Research shows that isolation(隔绝，孤立)is bad for us and associated with certain diseases including depression, high blood pressure and heart disease. Yet teenagers seek isolation by using the device of our times—a screen, screens of all kinds. However, in whatever form, screens are addictive, and addictive from an early age. Research has shown that given the chance, six-month-old babies prefer screens to real human faces.

    Hand in hand with this addiction to screens, we are seeing an explosion of teenage mental health problems. Social media claims to be inclusive, keeping you connected. But it's not. It isolates you from real people. Screens have even been described as being poisonous for teenagers.

    Psychologist Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University, believes today's teenagers are “on the edge” of a major mental health crisis and requestes, “do anything that doesn't involve a screen”. The problem is, she claims, children born between 1995 and 2012 have grown up with a smart phone in their hands, and it has “changed every aspect” of their lives. The number of teenagers who actually see their friends frequently has dropped by more than 40% since 2000. In 2015, only 56% of 17-year-old went on a date, down from 85%. Modern teenagers are slower to learn to drive, or earn money and spend more time at home. They're “on their phone, in their room, alone and often depressed”, she says.

    Some critics, however, say we should encourage our children to spend more time online. Robert Hannigan, former director of GCHQ, said in August that Britain is badly short of engineers and computer scientists, and urged children to develop cyber skill to compete in the digital economy.

    I' m not the first to say that social media is inferior to real human contact, and harms mental health. Studies show teens who spend three hours a day online are 35% more likely to suicide(自杀).

    The suicide rate among girls aged 12 to 14 has more than doubled in a decade.

    Letters as a way of communication have long given way to phone calls and WeChat messages.

    But a TV show, Letters Alive, is helping bring this old way to keep in touch back into the present.

    Letters Alive took its idea from a UK program with a similar name, Letters Live, which was first shown in 2013. Both shows feature famous actors and actresses, but there is no gossip , no eye-catching visual effects or any regular showbiz (演艺圈) activities. Instead, it's just one person walking up to a microphone and reading a letter.

    But these are not just any letters. They are selected from a wide time span and a diverse range of subjects. There is, for example, a passionate letter that famous painter Huang Yongyu wrote to playwright Cao Yu 30 years ago to criticize his lack of creativity. There is also a heartfelt note from Spring and Autumn Period written by two ordinary young soldiers to their elder brother to report their lives in the war zone.

    Every letter is like a small piece of history. By hearing them being read, it's as if we are being sent back in time to experience a moment that we would otherwise never have had the chance to.

    “Letters Live makes us pause and imagine the lives behind the letters,” UK actor Benedict Cumberbatch, one of the readers on the UK show, told The Guardian. “It allows people from all ages and all walks of life to experience a moment of time in someone else's life for a brief moment.”

    Compared to published texts, letters also come with a personal touch.

    One example from Letters Live was a note of thanks from the mother of a dying child to JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. It read: “Mrs Rowling, Cancer threatened to take everything from my daughter, and your books turned out to be the castle we so desperately needed to hide in.”

    According to Guan Zhengwen, the director of Letters Alive, it is this kind of humanity behind every letter that strikes a chord (引发共鸣) with the audience. It is also what made the show a big hit in China ever since its first episode aired on Dec 5.

    “It's a thing of the past that entertainment shows establish themselves only with pretty faces,” Guan told Sohu News. “Showbiz is starting to switch to a focus on wisdom and intelligence.

    When my sister Mertie told me she had put out tomato plants last summer, I was quite impressed.

    Since she was a garden-beginner, Mertie researched exactly how far apart to space her tomato plants; what kind of fertilizer to use; how to keep away the bugs（害虫）, etc. Once they were planted, she took care of them daily, anxiously awaiting the juicy tomatoes to appear. But, day after day, her plants were tomato-less while all of her neighbors who had also put out tomato plants were already enjoying the fruit of their labor.

    Frustrated (upset), Mertie gave in and went to the market to search fresh tomatoes. While paying, Mertie told the farmer her troubles. The farmer paused to think for a moment and then asked, "Well, what kind of tomatoes did you plant?"

    "I think they were called Big Boy," Mertie remembered.

    "Well there's your problem," the farmer explained. "Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes have a 95-day growing period whereas regular tomato plants produce fruit in as few as 70 days…you just have to wait a little longer for the Big Boys."

    With that new knowledge, Mertie went home with excitement, knowing they would be worth the wait.

