Friday again, take a look! It’s 09 Thai time and I just sent Nelly to the last school day of the week. In Sweden you are somewhere in the middle of the wolf hours. As usual, I’m strangely happy to have a fictitious lead in time. Whether the rest of you are most effective when I lie down and sleep myself is another story, at the moment I have the upper hand. By the way, I sleep here A LOT. Usually goes out at the same time as Nelly, around 10 p.m., and can sleep until 7 a.m. without any problems. Sleeping is the best thing I know!
Today I have some work to catch up on, and then it’s the end of the week together at Lilla Svenska Skolan. An evening trip to Saladan is planned every week; we rarely break with that tradition. But first Friday five! Unfortunately, a very gloomy one (sorry in advance).
About brain drain, cold and the Visit Swedish Island campaign
#1. Brain drain, scrolling and tips about podcasts
In recent months, listening to podcasts has taken a backseat in favor of audiobooks. After some strong urging from my sister to listen to a specific episode of The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (a podcast I enjoy listening to occasionally), I put on my headphones and headed out. The episode took so long that I had to take two walks on the beach before I was done. And so it was not an encouraging listen.
The podcast episode is broadly about how all short film formats (originally from TikTok, but these ‘shorts’ are now available on all platforms) affect the brain. The episode is hosted by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and Harvard physician Aditi Nerurkar, who discuss and debate the impact social media has on us humans. How they create patterns as strong as addictive drugs (hello dopamine addiction!). Added to this is reduced ability to concentrate, increased stress levels, no focus, futility and, saddest of all, no confidence in the future. What a conclusion, huh? Our younger generation seems especially affected and susceptible. The episode raises an additional warning finger for AI chatbots, which in turn can create distrust of human relationships.
Did you know that there is an expression called brain drain? It basically means that just having the phone next to you – without even using it – affects your ability to concentrate.
Listen to the episode here. I think everyone should listen to the episode and really think about…well, humanity in general.
#2. What is the world like?
After listening to the above episode, I needed some positive news about the excellence of the world. What happened instead was that I found myself in a scrolling marathon (er, I should have given up the phone after listening to the podcast!) over the sick files that are now being released one by one. Yesterday, on his birthday, the one formerly titled Prince of the Kingdom of Great Britain was arrested. A parallel trial is underway in Norway against another little bonus prince. The story feels like a happy ending terribly far away.
#3. Visit the latest Swedish island campaign
This week, Visit Sweden released the advertising campaign Your Swedish island where the basic idea seems to be to increase the excellence of the many Swedish islands. My spontaneous gut feeling when I saw the film? Bad from start to finish.
I wasn’t the only one with that feeling – read more at CV here. Honestly, Visit Sweden can do so much better than that. My colleague Linda Vismer/Travel consciously does a good summary on his Linked In account if you want to read more about the criticism from a sustainability perspective.
Instead, here I offer some positive island vibes from an earlier post from the blog: Swedish Islands – Tips on 10 Favorites to Visit.
#4. About the cold that bakes things
Tobias came home in a stone-dead car. Rescuers had to be called in to solve the problem, at least temporarily. I assume that particular professional category currently has high numbers? A few days after the car incident, our home heating system went haywire. It just doesn’t seem like the stuff is made for the prolonged cold that has kept parts of Sweden in a tight grip.
#5. Will there be another winter on Lanta?
I’m really trying to live in the moment here. I think I’m a little better at it than usual actually! But the school places in Lilla Svenska Skolan for the next winter season are filling up quickly – and soon we have to make a decision on how to do it next year. Should we use the same configuration? Break? Another period? The way it feels exactly today, I’d love to run a repeat favorite if all the stars are right.
This kind of breakfast action on a February afternoon is because I don’t feel ready for it yet. Not at all actually.
Have a nice weekend!
For those who are curious about more scouting, tips and weekly overviews, you can find these under the category Travel Friday week by week. Cover image: Stora Karlsö, Gotland. Author: Annika Myhre/Resfredag.se
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