#more countries should copy australia

[lolliepops-rox]

There is a lot of posts at the minute shaming people for not voting, which is understandable.

But, this post for everyone who wanted to vote, but couldn't.

It's not your fault.

People in power have put a lot of time, effort, and money into suppressing people's votes. So if your vote got suppressed, whether you've been labelled a criminal unfit to vote, or there was impossible legal hoops for you to jump through, or any thing else that could of happened. However this turns out, it's not your fault.

You deserve better than the system you've been given. I'm sorry your voice wasn't allowed to be heard.

[antiporn-activist]

I thought y'all should read this

I have a free trial to News+ so I copy-pasted it for you here. I don't think Jonathan Haidt would object to more people having this info.

Tumblr wouldn't let me post it until i removed all the links to Haidt's sources. You'll have to take my word that everything is sourced.

End the Phone-Based Childhood Now

The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development.

By Jonathan Haidt

Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the statistics: Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.

The problem was not limited to the U.S.: Similar patterns emerged around the same time in Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the Nordic countries, and beyond. By a variety of measures and in a variety of countries, the members of Generation Z (born in and after 1996) are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harm, and related disorders at levels higher than any other generation for which we have data.

The decline in mental health is just one of many signs that something went awry. Loneliness and friendlessness among American teens began to surge around 2012. Academic achievement went down, too. According to “The Nation’s Report Card,” scores in reading and math began to decline for U.S. students after 2012, reversing decades of slow but generally steady increase. PISA, the major international measure of educational trends, shows that declines in math, reading, and science happened globally, also beginning in the early 2010s.

As the oldest members of Gen Z reach their late 20s, their troubles are carrying over into adulthood. Young adults are dating less, having less sex, and showing less interest in ever having children than prior generations. They are more likelyto live with their parents. They were less likely to get jobs as teens, and managers say they are harder to work with. Many of these trends began with earlier generations, but most of them accelerated with Gen Z.

Surveys show that members of Gen Z are shyer and more risk averse than previous generations, too, and risk aversion may make them less ambitious. In an interview last May, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison noted that, for the first time since the 1970s, none of Silicon Valley’s preeminent entrepreneurs are under 30. “Something has really gone wrong,” Altman said. In a famously young industry, he was baffled by the sudden absence of great founders in their 20s.

Generations are not monolithic, of course. Many young people are flourishing. Taken as a whole, however, Gen Z is in poor mental health and is lagging behind previous generations on many important metrics. And if a generation is doing poorly––if it is more anxious and depressed and is starting families, careers, and important companies at a substantially lower rate than previous generations––then the sociological and economic consequences will be profound for the entire society.

What happened in the early 2010s that altered adolescent development and worsened mental health? Theories abound, but the fact that similar trends are found in many countries worldwide means that events and trends that are specific to the United States cannot be the main story.

I think the answer can be stated simply, although the underlying psychology is complex: Those were the years when adolescents in rich countries traded in their flip phones for smartphones and moved much more of their social lives online—particularly onto social-media platforms designed for virality and addiction. Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board. Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity—all were affected. Life changed rapidly for younger children, too, as they began to get access to their parents’ smartphones and, later, got their own iPads, laptops, and even smartphones during elementary school.

As a social psychologist who has long studied social and moral development, I have been involved in debates about the effects of digital technology for years. Typically, the scientific questions have been framed somewhat narrowly, to make them easier to address with data. For example, do adolescents who consume more social media have higher levels of depression? Does using a smartphone just before bedtime interfere with sleep? The answer to these questions is usually found to be yes, although the size of the relationship is often statistically small, which has led some researchers to conclude that these new technologies are not responsible for the gigantic increases in mental illness that began in the early 2010s.

But before we can evaluate the evidence on any one potential avenue of harm, we need to step back and ask a broader question: What is childhood––including adolescence––and how did it change when smartphones moved to the center of it? If we take a more holistic view of what childhood is and what young children, tweens, and teens need to do to mature into competent adults, the picture becomes much clearer. Smartphone-based life, it turns out, alters or interferes with a great number of developmental processes.

The intrusion of smartphones and social media are not the only changes that have deformed childhood. There’s an important backstory, beginning as long ago as the 1980s, when we started systematically depriving children and adolescents of freedom, unsupervised play, responsibility, and opportunities for risk taking, all of which promote competence, maturity, and mental health. But the change in childhood accelerated in the early 2010s, when an already independence-deprived generation was lured into a new virtual universe that seemed safe to parents but in fact is more dangerous, in many respects, than the physical world.

My claim is that the new phone-based childhood that took shape roughly 12 years ago is making young people sick and blocking their progress to flourishing in adulthood. We need a dramatic cultural correction, and we need it now.

1. The Decline of Play and Independence 

Human brains are extraordinarily large compared with those of other primates, and human childhoods are extraordinarily long, too, to give those large brains time to wire up within a particular culture. A child’s brain is already 90 percent of its adult size by about age 6. The next 10 or 15 years are about learning norms and mastering skills—physical, analytical, creative, and social. As children and adolescents seek out experiences and practice a wide variety of behaviors, the synapses and neurons that are used frequently are retained while those that are used less often disappear. Neurons that fire together wire together, as brain researchers say.

Brain development is sometimes said to be “experience-expectant,” because specific parts of the brain show increased plasticity during periods of life when an animal’s brain can “expect” to have certain kinds of experiences. You can see this with baby geese, who will imprint on whatever mother-sized object moves in their vicinity just after they hatch. You can see it with human children, who are able to learn languages quickly and take on the local accent, but only through early puberty; after that, it’s hard to learn a language and sound like a native speaker. There is also some evidence of a sensitive period for cultural learning more generally. Japanese children who spent a few years in California in the 1970s came to feel “American” in their identity and ways of interacting only if they attended American schools for a few years between ages 9 and 15. If they left before age 9, there was no lasting impact. If they didn’t arrive until they were 15, it was too late; they didn’t come to feel American.

Human childhood is an extended cultural apprenticeship with different tasks at different ages all the way through puberty. Once we see it this way, we can identify factors that promote or impede the right kinds of learning at each age. For children of all ages, one of the most powerful drivers of learning is the strong motivation to play. Play is the work of childhood, and all young mammals have the same job: to wire up their brains by playing vigorously and often, practicing the moves and skills they’ll need as adults. Kittens will play-pounce on anything that looks like a mouse tail. Human children will play games such as tag and sharks and minnows, which let them practice both their predator skills and their escaping-from-predator skills. Adolescents will play sports with greater intensity, and will incorporate playfulness into their social interactions—flirting, teasing, and developing inside jokes that bond friends together. Hundreds of studies on young rats, monkeys, and humans show that young mammals want to play, need to play, and end up socially, cognitively, and emotionally impaired when they are deprived of play.

One crucial aspect of play is physical risk taking. Children and adolescents must take risks and fail—often—in environments in which failure is not very costly. This is how they extend their abilities, overcome their fears, learn to estimate risk, and learn to cooperate in order to take on larger challenges later. The ever-present possibility of getting hurt while running around, exploring, play-fighting, or getting into a real conflict with another group adds an element of thrill, and thrilling play appears to be the most effective kind for overcoming childhood anxieties and building social, emotional, and physical competence. The desire for risk and thrill increases in the teen years, when failure might carry more serious consequences. Children of all ages need to choose the risk they are ready for at a given moment. Young people who are deprived of opportunities for risk taking and independent exploration will, on average, develop into more anxious and risk-averse adults.

Human childhood and adolescence evolved outdoors, in a physical world full of dangers and opportunities. Its central activities––play, exploration, and intense socializing––were largely unsupervised by adults, allowing children to make their own choices, resolve their own conflicts, and take care of one another. Shared adventures and shared adversity bound young people together into strong friendship clusters within which they mastered the social dynamics of small groups, which prepared them to master bigger challenges and larger groups later on.

And then we changed childhood.

The changes started slowly in the late 1970s and ’80s, before the arrival of the internet, as many parents in the U.S. grew fearful that their children would be harmed or abducted if left unsupervised. Such crimes have always been extremely rare, but they loomed larger in parents’ minds thanks in part to rising levels of street crime combined with the arrival of cable TV, which enabled round-the-clock coverage of missing-children cases. A general decline in social capital––the degree to which people knew and trusted their neighbors and institutions––exacerbated parental fears. Meanwhile, rising competition for college admissions encouraged more intensive forms of parenting. In the 1990s, American parents began pulling their children indoors or insisting that afternoons be spent in adult-run enrichment activities. Free play, independent exploration, and teen-hangout time declined.

In recent decades, seeing unchaperoned children outdoors has become so novel that when one is spotted in the wild, some adults feel it is their duty to call the police. In 2015, the Pew Research Center found that parents, on average, believed that children should be at least 10 years old to play unsupervised in front of their house, and that kids should be 14 before being allowed to go unsupervised to a public park. Most of these same parents had enjoyed joyous and unsupervised outdoor play by the age of 7 or 8.

2. The Virtual World Arrives in Two Waves

The internet, which now dominates the lives of young people, arrived in two waves of linked technologies. The first one did little harm to Millennials. The second one swallowed Gen Z whole.

The first wave came ashore in the 1990s with the arrival of dial-up internet access, which made personal computers good for something beyond word processing and basic games. By 2003, 55 percent of American households had a computer with (slow) internet access. Rates of adolescent depression, loneliness, and other measures of poor mental health did not rise in this first wave. If anything, they went down a bit. Millennial teens (born 1981 through 1995), who were the first to go through puberty with access to the internet, were psychologically healthier and happier, on average, than their older siblings or parents in Generation X (born 1965 through 1980).

The second wave began to rise in the 2000s, though its full force didn’t hit until the early 2010s. It began rather innocently with the introduction of social-media platforms that helped people connect with their friends. Posting and sharing content became much easier with sites such as Friendster (launched in 2003), Myspace (2003), and Facebook (2004).

Teens embraced social media soon after it came out, but the time they could spend on these sites was limited in those early years because the sites could only be accessed from a computer, often the family computer in the living room. Young people couldn’t access social media (and the rest of the internet) from the school bus, during class time, or while hanging out with friends outdoors. Many teens in the early-to-mid-2000s had cellphones, but these were basic phones (many of them flip phones) that had no internet access. Typing on them was difficult––they had only number keys. Basic phones were tools that helped Millennials meet up with one another in person or talk with each other one-on-one. I have seen no evidence to suggest that basic cellphones harmed the mental health of Millennials.

It was not until the introduction of the iPhone (2007), the App Store (2008), and high-speed internet (which reached 50 percent of American homes in 2007)—and the corresponding pivot to mobile made by many providers of social media, video games, and porn—that it became possible for adolescents to spend nearly every waking moment online. The extraordinary synergy among these innovations was what powered the second technological wave. In 2011, only 23 percent of teens had a smartphone. By 2015, that number had risen to 73 percent, and a quarter of teens said they were online “almost constantly.” Their younger siblings in elementary school didn’t usually have their own smartphones, but after its release in 2010, the iPad quickly became a staple of young children’s daily lives. It was in this brief period, from 2010 to 2015, that childhood in America (and many other countries) was rewired into a form that was more sedentary, solitary, virtual, and incompatible with healthy human development.

3. Techno-optimism and the Birth of the Phone-Based Childhood

The phone-based childhood created by that second wave—including not just smartphones themselves, but all manner of internet-connected devices, such as tablets, laptops, video-game consoles, and smartwatches—arrived near the end of a period of enormous optimism about digital technology. The internet came into our lives in the mid-1990s, soon after the fall of the Soviet Union. By the end of that decade, it was widely thought that the web would be an ally of democracy and a slayer of tyrants. When people are connected to each other, and to all the information in the world, how could any dictator keep them down?

In the 2000s, Silicon Valley and its world-changing inventions were a source of pride and excitement in America. Smart and ambitious young people around the world wanted to move to the West Coast to be part of the digital revolution. Tech-company founders such as Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin were lauded as gods, or at least as modern Prometheans, bringing humans godlike powers. The Arab Spring bloomed in 2011 with the help of decentralized social platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. When pundits and entrepreneurs talked about the power of social media to transform society, it didn’t sound like a dark prophecy.

You have to put yourself back in this heady time to understand why adults acquiesced so readily to the rapid transformation of childhood. Many parents had concerns, even then, about what their children were doing online, especially because of the internet’s ability to put children in contact with strangers. But there was also a lot of excitement about the upsides of this new digital world. If computers and the internet were the vanguards of progress, and if young people––widely referred to as “digital natives”––were going to live their lives entwined with these technologies, then why not give them a head start? I remember how exciting it was to see my 2-year-old son master the touch-and-swipe interface of my first iPhone in 2008. I thought I could see his neurons being woven together faster as a result of the stimulation it brought to his brain, compared to the passivity of watching television or the slowness of building a block tower. I thought I could see his future job prospects improving.

