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Is Instagram bad for mental health? Experts weigh in on how to use the platform more effectively

We’ve been questioning the same thing for years: Is Instagram bad for mental health? Between the need for likes and a verified status—plus the picture-perfect influencers we hold on a pedestal—it’s next to impossible not to feel somewhat inadequate while doom scrolling.

Chris Barry.
Barry

“Attaching our self-worth to how we think we compare to others who post on social media is also problematic,” says Dr. Chris Barry, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Washington State University. “Instead, using social media to connect with others or to keep up with news or topics of interest seem to be more adaptive in terms of well-being.”

Instagram users of all ages have felt some type of anxiety at one point or another whilst using the app. The picture-perfect presentation with engagement reveals, vacation stories, and job updates can be enough to make someone crack. What’s meant to be a fun, accessible way to connect with people has turned into a grand competition that’s led to feelings of deficiency, jealousy, FOMO and so much more.

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My Imperfect Life

A California fisherman sails the choppy waters of climate change and drought

Along California’s economically distressed rural North Coast — where the future lies not in the fishing and logging jobs that once defined it but, increasingly, in tourism — climate change has forced those who live by the rod and the reel to consider their options.

For decades, many rural communities like Fort Bragg that once relied upon natural resource-based industries — like fishing, logging or mining — have tried to pivot to tourism, including plans to build a new marine science center on the site of the struggling lumber town’s last sawmill. It’s not an easy transition.

Jennifer Sherman.
Sherman

“The jobs that tourism brings, large proportions are service-industry jobs, are seasonal or part time, and don’t lift a family above the poverty line,” said Jennifer Sherman, an associate professor of sociology at Washington State University who focuses on rural communities.

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Yahoo News

We the People: The reasoning behind the Vietnam War was not as simple as stopping the spread of communism

Each week, The Spokesman-Review examines one question from the Naturalization Test immigrants must pass to become United States citizens.

Today’s question: Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?

Matthew Avery Sutton.
Sutton

“It was about communism, but it was also about capitalism,” said Matthew Sutton, a professor of modern U.S. history at Washington State University.

Sutton, chair of the Washington State University History Department and Berry Family Distinguished Professor in the Liberal Arts, said the roots of America’s involvement in Vietnam go back to the era of European colonialism.

Harry Truman was blamed as the president who “lost China,” Sutton said. None of his predecessors wanted to be labeled as the one who lost South Vietnam. Eisenhower sent advisers and assistance with the condition that the South Vietnamese government lived up to certain standards which it failed to meet.

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Yahoo!

A Message to the EU: Address the Spiralling Public Health Crisis by Banning Glyphosate

The herbicide glyphosate – the most widely used herbicide on the planet – is authorised for use in the EU until December 2022. The EU is currently assessing whether its licence should be renewed.

Washington State University (WSU) researchers have found a variety of diseases and other health problems in the second- and third-generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate. In the first study of its kind, the researchers saw descendants of exposed rats developing prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities.

Michael Skinner.
Skinner

Michael Skinner, a WSU professor of biological sciences, and his colleagues exposed pregnant rats to the herbicide between their eighth and 14th days of gestation. The dose – half the amount expected to show no adverse effect – produced no apparent ill effects on either the parents or the first generation of offspring.

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Counter Punch
Before It’s News

“Immaterial” exhibit showcases three artists diverse works

Io Palmer.
Palmer

The “Immaterial” exhibit, featuring works from Yvette Cummings, Mica Lilith Smith and Io Palmer, is on view at the McCormick Gallery at Midland College.

Each artist’s work differs in subject and appearance, but they express powerful and compelling ideas through physical material. The exhibition highlights physical substances from patterned fabric and paint to bobby pins and furniture as a way to look deeper into the immaterial realms of individual experience and cultural narrative, according to the press release.

Palmer is an associate professor of fine arts at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. Through depiction of cleaning products, laborers’ garments and various other industrial and domestic forms, Palmer’s works explore the complex issue of class, capitalism and societal excess. Trained originally as a ceramicist, Palmer uses a variety of processes and materials including fabric, steel, sound and wood.
The exhibit is one view through Sept. 30. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.  Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. Admission is free.

'immaterial' art show promotional postcard containing 3 details of vibrant 2-D and textile artworks.

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