Content for Tuesday, August 3
One Third of Social Media Users Order Food Just to take Pictures
Over one in three people surveyed admit they’ve ordered food they didn’t actually eat so they could post a picture of it on social media. 40 percent admit to uploading images of food or beverages that they themselves did not consume. Another 19 percent confess that they never had any intention of eating the item in the first place. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said their desire to post better-looking food photos online has led to a change in their diet over the years. 57 percent of people will physically move or rearrange a dish to get the best photo angle. Six in 10 (59%) have stopped friends from digging in just to grab a photo of their order first or know someone who did the same thing to them. More than half the poll (53%) have been inspired to try a recipe after seeing it on their feed or timeline.
Back-To-School Anxiety? Quarter Of Parents Don’t Want Kids Riding School Bus During Pandemic
Over half of parents don’t feel prepared for the upcoming school year. Researchers surveyed 2,000 parents of school-aged children in the US. They found nearly seven in 10 parents are overwhelmed by the constant routine changes of the past year. And 51% say they don’t feel prepared for the upcoming school year.
People Reveal What It's Like To Be The "Less-Loved Sibling"
People took to the sharing app Whisper to reveal what it’s like not to be their parents’ favorite saying.... it basically “sucks”. One person wrote, “I’m the scapegoat and my sister is the favorite child who could never do any wrote.” One woman said their mom has taken several trips with her sister but she wants to cancel the trip scheduled with her and it “sucks” knowing her sister is the favorite. Another woman wrote that her mom calls her fat and lazy on a regular basis so it’s obvious her sister is the favorite. And another person wrote, “Why is my sister the favorite child. She’s an awful person and takes advantage of my parents every day.”
From Housework To Sex, Relationship Contracts Can Help Couples
Mandy Len Catron is the author of, "To Fall In Love, Sign On The Dotted Line." She has a solution for love maintenance: relationship contracts. She explains, "Every relationship is contractual, we're just making the terms more explicit." A relationship contract isn't a binding agreement. Rather, it's a tool for couples to express their needs and work together to craft the parameters of their own unique relationship roadmap: including anything and everything from health and housework, to sex and intimacy. "If you instead reframe it as an agreement or goal setting, then it's really just a way of saying ...'I'm invested in this relationship and this person. Therefore, I'm going to do my best to do it.' " The power of creating a contract is that it "steers couples away from those problematic, passive notions of romance and toward agency and thoughtfulness in our love lives". TIPS: Nothing should be off-limits. You and your partner can decide what should be addressed and how often to revisit your contract. Think both big and small: from how you expect day-to-day life to go as well as bigger questions like how you define intimacy, or your personal and professional goals. Write it all down: It's important to take the time to put your thoughts and feelings onto paper because it allows you to come back to it. A contract also provides a "built-in occasion" to sit down with your partner and talk about what is and isn't working, without having to feel "like you're being nitpicky or you're nagging." It's a space for discussion and negotiation, as well as creativity. A relationship contract isn't going to solve all your problems. "There's not always going to be a perfect middle ground" for every topic on your list, and you'll probably find some areas more uncomfortable to talk about than others.
Apple Removes Anti-Vaxx Dating App ‘Unjected’ from the App Store
Apple has removed Unjected, a dating app for unvaccinated people, from its App Store. The app's owners are calling the move ‘censorship’. According to Apple, the app violated their policies for COVID-19 content. Unjected previously had been rejected from the App Store, but Apple reinstated it after updates. Unjected launched in May as a dating app, but had recently rolled out additional features. One was a list of businesses that "respect our autonomy and promote freedom.” Apple's policies require COVID-19 health and safety information to come from recognized sources, including governments, "deeply credentialed" companies, and non-governmental organizations focused on health. Unjusted had been downloaded about 18,000 times.
Olympic Rules for Letting Transgender Women Compete will be Changed after Tokyo
The Olympic rules for allowing transgender athletes to participate in women's competitions will be changed after the Tokyo games. The Intentional Olympic Committee will roll out a new policy for participation of transgender women in Olympic sports. They said the current guidelines are not fit and should be adapted to catch-up with advancements in science and testing. A push towards each individual sport setting their own rules is one of the likely scenarios. The committee made the announcement after weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made history by becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics. The guidelines which allowed Hubbard to compete alongside women were established in 2015 by the IOC and adopted by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The current guidelines require a transgender woman to “undergo hormone therapy and suppress testosterone levels for at least 12 months prior to her first competition.'