    Thinking about my sister's gardening experience, I had to smile. She just didn't know that Big Boy tomatoes took longer--neither did I--but once she discovered that information, she was no longer discouraged and upset about the lack of tomatoes on her plants. Instead, she was encouraged and excited to see them a few weeks later.

    It makes me wonder how many of us have "Big Boy" dreams in our hearts, yet we just don't realize that they are of the "Big Boy" variety so we are discouraged and worn out with the waiting process. Instead of waiting with excitement, we give up on our dreams and figure we must have done something wrong to stop them from coming to pass. Frustrated, we see other people's dreams coming true, and we wonder why ours haven't yet been achieved.

    Please Choose Cloud Services

    May be unsure, or you do not know where to begin. Trying every Cloud service would take a lot of time and work. But, the website Reviews.com might help.

    One valuable feature is the protection of digital files, including photos, videos, documents, music and more. If the worst happens and your computer crashes, or gets lost or damaged, your files can still found in the Cloud.

    Cloud services let you access your files from almost anywhere. No need to worry about a file stored on your computer when you are away from your desk. If you have an Internet connection, you can open your files from any computer, or from a phone, when they are stored using a Cloud service.

    Using a Cloud service makes sharing files easier. If you send documents to a group using emails, you may then wonder which version everyone is working with. When sharing files using a Cloud service, everyone will see the same document and the latest version.

    The first thing to consider is the amount of storage space you need. Check how much space you are currently using on your computer and mobile devices. If your computer or phone is filled with photos and you have little free space, you may want to move your photos to the Cloud. Some Cloud services are free. But, if you need a lot of space, you will probably need one that costs money.

    Even if everyone you have ever met is a Windows user, you still probably want a Cloud service that works with many platforms. You might become friends with an Android user or start a job with a company that computers on Apple!

    Most people who own iPhones use them as their alarm clocks―making it very easy to check emails one last time before falling asleep and hard to ever feel away from work and social networks.

    Several years ago, my boss fainted due to exhaustion after staying up late to catch up on work. She banged her head and ended up with five stitches (缝针) and became what she calls a "sleep evangelist (传教士)." Now she leaves her phone charging in another room when she goes to bed and encourages her friends to do the same.

    "I sent all my friends the same Christmas gift―a lovely alarm clock―so they could stop using the excuse that they needed their very attractive iPhones by their beds to wake them up in the morning." she said.

    If your phone wakes you up in the morning, it may also be keeping you up at night. A 2008 study showed that people exposed to mobile radiation took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in deep sleep. "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals, components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are severely affected," the study concluded.

    A quarter of young people feel like they must be available by phone around the clock, according to a Swedish study that linked heavy cellphone use to sleeping problems, stress and depression. Unreturned messages carry more guilt when the technology to deal with them lies at our fingertips. Some teens even return text messages at midnight.

    Most of us choose not to set limits on our nighttime availability. Nearly three quarters of people from the age of 18 to 44 sleep with their phones within reach, according to a 2012 Time poll. That number falls off slightly in middle age, but only people aged 65 and older are leaving the phone in another room as common as sleeping right next to it.

    We interviewed two people, one who went from the country to the city and one who did the opposite.

    Janet Lincoln is a salesgirl who moved to St. Louis five years ago. Here's what Janet told us:

    "Five years ago I used to live in a small town called Lemon Falls. I grew up and went to high school there. After I graduated I worked in a supermarket. Lemon Falls had a population of about 800 people, and I knew every single one of them. They all knew everything about me, too. You couldn't do anything without everyone in town knowing about it. The first chance I got I moved to St. Louis and I love it. I don't know as many people now as I used to, but that's OK.I have a few good friends, and I see them when I want to. I kind of like being anonymous. I'd never go back to Lemon Falls."

    Troy Henson had the opposite experience. He and his wife, Darla, and their two children moved from St. Louis to Bloomfield three years ago. Here's what Troy told us:

    "The best thing we ever did was get out of St. Louis. Don't get me wrong; St. Louis is as good a place as any other city, I suppose—if you like cities, that is. We don't. Both Darla and I grew up in St. Louis. We met at college and got married. Then the kids came along and life got difficult. We didn't know any of our neighbors. We both had good jobs, but it always seemed like there was never enough money. That all changed when we moved to Bloomfield. I don't make as much money as I used to, but then we don't have as many expenses as we did. We know our neighbors. Life is good. We'd never leave Bloomfield."