Why spring feels more important than ever in 2021
I have been playing a video game called "Animal Crossing: New Horizon" nearly every day over the course of the pandemic. The popular game, in which your character lives on a remote island paradise, has been a balm to many during the pandemic, including me. It's a peaceful little world you can control, where the most stressful thing that can happen is getting stung by a wasp.
The game runs in real time, with seasonal celebrations and weather. During much of December, January and February, snow covered my little island. But now that it's March the game has burst into spring, with green grass and sunny skies.
As I type this, it's around 27 degrees in Philadelphia. But even if it's not quite spring in real life yet, seeing the brightness of it on a video game has me yearning for the season to change. Spring represents a new beginning, and I can't think of a time when we've needed a new beginning more. We are in a strange limbo as life-saving vaccines are distributed, but slowly. Like spring, post-pandemic life is out there, we just can't quite see it yet.
So for now I'll play my game and keep hoping and waiting. I know spring, and relief from COVID-19, is coming.
Today's social media advice: Take a break!
I love social media as much as the next millennial, but sometimes I realize that constantly scrolling through Twitter and Instagram isn't good for me. And I'm not alone.
While social media has its benefits – such as building networks and maintaining contact with others – too much time on these platforms is linked to depression, anxiety and stress, explains Dr. Shahla Modir, chief medical officer at All Points North Lodge, an addiction treatment center.
Modir says some people can develop an unhealthy relationship with social media platforms and start to internalize "likes" by creating a connection between online responses and their self-esteem.
Digital wellness expert Mark Ostach says he encourages people to "think about the micro-levels of digital trauma that exist when you quickly check your social media in between a conversation or right before you go to bed," including digesting things like politically polarizing headlines or traumatic posts about a friend's health. "It happens in a moment’s notice, and I believe it’s causing some low levels of trauma to what we think and how we feel.”
My colleague Sara Moniuszko spoke with experts about the issue, and she wrote about the six signs that you might need to take a little Facebook vacation. Here are a few:
If you're compulsively checking your phone: Modir says a warning sign is checking your "notifications and messages every hour in a way that affects your engagements, occupation or social relationships.'Likes' can be very addictive, causing a dopamine hit to the brain of feel-good chemicals that reinforce like-seeking behavior and compulsive checking."
If your real-life interactions are suffering: Modir says this could come in the form of "decreased social interaction with friends and family in favor of social media engagement" or people in your life have "complained about your social media usage interfering with social interaction." Ostach says another indicator is if your interactions start to rely on social media, including finding yourself “recycling news headlines in your conversations.”
If you feel increasingly anxious, depressed or lonely using social media: "Social media can trigger competitive feelings, which cause anxiety in the user, leaving them to feel like they need to keep up to meet the social expectations of the people they follow, which may be unrealistic and based in fantasy," Modir says.
You can read Sara's full story here. And if you need me this weekend, I'll be putting down my phone.
Today's reads
More TV recs for you! Here are the TV shows I'm most excited about this spring, including the adaptation of one of my favorite book series.
Want to get your COVID shot in style, a la Dolly Parton and her cold shoulder shirt? Here's what to wear to your vaccination appointment, according to our friends at Reviewed.com.
This observant flight attendant stopped a plane from departing with a dangerous icy wing, thank goodness.
Missed all the new songs that dropped Friday? Here's everything you need to know about new music from Bruno Mars, Drake, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas and and more.
Wellness reporter Alia E. Dastagir writes about how lessons of grief in "WandaVision" are exactly what our pandemic world needed. (Warning: spoilers ahead!)
Today's pet
This cat has it all figured out.
"This is Bubba in his favorite winter spot, soaking up the heat from the wood burning stove!" says Meredith Steers.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why spring feels more important than ever in 2021