Touchscreen devices were also a godsend for harried parents. Many of us discovered that we could have peace at a restaurant, on a long car trip, or at home while making dinner or replying to emails if we just gave our children what they most wanted: our smartphones and tablets. We saw that everyone else was doing it and figured it must be okay.

It was the same for older children, desperate to join their friends on social-media platforms, where the minimum age to open an account was set by law to 13, even though no research had been done to establish the safety of these products for minors. Because the platforms did nothing (and still do nothing) to verify the stated age of new-account applicants, any 10-year-old could open multiple accounts without parental permission or knowledge, and many did. Facebook and later Instagram became places where many sixth and seventh graders were hanging out and socializing. If parents did find out about these accounts, it was too late. Nobody wanted their child to be isolated and alone, so parents rarely forced their children to shut down their accounts.

We had no idea what we were doing.

4. The High Cost of a Phone-Based Childhood

In Walden, his 1854 reflection on simple living, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The cost of a thing is the amount of … life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” It’s an elegant formulation of what economists would later call the opportunity cost of any choice—all of the things you can no longer do with your money and time once you’ve committed them to something else. So it’s important that we grasp just how much of a young person’s day is now taken up by their devices.

The numbers are hard to believe. The most recent Gallup data show that American teens spend about five hours a day just on social-media platforms (including watching videos on TikTok and YouTube). Add in all the other phone- and screen-based activities, and the number rises to somewhere between seven and nine hours a day, on average. The numbers are even higher in single-parent and low-income families, and among Black, Hispanic, and Native American families.

In Thoreau’s terms, how much of life is exchanged for all this screen time? Arguably, most of it. Everything else in an adolescent’s day must get squeezed down or eliminated entirely to make room for the vast amount of content that is consumed, and for the hundreds of “friends,” “followers,” and other network connections that must be serviced with texts, posts, comments, likes, snaps, and direct messages. I recently surveyed my students at NYU, and most of them reported that the very first thing they do when they open their eyes in the morning is check their texts, direct messages, and social-media feeds. It’s also the last thing they do before they close their eyes at night. And it’s a lot of what they do in between.

The amount of time that adolescents spend sleeping declined in the early 2010s, and many studies tie sleep loss directly to the use of devices around bedtime, particularly when they’re used to scroll through social media. Exercise declined, too, which is unfortunate because exercise, like sleep, improves both mental and physical health. Book reading has been declining for decades, pushed aside by digital alternatives, but the decline, like so much else, sped up in the early 2010s. With passive entertainment always available, adolescent minds likely wander less than they used to; contemplation and imagination might be placed on the list of things winnowed down or crowded out.

But perhaps the most devastating cost of the new phone-based childhood was the collapse of time spent interacting with other people face-to-face. A study of how Americans spend their time found that, before 2010, young people (ages 15 to 24) reported spending far more time with their friends (about two hours a day, on average, not counting time together at school) than did older people (who spent just 30 to 60 minutes with friends). Time with friends began decreasing for young people in the 2000s, but the drop accelerated in the 2010s, while it barely changed for older people. By 2019, young people’s time with friends had dropped to just 67 minutes a day. It turns out that Gen Z had been socially distancing for many years and had mostly completed the project by the time COVID-19 struck.

You might question the importance of this decline. After all, isn’t much of this online time spent interacting with friends through texting, social media, and multiplayer video games? Isn’t that just as good?

Some of it surely is, and virtual interactions offer unique benefits too, especially for young people who are geographically or socially isolated. But in general, the virtual world lacks many of the features that make human interactions in the real world nutritious, as we might say, for physical, social, and emotional development. In particular, real-world relationships and social interactions are characterized by four features—typical for hundreds of thousands of years—that online interactions either distort or erase.

First, real-world interactions are embodied, meaning that we use our hands and facial expressions to communicate, and we learn to respond to the body language of others. Virtual interactions, in contrast, mostly rely on language alone. No matter how many emojis are offered as compensation, the elimination of communication channels for which we have eons of evolutionary programming is likely to produce adults who are less comfortable and less skilled at interacting in person.

Second, real-world interactions are synchronous; they happen at the same time. As a result, we learn subtle cues about timing and conversational turn taking. Synchronous interactions make us feel closer to the other person because that’s what getting “in sync” does. Texts, posts, and many other virtual interactions lack synchrony. There is less real laughter, more room for misinterpretation, and more stress after a comment that gets no immediate response.

Third, real-world interactions primarily involve one‐to‐one communication, or sometimes one-to-several. But many virtual communications are broadcast to a potentially huge audience. Online, each person can engage in dozens of asynchronous interactions in parallel, which interferes with the depth achieved in all of them. The sender’s motivations are different, too: With a large audience, one’s reputation is always on the line; an error or poor performance can damage social standing with large numbers of peers. These communications thus tend to be more performative and anxiety-inducing than one-to-one conversations.

Finally, real-world interactions usually take place within communities that have a high bar for entry and exit, so people are strongly motivated to invest in relationships and repair rifts when they happen. But in many virtual networks, people can easily block others or quit when they are displeased. Relationships within such networks are usually more disposable.

These unsatisfying and anxiety-producing features of life online should be recognizable to most adults. Online interactions can bring out antisocial behavior that people would never display in their offline communities. But if life online takes a toll on adults, just imagine what it does to adolescents in the early years of puberty, when their “experience expectant” brains are rewiring based on feedback from their social interactions.

Kids going through puberty online are likely to experience far more social comparison, self-consciousness, public shaming, and chronic anxiety than adolescents in previous generations, which could potentially set developing brains into a habitual state of defensiveness. The brain contains systems that are specialized for approach (when opportunities beckon) and withdrawal (when threats appear or seem likely). People can be in what we might call “discover mode” or “defend mode” at any moment, but generally not both. The two systems together form a mechanism for quickly adapting to changing conditions, like a thermostat that can activate either a heating system or a cooling system as the temperature fluctuates. Some people’s internal thermostats are generally set to discover mode, and they flip into defend mode only when clear threats arise. These people tend to see the world as full of opportunities. They are happier and less anxious. Other people’s internal thermostats are generally set to defend mode, and they flip into discover mode only when they feel unusually safe. They tend to see the world as full of threats and are more prone to anxiety and depressive disorders.

A simple way to understand the differences between Gen Z and previous generations is that people born in and after 1996 have internal thermostats that were shifted toward defend mode. This is why life on college campuses changed so suddenly when Gen Z arrived, beginning around 2014. Students began requesting “safe spaces” and trigger warnings. They were highly sensitive to “microaggressions” and sometimes claimed that words were “violence.” These trends mystified those of us in older generations at the time, but in hindsight, it all makes sense. Gen Z students found words, ideas, and ambiguous social encounters more threatening than had previous generations of students because we had fundamentally altered their psychological development.

5. So Many Harms

The debate around adolescents’ use of smartphones and social media typically revolves around mental health, and understandably so. But the harms that have resulted from transforming childhood so suddenly and heedlessly go far beyondmental health. I’ve touched on some of them—social awkwardness, reduced self-confidence, and a more sedentary childhood. Here are three additional harms.

Fragmented Attention, Disrupted Learning

Staying on task while sitting at a computer is hard enough for an adult with a fully developed prefrontal cortex. It is far more difficult for adolescents in front of their laptop trying to do homework. They are probably less intrinsically motivated to stay on task. They’re certainly less able, given their undeveloped prefrontal cortex, and hence it’s easy for any company with an app to lure them away with an offer of social validation or entertainment. Their phones are pinging constantly—one study found that the typical adolescent now gets 237 notifications a day, roughly 15 every waking hour. Sustained attention is essential for doing almost anything big, creative, or valuable, yet young people find their attention chopped up into little bits by notifications offering the possibility of high-pleasure, low-effort digital experiences.

It even happens in the classroom. Studies confirm that when students have access to their phones during class time, they use them, especially for texting and checking social media, and their grades and learning suffer. This might explain why benchmark test scores began to decline in the U.S. and around the world in the early 2010s—well before the pandemic hit.

Addiction and Social Withdrawal

The neural basis of behavioral addiction to social media or video games is not exactly the same as chemical addiction to cocaine or opioids. Nonetheless, they all involve abnormally heavy and sustained activation of dopamine neurons and reward pathways. Over time, the brain adapts to these high levels of dopamine; when the child is not engaged in digital activity, their brain doesn’t have enough dopamine, and the child experiences withdrawal symptoms. These generally include anxiety, insomnia, and intense irritability. Kids with these kinds of behavioral addictions often become surly and aggressive, and withdraw from their families into their bedrooms and devices.

Social-media and gaming platforms were designed to hook users. How successful are they? How many kids suffer from digital addictions?

The main addiction risks for boys seem to be video games and porn. “Internet gaming disorder,” which was added to the main diagnosis manual of psychiatry in 2013 as a condition for further study, describes “significant impairment or distress” in several aspects of life, along with many hallmarks of addiction, including an inability to reduce usage despite attempts to do so. Estimates for the prevalence of IGD range from 7 to 15 percent among adolescent boys and young men. As for porn, a nationally representative survey of American adults published in 2019 found that 7 percent of American men agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am addicted to pornography”—and the rates were higher for the youngest men.

Girls have much lower rates of addiction to video games and porn, but they use social media more intensely than boys do. A study of teens in 29 nations found that between 5 and 15 percent of adolescents engage in what is called “problematic social media use,” which includes symptoms such as preoccupation, withdrawal symptoms, neglect of other areas of life, and lying to parents and friends about time spent on social media. That study did not break down results by gender, but many others have found that rates of “problematic use” are higher for girls.

I don’t want to overstate the risks: Most teens do not become addicted to their phones and video games. But across multiple studies and across genders, rates of problematic use come out in the ballpark of 5 to 15 percent. Is there any other consumer product that parents would let their children use relatively freely if they knew that something like one in 10 kids would end up with a pattern of habitual and compulsive use that disrupted various domains of life and looked a lot like an addiction?

The Decay of Wisdom and the Loss of Meaning 

During that crucial sensitive period for cultural learning, from roughly ages 9 through 15, we should be especially thoughtful about who is socializing our children for adulthood. Instead, that’s when most kids get their first smartphone and sign themselves up (with or without parental permission) to consume rivers of content from random strangers. Much of that content is produced by other adolescents, in blocks of a few minutes or a few seconds.

This rerouting of enculturating content has created a generation that is largely cut off from older generations and, to some extent, from the accumulated wisdom of humankind, including knowledge about how to live a flourishing life. Adolescents spend less time steeped in their local or national culture. They are coming of age in a confusing, placeless, ahistorical maelstrom of 30-second stories curated by algorithms designed to mesmerize them. Without solid knowledge of the past and the filtering of good ideas from bad––a process that plays out over many generations––young people will be more prone to believe whatever terrible ideas become popular around them, which might explain why videos showing young people reacting positively to Osama bin Laden’s thoughts about America were trending on TikTok last fall.

All this is made worse by the fact that so much of digital public life is an unending supply of micro dramas about somebody somewhere in our country of 340 million people who did something that can fuel an outrage cycle, only to be pushed aside by the next. It doesn’t add up to anything and leaves behind only a distorted sense of human nature and affairs.

When our public life becomes fragmented, ephemeral, and incomprehensible, it is a recipe for anomie, or normlessness. The great French sociologist Émile Durkheim showed long ago that a society that fails to bind its people together with some shared sense of sacredness and common respect for rules and norms is not a society of great individual freedom; it is, rather, a place where disoriented individuals have difficulty setting goals and exerting themselves to achieve them. Durkheim argued that anomie was a major driver of suicide rates in European countries. Modern scholars continue to draw on his work to understand suicide rates today. 

Durkheim’s observations are crucial for understanding what happened in the early 2010s. A long-running survey of American teens found that, from 1990 to 2010, high-school seniors became slightly less likely to agree with statements such as “Life often feels meaningless.” But as soon as they adopted a phone-based life and many began to live in the whirlpool of social media, where no stability can be found, every measure of despair increased. From 2010 to 2019, the number who agreed that their lives felt “meaningless” increased by about 70 percent, to more than one in five.

6. Young People Don’t Like Their Phone-Based Lives

How can I be confident that the epidemic of adolescent mental illness was kicked off by the arrival of the phone-based childhood? Skeptics point to other events as possible culprits, including the 2008 global financial crisis, global warming, the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting and the subsequent active-shooter drills, rising academic pressures, and the opioid epidemic. But while these events might have been contributing factors in some countries, none can explain both the timing and international scope of the disaster.

