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Annie Reneau

I am a writer, wife, and mother of three with a penchant for coffee, wanderlust, and practical idealism. On good days, I enjoy the beautiful struggle of maintaining a well-balanced life. On bad days, I binge on chocolate and dream of traveling the world alone.

Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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Gen Xers and boomers discuss the pros and cons of life before cell phones

The answers are a mixed bag.

Photo credit: Canva

Life was dramatically different before and after smartphones came into our lives.

Isn't it wild that we're living in a time where a big chunk of the population knows what it's like to live in a world without cell phones and a big chunk don't and never will? Gen X was the last generation to have a fully cell-phone-free upbringing, and considering how much our modern phones have influenced life on Earth, that difference is significant.

It's wild to think that young people today have no concept of what life was like without cell phones being the norm. People with kids often share stories of trying to explain how we navigated without Google Maps or how we let someone know we were running late or what we did when we were standing in a long line. It's a whole new world, for better or for worse.

from AskOldPeople

Someone asked the /AskOldPeople subreddit, "Was it nice to live without cell phones?" and Gen Xers and boomers reminisced about the good and the bad of the disconnected life. Like most things, the transition to cell phone ubiquity has had its up sides and its down sides, which they tried to explain for the youngster who asked.

PROS OF LIFE BEFORE CELL PHONES

Not having your youthful stupidity recorded and broadcast

There were lots of shenanigans in the 70s, 80s, and 90s that no one will ever know about, thank goodness.

"I think one of the greatest perks of not having smart phones back then, is that all of the stupid things we did and said were not documented."

"I was SO cringe as a teenager. I’m glad there’s a very minimal digital footprint of that."

teens, hanging out, bowling, young people, fun Young people were free to just be without every move being documented.Photo credit: Canva

"I’d be in jail if I had a smart phone back then."

"Bwahahahahahahahah my husband and I were just talking about this. We are a fairly normal couple now with two children and a dog but Lord if there was video footage of things we did when we were in our twenties. I'm so glad that there's no evidence for our children to see the debauchery."

"I'd never be able to hold a job."

People enjoyed more face-to-face interaction

This is probably the most obvious pro of not having cell phones. People can still do this, of course, but we're not forced to.

"People hung out and interacted more. You didn’t see families at restaurants all looking at their phones. People were more connected on a personal level."

"Absolutely! If I were to take a photo in a restaurant today you’d see most people looking at their phones and not engaging. And a restaurant photo taken in the 70s, the only people I recall who didn’t engage with each other were older married couples. The differences are stark."

teens, hanging out, friends, playing outside, face to face Hanging out was just hanging out.Photo credit: Canva

"I struggled the first few years that phones were big when everyone was at thanksgiving staring at their phones and nobody was talking to each other. Now I’m used to it and heck I probably do it myself now..it becomes the new norm."

"Yes. I spent a lot more time staring into space and thinking when alone and it was wonderful. Also, not hearing from friends or dates after a day or so didn’t mean they hated me."

More freedom

In some ways, smartphones have opened up the world to us, but they've also created addictions and a style of life that's incredibly busy and overstimulating.

"Able to be actually completely unavailable. Reading books in my downtime. Silence. Darkness. True reflective solitude. Hell yeah it was good."

"GenX here. Things were more spontaneous. We’d leave messages and notes for friends. If you missed it, you missed it. We had more mental freedom. Meeting people was more fun. Making eye contact out at a nightclub or party was a thing."

"There was no anxiety when you left the house. You left the house and people knew you were leaving and then knew you weren’t gonna be back for a certain amount of time and if they had questions for you, they would have to wait until you got home. People had patience. Because you knew you could not get an answer in that exact second in that moment. The amount of people who get offended when you don’t text them back immediately is staggeringly stupid."

hanging out, face to face, socializing, friends, peers Before cell phones people hung out and were choosy with their photos.Photo credit: Canva

CONS OF LIFE BEFORE CELL PHONES

Lots of waiting around for people to call

Gen Z's minds are often blown trying to imagine not being able to text someone, much less having to just wait around by the phone for them to call.

"I recall sitting by the phone in the house for hours waiting for an expected call, wishing I could go out and do something. There was some good and some bad. We'd have loved to be able to contact friends without being home."

"That's what I remember too. And as a teen, relying on parents/siblings to give you messages back in the dark days before answering machines."

rotary phone, days before cell phones, waiting by the phone, no cell phones, home phones When you were waiting for a call, you had to stay close to the phone.Photo credit: Canva

"Back in 95, When I sent my mom a message on her pager to call me, I would never leave the phone. I would sit there waiting all night! Reading magazines most likely. Or drawing."

