The Daily Valet. - 10/20/21, Wednesday

✔️ Overworked And Over Work

October 20, 2021

Wednesday, October 20th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

What the world needs now, is more dog memes.

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Overworked And Over Work

The rise of remote work has changed the way we view our lives, our jobs and the world as a whole

We’ve been hearing about “The Great Resignation” for a little while now and it’s clear that it’s real, and occurring across virtually all industries.

Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn, told BuzzFeed News that the “social contract [of] work is being rewritten,” and the balance of power that exists between employer and employee “is shifting towards the worker.” Her team has seen people leave one job in favor of something better—they say this time of unprecedented change should be more aplty named, the “Great Reshuffle.”

The upside of working from home is that you can make it fit your personal schedule. The downside this results in work hours bleeding into a nearly 24-hour-a-day churn of emails and messages. Why? Because one person likes to crank out stuff early and another takes an afternoon nap but works late into the evening.

The uncomfortable truth is that even during the standard 40-hour workweek, we spend the majority of our time either clocked in or mentally preparing to be. This is despite overwhelming proof that shorter workweeks are a win for everyone: Large-scale trials repeatedly show that workers are happier and more productive when they have more spare time.

Texas A&M psychologist Anthony Klotz, who predicted and coined the Great Resignation term back in May, credits “pandemic epiphanies” with motivating many workers to change the way we view our lives and the world.

And while it’s easy to feel like we’re always on these days, it sounds like we’re ready to work (and vacation) smarter. Nearly 80% of Americans surveyed by the Korn Ferry recruitment company a few months ago said they planned to use more paid time off in 2021. Good for them. Let’s keep it up in 2022 and beyond.

↦ FYI: Studies show humans need downtime and rest, not only to recharge and unwind, but also to stay alert, motivated and, indeed, more human.

Facebook Plans to Rebrand

Mark Zuckerberg wants to be known for building the metaverse

Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, reports The Verge.

The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more.

Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a vocal proponent of the metaverse concept, which he described like this: “In the future, you'll be able to sit as a hologram on my couch, or I'll be able to sit as a hologram on your couch, and it'll actually feel like we’re in the same place, even if we're in different states or hundreds of miles apart. I think that is really powerful.”

The company has announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to develop the so-called metaverse, shaping it right from the start.

↦ Dig Deeper: A rebrand could also separate the futuristic work from the intense scrutiny Facebook is currently under for the way its social platform operates today.

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Choose Your Memes Carefully

Researchers are tyring to understand how they might change your mood

Like so many of us, Dr. Jessica Gall Myrick, Ph.D., turned to memes as a distraction from the COVID-19 pandemic. The self-described animal lover found that dog memes, in particular, made the days a little more bearable. (I get this. My personal Instagram explore page is just dogs in various stages of tomfoolery.)

Myrick took her observation about the calming effect of certain memes and decided to see if others had a similar reaction. The result was an intriguing experiment that explores the role memes can play in our emotional lives, reports Mashable.

The study, published this week in Psychology of Popular Media, found that people who viewed humorous memes experienced an emotional boost unlike those in the study who didn't. When participants encountered memes specifically about COVID-19, they reported feeling less stress afterward. They also exhibited higher levels of information processing, which researchers believe helped participants feel better equipped to cope with pandemic stress.

↦ Who Knew? “Meme” is derived from the ancient Greek word mimema, which means “something imitated”.

Wearable Tech Gets Very Personal

The Adam Sensor is like a Fitbit for your penis

Did you know the average man gets at least three erections a night? And anything less could signal a health issue? Now there's a wearable device to monitor how you're stacking up.

Adam Sensor is the first-ever wearable erection tracker that allows men to monitor their sexual health. The ring-shaped device worn around the base of the penis counts how many erections a man experiences in his sleep. An app on the user's phone gathers/records this information to produce “a report of the night time's erection activity for the person to view within the morning”.

According to Britain's NHS, while experts aren't entirely sure why night wood is a thing, “most doctors agree that night-time erections are a sign that everything is in working order.”

Think of this as a Fitbit for an important but under-reported body part. “People count their steps, monitor the glucose, their sleep or fitness,” Adam Health founder Christos Vasilakos told the Sun. “It might be part of the quantitative health men are interested in.”

↦ FYI: The Adam Sensor is currently only available at a clinic in London, but the team behind the device hopes it will be available for home use by mid-2022.

In Other News

↦ House Panel on Jan. 6 Votes to Hold Steve Bannon in Contempt for Defying Subpoena

↦ Farm-to-Fable Meat Merchant Belcampo Closes Amid Scandal

↦ Instagram Is Punishing Users by Taking Away Their Link Stickers

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

These cozy slides

Preppy style’s return

Google Pixel’s Magic Eraser

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