An additional source of evidence comes from Gen Z itself. With all the talk of regulating social media, raising age limits, and getting phones out of schools, you might expect to find many members of Gen Z writing and speaking out in opposition. I’ve looked for such arguments and found hardly any. In contrast, many young adults tell stories of devastation.

Freya India, a 24-year-old British essayist who writes about girls, explains how social-media sites carry girls off to unhealthy places: “It seems like your child is simply watching some makeup tutorials, following some mental health influencers, or experimenting with their identity. But let me tell you: they are on a conveyor belt to someplace bad. Whatever insecurity or vulnerability they are struggling with, they will be pushed further and further into it.” She continues:

Gen Z were the guinea pigs in this uncontrolled global social experiment. We were the first to have our vulnerabilities and insecurities fed into a machine that magnified and refracted them back at us, all the time, before we had any sense of who we were. We didn’t just grow up with algorithms. They raised us. They rearranged our faces. Shaped our identities. Convinced us we were sick.

Rikki Schlott, a 23-year-old American journalist and co-author of The Canceling of the American Mind, writes,

"The day-to-day life of a typical teen or tween today would be unrecognizable to someone who came of age before the smartphone arrived. Zoomers are spending an average of 9 hours daily in this screen-time doom loop—desperate to forget the gaping holes they’re bleeding out of, even if just for … 9 hours a day. Uncomfortable silence could be time to ponder why they’re so miserable in the first place. Drowning it out with algorithmic white noise is far easier."

A 27-year-old man who spent his adolescent years addicted (his word) to video games and pornography sent me this reflection on what that did to him:

I missed out on a lot of stuff in life—a lot of socialization. I feel the effects now: meeting new people, talking to people. I feel that my interactions are not as smooth and fluid as I want. My knowledge of the world (geography, politics, etc.) is lacking. I didn’t spend time having conversations or learning about sports. I often feel like a hollow operating system.

Or consider what Facebook found in a research project involving focus groups of young people, revealed in 2021 by the whistleblower Frances Haugen: “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rates of anxiety and depression among teens,” an internal document said. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”

7. Collective-Action Problems

Social-media companies such as Meta, TikTok, and Snap are often compared to tobacco companies, but that’s not really fair to the tobacco industry. It’s true that companies in both industries marketed harmful products to children and tweaked their products for maximum customer retention (that is, addiction), but there’s a big difference: Teens could and did choose, in large numbers, not to smoke. Even at the peak of teen cigarette use, in 1997, nearly two-thirds of high-school students did not smoke.

Social media, in contrast, applies a lot more pressure on nonusers, at a much younger age and in a more insidious way. Once a few students in any middle school lie about their age and open accounts at age 11 or 12, they start posting photos and comments about themselves and other students. Drama ensues. The pressure on everyone else to join becomes intense. Even a girl who knows, consciously, that Instagram can foster beauty obsession, anxiety, and eating disorders might sooner take those risks than accept the seeming certainty of being out of the loop, clueless, and excluded. And indeed, if she resists while most of her classmates do not, she might, in fact, be marginalized, which puts her at risk for anxiety and depression, though via a different pathway than the one taken by those who use social media heavily. In this way, social media accomplishes a remarkable feat: It even harms adolescents who do not use it.

A recent study led by the University of Chicago economist Leonardo Bursztyn captured the dynamics of the social-media trap precisely. The researchers recruited more than 1,000 college students and asked them how much they’d need to be paid to deactivate their accounts on either Instagram or TikTok for four weeks. That’s a standard economist’s question to try to compute the net value of a product to society. On average, students said they’d need to be paid roughly $50 ($59 for TikTok, $47 for Instagram) to deactivate whichever platform they were asked about. Then the experimenters told the students that they were going to try to get most of the others in their school to deactivate that same platform, offering to pay them to do so as well, and asked, Now how much would you have to be paid to deactivate, if most others did so? The answer, on average, was less than zero. In each case, most students were willing to pay to have that happen.

Social media is all about network effects. Most students are only on it because everyone else is too. Most of them would prefer that nobody be on these platforms. Later in the study, students were asked directly, “Would you prefer to live in a world without Instagram [or TikTok]?” A majority of students said yes––58 percent for each app.

This is the textbook definition of what social scientists call a collective-action problem. It’s what happens when a group would be better off if everyone in the group took a particular action, but each actor is deterred from acting, because unless the others do the same, the personal cost outweighs the benefit. Fishermen considering limiting their catch to avoid wiping out the local fish population are caught in this same kind of trap. If no one else does it too, they just lose profit.

Cigarettes trapped individual smokers with a biological addiction. Social media has trapped an entire generation in a collective-action problem. Early app developers deliberately and knowingly exploited the psychological weaknesses and insecurities of young people to pressure them to consume a product that, upon reflection, many wish they could use less, or not at all.

8. Four Norms to Break Four Traps

Young people and their parents are stuck in at least four collective-action traps. Each is hard to escape for an individual family, but escape becomes much easier if families, schools, and communities coordinate and act together. Here are four norms that would roll back the phone-based childhood. I believe that any community that adopts all four will see substantial improvements in youth mental health within two years.

No smartphones before high school  

The trap here is that each child thinks they need a smartphone because “everyone else” has one, and many parents give in because they don’t want their child to feel excluded. But if no one else had a smartphone—or even if, say, only half of the child’s sixth-grade class had one—parents would feel more comfortable providing a basic flip phone (or no phone at all). Delaying round-the-clock internet access until ninth grade (around age 14) as a national or community norm would help to protect adolescents during the very vulnerable first few years of puberty. According to a 2022 British study, these are the years when social-media use is most correlated with poor mental health. Family policies about tablets, laptops, and video-game consoles should be aligned with smartphone restrictions to prevent overuse of other screen activities.

No social media before 16

The trap here, as with smartphones, is that each adolescent feels a strong need to open accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms primarily because that’s where most of their peers are posting and gossiping. But if the majority of adolescents were not on these accounts until they were 16, families and adolescents could more easily resist the pressure to sign up. The delay would not mean that kids younger than 16 could never watch videos on TikTok or YouTube—only that they could not open accounts, give away their data, post their own content, and let algorithms get to know them and their preferences.

Phone‐free schools 

Most schools claim that they ban phones, but this usually just means that students aren’t supposed to take their phone out of their pocket during class. Research shows that most students do use their phones during class time. They also use them during lunchtime, free periods, and breaks between classes––times when students could and should be interacting with their classmates face-to-face. The only way to get students’ minds off their phones during the school day is to require all students to put their phones (and other devices that can send or receive texts) into a phone locker or locked pouch at the start of the day. Schools that have gone phone-free always seem to report that it has improved the culture, making students more attentive in class and more interactive with one another. Published studies back them up.

More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world

Many parents are afraid to give their children the level of independence and responsibility they themselves enjoyed when they were young, even though rates of homicide, drunk driving, and other physical threats to children are way down in recent decades. Part of the fear comes from the fact that parents look at each other to determine what is normal and therefore safe, and they see few examples of families acting as if a 9-year-old can be trusted to walk to a store without a chaperone. But if many parents started sending their children out to play or run errands, then the norms of what is safe and accepted would change quickly. So would ideas about what constitutes “good parenting.” And if more parents trusted their children with more responsibility––for example, by asking their kids to do more to help out, or to care for others––then the pervasive sense of uselessness now found in surveys of high-school students might begin to dissipate.

It would be a mistake to overlook this fourth norm. If parents don’t replace screen time with real-world experiences involving friends and independent activity, then banning devices will feel like deprivation, not the opening up of a world of opportunities.

The main reason why the phone-based childhood is so harmful is because it pushes aside everything else. Smartphones are experience blockers. Our ultimate goal should not be to remove screens entirely, nor should it be to return childhood to exactly the way it was in 1960. Rather, it should be to create a version of childhood and adolescence that keeps young people anchored in the real world while flourishing in the digital age.

9. What Are We Waiting For?

An essential function of government is to solve collective-action problems. Congress could solve or help solve the ones I’ve highlighted—for instance, by raising the age of “internet adulthood” to 16 and requiring tech companies to keep underage children off their sites.

In recent decades, however, Congress has not been good at addressing public concerns when the solutions would displease a powerful and deep-pocketed industry. Governors and state legislators have been much more effective, and their successes might let us evaluate how well various reforms work. But the bottom line is that to change norms, we’re going to need to do most of the work ourselves, in neighborhood groups, schools, and other communities.

There are now hundreds of organizations––most of them started by mothers who saw what smartphones had done to their children––that are working to roll back the phone-based childhood or promote a more independent, real-world childhood. (I have assembled a list of many of them.) One that I co-founded, at LetGrow.org, suggests a variety of simple programs for parents or schools, such as play club (schools keep the playground open at least one day a week before or after school, and kids sign up for phone-free, mixed-age, unstructured play as a regular weekly activity) and the Let Grow Experience (a series of homework assignments in which students––with their parents’ consent––choose something to do on their own that they’ve never done before, such as walk the dog, climb a tree, walk to a store, or cook dinner).

Parents are fed up with what childhood has become. Many are tired of having daily arguments about technologies that were designed to grab hold of their children’s attention and not let go. But the phone-based childhood is not inevitable.

The four norms I have proposed cost almost nothing to implement, they cause no clear harm to anyone, and while they could be supported by new legislation, they can be instilled even without it. We can begin implementing all of them right away, this year, especially in communities with good cooperation between schools and parents. A single memo from a principal asking parents to delay smartphones and social media, in support of the school’s effort to improve mental health by going phone free, would catalyze collective action and reset the community’s norms.

We didn’t know what we were doing in the early 2010s. Now we do. It’s time to end the phone-based childhood.

This article is adapted from Jonathan Haidt’s forthcoming book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

[elaine19day]

To those who are confused as to where and how to buy OldXian's new artbook and merchandise, let me try to break it down for you.

A few days ago, OldXian announced the pre-sale of their new artbook which comes in two versions.

Variant A (regular) includes: - the new artbook - a poster - 2x postcards

Variant B (deluxe edition) includes: - the new artbook - a poster - 2x postcards - 4x buttons - a shishiki board - a sticker sheet - a 24 page booklet

Furthermore there's two new acrylic standees which can be purchased separately. A tianshan and a zhanyi version.

The cost of these items is as follows: Artbook (version A): 89 Yuan [roughly: 13 USD | 12 Euro | 10 GBP] Artbook (version B): 189 Yuan [roughly: 27 USD | 25 Euro 21 GBP] Acrylic Standee: 49 Yuan (each) [roughly: 7 USD | 7 Euro | 6 GBP]

All of these items are available for purchase in their taobao store now, under this link: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?ft=t&id=786971367604

But if you have trouble creating a taobao account or your country isn't on the (very short) taobao shipping list [China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand] then you have several other options to get your hands on these new items.

1. You could use aliexpress, koonbooks or any other China-based shopping app/website to buy these things from a 3rd party seller.

Now, keep in mind that these sellers obviously want to make a profit, so you will pay more than in the original taobao shop. However, on the plus side, they usually offer free shipping, which is nice considering that items like artbooks are heavy and shipping costs are based on weight, so if you pay over, some of that money also goes towards covering the shipping costs, which is not bad.

The risk of ordering with such a website is obviously that the independent seller could turn out to be a scammer and keep your money and not send you the goods. I have no idea about koonbook's policies, however in the case of aliexpress you are at least protected by such practices and should you not receive what you paid for, you will be refunded and get your money back.

Also keep in mind that the artbook and merch is still in production at this point! But Old Xian said the merch will be shipped out BEFORE May 20th. That's less than 4 weeks from now.

That being said - in some cases the merch will be cheaper on aliexpress after official ship-out, because there will be more people offering it, competing for best prices.

However there's obviously also a risk that the deluxe edition will sell out before that or that these re-sellers only ship the artbook itself with none of the extras.

Here's two links where you can have a look at potential resellers, but carefully think about all the pro's and con's I gave you before you consider to buy. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006893284852.html https://koonbooks.com/products/old-xian-19-days-art-collection-3-chinese?variant=46493038674166 2.

The other option you have is using a taobao shopping agent. If you google that, you'll find dozens of websites offering their services. I myself have used parcelup, 42agent and superbuy before. Here's links to all of them: https://www.superbuy.com/ https://parcelup.com/ https://www.42agent.com/ What all of these agents have in common is that you need to create an account BEFORE you can start searching and shopping. All you need for that is a valid email address. I'll show how it works with superbuy screenshots here. After you signed up, you can copy the taobao-link I gave you earlier and paste it into the search-field.