"I love this comment because now I'm remembering the downsides. My friends all out having fun without me because I wanted to stay home and see if a stupid boy was going to call me and my parents giving me crap about it. Also constantly fighting with my sister about being on the phone to the point that we had to have a timer for how long we could be on a single phone call. Or driving around looking for parties and trying to figure out where people were hanging out and just spending the whole Saturday in the car feeling frustrated because there was nothing to do. Still, I think it was mostly positive. We actually had to be with people without having to document everything or post it online."

Less safety and ease when traveling

Those who miss the pre-phone days may be forgetting what a pain it was to travel and how much less safe you felt if you got lost.

"I do a lot of traveling alone and if something happens to my car I make a phone call and get road service. That makes this phone priceless."

GPS, smartphone, google maps, navigation, safety Having a handheld GPS is pretty darn convenient.Photo credit: Canva

"My wife was being followed on her walk in a deserted park. The guy was getting very aggressive. She called me on her cell, then the police. I got there quickest and 'dealt' with the creep. My cousin had a blowout on the highway and went off the highway into a snow covered ditch. She used her phone to call for help and did not die in the -30 weather. I will take these obtrusive calls any day of the week. Like any other tool, it's how you use it. A good "do not disturb" setting with important people excepted from that list is the way to go. Overall, it is like any other tool - it's how you use it. As an older guy, the internet and smartphone is the best advance I have ever seen in technology and I embraced it from day one."

"It was awful. My town had no transit and you had to prearrange rides and miscommunication was common. Lots of yelling. And finding a location at night in the rain was horrible whereas Maps pinpoints your location and where you are trying to get to."

Many people miss the days before smartphones, but not cell phones

It's not so much the cell phones as it is the mini computers that we carry around with us now. The camera and Google Maps are great, but social media and carrying 24/7 news and all of the information in the world around with us is a lot.

"I'm not too nostalgic for a time before cell-phones, but I am nostalgic for the time before smart-phones. From ~1990 to ~2009, cell-phones were just what the name implies: mobile phones. But once smart-phones came out and social media exploded in popularity, they started actually changing the way human beings interact and behave and even how they think, and none of these changes were for the better."

flip phone, cell phone, calls, availability, no phones Many people would prefer flip phones to be the norm.Giphy GIF by Laff

"This is my take as well. I appreciated having a dumb cell phone in the 90s when I was a single woman when driving places alone late. I could call AAA from my car if my car broke down instead of walking to god knows where to find a pay phone to call. Smart phones + social media though have had a lot of downsides."

"This is such an important distinction. My first reaction reading the original post was all the stories of girls who walked home alone, couldn’t call for a safe ride and were never heard from again and all the times there was an accident and someone had to try to set off on foot to go get help. Cell phones are an amazing safety innovation. Smartphones are something different."

"I agree completely! I like very few things about smartphones... having Google Maps, but that's about it. I could have a flip phone and a Navman on my dash and never give a single fuck about "smart" phones ever again.

I hate what society and human interaction has become because of these things."

"Absolutely, there was a sweet spot when we had cell phones or gps (I used to get lost so much more) but before social media became so ubiquitous and employers expected you to be available 24/7. Miss those days!"

It truly is a mixed bag

One person's comment summed it all up quite perfectly:

"It's a mixed bag.

On the one hand, back in those days I had a lot less 'noise' coming at me all day. The phone ringing, texts coming in, emails, my company's instant messaging platform... none of those existed. Life was much quieter.

smart phone, cell phone, phones, distraction, connectednes Smart phones have made our lives both easier and more complex.Giphy GIF by Schitt's Creek

On the other hand, tasks that are simple and quick now were much harder then. The top one that comes to mind was just getting around a place I didn't know well. Having to pull out a map, try to figure out where I even was let alone where I was going, stopping to ask strangers for directions, driving to a phone booth so I could look up the address of a business in the Yellow Pages. Not knowing what restaurants are worth visiting in a new town and just having to wing it. It was a headache.

Sometimes I needed to get a hold of someone and just couldn't. Call, leave a voicemail, wait for a call back, hope I'm home and available to answer the phone when the return call happened.

Banking required going to the bank. Paying bills required writing a bunch of checks by hand, stamping envelopes, and going to the mailbox.

