​https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-of-self/202404/is-mental-flexibility-the-key-to-mental-health
From Psychology Today.  Last paragraph quoted below.

1. When you find yourself caught up in your thoughts, switch your attention away. Stare out at the sky, focus on your breath, or talk with a friend. Every time you disrupt your inner monologue, you weaken it.
2. Prioritize activities you find naturally interesting. What activities easily capture your attention? The more you stay in an attentive, focused, CEN state, the stronger those networks become.
3. If you have a consistent, negative thought or belief, pressure-test it. Look for examples that prove the belief wrong. You may need to do this exercise with a trusted friend or therapist, who may see things more objectively than you can. For example, if you beat yourself up for having a messy house, a friend may come in and say, "Yes, but look at all the things you are doing. You are doing great at work, taking care of the kids, checking on your parents, etc. The one thing to fall by the wayside is the cleanliness of your home. That is good prioritization—not an inherent fault in you." Whereas the DMN makes every last thing the end-all-and-be-all, this exercise can contextualize the thought and loosen its strength.

To protect your mental health, exercise your mental flexibility. As you make your thoughts and attention more flexible, it can protect you from depression, anxiety, and believing things that just aren't true."

Digital Age Gate (from NYTimes)Like millions of other teenagers, Jack Merrill, an 18-year-old living outside of Chicago, regularly uses the online game platform Roblox. So when it rolled out a new feature — voice chatting with other users — he wanted to try it. But first, he had to pull out his driver’s license.
Jack had to pass through what’s called an age gate, an identity check that is becoming increasingly common online. Roblox wanted to verify that he was at least 13 before he could voice chat. The game asked for government identification to confirm his age, and a selfie to ensure that the ID was his.
These checks are popping up across the internet, as part of a global push to protect children’s safety. At least two dozen states have proposed or passed website age restrictions, many of which are focused on limiting access to pornography. Countries like Britain, Italy and Japan have passed similar laws. As of this month, seven states have passed laws requiring age checks for users on websites like Pornhub. Companies are also limiting children’s access to dating apps, gaming platforms and online shopping.
Social media is the next major target: Last week, France passed a law that will require social media platforms to verify the ages of their users and get parental consent for children under 15. Lawmakers in Congress have introduced a bill to create a minimum age for social media use, too.
But instead of only carding children who appear to be underage, age checks can ask every user to present their ID. Lawmakers in favor of the restrictions say it’s the necessary cost of creating a safer internet, but civil liberties advocates are concerned about the effects of age checks on privacy and internet freedom.
The case for age checksLawmakers tried for decades to shield children from content they thought was harmful. They encouraged ID checks for R-rated movies and forced websites like MySpace and Facebook to ask that users self-report their ages. Those checks were rudimentary: With a click and a white lie, anyone could pass.
The latest attempt to restrict access to the internet is different in two ways.
First, the technology has changed. Websites can accurately discern the ages of users using digital copies of driver’s licenses or passport scans, options that weren’t available to use broadly even a few years ago.
Second, public opinion has shifted. Children are experiencing a national mental health crisis, and a majority of parents say it is their top parental concern coming out of the pandemic. They’re particularly worried about social media, which the U.S. surgeon general recently warned poses a health risk to children.
Those mental health concerns have prompted the latest wave of age restriction proposals, including laws that have passed in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Many lawmakers say that the internet should be treated as a controlled substance, like cigarettes or alcohol.
“We have agreed as a society not to let a 15-year-old go to a bar or a strip club,” Laurie Schlegel, the Republican state representative behind the Louisiana age-verification law, told my colleague Natasha Singer. “The same protections should be in place online so that you know a 10-year-old is not looking at hard-core pornography.”
The case againstMost companies using age checks assure users that their data won’t be saved. But privacy activists say that many companies and governments, which are already susceptible to data breaches, aren’t prepared to check ages without incidentally saving or revealing intimate information about users’ internet behavior — what they’re watching, who they’re talking to or what they’re buying.
The activists say that age checks are part of a slow creep toward a world where companies, and even democratic governments, have a near-total view into people’s lives. This is already the case in China, where the government uses widespread surveillance to track its citizens and limit dissent. China has cited the protection of children as a reason to restrict speech online.
“Surveillance is very much tied to authoritarianism,” said Carissa Véliz, author of the book “Privacy is Power.” “We’re really testing the limits of democracy.”
Age checks don’t always work, privacy activists argue, pointing to potential loopholes such as virtual private networks. Children can also ask someone older to help them create an account, or attempt to use fake identification. The age gates are also a barrier to the internet for some adults, who can’t get them to work, or lack identification.
The patchwork of different forms of access is creating different versions of the internet for every American, where their rights and abilities to access information vary depending on their age and where they live.
More on tech

• Parents are worried that video games and social media spike their children’s dopamine levels, a brain chemical connected to addiction. But the science is mixed.
• Can A.I. beat the problem-solving ability of the best mathematicians? Some think it will soon.
• The next generation of chatbots doesn’t have many of the guardrails put in place by companies like Google and OpenAI.

     Orgone therapy technique influences the autonomic nervous system of which the vagus is a key branch. The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve, cranial nerve X, or CN X, 'is a cranial nerve that carries sensory fibers and interfaces with the parasympathetic control of the heart, lungs, and digestive tract.'  
      The vagotonic fibers, which run from the brain to the abdomen, have been found to reduce anxiety, regulating the nervous system and helping the body to relax. Vagus nerve stimulation techniques can potentially help improve mood and alleviate symptoms of treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other ailments. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/well/mind/vagus-nerve-mental-health.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR3lrc8p3MGK1K6us6-_C3wio_5yVxx4vZ3uaeLYayQ_QWp0Gy-cMK4XisE

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/01/well/live/how-to-make-friends-adult.html
​

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/style/tiny-modern-love-stories-conversation-is-great-foreplay.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd1NvOaPAaoFeelChicago
So everybody's pulling you in all directions
You don't know how much longer to take it
So you've learned how to fake it
That smile on the outside's fading fast
Like the things that you thought for sure would last
But they didn't
You know something's missing
Is it your life you're not living?
Your heart is cold, your soul is numb
You don't like who you've become
You played the game and paid the cost for long enough
So grab the reins, yeah, take the wheel
Lose what's not and keep what's real
It's not too late,
Just close your eyes and feel, feel
You can't tell if you're happy or sad
Can't tell the good from bad
It's senseless
To waste your senses
Maybe stop thinking with your head
Start using your heart instead
Just try it
You just might like it
Aren't you dying to…

​https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/world/europe/youth-mental-health-covid.html

​https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-normal/202009/depression-and-pandemic-fatigue