Weekend reads: Seven strategies to be more mindful, why you should text your friends, and more.

Lex Ashcroft’s reads

The power of a casual check-in. The pandemic has created a “loneliness crisis,” challenging our friendships and connections. Reaching out to a friend through a quick call or text can seem like an insignificant gesture, and hardly worth the effort. However, a new study has revealed that people underestimate how much their friends like hearing from them. Writing for The New York Times, Catherine Pearson explains what hard-wires us into incorrectly assuming our friends won't be as open as we want, why we shouldn’t refrain from brief check-ins, and how critical small connections are to our everyday well-being.

Why are we still disinfecting things? America just can't quit. It's been more than two years since the CDC confirmed that Covid-19 is rarely transmitted by touching things, and yet items such as credit card readers, elevator buttons, and even magazines are still being doused in disinfectants. Measures such as this, which are "far more performative than useful" in reducing the spread of the virus, are known as "hygiene theater." Writing for The Atlantic, Yasmin Tayag breaks down the pervasiveness of hygiene theater, and the real danger associated with it: taking time, energy, attention, and resources from the measures that are actually effective against Covid-19.

Allie Rudin's reads

Why the new James Webb Space Telescope images are such a big deal. NASA this week released the first images captured from the space-based observatory James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST is a huge leap in size and capability from its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, writes Brian Resnick for Vox. One of the notable improvements is its collection of infrared light, invisible to the eye, which is particularly useful in detecting distant objects across the expanding universe. In a striking image of the Carina Nebula, infrared light is less obscured by cosmic dust and thus allows us to view more stars than ever. Most exciting for scientists, the more distant the object, the further back in time we are viewing as the light travels billions of years to reach the JWST.

How to follow the news without spiraling into despair. Whether you're guilty of "doomscrolling" or intentionally avoid all news, it is more difficult than ever to maintain balance while being engaged in today's nonstop news cycle full of alarming current events and unprecedented world challenges. However, it is important to find a way to care about the world while remaining anchored. Writing for the New York Times' "Well," clinical psychologist Jenny Taitz outlines seven strategies that she recommends to her clients. Based upon mindfulness, Taitz uses this guide herself to stay grounded in a world that sometimes feels anything but.