That said, even though these tasks are way easier and faster now, I don't have any more free time. I have less. Because we're expected to just cram more in our day."

Good or bad, better or worse, we live in a world where phones are so interwoven into our lives, using them wisely and judiciously is the most important thing.

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Education

A tale of two pairs of boots shows how the rich get richer in ways poor people simply can't

It’s not about bootstraps at all.

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness explains one way the rich get richer.

Any time discussions of wealth and poverty come up, people inevitably start talking about boots. The standard phrase that usually gets thrown around is "pull yourself up by your bootstraps," which is shorthand for "work harder and don't ask for or expect help." (The fact that the phrase was originally used sarcastically because pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps is physically impossible is rarely acknowledged, but c'est la vie.)

The idea that people who build wealth are able to do so because they individually work harder than poor people is baked into the American consciousness and wrapped up in the ideal of the American dream. A different take on boots and building wealth, however, paints a more accurate picture of what it takes to get out of poverty.

boots, poverty, economic inequality A boots story shows why it can be so hard to climb out of poverty. Giphy by DurangoBoots

Author Terry Pratchett is no longer with us, but his writing lives on and is occasionally shared on his official social media accounts. In 2022, his Twitter page shared the "Sam Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness" from Pratchett's 1993 book "Men At Arms." This boots theory explains that one reason the rich are able to get richer is because they are able to spend less money.

If that sounds confusing, read on:

— (@)

Pratchett wrote:

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

boots, work boots, economic inequality, rich get richer, climbing out of poverty A good pair of work boots will save you money in the long run, but only if you can afford them in the first place.Photo credit: Canva

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."

In other words, people who have the money to spend a little more upfront often end up spending less in the long run. A $50 pair of boots that last five years essentially cost you $10 a year. But if you can only afford $10 upfront for a pair of boots that last six months, that's what you buy—and you end up paying twice as much over a five-year period.

There are so many areas in which this principle applies when you're poor. Buying in bulk saves you money over the long run, but you have to be able to afford the bulk cost up front. A reliable car that doesn't require regular repairs will cost more than a beater, but if the beater is all you can afford, that's what you're stuck with. You'll likely spend the same or more over time than if you'd bought a newer/higher quality car, but without the capital (or the credit rating) to begin with, you don't have much choice.

buying a car, used car, new car, economic inequality More reliable cars cost more up front.Giphy GIF by LSD

People who can afford larger down payments pay lower interest rates, saving them money both immediately and in the long run. People who can afford to buy more can spend more with credit cards, pay off the balances, build up good credit and qualify for lower interest rate loans.

There are lots of good financial decisions and strategies one can utilize if one has the ability to build up some cash. But if you are living paycheck to paycheck, you can't.

Climbing the financial ladder requires getting to the bottom rung first. Those who started off anywhere on the ladder can make all kinds of pronouncements about how to climb it—good, sound advice that really does work if you're already on the ladder. But for people living in poverty, the bottom rung is just out of reach, and the walls you have to climb to get to it are slippery. It's expensive to be poor.

poverty, wealth, climbing a ladder, getting out of poverty It's hard to climb out of poverty when you can't reach the ladder. Photo credit: Canva

When people talk about how hard it is to climb out of poverty, this is a big part of what they mean. Ladder-climbing advice is useless if you can't actually get to the ladder. And yet, far too many people decry offering people assistance that might help them reach the ladder so they can start taking advantage of all that great financial advice. Why? Perhaps because they were born somewhere on the ladder—even if it was the bottom rung—and aren't aware that there are people for whom the ladder is out of reach. Or perhaps they're unaware of how expensive it is to be poor and how the costs of poverty keep people stuck in the pit. Hopefully, this theory will help more people understand and sympathize with the reality of being poor.

Money makes money, yes, but having money also saves you money. The more money you have, the more wealth you're able to build not only because you have extra money to save, but also because you can buy higher quality things that last, therefore spending less in the long run.

Thanks, Terry Pratchett, for the simple explanation.

This story originally appeared three years ago.

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Humor

Mister Rogers' crew once pranked him during his opening song. His reaction was so very him.

He really was such a delightful human.

80sThen80sNow/YouTube

Mr. Rogers went to put on his shoes and found they didn't fit.

Fred Rogers was truly one of humanity's greats, in every sense that counts most. He wasn't a titan of industry or a builder of empires. He wasn't a man of great means or a wielder of political power. He was humble, gentle, and kind. He was a teacher, a learner, and a leader in his own way.