(Am I The A--Hole...) "AITA For Asking My Wife To Lighten Up About Makeup?"
Reddit user u/StridentSnail askes: "AITA for asking my wife to lighten up about makeup?" My (32M) wife (29F) and I have been together for 5 years, married for just over 2. One issue that’s cropped up over our entire relationship is her refusal to ever wear makeup. I think she’s beautiful without it, but there have been times and occasions where it was expected/appropriate for her to wear makeup and she refused. "For example, she didn’t wear any makeup on our wedding day. Both of our mothers tried to convince her, but she said she’s never worn makeup and she wasn’t going to start on a day that she was supposed to enjoy. They tried to tell her the pictures wouldn’t come out as good, and honestly they were kind of right - she’s got huge bags under her eyes and I think the photos would’ve been nicer if she’d just put on concealer or something. "Now it’s come up again with my family - we were at a family dinner last night with my parents, sister and her husband, and my niece and nephew. My niece is 11 and has just started getting into makeup - she watches lots of YouTube tutorials and stuff like that. She asked my wife at dinner if she ever wore makeup and my wife said “no, I don’t bother with it.” "My niece asked why and she gave a little speech about makeup being a waste of money and that she’d feel like she was lying to herself if she wore it and that she was “happy with the face I have." ... "When we got home, I asked my wife if she would please be less militant about makeup. I said it wouldn’t kill her to wear it and I admit I did accuse her of being overbearing about her stance. "She basically said that she never started conversations about makeup but that it’s always other people bugging her to wear it and I said “maybe they have a point and you’re being hardline over something really stupid and you need to get over yourself” and she got upset and called me a di*k for thinking she needed makeup and then we had to go cool down separately. "AITA for thinking she’s being ridiculous about makeup and telling her to get over her aversion?" REPLIES INCLUDE: "It's such a disgusting double standard that women have to put on paint to make themselves more attractive to other people but guys can just roll out of bed and expect the world to accept them. "Until men start wearing makeup regularly and shaving their legs their opinion on whether or not a woman does it does not matter in the slightest." "It's ok to wear makeup if you like it. It's ok not to wear makeup if you don't want to. ..."What is *not* ok is to force people to do what they don't want (as long as they don't hurt anyone). And gendered social pressure has to die." "Or, and hear me out here, some people LIKE makeup, regardless of societies beauty standards?" "Liking make-up and having to use it because of society pressure are two different things and unfortunately, you need to wear make up as a woman if you want to succeed. There's been like literal studies on it..."
OLYMPICS: Simone Biles Coming Back To Compete In Beam Final
Simone Biles will be competing in today’s (Tuesday) balance beam final at the Olympic Games. Biles said she has been experiencing the "twisties" since the team finals last week. She withdrew from the competition following vault, the first event, and has not competed since… pulling out of the all-around competition and three event finals. In a series of posts to her Instagram story Friday, Biles said she was still experiencing the phenomenon, in which gymnasts feel like they get lost in the air and said her "mind and body are simply not in sync." But USA Gymnastics confirmed Biles would be participating in balance beam final.
Matt Damon Says He Never Used ‘F-Slur’, Stands With the 'LGBTQ+ Community’
Matt Damon says that he has never used the “f-slur” following backlash from a recent interview. In an article posted by the U.K.’s Sunday Times, the “Stillwater” actor was quoted saying he had stopped using the offensive term “months ago” when his daughter wrote him a “treatise” on “how that word is dangerous.” But in a statement to Variety, Damon said that he has never used the word in his “personal life” and does not “use slurs of any kind.” He adds that he understands why the interview “led many to assume the worst.” Damon said in his statement: “During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualize for her the progress that has been made – though by no means completed – since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word ‘f*g’ used on the street before I knew what it even referred to. I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003; she in turn expressed incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly. To my admiration and pride, she was extremely articulate about the extent to which that word would have been painful to someone in the LGBTQ+ community regardless of how culturally normalized it was. I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice. “I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind. I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself ‘one of the good guys’. And given that open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst. To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”
'Stranger Things' Director Promises Season 4 is Coming Soon
New episodes of Netflix's hit series "Stranger Things" are "coming soon enough." It's been more than two years since the last season's premiere on July 4, 2019. Director and executive producer, Shawn Levy said: ”The delay is due in large measure to COVID, but it also happens to be the season that we chose to go much bigger.” The cast and crew had already started filming the fourth season shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Production was shut down for a period of time before resuming last October with new safety guidelines in place. Regardless, fans will get an announcement about season four "quite soon”.