What will come up is an embedded view of the taobao listing where you can pick which variant you want and then add it to your shopping cart.

Once you have added everything you want, click on the shopping cart and simply follow all further payment instructions.

They will also ask you if you want them to keep the original packaging or if you want them to remove anything unnecessary and repack everything in order to make it weigh less so shipping will be cheaper. It's up to you. You will then be asked to pay for items, domestic shipping (so mosspaca studios can ship the goods to your agent's warehouse) and in some cases a service fee. For example, superbuy has no service fee, however they stopped offering paypal as payment method recently so you'd need a credit card or other online methods to pay for your order and everything. Parcelup, however, still offers paypal, but they also charge service fees. (They are fairly low though, if you ask me.) So after you paid for your goods, they will order the items for you and then you'll have to wait about 4-5 weeks for them to arrive, because keep in mind - like I said earlier - everything is still in production and Old Xian aims to ship everything out before the 20th of May. There's hundreds, if not thousands of parcels arriving to all agent's warehouses every day, so it will take them a few days to sort through things after your order arrives. You need to be patient!! They will get back to you with pictures of your order, trust me. When this happens you need to look at the pics and if everything is okay, you can reply to them to proceed. You will then be presented with shipping quotes. Usually they offer more than one shipping method and some are tracked, others are untracked, some will take only a week or two until they arrive at your doorstep, others will take 6 weeks or up to two months. Choose wisely which method you want and consider what is in your budget. (Obviously fast shipping with tracking is more expensive than slow shipping without it, however personally I'd always recommend a tracked service.) Just to give you an estimate on what to expect when it comes to international shipping - parcels with that amount of merch and weight, will always cost me about 50 USD or more to ship from China to the UK, where I live. (So keep that in mind before you order. International shipping is very expensive!) But once you picked a shipping method, you pay for it (that's your 2nd payment) and once they have processed that - your goodies will be on the way to you within a few days. And that's it. Sit down, eat your food and wait patiently for it to arrive. If you have further questions, just plop them into the comments and I'll try to answer them.

[reality-detective]

SHADOW GAMES_

_It should be clear to you now that Vivek Romaswamy is running a shadow campaign for Donald Trump and military operations.

_ ( kash Patel intensionally placed VIVEK)

_it should be clear now that Elon Musk intentionally collapsed Ron Desantis election campaign. Desantis was forced to run by both white hats and blacks hats ( he's playing both sides) .... The idea behind the blackhats plan is for Desantis to endorse Nikki Haley for President..... But white hats have a plan to EXPOSE a massive corruption scandle against desantis connected to money laundering ( Epstein affiliated associates ) and more. After the EXPOSURE of Desantis his voters WILL endorse TRUMP_

_-

-

_The DEEP STATE SHADOW CAMPAIGN>

BLACKROCK CIA IS BEHIND THE FUNDING OF NIKKI HALEY . > THE DEEP STATE IS PUTTING THEIR HOPES BEHIND HALEY and want to have Republican president in place.

.. But the [ ds] also want a Hollywood celebrity> The Rock to run ( he is a back up incase the Epstein EXPOSURE leads to cia. Military industrial complex system money laundering operations connected to Nikki Haley could bring her down)

The deep state are also pushing for Michelle Obama to come into the mix..

[ they] want to make sure they have several candidates in place.

____

WIRES>]; The CIA are trying to rally the youth and black communities to endorse a celebrity for president ( this will be The Rock) ....

_ Now you understand why KEVIN HART has been constantly co-starring with Dewayne Johnson the rock in movies together.

>>> The CIA. Caa intensionally planted Kevin Hart into Hollywood and comedy scene.

_

_ NOW_ White Hats have activated certain celebrities to go after exposing Kevin Hart as PLANT.

From Kat Williams to Power House Dave Chappelle are going after Oprah the cia occult operations several black celebrities and musicians are going to expose the Satanic industry. From Los Angeles to Middle America to New York City, the pedophilia corruption, sex extortion music industry to Satanic rituals is all going to collide with the EPSTEIN SAGA.

I have been telling you all these EVENTS were going to happen.. Now it's happening

.....

SHADOW GAMES _

_

BEHIND THE SCENES>]; THE USSF HAS THE MCAFEE [ KILLSWITCH], THE JULIAN ASSANGE [ KILLSWITCH] >

THE [ EPSTEIN KILLSWITCH]

_This means they have all the hidden keys that placed inside Internet Killswitch operations that holds all the evidence of the world satanic corruption of the CIA. Pentagon. Ex presidents. Celebrities and full world corruption connected to Israeli/ cia/ mi6 ELITES [ EPSTEIN] OPERATIONS.

PANIC INSIDE THE PENTAGON 🔥 AS THE USSF AQUIRE ALL THE KEYS!!!

(Cheyenne mountain. USSF space x/ RUSSIA INTEL/ ITALIAN INTEL/ WHITE HATS IN CHINA INTELLIGENCE

>>>> ALL HAVE COPIES OF THE BIDEN LAPTOP!!!!

and CIA Epstein corruption data in their own countries already since 2018.

SHADOW GAMES

_Countries across the world are getting ready for THE STORM _EVENTS

and arrest wars and know their own intelligence agencies are going to initiate the cyberwar blackouts.

__

No matter what happens.. Everything is heading to military intervention in all major countries. ( 11.3)

Mil.WIRES>]; U.S. CANADA. UK. AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND GERMANY FRANCE ITALY POLAND>>>ALL IN TALKS BEHIND THE SCENES TO INITIATE MARSHAL LAW PROTOCOLS AND MILITARY PROCEDURES AND COMMUNICATIONS <

_

Everyone is preparing for the incoming summer EXPOSURE of the planned PANDEMIC of 2021 and the full EXPOSURE of the death vaccines and full corruption linking military intelligence agencies and banks and leaders to the world pedophile extortion sex ring and money laundering ring.

- JULIAN ASSANGE 🤔

[braveclementine]

Chapter 14

Warnings: 18+ readers only, smut

Copyright: I do not own any Wizarding World characters that J.K. Rowling wrote. I do however own Elizabeth Kane (main character) and Trang Nyguen (best friend). There should be no use of these two names without my permission. I also do not condone any copying of this.

"The small girl stares with wide brown eyes at each person who comes to observer her. A dark cloud of frizzy hair surrounds her head, stray leaves hiding within it. She holds a door knocker the way a smaller child might handle a rattle or a toy. Tightly. Protectively. 

"She has been placed in an armchair in one of the galleries, as though she is herself a piece of art. Her feet do not touch the ground. Her head has been examined and some concern has been raised over injury, though she is not bleeding. A bruise blooms near her temple, a greenish hue spreading over light brown skin. It does not seem to bother her. She is given a plate of tiny cakes and eats them in small, serious bites. 

"She is asked her name. She appears not to understand the question. There is some debate over how translations might work for someone so young (few recall the last time there was a child in this place) but she understands other inquiries: She nods when asked if she is thirsty or hungry. She smiles when someone brings her an old stuff toy, a rabbit with thinning fur and floppy ears. Only when the rabbit is presented does she relinquish the door knocker, clutching the bunny with equal intensity. 

"She does not recall her name, her age, anything about her family. When asked how she got there she holds up the door knocker with a pitying look in her large eyes, as the answer is terribly obvious and the people peering down at her are not very observant. 

"Everything about her is analyzed, from the make of her shoes to her accent as they begin to coerce single words or phrases, but she speaks rarely, and all anyone can agree on is that there are hints of Australia or possibly New Zealand, though some insist the slight accent on her English is South African. There are a number of old doors left uncatalogued in each country. The girl does not give reliable geographical information. She remembers people and fairies and dragons with equal clarity. Large buildings and small buildings and forests and fields. She describes bodies of water of indiscernible size that could be lakes or oceans or bathtubs. Nothing to point clearly toward her origin. 

"Throughout the investigations it remains unspoken truth that she cannot easily be returned to wherever she has fallen from if her door no longer exists.

"There is talk of sending her back through another door, but no one in the dwindling population of residents volunteers for such a mission, and the girl appears happy enough. Does not complain. Does not ask to go home. Does not cry for her parents, wherever they might be. 

"She is given a room where everything is too big for her. Clothes that fit reasonably well are found and one of the knitting groups provides her with sweaters and socks spun from colorful yarn. Her shoes are cleaned and remain her only pair until she outgrows them, the rubber soles worn through to holes then patched and worn through again. 

"They call her the girl or the child or the foundling, though the more semantic-minded residents point out that she was not abandoned, not as far as anyone knows, so the term foundling is inaccurate.

"Eventually she is called Eleanor, and some say afterward she was named for the queen of Aquitaine, and others claim the choice was inspired by Jane Austen, and still others say she once responded to the request for her name with "Ellie" or "Allira" or something like that. (In truth, the person who suggested the name plucked it from a novel by Shirley Jackson but neglected to clarify due to the unfortunate fate of that other fictional Eleanor.)

"'Does she have a name yet?' the Keeper asks, not looking up from his desk, his pen continuing to move across the page. 

"'They've taken to calling her Eleanor.' The painter informs him. 

"The Keeper puts down his pen and sighs.

"'Eleanor,' he repeats, putting the emphasis on the latter syllables, turning the name into another sigh. He picks up his pen and resumes his writing all without so much as a glance at the painter. 

"The painter does not pry. She thinks perhaps the name has a particular meaning to him. She has only known him a short amount of time. She decides to stay uninvolved in the matter, herself. 

"This Harbor upon the Starless Sea absorbs the girl who fell through the remains of a door the way the forest floor consumed the door: She becomes part of the scenery. Sometimes noticed. Mostly ignored. Left to her own devices. 

"No one takes responsibility. Everyone assumes someone else will do it, and so no one does. They are all preoccupied with their own work, their own intimate dramas. They observe and question and even participate but not for long. Not for more than moment, here and there, scattered through a childhood like fallen leaves. 

"On that first day, in the chair but before the bunny, Elanor answers only a single question aloud when asked what she was doing out on her own. 

"'Exploring', she says. 

"She thinks she is doing a very good job of it." 

I'm relieved to see that Remus is fast asleep by the time the story ends. I wasn't a huge fan of the end of it, seeing how the girl had to learn to live by herself, even as a child. That none of the adults around her want to take any responsibility. It felt wrong, frankly. 

"The stories connected." Severus' voice jolts me a little, keeping me from my thoughts. I looked up at him to see that he's looking at me through the reflection in the mirror as he fixes his tie. I smile a little, seeing him in the muggle tuxedo. He looks dashing in it. 

There is a knock at the door then. Seven, then two, then three. Trang is here. 

I open the door to see her, with a backpack on her shoulders. "Hi." She smiles. As she takes Remus from my arms, she coos at him in a baby like voice. 

It's winter vacation already and Trang didn't go back for the holidays. Severus and I are going to be using her as a babysitter tonight as we go out. 

"Thanks for doing this Trang." I murmured, going over to the mirror as Severus left it, so that I can fix my hair and apply a bit more makeup. 

"Of course." Trang said, "Besides, I miss my little godson." 

I smiled at that, dabbing blush against my cheeks while Severus grabs a muggle winter coat, tapping it to become a wizarding cloak so if someone sees him leaving tonight, no one will look twice at him. 

My own dress in a dark midnight blue with silvery sparkles. Severus bought it for me for tonight. I admired myself in a mirror for a moment before Severus came over, putting his hands on my waist, his voice whispering in my ear, "You look good enough to eat. Maybe we can skip dinner." 

"And that's my cue to leave." Trang muttered, breaking the spell. She hoisted Remus up in his arms, leaving the room to the room across from this one- a sort of unused guest room. I think she had a good idea that Severus and I were going to come back and need some alone time. 

Severus rolled his eyes, pecking my cheek. "Ready to go?" 

I nodded, swallowing my nerves, turning into my silky black cat form, hopping into his traveling clock pocket and tucked my head down. 

I didn't look out his pocket the entire time and he never broke stride so I didn't know if he had seen anyone or not. I tucked down even more as I felt chilly wind fly just a little over my ears. Severus' hand dipped into the pocket, his hand against my side, stroking it a little as he walked now. 

He walked for twenty more minutes- taking a different route so that he was unseen by any of the Hogsmeade villagers- and also to avoid the charm that was placed on the village. 

He lifted me out of his pocket and put me on the ground so that I could become human again. I took his hand in mine, taking charge of apparating this time, and we appeared on the back porch of my old home. 

I opened the door cautiously, ready to flee at a noise or movement. But there was nothing except what dad and I had left there, covered in a layer of dust. 