For generations of children, he was a consistent voice of compassion, curiosity, and caring. He was a calm haven in our television set, a safe space where we always knew we were loved just the way we are.

And yet he was strong, too, just not in the way we often think of strength. He was a fierce defender of children and a champion of justice. His testimony before Congress about public television totally turned around the sentiments of a judge who was extremely skeptical before Rogers started speaking. He wasn't forceful and he didn't yell or cry; he just shared his feelings, indicated his trust in the judge's conscience, and explained the value of quality children's television programming in a way that was impossible to disregard.

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

No one could deny the wholesome awesomeness of Rogers. He was the real thing, tried and true, through and through and the world misses him greatly.

It's quite well known that Rogers was the same man off-screen as he was on his show, and a video of his cast and crew pranking him once during his opening song offers a bit of delightful proof.

Check this out:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

Seriously, he was the most delightful human. His laugh when he sticks his foot in the second shoe—priceless. His "Thanks ever so much"—epic.

People have responded to the video on Reddit with gushing praise.

"Mr. Rogers thanking that man for a delightful practical joke just changed something in me for the better," wrote one commenter. "Off to go thank my husband for some stuff."

"What a magical person that just a clip of him having a laugh is making me well up," wrote another.

"My childhood was a scary place but when I turned on Mr. Roger’s, it all disappeared for awhile," shared another. "Thank you for being a light to so many children. May you Rest In Peace."

"An amazing human being and an utterly sweet person," wrote another. "We should all aspire to be the person Mr. Rogers knew we could be."

Indeed, we should.

Fred Rogers' response to the prank was not only a look into his kind and gentle character, but his consistency as well. In a 1998 episode of the prank show, Candid Camera, host Peter Funt played a prank on Rogers and he responded just as kindly and wholesomely as he did before. Rogers is staying in a hotel while attending a PBS conference where he will be the keynote speaker. Hoping to frustrate him, Funt (as a bellhop) relays to Rogers that his room has no TV (that's the gag!). Instead of respond with annoyance, however, Rogers surprises Funt and viewers by kindly saying he "doesn't use the television anyway" and has "enough TV in [his] life."

The interaction is as sweet and kind as Fred Rogers always was. Watch:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

The shoe prank outtake can be found on theMister Rogers Neighborhood website, which also houses tons of content about the show, the neighbors, the puppets, and Fred Rogers himself. They also upload five full, new episodes every other Monday for fans to enjoy. The first Monday of the month features episodes from the early years (1968-1975), and the third Monday of the month features episodes from the "Theme Weeks" (1979-2001). Fans can also watch Mister Rogers Neighborhood on PBS Kids, PLUTOTV, and Prime Video.

There may be many wonderful people who walk this earth, but there will never be another Fred Rogers. What a precious gift that we have so many hours of him on film to enjoy and share with generations to come.

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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Animals & Wildlife

Scientists have finally discovered the gene mutation that makes most orange cats male

For decades, the gene that results in only 1 in 5 ginger kitties being female has eluded researchers.

Photo credit: Canva

We know 80% of orange cats are male, but until now we didn't know the specific gene mutation that causes orange fur.

If an orange cat were to show up at your doorstep and you had to wager whether it was male or female, the odds would definitely be in your favor if you bet male. Only around 20% of orange cats are female, making them fairly rare (though not as rare as a male calico cat, as 99.9% of calicos are female).

Up until now, scientists assumed that the male-to-female ratio for orange cats was due to an X chromosome gene mutation. Since male cats have XY chromosomes, having the gene mutation on the X chromosome makes a male cat orange. But since female cats have two X chromosomes, they have to inherit the mutation on both of them, making it statistically less likely for a female cat to come out with orange fur. While the fact that a sex-linked gene causes orange coloring in cats was understood, which specific gene and what kind of mutation have been an elusive mysteries for decades.

orange cat, ginger kitty, male orange cat, female orange cat, genetic mutation A genetic mutation deletes a piece of DNA that usually suppresses a specific gene in orange cats.Photo credit: Canva

Not anymore. In two studies published simultaneously in the journal Current Biology in May 2025, geneticists at Stanford University in the U.S. and Kyushu University in Japan have pinpointed the exact gene mutation that causes orange pigmentation in cats. The gene is known as Arghap36, and the mutation appears to delete a section of DNA that normally suppresses the expression of the gene, allowing it to remain active.

But the finding was surprising in a few ways.

