, changing approaches</h2> <p>In the past decade, there have been efforts to <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00478-8/fulltext">improve naming of psychiatric disorders</a>. Attempts to update psychiatric terms and make them more culturally appropriate and less stigmatising have resulted in renaming schizophrenia in several countries. </p> <p>Proposed terms such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-7893.2010.00203.x">Si Jue Shi Tiao</a> (thought and perceptual dysregulation) in Hong Kong, and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(13)61776-6.pdf">Johyenonbyung</a> (attunement disorder) in South Korea, have been suggested as alternatives that carry less stigma and allow a more positive view of psychiatry. </p> <p>These new terms, however, were generated by experts in the field. Consumers and clients within the mental health system have rarely been consulted, until now.</p> <h2>Thoughts from those ‘at risk’</h2> <p>Currently, “ultra-high risk (for psychosis)”, “at-risk mental state” and “attenuated psychosis syndrome” are used to describe young people at elevated risk of developing psychosis. But these labels can be stigmatising and damaging for the young people who receive them. </p> <p>At Orygen, new, less stigmatising ways to describe the “risk for psychosis” concept <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092099642100356X">were co-developed</a> with young people with lived experience of mental ill-health.</p> <p>During focus groups, former patients were asked how they would like their experiences to be termed if they were believed to be at risk for developing a mental illness.</p> <p>This discussion resulted in them generating new terms such as “pre-diagnosis stage”, “potential for developing a mental illness” and “disposition for developing a mental illness”.</p> <p>The terms were then presented to three groups: 46 young people identified as being at risk for psychosis and currently receiving care; 24 of their caregivers; and 52 clinicians caring for young people.</p> <p>Most thought these new terms were less stigmatising than the current ones. The new terms were still judged as informative and illustrative of young people’s experiences. </p> <p>Patients also told us they wanted terms like these to be fully disclosed and raised early in their care. This revealed a desire of transparency when dealing with mental ill-health and clinicians.</p> <h2>Names have power</h2> <p>Labels can, and should, be revisited when stigma becomes associated with them. </p> <p>Co-designing new diagnostic labels with patients, their carers and clinicians is empowering for all involved. Several similar projects are underway in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920996420301572">Italy</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pcn.12423">Japan</a> to include a cultural perspective in renaming terms related to young people at risk of developing serious mental ill health. </p> <p>We hope to integrate and use more terms generated by young people in mainstream early intervention psychiatric services. We hope this will have a meaningful impact on young people’s mental health by allowing better access to care and less stigmatisation.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/labels-like-psycho-or-schizo-can-hurt-weve-workshopped-alternative-clinical-terms-179756" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Mind

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Life’s stages are changing – we need new terms and new ideas to describe how adults develop and grow