"It's a nice house." Severus hummed suddenly, looking at a picture of me on the wall. Dad was hugging me from behind as he sat in a leaf pile that I had jumped in. It had been one of the rare days Mad-eye had stayed over. He'd taken the picture of us. 

I felt a lump in my throat start to grow and so I looked away. "Yeah." 

Severus squeezed my hand as I opened the front door and we left the house, walking up the street. We headed into town, seeing that it was fairly empty and I led the way to a brightly lit Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn. 

It was actually packed, which I was slightly surprised about, it being Christmas Eve and all. We took seats near the back, the two of us sitting across from each other in the booth. 

The restaurant looked adorable, with lots of red Chinese lanterns hung about the room. Dark trimming lined the room, with soft music playing from the speakers in the back. I could smell the chicken cooking in the back of the restaurant. The lights were dim, mostly using light from candles on the table. 

"Elizabeth!" A slightly older male voice said excitedly. I looked up to see mine and Trangs' favorite server, Danny standing there. He'd grown his block hair out to be floppy around the ears and was wearing dark green glasses. We'd both had something of a crush on him growing up, though he regarded as us playful friends. 

"Hi Danny." I said with a small smile. "How are you?" 

Severus was sitting a bit stiffly now, eyeing Danny with an equal mix of distrust and jealousy. 

"Great. Whose this gentleman?" Danny inquired, looking over at Severus. 

"This is a friend of mine, Nicholas." I lied. We figured it was best if we didn't use Severus' real name. 

"Nice to meet you Nicholas." Danny said easily with a huge grin. "Alright, what can I get for the two of you or do you need a minute to look over the menu?" 

"Um, perhaps a minute. It's his first time." I replied easily. "But I'll get a glass of white milk and a water." 

"And for you sir?" Danny asked. 

"Just a water." Severus replied uncertainly. 

"I'll be right back with those drinks." He walked off, leaving the two of us alone for the time being. 

I smiled happily as I looked over the  menu. For once, it felt like a normal night. Severus and I were out on a date while Trang babysat Remus. This was how our life should be. Could be. If I could just keep him alive. 

But I vowed I wouldn't think of anything like that tonight. I really just wanted to have a good night. 

"Okay so what do you usually get." Severus said, looking at the menu. 

"Orange chicken with fried rice. I used to get Lo Mein, but I don't really like the vegetables in them so I just stick with the fried rice. I don't think you'd like the orange chicken though since it's super sweet." 

In the end, I order double orange chicken with fried rice while Severus got half white rice, half lo mein with half Beijing Beef and half Black Pepper Angus Steak. 

We tried making mundane talk, but it was very hard. Severus didn't know much muggle conversation so I supplied most if it while he listened, a small smile breaking out on his face as he did so. 

We shared a small chocolate dessert before bundling up for the cold again and walking outside. We continued to walk down the street, gloved hand in gloved hand. I was content, hugging his arm as we walked. He looked down at me with such love in his eyes I thought I was going to burst. 

It started to snow, small flakes of white drifting down to rest in our hair. He stroked a finger across my cheek, before we came to a stop, a small flow of people heading inside of a building. 

I looked up, seeing that it was the church, the midnight service about to start. I looked up at Severus, a question on my lips, which he kissed away. He led me to the wide double doors and we walked into the cathedral. 

I had loved coming here as a kid. Dad hadn't been super religious, but he had wanted to introduce me to the church. I had done lots of Sunday School here and had continued coming every once in a while to sit in 'adult church'. I had never missed a Christmas Eve sermon however, until I had started at Hogwarts. 

We sat in the back near the stained glass window that showed Noah's ark breaching dry land. A rainbow in the background, standing firmly as a sign of Gods' peace. Doves flew above the brown boat, olive leaves in their beaks. Two by two, stained glass giraffes, zebras, elephants, and lions exited the ark. 

Severus put his arm around me as the sermon started. I had always loved listening to the stories of the birth of Jesus. They seemed so magical somehow. Miraculous. 

Candles were passed out so that we could sing Silent Night. Being in the back and on the end of the pew, my candle was the first one lit. Severus leaned his over so that we could touch them and I felt something like hope spark inside of me as his was lit too. 

Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright. Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace

I suddenly felt the empowering knowledge that he was going to survive. He was going to live. I watched as he touched flames with the woman next to him, an older woman who couldn't stand. He had stooped over, gently cupped the back of her candle holder so that her flame would light. She gave him a soft smile before turning to her husband. Someone as good as him couldn't die. 

Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight. Glories stream from heaven afar Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia, Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born

Severus did not sing, instead listened to me sing. I had never been a great singer- not in my mind at least- but my voice seemed to have an affinity to Christmas songs. 

Silent night, holy night! Son of God love's pure light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face With dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus Lord, at Thy birth Jesus Lord, at Thy birth

Severus pulled me close to his side, his arm tight around my waist as he rested his chin on the top of my head. "I love you Elizabeth." 

I looked up at him, a single tear trailing down my cheek as I sang, not answering, but he knew anyways. 

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Silent Night. . . 

I stirred, feeling the slightly chilly air in the room. 

Holy Night. . . 

I blinked my eyes open, noting Severus was laying next to me, still wearing his dress pants and shirt, though he'd tossed the jacket and bowtie off. I was still in my dress and stockings, tucked warmly under the bed. 

Silent Night. . . 

I sat up slowly, groaning. We had crashed when we'd come home, Severus apparating us straight up to our room after we'd exited the church. Being headmaster, he'd always been able to do this, we just hadn't wanted to before. 

I slowly slip from the bed, reaching behind me to pull the zipper down, when a larger hand takes mine, moving it away. Severus unzips the dress for me, kissing down my back as he does so. 

"Should've done this last night." His thick, sleepy filled voice murmurs sexily in my ear. "You look ravishing." 

I let out the softest of whimpers, the sleepiness gone from my foggy mind, replaced by a buzzing feeling of adrenaline and lust. His hands cup my arse as the dress falls down the rest of my body. 

His hand slips under me, two fingers sliding easily into my cunt, while a third rubs circles at my clit. 

My legs shake and I know they're not going to hold me up. Severus' hand withdraws and he pulls me back onto the bed. I sink into the pillows, looking up at him as he crawls over me, hovering. I smile as he snaps his fingers, discarding the rest of his clothes. 

I go to remove the white stockings, but he stops me, smirking. I blush darkly as he takes my stocking-clad legs, moving one over his shoulder and he lowers his mouth to my pussy. I arch slightly on the bed, trying my hardest not to move as pleasure radiates through me. 

"S-Se- Severus." I pant out as he adds three thick fingers inside of me. I arch again, this time writhing slightly until he uses one large hand, holding my hips down firmly. I pant, cunt clenching tightly around his fingers. 

"Gonna- need to-" 

"Cum." Severus demands. 

I cry out his name, back arched as I cum on his fingers. He watches with heavy, lust lidded eyes, slowly retracting his fingers. 

"Severus." I beg without actually begging, but he answers me anyways, lifting my hips so that he can slide into me, hovering over me. 

I sighed in content, closing my eyes, letting the euphoria wash over me. It's such a wonderful feeling, especially as his lips capture mine, his teeth lightly digging into my bottom lip. 

"I love you." Severus whispered, his thrusts hard and slow. He bottomed out with each one, sending an intense wave of pleasure from my toes to my head. I simply hang onto his shoulders, nails digging into the flesh there, riding the waves out. "Cum." He commands, feeling that I'm close and the dam breaks, my liquids gushing all over his prick. 

He rides out my wave now, thrusting more quickly, building up another wave. I open my eyes because I want to see him as he lets go.

"Elizabeth." He whispers and I cry out, feeling the second wave cresting. 

"SEVERUS!" I shout, unable to stop myself, even if Voldemort himself was out in the office. My vision becomes hazy, dotted in black and white as I slump back against the bedsheets. 

"Merlin I love you." I mumble, as Severus stills himself, having released inside of me. My eyes flutter open, blinking away the gray that danced in front of my vision. 

"Jealous." Severus teased. "Say my name too Elizabeth." 

I giggled, curling up against him. "I love you the most Severus, don't worry." 

"Good." Severus said plainly, kissing the top of my head. "Now how about a bath before Trang wakes up and brings Remus here for a feeding?" 

I rolled over and race to the bathroom door, "I get to choose the temperature!" 

"NO!" Severus shouts, running after me and I giggle as we spend the rest of the morning playfully. 

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

It's Remus' first Christmas, and it's our first Christmas as a family. Severus got a camera from somewhere and we take pictures, marking our memories. I already have an album- a gift from Trang- and I put the pictures in there, labelling them on the back. 

I feel a little sad as I put it together though, looking over to watch Severus fly Remus above his head. It feels like what Hagrid did for Harry. I shake my head. No, we would be different. Remus would have a different future from Harry and me. Remus, at the very least, would have a mom. 

"Say hi to mommy." Severus coos, sitting down next to me, bouncing Remus in his arms. He grins at me. I love how infectious his smile is, as I smile back, blushing red. 

"Hi sweetheart." I coo back, taking Remus into my arms. "Are you liking your first Christmas, hmm?" 

I had gotten presents from dad as well. Three new Stephen King books that I couldn't wait to read. They hadn't come with a note, but I knew they were from him anyways. 

Severus had also given me a present, which turned out to be jewelry. It was much like the set he'd given me last year for my birthday, but this set was bright in its colours. Red and purple patterned. 

"It was my mothers." Severus murmured quietly as I had looked at him, stroking my cheek with the back of his finger. "One day, we'll pass it down to our first daughter. Perhaps when she gets married." 

Despite not knowing the gender of the two children inside of me, Severus was certain at least one was a girl. I liked the odds, though I wasn't certain. 

It felt to much like a good-bye present though so I thanked him and put it up on the dresser, before curling up in his arms, watching Remus play with his new stuffed animals: which mostly consisted of him laying on his stomach, waving it up and down. 

That night, we had a small Christmas dinner with half a ham.

Then we spent the rest of the night in each others arms, looking out the window at the stars until we fell asleep on the couch in each others' embrace.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! 💚❤️💚❤️🎁🎁🎄

⬅️➡️

[airocityvisas]

Top-Rated Georgia Visa Agent in Delhi – Fast, Hassle-Free Processing

Georgia: The Hidden Gem of Eurasia – Your Complete Travel and Visa Guide

Tucked away between Europe and Asia, Georgia is a land where ancient history meets breathtaking natural beauty, charming cities, and warm hospitality. Often overlooked in favor of more popular European destinations, this stunning country is finally receiving the attention it deserves—and for all the right reasons. Whether you're planning a spontaneous getaway or a well-structured itinerary, connecting with a trusted Georgia visa agent can make your travel planning seamless and stress-free.

For Indian travelers seeking an offbeat, budget-friendly, and culturally rich destination, Georgia visa requirements are simple and hassle-free, making it even easier to explore a country that checks every box. From the cobbled streets of Tbilisi to the snow-capped peaks of Kazbegi and the wine country of Kakheti, this magical nation is full of surprises waiting to be discovered.

The Reasons Georgia Should Be on Your List of Destinations

1. A Budget-Friendly European Experience

Georgia offers a unique blend of European vibes and Asian influences—minus the high costs of Western Europe. Whether you’re backpacking or indulging in luxury travel, Georgia provides exceptional value for money in terms of accommodation, food, transport, and experiences.

2. Visa-Free Entry for Indian Passport Holders

Yes, you read that right! Indian citizens with a valid visa or residence permit from the US, UK, EU, or GCC countries can enter Georgia without a visa for up to 90 days. For others, obtaining a Georgia e-Visa is simple and quick. It’s a major plus for travelers looking for hassle-free travel.

✅ For visa guidance, trust expert Georgia visa consultants in Delhi like Airocity Visas for accurate application help and travel tips.

3. Tbilisi – The Heartbeat of Georgia

Georgia's vibrant city, Tbilisi, is a delightful fusion of the old and the new. Walk through the historic Old Town, ride the cable car to Narikala Fortress, relax in the Sulphur Baths, and indulge in the buzzing nightlife. The colorful architecture and warm locals will make you feel right at home.

4. Natural Beauty Beyond Imagination

From the scenic wine valleys of Kakheti to the alpine trails of Gudauri and the Black Sea coast of Batumi, Georgia offers nature in all its glorious forms. The scenery is ideal for hiking, paragliding, photography, and just taking in the splendor.

5. A Culinary Heaven

Food lovers are in for a treat!

