Wednesday 2 April

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of The Independent’s lifestyle newsletter.

“Excited to hear your updates!” my friend texts me before our first catch-up of the year. The agenda for tonight’s conversation is packed, because in the past three months there have been many developments: she’s got a new job; I’ve got a new flat.

“How’s your apartment?” she asks immediately when we meet. I say, it’s nice. “I’m so happy for you, because when we moved house last year it was such a drag!” she replies. “But oh my God, you must come around to see our new sofa. It’s green and velvet and...” Finally, she asks about my holiday plans. I tell her I’m going to Greece this summer, but before I can divulge any details, she’s off again – this time telling me about her Australian adventure back in January.  Over the next two hours, I ask about her new job, her relationship, and how her parents are doing. Every once in a while, I’m offered the floor – only to have it immediately snatched away from me. We hug goodbye. It’s only when I leave that I realise she didn’t listen to me at all.

Like everything else, this social faux pas has got a trendy name: boomerasking. According to a new study by researchers from Harvard Business School and Imperial College London published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, boomerasking is a conversation format whereby someone asks a question, lets the other person briefly answer, and then immediately brings the focus back to themselves. Read more here.

Elsewhere this week, Helen Coffey looks into the rise in Gen Z-ers glamorising thie white-colar 9-to-5, and warns them that they are likely be sorely disappointed by the reality of the corporate grind. “As a former 9-to-5, five-days-a-week “office girlie” myself, I must advise any young person pursuing this corporate dream sold on social media to proceed with caution,” writes Coffey. In fact, peel back the glossy social-media-ness of it all – the Insta-friendly protein breakfast bowls, afternoon snacks, and lunch-break trips to buy flowers – and these OfficeTok videos actually do portray the tedious status quo pretty accurately."

Meanwhile, Katie Rosseinsky explores the disturbing rise of sunbeds among the younger generation as an approved wellness treatment. “Didn’t everyone stop using sunbeds years ago, you might ask? What about all the scary statistics, like the fact that just one sunbed session can increase the risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer by 67 per cent and basal cell skin cancer by 29 per cent? Despite all this, sunbeds are far from extinct,” writes Rosseinsky. Read more here.

In this week's newsletter you can expect:

- I had £750,000 to buy a house – then lost it in a ‘cryptomugging’

- Is the idea of the ‘dream job’ dead?

- This big conversation faux pas will make you enemies, not friends

Until next time,

Written by Ellie Muir

I had £750,000 to buy a house – then lost it in a ‘cryptomugging’

People have lost their life savings in the blink of an eye

Is the idea of the ‘dream job’ dead?

How our relationship with ambition is changing

This big conversation faux pas will make you enemies, not friends

Why people love to talk about themselves... so much

This week’s M&S dine-in deals you won’t want to miss

This LOOKFANTASTIC pamper kit will save you over £130

What do you make of the contrast therapy trend?