“At the time we found it, the Arhgap36 gene had no connection to pigmentation,” said Stanford geneticist and lead author Christopher Kaelin, PhD. in a statement. Arhgap36, which has been studied in cancer and developmental biology research, is normally expressed in neuroendocrine tissues. Overexpression there can lead to tumors, but the increased activity of the gene in orange cats causes their unique pigmentation.

orange cat, ginger kitty, male orange cat, female orange cat, genetic mutation Most orange cats are male.Giphy by UC Davis

“In a number of species that have yellow or orange pigment, those mutations almost exclusively occur in one of two genes, and neither of those genes are sex-linked,” Kaelin said. “The mutation in orange cats seems to turn on Arghap36 expression in a cell type, the pigment cell, where it’s not normally expressed.”

Notably, this seems to truly be specific to orange cats and only orange cats.

“Arghap36 is not expressed in mouse pigment cells, in human pigment cells or in cat pigment cells from non-orange cats,” Kaelin said. “The mutation in orange cats seems to turn on Arghap36 expression in a cell type, the pigment cell, where it’s not normally expressed. Certainly, this is a very unusual mechanism where you get misexpression of a gene in a specific cell type."

orange cat, ginger kitty, male orange cat, female orange cat, genetic mutation Orange cat pigmentation is due to a unique gene mutation. Photo credit: Canva

The development of genomic research over the past five to ten years is what enabled the scientists to pinpoint the way the gene mutation works. Hiroyuki Sasaki, a self-proclaimed cat-lover and geneticist at Kyushu University’s Medical Institute of Bioregulation and the Institute for Advanced Study, organized a crowdfunded effort in Japan, raising $70,000 so he could fund his study.

“Identifying the gene has been a longtime dream, so it’s a joy to have finally cracked it,” Sasaki said in a statement. "Arghap36 is essential for development, with many other roles in the body, so I had never imagined it could be the orange gene."

Sasaki points out that the DNA deletion lies in a non-coding deletion region of the gene, so the protein itself doesn't change. Arghap36 is also active in many areas of the body, including the brain and hormonal glands, which means the activation of it could theoretically affect more than just fur color in orange cats.

— (@)

“For example, many cat owners swear by the idea that different coat colors and patterns are linked with different personalities,” laughs Sasaki. “There’s no scientific evidence for this yet, but it’s an intriguing idea and one I’d love to explore further.”

One thing the scientists don't know for sure is when along the line of evolution this mutation first occurred. Kaelin says it probably occurred early in the domestication process, but Sasaki has ideas for figuring it out.

“One idea is to study ancient Egyptian cat paintings—or even to test DNA from mummified cats—to see if any cats back then were orange,” he says. “It’s ambitious, but I’m excited to try.”

You can read more about the study from Stanford University here and the Kyushu University study here.

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Pop Culture

Kerri Strug vaulting with a broken ankle at the 1996 Olympics lands a bit differently now

"I was excited to show my daughters Kerri Strug's famous one-leg vault...But for some reason I wasn't as inspired watching it this time. In fact, I felt a little sick."

Byron Heath/Facebook

Kerri Strug landed her vault with a broken ankle at the 1996 Tokyo Olympic Games.

In July of 2021, Simone Biles withdrew from the team final in the Tokyo Olympics and subsequently withdrew from the individual all-around finals after getting a case of the "twisties" that had the world talking. She received overwhelming support as well as overwhelming criticism for the move, with some praising her for recognizing her limits and others blasting her for not persevering through whatever she's dealing with.

Some people pointed to Kerri Strug, who landed on one foot after vaulting with a broken ankle in the 1996 Olympics to help the U.S. win gold, as an example of the kind of sacrifice an athlete should be willing to make for their country.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

But was it really? A dad named Byron Heath shared some thoughts about that fateful day in a viral Facebook post that was shared more than 370,000 times in less than a day.

Heath wrote:

"This realization I had about Simone Biles is gonna make some people mad, but oh well.

Yesterday I was excited to show my daughters Kerri Strug's famous one-leg vault. It was a defining Olympic moment that I watched live as a kid, and my girls watched raptly as Strug fell, and then limped back to leap again.

But for some reason I wasn't as inspired watching it this time. In fact, I felt a little sick. Maybe being a father and teacher has made me soft, but all I could see was how Kerri Strug looked at her coach, Bela Karolyi, with pleading, terrified eyes, while he shouted back 'You can do it!' over and over again.

My daughters didn't cheer when Strug landed her second vault. Instead they frowned in concern as she collapsed in agony and frantic tears.