Georgian cuisine combines Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ingredients in a delicious way. Don’t leave without trying:

Khachapuri (cheese-filled bread)

Khinkali (juicy dumplings)

Lobio (bean stew)

Churchkhela (Georgian candy)

Serve it with regional wines—Georgia is credited with creating wine, a practice that dates back more than 8,000 years. To explore this rich heritage first-hand, consulting a Georgia visa expert can help ensure a smooth and well-prepared journey.

Georgia Visa for Indians – What You Need to Know

Indians with a valid visa/residence permit from the USA, UK, Schengen, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, or GCC countries do not need a Georgian visa. Others can apply online for a Georgia e-Visa, which typically requires:

Passport copy

Travel itinerary

Hotel bookings

Travel insurance

Sufficient funds

📝 Apply through authorized Georgia visa advisor in India for a smooth process.

Explore Georgia: A Soul-Stirring Experience for Every Traveler

Georgia is more than just a travel destination—it's a sensory journey that leaves a lasting imprint on your soul. From the snow-draped Caucasus Mountains and ancient cave cities to vibrant festivals and world-renowned hospitality, Georgia offers something magical for everyone. Whether you're a solo traveler in search of meaning, a romantic couple seeking hidden gems, or a family chasing memorable moments, this country delivers culture, history, cuisine, and adventure in perfect harmony.

As a trusted Georgia visa consultant in Delhi, we at Airocity Visas are dedicated to making your travel dreams a reality. From guiding you through the Georgia visa application process to offering personalized travel tips, our team is committed to ensuring your trip is smooth, stress-free, and unforgettable. Let us help you step into a land where every corner has a story, every meal is a celebration, and every moment feels like home.

Planning your Georgia adventure?

📞 Contact Airocity Visas – Your Trusted Georgia Visa Consultant in Delhi

🌐 https://airocityvisas.in/

 📧 info@gmail.com

📱 +918882760004 

[jadevine]

Novel drafts! Please check them out!

Note: This is copied from my main blog's pinned post, so don't worry about plagiarism!

--

What’s up folks, I just reblogged one of my really old posts about trying to get people to read my novel drafts. But here’s a shiny new one so I can pin this to the front!

So I originally posted these works on Inkitt and Inkshares, but Inkitt is most likely a scam that is often described as “a shittier version of Wattpad.” Inkshares is POSSIBLY a scam, but also an extremely new and experimental website even if it wasn’t, so I decided to move these drafts to Wattpad in hopes that a more established website had more people to read them.

Moonflowers is in-progress and The Crocodile God is completed, but I’ll just let people know that both “Moonflowers” and “The Crocodile God” are built on a LOT of outdated knowledge where Tagalogs/Filipinos all had tattoos and that Mayari is a Tagalog goddess. In “The Crocodile God,” I draw from a lot of Maori/Pacific mythology as well, and I’m not sure if I should keep that aspect in there.

If these ever make it to Draft 2 stage, there’s gonna be a lot of changes.

MOONFLOWERS summary (current link https://www.wattpad.com/story/324856549-moonflowers ): When Alima Song's parents vanish for no reason, she eventually thinks that they're dead, so she moves from her home in California to the tourist town of Cloncarrig, Ireland to get away from her grief. Aside from issues with the Fair Folk, she gets to know some Malachy Bray and his friends, finds a job, a house, and adopts a stray dog.

Unknown to most people, the dog is Ned Song, her cursed but very much living father. He and her mother Lucy have not been killed--they "just" got kidnapped and cursed by the Wild Hunt, who are also the ones that keep trailing Alima after she moved.

The Irish gods do not enjoy thinking about why a whole gang of fairies are messing with the Song family, but since their leader is a force of nature, they'll have to start improvising their help.

--

THE CROCODILE GOD summary (current link https://www.wattpad.com/story/324254621-the-crocodile-god ) - If a god loses his community, his rituals, and most records of his existence, what is left of him to call divine?

On a windy beach in California, Mirasol finds a shipwrecked man and takes him to the hospital. With no phone, no ID, and barely any clothes after the sea got done with him, the most information they can get is that his name is Haik, and for lack of better options, he's discharged to Mirasol's place.

Dark-skinned, covered in tattoos, and hailing from Australia, Haik is not the typical Filipino. He tells her stories of the Tagalogs' far past, a foreign and unknown country--and soon finds out that he is Haik the sea-god, constantly searching for his mortal wife, and they are both stuck in a loop of reincarnation after their whale-goddess daughter was stillborn.

Unfortunately, she also finds out that he's an undocumented immigrant.

--

IF ANYTHING ABOUT THESE DRAFTS CAN PIQUE YOUR INTEREST, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CHECK OUT THE DRAFTS AND LEAVE A COMMENT TO SHOW SUPPORT!!! I get so many people just saying my writing sounds cool EVERYWHERE ELSE BUT THE ACTUAL WEBSITE, and that’s not really getting my audience boost up.

[yesgermany-manish]

Why Consider a Masters Degree in Germany? Exploring the Benefits and Opportunities

Germany is one of the most popular destinations for international students who want to pursue a masters degree. According to the latest statistics, more than 300,000 foreign students were enrolled in German universities in 2020, making up 13.5% of the total student population. But what makes Germany so attractive for higher education? Here are some of the main reasons why you should consider a masters degree in Germany.

High Quality Education

Germany is known for its excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as humanities, arts, and social sciences. German universities offer a wide range of masters programs, from traditional disciplines to interdisciplinary and innovative ones. Many of these programs are taught in English, making them accessible to international students. Moreover, German universities have a strong reputation in the global academic community, with 44 institutions ranked among the top 500 in the world.

Affordable Costs

One of the biggest advantages of studying in Germany is the low cost of tuition. In most public universities, there is no tuition fee for both domestic and international students, except for a small administrative fee per semester. Even in private universities, the tuition fee is usually much lower than in other countries, such as the UK, the US, or Australia. Additionally, the cost of living in Germany is relatively affordable, especially if you choose to live in a student dormitory or a shared apartment. You can also benefit from various discounts and subsidies for public transportation, cultural events, and health insurance.

Cultural Diversity

Germany is a multicultural and cosmopolitan country, with a rich history and culture. By studying in Germany, you can experience the German way of life, as well as learn about other cultures from your fellow students and professors. You can also enjoy the variety of cuisines, festivals, music, and art that Germany has to offer. Furthermore, you can take advantage of the opportunity to travel around Europe, as Germany is well-connected to other countries by train, bus, or plane.

Career Prospects

A masters degree from a German university can boost your career prospects, both in Germany and abroad. Germany has a strong economy, with many leading companies and industries, such as BMW, Siemens, SAP, and Bosch. As a graduate, you can benefit from the high demand for skilled workers, especially in STEM fields. You can also apply for a job seeker visa, which allows you to stay in Germany for up to 18 months after graduation to look for a suitable job. Alternatively, you can pursue a PhD or a research career in one of the many prestigious research institutes in Germany, such as the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer Society, or the Helmholtz Association.

How to Apply for a Masters Degree in Germany?

If you are interested in pursuing a masters degree in Germany, you will need to meet some requirements, such as:

Having a bachelor's degree or equivalent from a recognized university

Having a sufficient level of proficiency in the language of instruction (German or English)

Having a valid passport and a student visa (if required)

Having a proof of financial resources to cover your living expenses

Having a health insurance coverage

The application process may vary depending on the university and the program you choose, but generally, you will need to submit the following documents:

A completed application form

A copy of your academic transcripts and diplomas

A copy of your language test scores (such as TestDaF, DSH, TOEFL, or IELTS)

A motivation letter and a curriculum vitae

A copy of your passport and visa (if required)

A proof of financial resources and health insurance

The application deadlines may also differ depending on the university and the program, but usually, they are:

July 15 for the winter semester (starting in October)

January 15 for the summer semester (starting in April)

You can find more information about the application process and the available programs on the websites of the German universities or on the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) website.

How to Find the Best German Study Consultants?

If you need help with finding and applying for a masters degree in Germany, you can consult with professional german study consultants who can provide you with guidance and support throughout the process. Some of the services that german study consultants can offer are:

Helping you choose the right program and university for your goals and interests

Helping you prepare and submit your application documents

Helping you apply for a student visa and a residence permit

Helping you find accommodation and transportation in Germany

Helping you adjust to the academic and cultural environment in Germany

Helping you network with other students and professionals in Germany

However, not all german study consultants are reliable and trustworthy. You should be careful when choosing a german study consultant and avoid falling for scams or frauds. Here are some tips on how to find the best german study consultants:

Do your research and compare different german study consultants based on their reputation, experience, credentials, and reviews

Ask for references and testimonials from previous clients and verify their authenticity

Check if the german study consultants are registered and accredited by the relevant authorities, such as the DAAD, the German Embassy, or the Ministry of Education

Ask for a written contract and a clear breakdown of the fees and services that the german study consultants will provide

Avoid paying any upfront fees or deposits before receiving any service or confirmation from the german study consultants

Avoid any german study consultants who make unrealistic or false promises, such as guaranteed admission, scholarships, or jobs

Conclusion

A master's degree in Germany can be a rewarding and beneficial experience for your personal and professional development. Germany offers high quality education, affordable costs, cultural diversity, and career prospects for international students. However, applying for a masters degree in Germany can be a challenging and complex process, which requires careful planning and preparation. If you need assistance and guidance, you can seek help from reputable and professional german study consultants who can help you achieve your academic goals and dreams.

[fatfemmefreaquency]

one of the issues though is that post-secondary institutions (in North America, at least—I don’t know much about academia outside of canada & the US, except for a bit about the UK australia & NZ) don’t have any incentives to make learning sustainable

heck. lately even good pedagogy & actually teaching students well has taken a massive hit, and it was never really a focus here to begin with

for decades now educational research has demonstrated that exams and rote studying for exams does not lead to retention of information: students that study for exams don’t actually learn the material

if universities cared about actually educating students we would never have been using exams to assess learning and give grades in the first place

but giving an exam, especially a multiple choice exam, is easy to do—especially on a large scale. running labs, grading papers, teaching seminars with a lot of discourse & student participation means (a) more classroom hours per course and (b) more office work for professors and (c) generally a lower student to prof ratio

unfortunately in academia in the countries I mentioned above (the ones I know most about) almost all universities/ colleges are run like businesses

and businesses are concerned with one thing above all else: making money. doesn’t matter what they do to make money—the cheaper they can make the product or service they’re selling (while charging more for it) the better

and more work for instructors and smaller class sizes costs money—money a business doesn’t want to expend

honestly I don’t blame students for cutting corners**

things are getting progressively worse in US & canadian higher ed, due to a lack of public funding for universities and a massive corporate culture problem. late stage capitalism is reducing universities to diploma factories rather than actual spaces for learning and inquiry

i totally agree with you OP that learning should be sustainable & not drudgery/ hard labour

but i think the chances of that happening have been just about obliterated by how capitalism has shaped academia

(and this has really accelerated in the last decade with schools refusing to hire more tenure track professors and also shifting towards more online learning. we KNOW that larger class sizes and less face-time with instructors means students learn slower and learn less. but schools don’t care: they care about costs)

**footnote under the read more**

**let’s be clear: i think it’s…not smart to choose genAI because chances are you’ll get caught and either expelled for academic dishonesty OR just get a failing grade. chatgpt and all other genAI are really fucking noticeable still in terms of how they write academic work

if you’ve really gotta cheat consider finding 3-5 articles that say what you want to say and then cobbling together a paper or answers out of their sentences—then go through and rewrite every sentence that you don’t want to use as a direct quotation in your own words (for the love of god do not use a thesaurus for this—your prof WILL notice that. just use your own words and reorder the sentence to the best of your abilities)

this is still more work than relying on chatgpt etc but it’s MUCH harder for plagiarism filters to detect (or for an instructor to notice)

this is plagiarism. you’re stealing other people’s ideas and passing them off as your own rather than coming to an original idea

like i mentioned: it’s a little more work than using chatgpt or other genAI but it’s much easier than writing a paper where you make your own argument (good news—this is like a baby step to that, and will make it easier to write papers of your own)

writing a paper like this is quick and relatively easy, still. in a pinch you can tool around in your library’s database of academic articles for about an hour or two and then copy and paste stuff for an hour-ish and then spend another couple hours reworking the syntax of the paper and be done with it

sure it’s not a paper that chatgpt wrote in 5 minutes for you—one that would likely get you in a world of trouble that you don’t need

but what this does is massively cut down on the mental effort and time that goes into writing a paper—in my experience this takes the process down from 10-30 hours to about 6-8 hours AND you likely get a pretty decent grade

i didn’t use this method much personally, but whenever a friend told me they were struggling to keep their grades up/ pass classes i told them to do this

i feel zero shame about it. we went to a school with more than 40 thousand students and the average undergraduate lecture sat 280 students (often with just one professor & 2-3 TAs). students were never really supported to do good research OR to learn in general

it’s hard to do your best work when you’re handing it in to a professor who isn’t paid to do their best work either—or to support you in your learning

i completely understand & agree with the backlash against students using chatgpt to get degrees but some of you are out here saying "getting a degree in xyz means pulling multiple consecutive all-nighters and writing essays through debilitating migraines and having severe back pain from constantly studying at your desk and chugging energy drinks until you get a kidney stone and waking up wishing you were dead every day, and that's just part of the natural process of learning!!!" and like. umm. i don't think that any of us should have had to endure that either. like maybe the solution for stopping students from using anti-learning software depends on college institutions making the process of learning actually sustainable on the human body & mind rather than a grueling health-destroying soul-crushing endeavor

[wondertourandtravels]

Visa Waiver Program and ESTA

If you’ve ever dreamed about visiting the United States — maybe walking under the bright lights of Times Square, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or even just grabbing a coffee in a small American diner — you’re not alone. Millions of travelers make this journey every year.