<p>What image comes to mind when you think of a person in their 20s?</p> <p>Do you imagine an adult stressed out by the weight of many new responsibilities in family and work roles?</p> <p>Or do you envision someone who is bursting with hope and undeveloped potential, still more of a kid than an adult, struggling to define a life and making little or no money but managing to find occasional joy nevertheless? Perhaps your soundtrack here is <a href="https://youtu.be/AgFeZr5ptV8">Taylor Swift’s radiant “22”</a>: “We’re happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time. It’s miserable and magical.”</p> <p>How about when you think of someone in their 60s?</p> <p>Do you envision someone – or maybe a happy couple – enjoying life, living well, still vigorous but now freer than before from daily work and family duties?</p> <p>Or do you see someone who is stooped over from a lifetime of carrying burdens, their health diminished, now shuffling toward no particular destination? Here the soundtrack might be the doleful Beatles song “<a href="https://youtu.be/ckV2ogbt8W4">When I’m 64</a>”: “Will you still need me? Will you still feed me? When I’m 64?”</p> <p>The whole arc of adult development has changed over the past several decades, in ways that our psychological theories are still catching up with. In the 21st century, does it still make sense to refer to “young adulthood,” “midlife” and “late adulthood,” as psychologists have been doing for so long? If not, what are more accurate concepts?</p> <p>Most of my career <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8bvGDaYAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=sra">as a developmental psychologist</a> has been devoted to answering these questions. My theory of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10842426/">emerging adulthood</a> recognizes that the lives of younger adults have changed vastly since the 1960s. As the father of 22-year-old twins, I’m keenly aware of their journey through the new life stage I have been researching and writing about for so long. As a 64-year-old, I’m also turning my attention to how the 60s have changed from what they used to be.</p> <h2>A longer-than-ever journey to adulthood</h2> <p>In my research over the past two decades, I’ve found that people ages 19 to 29 are neither fully adult nor in an “extended adolescence” – as this time of life was viewed over the course of the 20th century. In the early 21st century, these years had become a time of gradually and often erratically making one’s way toward <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Emerging-Adulthood-Winding-Through-Twenties/dp/0199929386/ref=sr_1_2?crid=KJSM1BSQUMBJ&amp;keywords=jeffrey+jensen+arnett&amp;qid=1637252495&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=Jeffrey+Jensen%2Caps%2C175&amp;sr=1-2">a more established adulthood</a>.</p> <p>I invited scholars from all over the world to contribute to a special issue of American Psychologist, one of the top journals in psychology, on the theme of <a href="https://doi.apa.org/fulltext/2020-29966-001.html">“Rethinking Adult Development: New Ideas for New Times.”</a> The recently published results are a wonderfully diverse set of papers that go a long way toward reconceptualizing what adult development looks like now and where it might be going.</p> <p>Most of the authors were developmental psychologists. About half were Americans and half were Europeans, although <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474435/">Shinobu Kitayama and his colleagues</a> offered a refreshingly different Asian cultural perspective.</p> <p>Here are some of the highlights:</p> <p>– Ages 30 to 45 are now “the rush hour of life.” Today people around the world wait later than ever to marry and have kids, and most have only one or two. But then couples typically have the dual challenge of trying to move ahead in their careers while also handling the intense responsibilities of caring for young children. Women have vastly greater opportunities in education and work than they did in 1960, which is welcome but also presents new challenges and stresses.</p> <p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000600">their contribution</a> to the special issue, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Famp0000600">Clare Mehta and her colleagues</a> propose the term “established adulthood” to distinguish these years as the most intense and demanding years of adult life, characterized by the “career-and-care-crunch,” when obligations are high in both work and family roles.</p> <p>– In midlife – ages 45-60 – the crunch years of caring for young children abate. Adults reach their peak career earnings and status in their late 40s and 50s. But life can become complicated, as new responsibilities may arise with grandchildren and with aging parents who need more assistance.</p> <p>Overall, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000591">Frank Infurna and colleagues detail</a> in their contribution, mental health declines in midlife. Reports of depression and anxiety increase. Seeking professional help for mental health issues reaches a lifetime peak.</p> <p>Furthermore, midlife well-being, health and life expectancy have declined notably in the U.S. since 2000, especially among working-class adults who have been left behind by the information-and-technology economy. This has led to an epidemic of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism">“deaths of despair”</a> from suicide, opioid overdoses or alchoholism.</p> <p>– Adults in later life, ages 60-75, are thriving like never before. Although life after age 60 is traditionally regarded as a time of inevitable decline, the reality of it has become sharply different –and better – in recent decades.</p> <p>Life expectancy at birth is higher now than it has ever been, worldwide, and adults are smarter and healthier for longer than ever. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000596">Denis Gerstorf and his colleagues</a> show how these positive trends have taken place across many countries over the past century because of improvements in education, nutrition and health care.</p> <p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p> <p>Physical health issues do arise with age for most people, but more people than ever before stay healthy through their 60s and early 70s by maintaining healthy diet and physical exercise practices. One of the exciting recent findings highlighted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000612">in Ursula Staudinger’s article</a> is that regular exercise promotes mental health as well as physical well-being, helping to maintain mental sharpness and prevent Alzheimer’s disease.</p> <p>Life satisfaction also seems to rise in later life, as we gain a new freedom to choose the kind of work we do – or stop working altogether and spend more time with the people we care about most. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000615">According to Phillip Ackerman and Ruth Kanfer</a>, more people are working into their late 60s and early 70s than ever before, but they have more freedom to choose how they do it, whether it’s working part time, starting a small business or trying something they have always wanted to do.</p> <h2>Adulthood’s new arc requires new concepts and ideas</h2> <p>Over my decades of writing about emerging adulthood, I’ve learned that it matters how people think about the stages of human development. Thinking shapes expectations and how experiences are interpreted. Lots of compelling and exciting new findings about adult development point to the importance of rethinking previous theories, assumptions and stereotypes about the course of adult life.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171478/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jeffrey-arnett-1160487">Jeffrey Arnett</a>, Senior Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/clark-university-2129">Clark University</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lifes-stages-are-changing-we-need-new-terms-and-new-ideas-to-describe-how-adults-develop-and-grow-171478">original article</a>.</p> <p><em>Image: Hinterhaus Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images</em></p>

