Monday morning long and short reads
1. Mewat women are rebelling against restrictions imposed by men on having an online presence. This story from Mewat, a Muslim dominated area which is spread over 3 states – Harayana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – is a report of another small win for India’s women. This article is from the Print.
“In Mewat, a woman’s activity on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc is inextricably linked to her morality and character. Fathers, brothers and husbands actively discourage women from revealing themselves on social media platforms. The restrictions women face in the physical world are extended and even buttressed in the virtual world—with the support of ‘well-meaning’ neighbours and friends.
Young girls are told that nobody will marry them. They are warned that their reputation will be destroyed. These diktats are couched under the very real fear that the women’s photos will be morphed and misused.” Read on
2. China Finds Itself With Limited Options After U.S. Shoots Down Balloon
Beijing registered “strong discontent and protest.” But there may be little it can do to retaliate.
After an American fighter jet shot down the Chinese balloon that had floated across the United States, the reaction from Beijing — defensive, angered, yet hedging its options — illustrated the challenges facing China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he tries to stabilise relations while giving little, if any, ground.
Hours after the balloon was struck by a Sidewinder missile and crumpled into the waters off South Carolina, the Chinese Foreign Ministry declared its “strong discontent and protest” and doubled down on its position that the balloon was a civilian research airship blown way off course by fierce winds. Washington, not Beijing, had broken the rules, the ministry said.
3.Your friends are good for you. New research shows that even a single conversation with a friend per day is enough to boost your happiness and lower stress. While the conversation needs to be “quality” to improve your day, that can mean anything from deep discussions to just catching up or joking around. And if you need some motivation to leave the house: The study determined in-person interactions were better for well-being than chatting it up in the TikTok comments.
4.We know we need to cut down on sugar. But replacing it with artificial compounds isn’t necessarily the answer. Long Read .
5. Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.
People often think they know what causes chronic depression. Surveys indicate that more than 80% of the public blames a “chemical imbalance” in the brain. That idea is widespread in pop psychology and cited in research papers and medical text books.
The unbalanced brain chemical in question is serotonin, an important neurotransmitter with fabled “feel-good” effects. Serotonin helps regulate systems in the brain that control everything from body temperature and sleep to sex drive and hunger. For decades, it has also been touted as the pharmaceutical MVP for fighting depression. Widely prescribed medications like Prozac (fluoxetine) are designed to treat chronic depression by raising serotonin levels.
Yet the causes of depression go far beyond serotonin deficiency. Clinical studies have repeatedly concluded that the role of serotonin in depression has been overstated. Indeed, the entire premise of the chemical-imbalance theory may be wrong, despite the relief that Prozac seems to bring to many patients.