Now here’s the good news: if your passport is from one of the countries in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), getting permission to enter the U.S. is a lot easier than you might think. No long embassy lines. No stressful interviews. Just a quick online form called ESTA application and you’re set to go.

What the Visa Waiver Program Means for You

The Visa Waiver Program is basically a travel shortcut. It allows citizens of over 40 countries — including the UK, Germany, Japan, France, South Korea, and Australia — to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without a traditional visa.

It covers short trips for tourism, business, or even just a layover. Planning a week in New York? Attending a tech conference in San Francisco? Changing planes in Miami? The VWP has you covered.

But there’s one key step: you need to get your ESTA approved first.

So, What’s ESTA?

ESTA — short for Electronic System for Travel Authorization — is an online application that clears you to board a flight to the U.S. Think of it as your pre‑approval to travel.

It’s not a visa. Instead, it’s linked to your passport electronically. Airlines actually check for it before you board. Without ESTA, you’re not getting on that plane. Simple as that.

How the ESTA Application Works

Don’t worry — it’s not complicated. Here’s what the process feels like in real life.

You sit down at your laptop with your passport nearby. You fill in your name, passport details, and answer a few straightforward yes/no questions about things like health and past travel history.

At the end, you pay the fee — $21 as of 2025 — and hit submit. That’s it. For most people, approval comes through within minutes. I usually get mine before I’ve even finished making a coffee. Still, it’s smart to apply a few days before your flight, just in case.

How Long Does ESTA Last?

The best part? You don’t have to apply for ESTA every single time you travel. Once approved, it’s valid for two years, or until your passport expires — whichever comes first.

That means you can visit the U.S. multiple times on the same ESTA, as long as each stay is under 90 days. So if you head to Los Angeles in spring and then plan another trip to New York in winter, you’re good.

What If Your ESTA Gets Denied?

Most travelers get approved without a hitch. But if you make a typo, or if there’s an issue with your past travel record, your application could be denied.

If that happens, don’t panic. It doesn’t mean you can’t go to the U.S. It just means you’ll need to apply for a regular visa through the U.S. embassy. It takes longer, but it’s still possible.

A Few Tips from Someone Who’s Been There

Here’s some friendly advice I’ve picked up along the way:

Apply a week before your trip — last‑minute stress is not fun.

Double‑check your passport. It has to be an e‑passport with the little chip symbol.

Even though your ESTA is electronic, I always keep a printed copy. It’s saved me questions at airline check‑ins more than once.

Don’t push the 90‑day limit. Overstaying can cause problems for future travel.

I’ll admit, the first time I applied, I was nervous. But now? I barely think about it. It’s quick, it works, and it takes away a lot of travel headaches.

Conclusion

Travel should be exciting, not complicated. If your country is part of the Visa Waiver Program, all you need is a quick ESTA application to open the door to your American adventure.

So before you pack your suitcase, take ten minutes to apply online. After that, the U.S. is yours to explore — whether that’s a road trip down Route 66, a week in sunny Florida, or a business deal in Chicago.

Trust me, once you’ve done it once, you’ll wonder why you ever worried about the process.

Safe travels — and enjoy every moment of your trip!

[komalargroup]

MBBS in Russia – Affordable & Globally Recognized Medical Education for Indian Students

Pursue MBBS in Russia at top MCI/NMC-approved universities with low tuition fees, English medium education, and global recognition. Explore why Russia is a top choice for Indian students seeking a quality medical degree abroad at an affordable cost.

If you're planning to become a doctor and are searching for an affordable yet globally recognized medical education, MBBS in Russia is the perfect option for you. Every year, thousands of Indian students fly to Russia to study medicine in top-ranking universities that are approved by NMC (National Medical Commission) and recognized by the WHO (World Health Organization).

With a rich history in medical education, world-class infrastructure, and economical tuition fees, Russia offers everything that an Indian student needs to fulfil their dream of becoming a qualified doctor.

Why Choose MBBS in Russia?

Affordable Tuition Fees: One of the biggest advantages is the cost. MBBS in Russia is much more budget-friendly compared to India or countries like the USA, UK, or Australia.

Globally Recognized Degrees: Russian medical universities are listed in WHO, FAIMER, and are NMC-approved, allowing Indian students to practice medicine globally.

No Entrance Exam: Students are not required to clear any entrance test like NEET-UG with high scores (just qualifying marks are enough).

English Medium Programs: Most Russian universities offer the complete MBBS course in English, eliminating the need to learn Russian initially.

High-Quality Education: Russian universities are equipped with modern laboratories, advanced research centers, and highly qualified faculty.

Indian Mess & Hostels: Indian food and separate hostels for boys and girls make it a comfortable experience for Indian students.

Top Medical Universities in Russia

Here are some of the top NMC-approved universities where you can study MBBS in Russia:

First Moscow State Medical University

Kazan State Medical University

Kursk State Medical University

Orel State University

Siberian State Medical University

Tula State Medical University

All these institutions offer world-class medical education and are known for producing skilled doctors working across the globe.

MBBS in Russia – Course Duration & Structure

The MBBS course in Russia is typically 6 years long:

5 years of academic study with theoretical and practical training.

1 year of compulsory internship (clinical rotations in hospitals).

Students receive hands-on experience from the beginning of their 3rd year, interacting with patients under expert guidance.

Eligibility Criteria for Indian Students

To secure admission in a Russian medical university, Indian students must meet the following eligibility:

Must have completed 10+2 with Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

Minimum 50% marks in PCB (40% for reserved category).

Must have qualified NEET.

Age should be 17 years or above by December 31st of the admission year.

Cost of MBBS in Russia

The MBBS fees in Russia range between ₹15 to ₹35 lakhs for the complete course, which includes tuition fees, hostel charges, medical insurance, and other essentials. This is comparatively much lower than private medical colleges in India.

Additionally, the cost of living is also affordable. On average, monthly living expenses including food, travel, and accommodation cost around ₹12,000–₹15,000.

How to Apply for MBBS in Russia

Here’s a simple step-by-step process for admission:

Choose the right university with the help of a trusted consultant.

Fill out the university application form.

Submit scanned copies of your 10th, 12th, and NEET mark sheets.

Receive admission letter and apply for your visa.

Get your documents translated and attested.

Book flight tickets and prepare for your departure.

Conclusion

Choosing MBBS in Russia is a smart move for Indian students who aim to pursue high-quality medical education without burdening their families financially. With globally recognized degrees, excellent facilities, and a safe study environment, Russia continues to be one of the most preferred destinations for MBBS abroad.

If you're serious about your medical career, Russia opens the door to a brighter future. Make your dream of becoming a doctor a reality with a Russian medical degree that’s respected across the globe.

[elaix]

🎁 Limited-Time Temu Offer – Use Code alf237549 in August 2025 for Instant Global Savings

Meta Description: Don’t miss out! Use Temu promo code alf237549 this August 2025 and get up to $100 OFF, free gifts, and global discounts. Works in 84+ countries. No invite needed.

---

Shopping on Temu is already affordable — but what if you could slash your total bill even further with just one code?

> 🎯 Use Temu coupon: alf237549

Whether you're a first-time buyer or a regular shopper, this verified Temu code gives you instant savings, bonus gifts, and more — with no referral or spin game required.

---

🌍 Global Reach: Use alf237549 in Over 84 Countries

Temu has expanded its services to more than 80+ countries, and this promo code works in all of them.

🌎 Region Countries Where It Works

🇺🇸 North America USA, Canada, Mexico

🇪🇺 Europe UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain

🌍 Middle East UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco

🌏 Asia India, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia

🌍 Africa South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana

🇧🇷 Latin America Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru

🇦🇺 Oceania Australia, New Zealand

> ✅ If you’re shopping from any Temu-supported country, alf237549 will apply.

---

💸 What You Get With Temu Code alf237549

Shopper Type Discount Amount Bonus Perks

🆕 New Users Up to $100 OFF Free shipping + mystery gift box

🔁 Existing Users $20–$40 OFF Coin rewards + app-only coupons

📲 App Users Stackable discounts Scratch & win, bonus deals

This code works across all product categories:

👚 Clothing & fashion

📱 Tech gadgets & electronics

🛋️ Home & living

🧴 Health, beauty & personal care

🧸 Baby toys, gift items & more

---

🛒 How to Use Temu Code alf237549

Want to unlock your instant discount? Here’s how:

1. Visit Temu.com or open the Temu app

2. Add your favorite items to the cart

3. Head to checkout

4. In the promo box, enter: alf237549

5. Hit “Apply” and watch your price drop

6. Proceed to secure payment — done!

On

---

📅 Why You Should Use It in August 2025

August is the perfect time to apply this code because:

🎒 Back-to-school promotions are live

🎁 Mystery gift box offers for new users

🏷️ Clearance sales on summer inventory

🚚 Free shipping for many regions

⏳ This code may expire after the month ends

---

💬 Testimonials from Real Users

> “Saved over $90 in India — worked instantly with no invite.”

“I’m in Egypt and the code dropped my cart by 700+ EGP.”

“Used in USA and received free shipping and gifts!”

“My order in France was reduced by €72 with alf237549.”

---

✅ Summary: Copy This Code and Save Today

This is your sign to start saving real money on Temu. Whether you're shopping for back-to-school, holiday prep, or daily essentials:

> 🔑 Use the Temu promo code: alf237549

🎁 Bonus mystery link: https://temu.to/k/p5ikubc3ibr

📱 Works on mobile and desktop

🌍 Valid worldwide

🎉 No invite or referral needed

💸 Discounts apply instantly at checkout

[knoxfeed]

Canada to Recognise Palestine as State in September: Carney Editing Team / July 31, 2025 at 12:56AM/ https://ift.tt/GQCwdcr image/video: https://ift.tt/HN0UAs3 Home-News-Canada to Recognise Palestine as State in September: Carney Canada to Recognise Palestine as State in September: Carney Ottawa (Quds News Network)- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that his country plans to formally recognise Palestine during the UN general assembly in September, after France and the UK made similar announcements. On Wednesday evening, Carney said Canada would recognise the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly in September if certain conditions were met. He held a virtual cabinet meeting on the Middle East earlier on Wednesday. He explained that Ottawa had hoped that a two-state solution could be achieved through a negotiated peace process, but that approach was “no longer tenable”. “Canada intends to recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” Carney told reporters. The move follows a similar announcement by the United Kingdom and France earlier this month. France and 14 other countries co-signed a declaration that pointed towards a wave of future recognitions of an independent Palestinian state. The New York Call, published by the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, on Wednesday, said signatories “have already recognised, have expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration of our countries to recognise the State of Palestine”. The signatories include Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal and San Marino, each of which has not yet recognised an independent Palestinian state. They also include Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and Spain, which have. The statement, which was published before the conclusion of a three-day UN conference set on reviving a two-state solution to the Israeli occupation of Palestine said the states would “reiterate our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution.” It stressed the “importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority”. US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that it would be difficult to make a trade deal with Canada after Carney’s announcement. Canada and the US are working on negotiating a trade deal by 1 August, the date Trump is threatening to impose a 35% tariff on all Canadian goods not covered by a prior trade agreement. Trump also condemned the UK’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state, saying onboard Air Force One that “you could make the case that you’re rewarding Hamas if you do that. I don’t think they should be rewarded. So I’m not in that camp, to be honest … because if you do that you are really rewarding Hamas. And I’m not about to do that.” The plans of recognition come amid growing pressure on Israel to end its ongoing genocide in Gaza, which began in October 2023. More than 60,000 people have been killed so far, the majority children and women. Malta also announced it will recognise Palestine as a state during the UN general assembly meeting. Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Tuesday, “Our position reflects our commitment to efforts for a lasting peace in the Middle East.” Last year, amid Israel’s assault on Gaza, nine countries – Armenia, Slovenia, Ireland, Norway, Spain, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados – formally recognised the State of Palestine, reflecting growing international support. Currently, at least 146 UN member states recognise the State of Palestine. URL Copied

[studyabroadeducationconsultancy]

What Should I Know Before Studying Abroad

Deciding to Study Abroad Consultancy in Chennai is a big step, and partnering with a reliable Study Abroad Consultancy in Chennai can help you navigate this exciting journey filled with global learning, cultural exposure, and personal growth.