Retirement Life

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Prince Harry says ‘Megxit’ is a misogynistic term

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Appearing on a panel on Tuesday, Prince Harry described the term ‘Megxit’, used by the British press to refer to his and Meghan’s decision to quit their royal duties, as misogynistic, as well as an example of online and media hatred.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Duke of Sussex was appearing on a panel hosted by WIRED Magazine called ‘The Internet Lie Machine’, and said about the popularly-used term, "Maybe people know this and maybe they don't, but the term Megxit was or is a misogynistic term, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media. But it began with a troll.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Harry and Meghan moved to California last year after quitting their royal duties in order to lead a more independent life away from the scrutiny of the British press. Harry has previously said that the racist treatment of Meghan by the tabloids was part of the reason for their move.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trolls are responsible for much of the online hatred directed at the couple; a study released in October by Bot Sentinel identified 83 accounts on Twitter that were responsible for 70 percent of the hateful content and misinformation aimed at Meghan and Harry. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Referring to the study during his panel appearance, Harry said that, "perhaps the most disturbing part of this was the number of British journalists who were interacting with them and amplifying the lies. But they regurgitate these lies as truth." </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Harry and Meghan have since started campaigning against negativity on social media that they say affects people’s mental health.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Harry also talked about misinformation, calling it a “global humanitarian crisis”. Referring to the media treatment of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi, Harry said, "I know the story all too well. I lost my mother to this self-manufactured rabidness, and obviously I'm determined not to lose the mother to my children to the same thing."</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Taylor Hill/WireImage</span></em></p>

Technology

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Pre-term babies less likely to form relations

<p><span style="font-size: 14px;">Premature babies are less likely to form romantic relationships, have sexual relations or experience parenthood as adults than those who go full term, new research shows.</span></p> <div class="copy"> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s likely due, at least in part, to pre-term birth being associated with being more often withdrawn and shy, socially excluded and less willing to take risks in adolescence, says a team from the UK’s University of Warwick. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">As such, they add, more needs to be done in schools and by parents to encourage social interactions when young.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their meta-analysis of data from up to 4.4 million adult participants shows that those born preterm (before 37 weeks’ gestations) are 28% less likely to be in a romantic relationship, 22% less likely to become parents, and 2.3 times less likely to ever have a sexual partner.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The situation appears even worse for those born very (&lt;32 weeks) or extremely preterm (&lt;28 weeks). Those in the latter category are 3.2 times less likely to ever having sexual relations, for example.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the upside, the meta-analysis suggests the where adults born pre-terms do have friends or partners, the quality of those relationships is at least as good as for full-term adults.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The finding that adults who were born pre-term are less likely to have a partner, to have sex and become parents does not appear to be explained by a higher rate of disability,” says lead researcher Marina Goulart de Mendonça, from Warwick’s Department of Psychology. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Rather pre-term born children have been previously found to have poorer social interactions in childhood that make it harder for them to master social transitions such as finding a partner, which in turn is proven to boost your wellbeing.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The study’s <a rel="noopener" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6961" target="_blank">findings</a> are published in the journal <em>JAMA Network Open</em>. </span></p> <!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --> <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=25931&amp;title=Pre-term+babies+less+likely+to+form+relations" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> <!-- End of tracking content syndication --></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/pre-term-babies-less-likely-to-later-form-relationships/" target="_blank">This article</a> was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/nick-carne" target="_blank">Nick Carne</a>. Nick Carne is the editor of Cosmos Online and editorial manager for The Royal Institution of Australia.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> </div>

