Hi there, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Ryan Drillsma.

In today's news:

Understanding our feelings, keeping away seagulls, and voting at the Oscars.

All that and more, coming up next.

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調查:社群媒體造成兒少社群恐慌症

Survey Finds Social Media Stirs FOMO

Do you ever get a major case of FOMO?

You know that feeling?

Like all your friends or your family are doing something exciting, or having fun without you.

And you're sad and all alone.

If you're on social media, you definitely know what we're talking about.

Sometimes you'll look through a friend's feed and see that they're at a party, or out with other friends.

Or from their posts, it looks like their life is so amazing and they have many things that you want.

THAT feeling.

There's a word for that.

It's "FOMO".

It's actually an abbreviation (縮寫) for "Fear Of Missing Out" (錯失恐懼症、社群媒體焦慮症).

It's feeling sad or nervous that things are happening without you

And it's becoming a big problem, especially when so many people use social media.

The Child Welfare League Foundation took a survey.

They asked more than 1,800 students in junior high and high schools about social media.

That includes things like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, Douyin and others.

And almost 87 percent of those students said they felt FOMO from social media.

23 percent of the students said this made them feel lonely, or led to low self-esteem (缺乏自信).

兒盟針對兒少進行調查，發現有近8成7的學生曾出現「社群恐慌」狀況，感到焦慮、比較等心態。

The foundation says everyone, including social media companies, schools and parents, must work together to solve this problem.

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防海鷗空襲 雪梨歌劇院聘請狗狗巡邏隊

Dogs on Seagull Patrol at Sydney Opera House

Special security dogs are on duty (執勤、上班) around Sydney Opera House (雪梨歌劇院).

But these dogs are not police dogs.

They are not searching for criminals (罪犯).

They are on the watch for seagulls!

The Sydney Opera House is right next to Sydney Harbor, where a lot of seagulls live.

And there are many restaurants around the opera house.

Some of those restaurants have seats and tables outside.

And all that delicious food outside…is irresistible (無法抗拒) to the seagulls!

Many customers (顧客) sitting outside say the birds fly in and steal their food.

Some even say the birds attack them.

The restaurant owners say they often have to chase the birds away.

Or they have to give the customers new food.

And they have to clean up broken plates and cups, and buy new ones.

So the restaurants started working with a company called Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

The company sends out dogs and workers to the restaurants.

And they will patrol (巡邏) around the restaurants, chasing away seagulls.

The dogs do not try to catch or bite the seagulls.

And most of the time, the birds will stay far away from the dogs.

The company has around 12 dogs that take turns to do this work.

They use dogs that naturally want to chase seagulls, like Australian kelpies (澳洲卡爾比犬 ) and border collies (邊境牧羊犬).

One worker says at first, customers do not understand what the dogs are doing.

Then when the dogs go on a short break, all the seagulls come back to steal food.

And the customers quickly understand the dogs' jobs.

With the dogs on the job, the seagulls don't get hurt, and people can enjoy their food in peace.

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奧斯卡開放網友推特投票

Twitter Gets a Say in the Oscars

If you've always dreamed of being a part of the Oscars (奧斯卡獎) - or know someone who does, now is your chance!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members vote (投票) on Oscar nominations (提名), is opening voting to Twitter users.

The Academy is inviting Twitter users to vote on their favorite films from 2021, using the hashtag (井號) #OscarsFanFavorite.

奧斯卡主辦單位今年增設了兩大獎項，讓大家用推特給自己喜歡的影片投票。

And that's not all.

Twitter users will also get the chance to tweet about their favorite movie scene from 2021 using the hashtag #OscarCheerMoment.

Five winners will get a prize pack including a year of free movie tickets to a theatre of their choice, and exclusive (獨家的) gifts.

The winner of the Twitter vote will be announced on March 27th, which is when this year's Oscars takes place.

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So, in today's News Bites:

A Child Welfare League Foundation survey finds that almost 87 percent students said they felt FOMO from social media.

23 percent of the students said this made them feel lonely, or led to low self-esteem.

The foundation says everyone, including social media companies, schools and parents, must work together to solve this problem.

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Special security dogs patrol around Sydney Opera House to keep seagulls away.

The birds often try to steal food from people eating outside at restaurants there.

With the dogs on the job, the seagulls don't get hurt, and people can enjoy their food in peace.

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And,

The Oscars is opening voting to Twitter users.

People can vote for movies using special hashtags.

The winner of the Twitter vote will be announced on March 27th, which is when this year's Oscars takes place.

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And that's today's episode of News Bites!