1st Session
1. Introduce yourself.
2. How was your weekend?
3. If you could live in any fictional world, where would you go?
4. Get 100 million if someone I dislike gets 500 vs. get nothing.
Do Nothing Like a Pro: The Space Out Competition
On October 13, 90 people came to Tokyo's Roppongi Hills to take part in a Space Out Competition, where they competed to see who was best at doing nothing.
The goal of the competition was to stay as still and "spaced-out" as possible for 90 minutes. But just sitting and doing nothing isn't as easy as it sounds, and competitors couldn't check their phones, sleep or talk. Anyone found doing these things was eliminated.
Participants could choose to compete on their own or in teams. This year, 528 people said they wanted to join, but only 90 were chosen for the competition.
To win, competitors had to keep their heart rate calm and steady while also getting votes from people watching the competition.
Every 15 minutes, their heart rates were checked, and out of the 10 with the most votes, the team with the steadiest heart rate was named the winner.
Since the first Space Out Competition took place in South Korea in 2014, it has been held in a number of places around the world, including the Netherlands and Hong Kong.
It was created by an artist known as Woopsyang, who started the event after experiencing burnout.
Woopsyang created the competition to help people understand how important it is to take time for their mental health.
"We tend to think that doing nothing is a waste of time," she told the South China Morning Post. "But in reality, for modern people, such 'unproductive' time doing nothing is actually absolutely necessary."
What are your thoughts on the Space Out Competition?
2. When was the last time you had a day where you did nothing?
3. Do you agree that unproductive time is necessary?
4. Do you imagine burnout is a big problem in your country?
2nd session
1. Introduce yourself.
2. How was your day?
3. Would you rather have a rewind button or a fast-forward button for your life?
4. Live without Instagram vs. live without YouTube.
Instagram Introduces New Teen Accounts Settings
With many teens spending almost all of their time online, parents are concerned that social media is exposing them to harmful content. Faced with growing pressure to stop online harm, Instagram has introduced a major new update to protect young people and give parents more control.
Under 18s now signing up for Instagram in the US, UK, Canada and Australia will be automatically enrolled into a restricted teen account. Existing accounts will be transferred by mid-November. Other Meta services like Facebook will get teen accounts next year. Instagram already prohibits anyone under 13 from signing up.
Now, teen accounts will automatically be set to private, so they'll have to accept or reject new follower requests. Other users won't be able to see their posts or tag the account.
Teens will also only receive direct messages from people they're following or who follow them.
Teens won't be shown content involving sensitive topics and an anti-bullying feature will screen out offensive words in comments and message requests.
To reduce their screen time, teens will get a notification to stop using the app after it's been open for over an hour ― which they can ignore.
Sleep mode between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. will mute notifications and send auto-replies to direct messages. However, they can still use Instagram and answer messages if they want to.
These limits will be turned on automatically for all teens, but 16 and 17-year-olds can turn them off. Kids under 16 will need permission to do so and parents can make changes and approve or deny any requests.
1. What are your thoughts on Instagram's new teen accounts settings?
2. At what age do you think kids should be allowed on social media?
3. What new technologies were parents concerned about when you were a kid?
4. Do you try to limit how much time you spend on social media?