Relationships

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Julianne Moore calls for “sexist” term to be scrapped

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Actress Julianne Moore is questioning how women are viewed and talked about as they age, calling for one particular term to be dropped completely.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Moore, who turned 60 in December, criticised those who use the phrase “ageing gracefully” in the latest issue of </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">As If</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> magazine, according to </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">People</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ03jz0DeEw/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ03jz0DeEw/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Julianne Moore (@juliannemoore)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">he described the term, especially when used while speaking about women, as “totally sexist”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There’s so much judgement inherent in the term ‘ageing gracefully’,” Moore told the publication.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Is there an ungraceful way to age? We don’t have an option of course. No one has an option about ageing, so it’s not a positive or negative thing, it just is,” she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Moore questioned the perception that women in particular had some kind of influence over, so they could opt in or out of doing it “gracefully”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s part of the human condition, so why are we always talking about it as if it is something that we have control over?” she asked.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stressing the value of “inner growth”, Moore argued that people should be more concerned with how they continue to evolve as they age instead.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are given a narrative as children that we keep growing through school, maybe go to college then, after school is finished, the idea of growth is done … But we have all this life left to live,” she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“How do we continue to challenge ourselves, to interest ourselves, learn new things, be more helpful to other people, be the person that your friends and family need or want? How do we continue to evolve? How do we navigate life to have even deeper experiences?”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Moore also endorsed a comment Helen Mirren made last year during an interview for O, The Oprah Magazine, where she hit back against the phrase “anti-ageing”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Ageing is a requirement of life: You either grow old or die young,” Mirren said during the interview.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I take great issue with the term, actually. You can’t avoid ageing. The way I see it, you have two choices in life: You can either get older, or die,” the 75-year-old said at the time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“And I want to continue to see what life has in store. I think about Kurt Cobain and all that he missed. I mean, how sad is it that he never knew about GPS.”</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Julianne Moore / Instagram</span></em></p>

Legal

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More unforeseen long-term effects of COVID-19 revealed