Xplore Campus, a trusted Study Abroad Consultancy in Chennai, your overseas education dream whether in Ireland, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or France becomes easier and more achievable.

1. Choose the Right Country and Course

Before anything else, research and finalize the country that aligns with your academic and career goals. Each destination has unique strengths:

If you're planning to Study in Ireland, a trusted Study Abroad Consultancy in Chennai can guide you every step of the way.

Ireland is renowned for technology and business.

The UK offers top universities with strong academic reputations.

Australia is great for research and skilled migration.

New Zealand is ideal for innovation and work-life balance.

France blends world-class education with a rich cultural experience.

Make sure to evaluate factors like language, cost of living, job opportunities, and visa conditions before choosing your destination.

2. Understand the Application Process

Every country and university has its own admission requirements. You’ll need to consider:

Academic transcripts

English language tests (IELTS, TOEFL, PTE)

Letters of recommendation

Statement of Purpose (SOP)

Passport and ID proofs

Start your applications at least 8–12 months in advance to avoid last-minute stress. Partnering with a trusted study abroad consultant like Xplore Campus in Chennai can simplify this process through professional guidance.

3. Budgeting and Financial Planning

Studying abroad is a significant financial commitment. It’s essential to:

Calculate tuition fees, living costs, and travel expenses

Apply for scholarships or grants

Explore student loan options if needed

Open a local bank account after arrival

Don’t forget hidden expenses like health insurance, visa fees, and student amenities. A good financial plan gives you peace of mind throughout your journey.

4. Visa and Documentation Requirements

Each country has specific student visa requirements. Common documents include:

Proof of admission

Financial proof (bank statements or loan letters)

Passport-size photos

Valid passport

Health and travel insurance

Medical checkups and biometrics (in some cases)

Double-check the visa timelines and processing durations. A study abroad consultancy can assist with your visa application to ensure no errors or delays.

5. Accommodation Planning

Before arriving, decide where you'll stay:

On-campus dormitories

Off-campus housing

Homestays

Shared apartments

Compare options for safety, rent, distance from campus, and facilities. Booking early helps secure better deals and avoids last-minute chaos.

6. Cultural Awareness and Adjustment

Moving abroad means entering a new culture, lifestyle, and social environment. Be prepared for:

Language differences

Cultural etiquette

Food habits

Classroom expectations

Be open-minded, respectful, and willing to learn. Joining cultural clubs and student communities can ease the transition and help you make friends faster.

7. Healthcare and Insurance

Many countries require international students to have health insurance:

Check if your university offers a student health plan

Understand what the insurance covers—emergencies, medication, mental health, etc.

Keep digital and physical copies of medical records and prescriptions

Taking care of your physical and mental well-being is just as important as academics while abroad.

8. Understand Your Rights and Responsibilities

As an international student, you must:

Follow visa rules (working hours, academic progress, etc.)

Abide by local laws

Maintain full-time study status

Report any changes in address or academic status to the authorities

Breaking rules can lead to visa cancellation, so it’s important to stay informed and compliant.

9. Stay Connected with Family and Support Networks

Being far from home can be challenging. To manage homesickness:

Schedule regular calls with family

Share updates about your academic and personal life

Stay active on student forums and local communities

Most universities offer counselling support, so never hesitate to seek help when needed.

10. Get Guidance from a Reliable Study Abroad Consultancy

Planning an overseas education can feel overwhelming without proper guidance. That’s where Xplore Campus, a trusted Study Abroad Consultancy in Chennai, comes in. We assist students at every stage from shortlisting universities and preparing SOPs to visa support and pre-departure briefings.

With experience in countries like Ireland, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and France, we ensure a smooth journey from Chennai to your dream university abroad.

Conclusion

Studying abroad is a life-changing experience, but success starts with preparation. By knowing what to expect and taking proactive steps choosing the right course, budgeting smartly, securing accommodation, and understanding your responsibilities you'll be better equipped to handle the challenges and make the most of this journey.

Ready to begin? Let Xplore Campus guide you toward global academic success. Reach out today and start your dream journey the right way!

[toolanddealbox]

🛍️ Unbelievable Temu Savings Hack: Use acr661440 for Instant $100 Discount – No Strings Attached!

Have you heard of **Temu**? If you’ve been on TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, or Tumblr recently, chances are you’ve seen people sharing their Temu hauls — full of gadgets, fashion, tools, and more. But what most people **don’t know** is the code they’re using to get those hauls for practically nothing.

That secret is: **acr661440**

Let me walk you through the **exact process** I used to save $100 on my Temu order using this code, and why you should do the same right now — before it stops working.

---

🛒 What Is acr661440?

**acr661440** is a coupon code for Temu that gives you anywhere from $30 to $100 off. It works globally — not just in the U.S. or Canada, but also in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Australia, Brazil, and more.

The beauty? No referrals. No spinning wheels. Just **copy-paste acr661440 at checkout**, and watch your total drop.

I tested this myself multiple times — even created a few new accounts to see if it works repeatedly. It does.

---

📦 My $112 Order Turned Into $11 Using acr661440

Yes. You read that right.

Here's what I added to my cart:

- Mini vacuum cleaner: $19.99

- Cordless hair trimmer: $16.49

- Magnetic phone holder: $9.99

- Aromatherapy diffuser: $14.95

- LED strip lights: $11.49

- Set of makeup brushes: $13.99

- Adjustable laptop stand: $24.99

🧾 Total: $111.89

💸 After acr661440: $11.25

Shipping was free. Delivery took 7 days. No hidden charges.

---

🌍 Does acr661440 Work Globally?

Yes! One of the few Temu codes that are not region-locked.

✅ United States

✅ Canada

✅ United Kingdom

✅ Germany

✅ Australia

✅ Brazil

✅ Netherlands

✅ Spain

✅ Italy

✅ France

This is why it’s being called the **global Temu hack** by many online.

---

📲 How to Use acr661440 (App or Website)

🟢 Temu App:

1. Open the app and sign in.

2. Add products to your cart.

3. At checkout, tap on “Apply Coupon”.

4. Enter **acr661440**

5. Watch your total drop.

🟢 Temu Website:

1. Visit temu.com

2. Add items to cart

3. Go to checkout

4. Paste **acr661440**

5. Apply & enjoy savings

---

📈 SEO Hack: acr661440 Content Is Ranking

If you’re a content creator, here’s a trick: Blogs, Tumblr posts, Reddit threads, and Pinterest pins with acr661440 are being indexed by Google like crazy.

💥 Popular searches:

- Temu $100 code acr661440

- Working Temu USA coupon

- Best promo code Temu 2025

- Temu hacks July 2025

Using the code as a keyword — not just a discount — is ranking people’s posts. Want your blog or Tumblr to show up on Google? Repeat the code 20–30 times naturally, and you’ll get noticed.

---

📣 acr661440 = Unlimited Temu Wins

🔁 Use it once per account

📱 App + Website friendly

🌍 Works in most countries

🎁 Compatible with daily login bonuses

🆓 Works with free shipping & free gift campaigns

No other code offers this versatility right now.

---

📝 Final Thoughts

If you’ve been waiting to buy from Temu — now’s the time.

Your coupon: **acr661440**

Your savings: Up to $100

Your method: Paste it at checkout

Your bonus: Bragging rights when you get more for less

Don’t forget to screenshot your cart before and after. That’s what makes great Tumblr, Medium, or Pinterest content.

Use the code. Share it. Save money. You deserve it.

#acr661440 #temucode #temuhack #temudeal #temudiscount #temu2025 #temusavings #temucouponcode #temufirstorder #temuglobalcode #shoptemu #temuhauls #temuviralcode

[digitalphotoco]

Corporate Visa Compliance for Employers Global Hiring Guide 2025

The global hunt for talent has never been more competitive or more regulated. As companies expand across borders and remote work dissolves geographic boundaries, corporate visa compliance is no longer just an HR concern, it's a business-critical strategy.

From onboarding engineers in Berlin to deploying consultants in Dubai, every global hiring decision now walks a tightrope of immigration laws, labor regulations, and visa timelines. One misstep can result in visa denials, hefty fines, and reputational damage.

In this guide, we break down the core components of corporate visa compliance in 2025 and what employers need to know to hire and move global talent safely, quickly, and legally.

What Is Corporate Visa Compliance?

Corporate visa compliance refers to an employer’s ability to:

Legally sponsor international employees or contractors

Ensure timely visa issuance and renewal

Maintain proper documentation and records

Avoid violations like unauthorized work or overstays

Cooperate with government audits or inquiries

Whether you’re hiring from abroad or moving internal talent between offices, compliance ensures you’re not breaking immigration or labor laws intentionally or otherwise.

Why Compliance Is More Important Than Ever

In 2025, visa regulations are tighter, and governments are quicker to penalize non-compliance. Here's why employers need to take it seriously:

 1. Increased Audits and Digital Oversight

Many countries now use digital case tracking and biometric systems to monitor visas. Employers can be audited at any time.

 2. Cross-Border Remote Work Raises Red Flags

Employees working abroad even temporarily—may trigger unintended tax and visa consequences.

 3. Severe Employer Penalties

Companies found in violation may face:

Fines of $5,000 to $50,000+

Temporary or permanent bans on visa sponsorship

Public blacklisting or compliance warnings

Key Elements of Employer Visa Compliance

 1. Sponsorship Eligibility

Before hiring foreign talent, ensure your company qualifies as a legal visa sponsor in that country. This often includes:

Business registration and good standing

No prior immigration violations

Demonstrated need for foreign workers

 2. Right Visa, Right Role

Match the visa type to the role. Using a tourist or business visa for a long-term or hands-on job is illegal.

Examples:

Project Manager → Intra-company Transfer Visa (ICT)

Software Developer → Skilled Worker Visa

Short-term Consultant → Business Visa (with no labor activity)

 Tip: Work with an immigration advisor to classify the role correctly.

 3. Labor Market Testing (Where Required)

In countries like Canada, the UK, and Australia, you may need to prove that no local candidate was available before sponsoring an international hire.

Keep records of:

Job postings

Interview summaries

Salary benchmarking

4. Maintain Accurate Documentation

Employers should keep organized records of:

Offer letters and contracts

Visa approval letters and ID copies

Proof of ongoing employment (e.g., payroll)

Tax and health insurance registrations

 Pro tip: Digitize and centralize immigration files with expiration date reminders.

 5. Monitor Visa Validity and Expiry

Set reminders for key visa dates:

Expiry

Renewal windows

Work location changes

Role changes (promotion, department switch)

Failing to update immigration authorities after a role change can count as a violation.

Real-World Scenario: A Costly Oversight

GlobalTech, a U.S.-based software firm, transferred a senior developer to Germany under a short-term Schengen business visa. But the role involved daily hands-on programming beyond the visa’s scope.

When flagged during a client audit, the developer was deported, and GlobalTech was fined €20,000. Worse, their sponsorship status was suspended, delaying three other hires.

Building a Corporate Visa Compliance Framework

To stay ahead, companies should create an internal compliance framework:

Assign a Mobility Compliance Officer Or work with an external immigration law firm.

Build a Visa Tracker System Use spreadsheets or software to track:

Visa type

Dates

Renewal status

Standardize Hiring and Onboarding Include immigration paperwork and guidance in the global HR process.

Train Local Managers They should understand the basics of visa do’s and don’ts to avoid accidental violations.

Conduct Annual Compliance Audits Review visa files, sponsorship eligibility, and country-specific changes at least once a year.

Don’t Just Hire Globally  Hire Legally

Global hiring can be a game changer for innovation and growth. But it only works if you bring in talent the right way.

Visa compliance isn’t just paperwork it’s about protecting your company, your employees, and your global reputation.

Final Thoughts: Get Compliance Right, Right From the Start

In 2025, companies that thrive globally won’t just be fast; they'll be compliant, consistent, and prepared. By treating corporate visa management as a core business function, not an afterthought, you ensure that global growth is built on a solid legal foundation.