Best Columns: Mobile madness, Summer B-school
With our cell phones always at the ready,
The plight of the cell phone junkie
“Call us the never-off society,” say Wendy Tanaka and Sarah Terry-Cobo in Forbes.com. We tote our cell phones, BlackBerrys, and iPhones everywhere. For most of the 84 percent of us in the U.S. who have mobile phones—up from 13 percent in 2005—there is “no excuse anymore for missing a call, e-mail, or text message.” That’s not all good, and in fact may be a form of addiction. When a call is dropped, or the whole BlackBerry network, we panic and get irritable, like alcoholics and gamblers. And if you think it’s bad now, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”—wait until mobile handsets become more powerful and replace laptops. So get a jump on “cell phone overload” now: find your threshold and “set limits on usage.”
The case for a summer of nepotism
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
If you own a family business, and your family includes a teenager, says Eileen Ambrose in The Baltimore Sun, you should consider nepotism this summer. The labor market is “looking exceptionally brutal” for teens, and there are “financial and other advantages for both of you” in a business arrangement. You have to pay your child at least minimum wage (but not an “outrageously high” rate), and the child has to fill out a W4. There are tax advantages under certain circumstances, though, and you can use your working relationship to “impart a few financial lessons.” Finally, be sure to set expectations, like with any other employee, or your kid could bail.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Gavin Newsom mulls California redistricting to counter Texas gerrymandering
TALKING POINTS A controversial plan has become a major flashpoint among Democrats struggling for traction in the Trump era
-
6 perfect gifts for travel lovers
The Week Recommends The best trip is the one that lives on and on
-
How can you get the maximum Social Security retirement benefit?
the explainer These steps can help boost the Social Security amount you receive