<p>Almost a year into the global pandemic, doctors and scientists are still coming to terms with a concerning phenomenon.</p> <p>It's not a mutant strain or a side effect of the vaccine, but the aftermath of the disease that is crippling those diagnosed.</p> <p>Weeks after they were expected to recover from the virus, many are suffering from complications caused by COVID-19, which is affecting their entire body, from severe fatigue to memory lapses to digestive problems, erratic heart rates, fluctuating blood pressure and hair loss.</p> <p>Many of those who are suffering from the after-effects had minimal symptoms when originally diagnosed and doctors assumed recovery would take about two weeks.</p> <p>And then there are the “long haulers”, suffering a condition experts have deemed “post-acute COVID” or “chronic COVID”.</p> <p>“Usually, the patients with bad disease are most likely to have persistent symptoms, but COVID doesn’t work like that,” Oxford University professor of primary care, Trisha Greenhalgh, told<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-begin-to-crack-covids-mysterious-long-term-effects-11604252961" target="_blank"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em></a>.</p> <p>The lead author of an August BMJ study, Professor Greenhalgh was one of the first to define chronic COVID-19 patients as those whose symptoms span multiple organ systems and last over 12 weeks.</p> <p>“The disease itself is not that bad” for them, she explained, yet cognitive issues and heart problems sometimes persist for months.</p> <p>While other outbreaks such as the Spanish flu and ebola have had long-term symptoms, what makes COVID-19 different is that it doesn't just impact the lungs, but the heart, kidneys, nervous and digestive systems.</p> <p>“I haven’t really seen any other illness that affects so many different organ systems in as many different ways as COVID does,” medical director for Mount Sinai Health System’s Centre for Post-COVID Care in New York, Zijian Chen, told the<span> </span><em>WSJ</em>.</p> <p>“We thought it was a virus that, once it does what it does, you recover and you go back to normal.”</p> <p>Turns out, that isn't the case, he added it "is really scary".</p> <p>One explanation for what’s causing the virus’ second act is that inflammation continues to affect organs or the nervous system even after it’s gone, researchers said.</p> <p>“Even those who had no symptoms and were young and fit … even in those patients we saw abnormalities,” director of the University Hospital Frankfurt’s Institute for Experimental and Translational Cardiovascular Imaging, Eike Nagel, said.</p> <p>“You don’t realise how lucky you are with your health until you don’t have it,” 43-year-old lawyer, Elizabeth Moore, told the publication. Since contracting COVID-19 last March, she has struggled with memory problems and gastrointestinal issues, losing almost 14kg.</p> <p>At the end of April, “I thought I beat this thing. I was ecstatic,” she said. But after testing positive for coronavirus antibodies in May, Ms Moore said her health took a sharp turn for the worse, leading to tachycardia (racing heartbeat) and fluctuations in her blood pressure.</p> <p>While those symptoms have improved, the mother-of-three is still dealing with the gastrointestinal problems and a recent test found her stomach lining is inflamed.</p> <p>“I feel like there has to be some sort of next step,” she told the<span> </span><em>WSJ</em>. “Because I’m not ready to accept this as my new reality.”</p>

Body

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Outrage as millennials have shocking new term for coronavirus

<p>Millennials have created a new hashtag for coronavirus that has caused a lot of anger with the older generation.</p> <p>The younger generation has attached the hashtag “boomer remover” to coronavirus posts on Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitter during the coronavirus pandemic.</p> <p>As the pandemic has killed more than 30,000 people worldwide so far, these posts have been met with outrage.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">So young kids are hoping their parents and grandparents die? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoomerRemover?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoomerRemover</a> <br />Is that so they can finally move out of the basement and upstairs?</p> — That Girl (@whoulooknat) <a href="https://twitter.com/whoulooknat/status/1238433449364594694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2020</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">God Answers Many with Coronavirus <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronapartys?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronapartys</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoomerRemover?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoomerRemover</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a> <a href="https://t.co/g6D3zyGdNN">pic.twitter.com/g6D3zyGdNN</a></p> — cdnpolitoon (@cdnpolitoon) <a href="https://twitter.com/cdnpolitoon/status/1242455970241851393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Again, it really is the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoomerRemover?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoomerRemover</a> <a href="https://t.co/lZcDB4Dm8M">https://t.co/lZcDB4Dm8M</a></p> — Matt Maggio (@MaggioMatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaggioMatt/status/1241879743898750976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2020</a></blockquote> <p>Many people have been prompted to say it was a joke after being met with anger.</p> <p>However, others have said it’s not the time for black humour.</p> <p>“Your sense of humour is considerably in question. The mother of a friend of mine (she is 79) died last week. Screw your joke,” <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/StewartCBryson2" target="_blank">Stewart C Bryson replied on Twitter</a>.</p> <p>“Genuine question ... would you still think it was funny though if it was actually your parents or grandparents who died in this way?”, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/rebecca_voices" target="_blank">Rebecca Courtney wrote on Twitter</a>.</p> <p>Experts have said that the popularity of the meme is only going to “further divide us”.</p> <p>“It’s only going to further divide us,” said Cort Rudolph, 35, who submitted a paper this week on how the virus could shape today’s young people as they come of age.</p> <p>“I think what you need to refocus the attention on is that this is not an older versus a younger thing, but this is an issue for everyone. We all have a certain responsibility to each other and not just to our generational group,” he said to<span> </span><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-21/covid-19-divides-u-s-society-by-race-class-and-age" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>.</em></p>