'Why did she jump again if she was hurt?' one of my girls asked. I made some inane reply about the heart of a champion or Olympic spirit, but in the back of my mind a thought was festering: *She shouldn't have jumped again*

The more the thought echoed, the stronger my realization became. Coach Karolyi should have gotten his visibly injured athlete medical help immediately! Now that I have two young daughters in gymnastics, I expect their safety to be the coach's number one priority. Instead, Bela Karolyi told Strug to vault again. And he got what he wanted; a gold medal that was more important to him than his athlete's health. I'm sure people will say 'Kerri Strug was a competitor--she WANTED to push through the injury.' That's probably true. But since the last Olympics we've also learned these athletes were put into positions where they could be systematically abused both emotionally and physically, all while being inundated with 'win at all costs' messaging. A teenager under those conditions should have been protected, and told 'No medal is worth the risk of permanent injury.' In fact, we now know that Strug's vault wasn't even necessary to clinch the gold; the U.S. already had an insurmountable lead.

— (@)

Nevertheless, Bela Karolyi told her to vault again according to his own recounting of their conversation:

'I can't feel my leg,' Strug told Karolyi.

'We got to go one more time,' Karolyi said. 'Shake it out.'

'Do I have to do this again?' Strug asked. 'Can you, can you?' Karolyi wanted to know.

'I don't know yet,' said Strug. 'I will do it. I will, I will.'

The injury forced Strug's retirement at 18 years old. Dominique Moceanu, a generational talent, also retired from injuries shortly after. They were top gymnasts literally pushed to the breaking point, and then put out to pasture. Coach Karolyi and Larry Nassar (the serial sexual abuser) continued their long careers, while the athletes were treated as a disposable resource.

— (@)

Today Simone Biles--the greatest gymnast of all time--chose to step back from the competition, citing concerns for mental and physical health. I've already seen comments and posts about how Biles 'failed her country', 'quit on us', or 'can't be the greatest if she can't handle the pressure.' Those statements are no different than Coach Karolyi telling an injured teen with wide, frightened eyes: 'We got to go one more time. Shake it out.'

The subtext here is: 'Our gold medal is more important than your well-being.'

Our athletes shouldn't have to destroy themselves to meet our standards. If giving empathetic, authentic support to our Olympians means we'll earn less gold medals, I'm happy to make that trade.

Here's the message I hope we can send to Simone Biles: You are an outstanding athlete, a true role model, and a powerful woman. Nothing will change that. Please don't sacrifice your emotional or physical well-being for our entertainment or national pride. We are proud of you for being brave enough to compete, and proud of you for having the wisdom to know when to step back. Your choice makes you an even better example to our daughters than you were before. WE'RE STILL ROOTING FOR YOU!"

— (@)

Many people shared Heath's sentiment, with comments pouring in thanking him for putting words to what they were feeling.

We're in a new era where our lens of what's admirable, what's strong, and what's right has shifted. We understand more about the lifelong impact of too many concussions. We have trainers and medics checking on football players after big hits. We are finding a better balance between competitiveness and well-being. We are acknowledging the importance of mental health and physical health.

We are also more aware of how both physical and mental trauma impacts young bodies. Though Kerri Strug pushing through the pain has long been seen as an iconic moment in sports, the adults in the room should have been protecting her, not pushing her through an obvious injury.

And the way this fall of Dominique Moceanu at age 14 was handled is downright shocking by today's standards. She said she never received an exam for it, even after the competition was over. So wrong.

— (@)

Athletes are not cogs in a wheel, and the desire to win a competition should not trump someone's well-being. Elite gymnasts already put themselves through grueling physical and mental feats; they wouldn't be at the top of their sport if they didn't. But there are limits, and too often in our yearning for a gold medal—or even for a triumphant Olympic story—we push athletes too far.

Now we see some of them pushing back, and knowing what we know now, that's 100% a good thing.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Public Health

How often should you shower? Doctors weigh in and rock some people's worlds.

Once a day is not ideal.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

Doctors say a lot of us are showering more than we need to.

A few times in recent years, celebrities and social media influencers alike have made waves by sharing that they don't make their kids bathe every day. For some parents, that was totally par for the course, but for others, letting a child go more than a day without bathing was seen as a travesty.

Doctors have made it clear that kids don't need to bathe daily, with some going so far as to recommend against it when they are young to protect kids' delicate skin. But what about grownups? Most of us don't take baths regularly as adults, but what's the ideal frequency for showering?

