#5SmartReads - May 27, 2022

Shibani works in finance by day to pay for her life outside of work. Her summer plans include reading by the pool, creating gorgeous bouquets from her flower garden and listening to Harry's House on repeat.

Staring At An Image Of Yourself On Zoom Has Serious Consequences For Mental Health - Especially For Women (The Conversation)

I learned a new concept while reading this article - self objectification - and it disproportionately impacts women. I went from being “video on” all the time to a job that’s very rarely “video on” and I’m back in the office once a week too. I can truly say it’s made me less focused on my face which is a welcome change from the past 2 years.

How Do You Know If You’re Living Through The Death Of An Empire? (Mother Jones)

If it feels like everything is a trash fire, that's because it is. We’re hearing a lot about late stage capitalism and death of capitalism and whether this means the end of America. This is a very interesting look at history and America through the lens of the collapse of an empire. Time to dive into all those dystopian books

Everything Is Trending All At Once On TikTiok (Vox)

From cottagecore to normcore to coastal grandma, why are we obsessed with trends and naming them? What does naming trends have to do with our identification to them? All these questions are explored in this Vox piece

TikTok’s “Core Memories” Trend Reveals A Vital Aspect Of How Humans Create Identity (Inverse)

I've realized that I don't have a great memory of things that happened before the era of camera phones and what's in my iCloud & on Facebook. How do memories get created, how do they shape our understanding of ourselves, and what does any of this have to do with TikTok?

What Is The Hipster? (New York Times)

And now for a flashback to simpler times - a look back at hipsters. With how quickly information gets shared and trends get created and turned over, and how tattoos are now so commonplace, I’m not sure hipsters can make a comeback, even if everything old is new again.