News

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How to achieve long-term weight-loss success

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, you’ve adapted your diet. You’ve started to implement the right kind of exercise. What’s left? Essential changes to your environment and your daily habits, which could mean the difference between success and a slimmer you, or a return to the couch potato life you’re trying to escape!</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the latest scientific studies out there, here are the changes you can easily make today.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 1. Declutter your kitchen.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Snack foods lying around can be a major culprit in weight gain, say researchers from Cornell University, tapping into the mindless eating habit many of us have. The study suggests rearranging cupboards, pantries and the fridge so the first foods you see are healthy ones, making tempting foods invisible and inconvenient to get to, and serving dinner straight from the pot on the stove or counter, rather than having food on the table. All of these strategies can help whittle your waistline.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 2. Get more sleep.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Feeling tired all the time? It could be affecting your weight. A recent study in the scientific journal Sleep linked sleep deprivation with obesity – and experts believe a lack of sleep can affect hormones which control appetite. Which means the more tired you are, the more likely you are to reach for a doughnut (or two) – in fact, another study published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that calorie intake following a bad night’s sleep could be as much as 20 per cent higher. Tips for better sleep include getting your shut-eye in a cool, dark room, keeping technology out of the bedroom, having a wind-down time before bed (without devices/screens), avoiding caffeine close to bedtime and avoiding sleeping in to ‘catch up’ on your sleep debt. You’re better off waking up at the same time every day.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 3. Get your hormones checked.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Do you suffer unusual levels of fatigue, intolerance to cold, constipation and dry skin? Have trouble losing weight? It might be worth seeing if you have a hormone imbalance. Post 50, the slowdown of the thyroid and its knock-on effects (a decrease in metabolism) can hamper even the best weight loss efforts, say experts.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 4. Get a health-care team on speed dial.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’re in pain with a sore knee or aching back, the last thing you want to do is work out – right? Well, before you undo all your good work, get yourself to a good osteopath, physio or some other type of physical therapist who can help rehabilitate you or treat new injuries so you can get back to the gym as soon as possible.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 5. Treat your stress levels.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s scary but true: chronic stress does nothing for your spare tyre. Studies show when you’re stressed and overwhelmed, the ‘stress hormone’, cortisol, rises – leading to cravings for more sugary, fatty foods. And they’re going to pitch a tent right where you don’t want them – on your tummy. What can you do? Tackle the stress with mindfulness, meditation, yoga and other forms of relaxation. Make changes in your life where you can to lower stress levels on an ongoing basis.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 6. Make sure you have the right levels of calcium and vitamin D.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As we saw in Part One of our series, now you’re over 50 you need to bump up those calcium levels. And, you also need to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin D – possibly via a supplement. Research shows the two work in tandem and can contribute to a reduction in belly fat.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 7. Test your body fat.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can’t afford to lose muscle or bone mass when you’re over 50, so if you want to know you’re heading in the right direction (ie, losing fat only), book in for a DXA scan, buy a scale which measures weight and body fat (be aware these can vary in accuracy), or do it on the cheap: tracking body changes with a tape measure and how your clothes fit is probably one of the best indicators around.</span></p> <p><strong>Rule 8. Enlist a weight loss buddy.</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Social support can make the difference between keeping weight off – or regaining what you’ve lost, say researchers. In one study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Study, participants who started a weight loss program with friends enjoyed greater weight loss and found it easier to maintain their weight going forward. Maybe this is partly because you know your friend is relying on you to show up, and you don’t want to let them down.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Written by Rachel Smith. Republished with permission of </span><a href="https://www.wyza.com.au/articles/health/how-to-achieve-long-term-weight-loss-success.aspx"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wyza.com.au.</span></a></em></p>

Beauty & Style