According to a YouGov poll of over 5,700 Americans, just over half of respondents said they shower daily and 11% said they shower twice or more per day. That means two out of three of us are showering at least once a day.

woman, showering, shower, daily shower, bathe A woman in a shower cap.Canva Photos

But according to doctors and dermatologists, that's probably overkill for most people. Unless you're doing heavy labor, exercising vigorously, working outdoors or around toxins or otherwise getting excessively dirty or sweaty, a few showers per week is enough for healthy hygiene.

In fact, Robert H. Shmerling, MD of Harvard Health says too frequent showering could actually have some negative effects on your health.

"Normal, healthy skin maintains a layer of oil and a balance of 'good' bacteria and other microorganisms," Dr. Shmerling writes. "Washing and scrubbing removes these, especially if the water is hot." He shares that removing that protective layer can make our skin dry, irritated or itchy, which can lead to damage that allows allergens and bacteria to cross the skin barrier. Additionally, our immune systems require exposure to microorganisms, dirt, and other environmental stimuli in order to create "immune memory," and if we wash them away too frequently, we might be inhibiting the effectiveness of our immune system.

dirt, immune system, environment, kids, baths, dirt don't hurt A healthy coat of dirt.Giphy

Dermatologists who spoke to Vogue had similar advice about shower frequency. Board-certified dermatologist Deanne Robinson, MD, FAAD told the magazine that you can skip showering for the day if you haven't engaged in rigorous activity. Mamina Turegano, a triple board-certified dermatologist, internist and dermatopathologist. agreed. "I think that showering three to four times a week is plenty for most people,” she said.

Of course, everyone is different and what is good for one person's skin isn't good for another's. Showering frequency and health also depend on what kinds of products you're using, what temperature of water you're using, and how long your shower is. There's a big difference between a quick pits-and-privates rinse-off and a long, hot everything shower.

While scorching yourself and steaming up the bathroom may feel luxurious and relaxing, especially if you've got sore muscles, dermatologists say it's not good for your skin. Hot showers are especially problematic for people with skin issues like eczema.

"Any skin condition characterized by a defective skin barrier can be worsened by a hot shower," board-certified New York City dermatologist Shari Marchbein told Allure. "[It] strips the skin of sebum, the healthy fats and oils necessary for skin health, and dehydrates the skin."

shower, shower temperature, hot shower, lukewarm shower, showering Maybe cool it on the hot showers. Canva Photos.

In fact most dermatologists recommend keeping showers lukewarm. That sounds like torture, frankly, but who's going to argue with the experts?

A lot of people, actually. Modern humans are pretty particular about our shower preferences, and judging from the comments on cleanliness discussions, some folks are dead set on the idea that a daily shower is simply not negotiable. Even with the experts weighing in with their knowledge and science, a lot of people will continue to do what they do, advice be damned.

But at least the folks who've been judged harshly by the daily shower police have some official backup. As long as you're showering every couple of days, you're golden. As it turns out, there really is such a thing as being too clean.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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Parenting

Mom of identical twins joked about mixing them up. Then real twin mix-up stories poured in.

Apparently, this is not a terribly uncommon occurrence with identical twin babies.

Photo credit: Canva

It's entirely possible for parents to mix up identical twins.

Having twins is unarguably a wild ride straight from the get go, but having identical twins is a whole other layer of fun. Two babies at once who look exactly alike right down to their little DNA strands and who share a bond like no other on Earth? It's an adventure for sure.

People like to joke about mixing up identical twins, and twins themselves will often play practical jokes swapping identities on people who can't tell them apart. But what happens if a parent literally loses track and doesn't know which baby is which? Does that actually happen? And what do they do if it does?

A video from @thetwinniesmom shows her twin babies dressed in identical "BEST BUDS" shirts with the text, "They don't know it yet but in 30 minutes I will be taking them to the hospital because I mixed them up." It got nearly 9 million views and thousands of comments.

@thetwinniesmom
#identical #twins #babies #brothers #parenting #hospital #birth #birthstories #pregnant #delivering #funny #comedy #silly #satire #baby #mom

The post was hash tagged as satire and comedy, but judging by the comments that poured in, mixing up identical twin babies is a real thing that can happen, and more easily than you might think. As one commenter wrote, "Do I have twins? Nope! Did this unlock a new fear? Yep!"

People's personal stories of twin baby mix-ups show how it happens:

"My identical twins bracelets fell off beside one another at about a week old...I made a good guess...lol. Twin A may now be twin B."

