Category: Articles

  • “Emerging Adulthood”

    What is it About 20-Somethings? asks the NYT. We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent…

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  • For Friendship

    An essay from the Wilson Quarterly (via aldaily.com): [W]e live now in a climate in which friends appear dispensable. While most of us wouldn’t last long outside the intricate web of interdependence that supplies all our physical needs—imagine no electricity, money, or sewers—we’ve come to demand of ourselves truly radical levels of emotional self-sufficiency…

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  • Life, Unplugged

    NYT’s Unplugged Challenge–series of articles and video from participants.  The latest article profiles research into how plugged-in life affects attention: Echoing other researchers, Mr. Strayer says that understanding how attention works could help in the treatment of a host of maladies, like attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia and depression. And he says that on a day-to-day basis, too much…

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  • The Fragility of Memory

    Set aside some time if you want to take in this massive Slate article.  Lots of embedded video, including this, the Skinner Box at work: UPDATE: The Slate article seems to have disappeared.  Here’s a Wiki page about the Skinner Box instead.

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  • The Psychology of Power

    Jonah Lehrer looks at the “paradox of power” in the WSJ. Contrary to the Machiavellian cliché, nice people are more likely to rise to power. Then something strange happens: Authority atrophies the very talents that got them there.

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