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I am not sure if we own them or if they own us. Research from Asurion shows that Americans average checking their smart phones every 10 minutes. While they say they are doing this to stay connected with their friends and family they acknowledge that their phones get in the way of their face-to-face conversations.…

Have you walked past a group of young people sitting at a coffee shop recently only to see all of them looking at their smartphones. They have gathered at a “third space” to hang out, but let their phones interfere with the people sitting around the table with them. If you have seen this, then you will…

A hotel chain in Japan has admitted making a mistake when they replaced their humans with robots. They discovered that the Robots that have been serving as front-desk staff, cleaners, porters, and in-room assistants are expensive to service, unable to answer many customer questions, and prone to annoying…

The so-called experts, whoever they are, gave us a list of things that are good for us. Things like organic foods, saunas, full-fat dairy, to-do lists, leg exercises, and turmeric. One thing that is good for us that is even more surprising than the above is holding hands. The University of Colorado tells…

The results of a Dartmouth Medical School scientific study titled Hardwired to Connect, said that if you want to pass truth and values on to your children or young people, you must do two things: You must establish or develop a loving, intimate relationship with the child. You must model that very truth…

A new study at the University of Toronto suggests that family bonds are far more important to adult wellbeing than friendships. Researchers surveyed some 3000 people between 57 and 85, asking about their closest relationships, health, and well-being. They found that those who felt “extremely close” to…

In THANKS! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. writes, “The family, friends, partners, and others who surround them consistently report that people who practice gratitude seem measurably happier and are more pleasant to be around.” —Jim L. Wilson —THANKS!, 44 Psalm…

In the 2013 movie Her, Theodore falls in love with Samantha, his name for the female voice behind a new operating system with artificial intelligence. Over time, he begins to lose the real relationships in his life as he falls for his virtual love interest. In the end, Samantha evolves to a higher level…

In “Restraint in Relationships,” Mike Clements writes, “Mustering restraint in hostile relationships can feel like walking through a minefield. Our footing will seem unsure as we meet hostility with restraint. God’s character and resurrection power help Christians rise above the hostility of this world.…

A new app for your smartphone is called Invisible Boyfriend. It allows anyone to pretend they have a loving relationship with a boyfriend who sends text messages and leaves voicemails. According to the designer, Matthew Homann, “single women who use the app just want to use the text messages and voicemails…

As a symbol for the University of Nevada, there is a large “N” formed by white rocks in a Nevada hillside near Reno, NV. In November, 2013, Brent Wilburn, in an effort to win the love of his ex-girlfriend, Tina, decided to add three additional letters to the “N” to spell out her name. Using chalk, he…

New research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology has found that being rude is contagious. Researchers tracked 90 graduate business school students and found that if they rated someone they interacted with a rude, they were also more likely to be judged as rude by someone else. The researcher…

An 81-year-old Michigan man recently discovered a son he didn’t know he had. In 1959 Tony Trapani’s ex-lover sent him a letter to inform him he had a son in Pennsylvania, but he never received the letter. His wife intercepted the letter and hid it from him for more than 50 years. When she died in 2014,…

In his book, Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., writes, “If you want a good litmus test of your spiritual growth simply examine the nature and quality of your relationships with others.” —Jim L. Wilson Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual…

The Japanese have found a good friend for you and it will only cost you $1,600. Pepper is a 4-foot-tall human-shaped robot built by Tokyo-based telecom giant, SoftBank. Pepper’s programming allows it to sense your emotions based on vocal inflections and facial expressions. Pepper can talk, dance, tell…

In his book, Replenish: Leading from a healthy Soul, Lance Witt writes, “Not only does technology generate a lot of internal white noise, it hinders our ability to focus on people. It seems to me many of us have developed a kind of social ADD. We can’t stay engaged in a conversation or an experience…

Dave Earley says, “Relationships can be understood as bank accounts. Realize it or not, you have a relational account with every person within your sphere of influence. Every positive interaction makes a deposit in that account. Every negative dealing with a person makes a withdrawal in your relational…

There is an invention, which is an article of clothing called “Like-A-Hug.” It is a “wearable social media vest” and was invented by MIT as a part of their Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group. It is essentially a vest that inflates, almost like a life jacket, every time one of your facebook friends “likes”…

In a new book entitled, Friendfluence, author Carlin Flora looks at the effect friends have on people and says the influence of friends could even affect a person’s health. Flora says psychologist have long believed that friendships have a direct effect on our overall health and life expectancy. One…

A 2008 study reveals that 49% of American workers are not satisfied with their job. Why? Do you think it is because it is too demanding? Or maybe because of too little pay? No—the reason is their perception that their boss doesn’t listen to their ideas. –Jim L. Wilson and Joe Lam http://www.cbsnews.com/news/survey-more-americans-unhappy-at-work/…

A study conducted by researchers in Germany has found that stress may be contagious. The results suggest that stress can be transmitted to people simply by watching other people confront anxiety-provoking situations through television programs or motion pictures. Researchers paired people either as an…

A public opinion poll conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion surveyed a number of adults and found that there is one word that annoys Americans more than any other. The casual “whatever” was rated as “most annoying” by 38 percent of those who responded to the survey. Pollsters said…

The growth of social media has created a new perspective on friendship. Over a period of several years, it is easy to collect a lot of cyber friendships that are no more than people that appear on the computer screen. News feeds can be full of chatter and information, but not much of it is from real…

A study conducted by Lifeway Research found that a majority of people who attend church regularly say they have significant relationships with others at church, but less than half of them say they are intentionally helping other believers grow in their faith The survey identified “building relationships”…

When an employer mistreats an employee, one possible response is to quit. Another possibly would be to convince the entire staff to quit at the same time. After the manager of a footwear and apparel store in a New York mall was rude to an employee, all three employees of the store quit. They wrote a…