"My mother left my father home alone with my twin sister and I once when we were infants. He took off our bracelets to bath us. My mother came home during the bathing process, took one look at the bracelets and asked if he knew which twin was which. Look of horror, and then a stab in the dark. So, I might not have the name I was given at birth."

identical twins, babies, twin mix-up, twin swap, parenting, newborn babies Newborn babies have bracelets with their identity on them, but once those come off parents are on their own.Photo credit: Canva

"My father's baby book says that he was born first, and that he was the heavier twin. He and his twin brother were looking at it one day and my grandmother remarked that that couldn't be right -- she remembered the doctor being surprised because the heavier one was second. Those two have been mixed up since day 1."

"This actually happened to a pair of twins I know, they only found out around age 17 because of an invisible physical variation (I cannot remember what it was, but it occurred to the second twin during birth, torn something or other) that supposedly belonged to X that belonged to Y. The names switched between the hospital and home."

"I have a friend with identicals. She kept nail polish on one's big toes to tell them apart. To her dismay, at 2 months old, the nail polish wore off before she could reapply. They are older now and have extremely different personalities. But she took a leap of faith and called one A and the other B though she wasn't sure. Still not sure, lol."

"I once fed the same twin twice.🤣 They were a few days old. 😬🥰"

identical twins, babies, twin mix-up, twin swap, parenting, newborn twins Feeding the same newborn twin twice? It happens.Photo credit: Canva

Some twins shared that they may have been switched without knowing.

"I'm a twin who was supposedly born having seizures for days. I am now 'fine,' while my sister gets seizures, severe migraines and has two autoimmune disorders. Forever wondering if we got switched. Our drs insist I just grew out of it 😭 They SWEAR our bloodwork matches up."

"Identical twins here 🤣 I always liked my sisters name better. Maybe it was mine first. 🤔"

"My twin and I were raised by hippies. I’m pretty sure they have no clue to this day who’s who."

"My mom used to say that only my older sister could definitively tell my brother & I apart as babies when both she and my dad struggled. My sister is only 18 months older than us, so I suspect the validity of this, and that she may have just been randomly picking and may parents took her judgement as truth."

identical twins, babies, twin mix-up, twin swap, parenting baby twins GIFGiphy

It's actually totally understandable that parents would mix up twins. Parental instincts can only go so far, and when you're trying to manage life with two infants at once, phew. But people did share methods for trying to keep them straight:

"I always wonder if I mixed up my twins they look different now, but when they were little, they looked identical I didn’t take their hospital bracelets off for like a month because I was so scared, I was gonna mix them up."

"I painted one of my twins’ big toenail green because his name is Seth and i could remind myself Seth Green, like the actor. This worked until they both ended up being transported to the hospital in an ambulance without me and by the time I got there, the polish was removed for a pulse ox monitor. I worried for months that they had been mixed up, but finally spotted the tiniest fleck of green on Seth’s toenail as it grew out. 😅"

"My mirror image identical twins were 6 ounces apart, I had to weigh them to see which was who lol."

identical twins, babies, twin mix-up, twin swap, parenting It's not easy to tell identical twins apart if they don't have any distinct natural markings.Photo credit: Canva

"I saw someone say they put temporary tattoos on one baby."

"My husband is a twin. His mother put a dot of nail polish on his twin’s big toe nail until they were like 4. lol"

"Simple trick : get a fingerprint reader, could be an old iPhone for example. Register the fingerprints of only one of the twins. In case of doubt, scan both of them, the one who unlocks the iPhone is the good one (the other one is the evil twin of course)."

""If I had twins they’d definitely wear specific color wristbands until I could finally figure out which is which.""

"I’d mix them up and just start using their names interchangeably until they were old enough to tell me."

identical twins, babies, twin mix-up, twin swap, parenting Identical sneezesGiphy by America's Funniest Home Videos

And really, at the end of the day. does it really matter if they get switched around as infants? Barring any known health issues, it's really just a name.

"I'm an identical twin. If our parents ever mixed us up and we've lived our whole life as the wrong one, it's no big deal. 😁"

"I’m a twin and this is what I’ve always said! 😂 It doesn’t change who you are if you were mixed up at some point, just your name lol."

"I asked a friend of mine how she could tell her twins apart when they were a few weeks old. She said she couldn’t a lot of the time and just figured whatever name they had when she could tell them apart would stick. I strive for that level of laid back."

Seriously, having twins is such a wild ride.

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