Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from

Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Gough. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn why old

tech is better than new tech when it comes to connecting during COVID. Then our very special guest

Bill Nye will explain why you should be excited about the Perseverance

rover and the Mars 2020 mission. You'll also learn about a five minute trick for falling asleep faster.

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

It's been more than a year now that our social interactions have been dominated by technology.

From happy hours on Zoom to Animal Crossing sessions,

to live tweeting awards shows,

to twitch weddings, to the rise of Clubhouse,

we have all been very online. A group of researchers wanted to figure out how all

of this communication tech had affected us in the past year. Their findings suggest that

when it comes to connecting with loved ones,

old school tech like phone calls might actually outshine all that new technology.

In May 2020, which was almost a full year ago, believe it or not, the researchers surveyed around 2,000 Americans.

They chose a broad swath of people across age, geographic, racial, educational, and socioeconomic demographics.

The people shared how they'd been using communication technology to maintain their social

relationships at the height of lockdown orders.

They also talked about how their use of technology was affecting their relationships with people

they lived with and people they were trying to connect with outside the home. The study's big finding was that relatively

older technologies like phone calls and emails were better at reducing the

stress and loneliness of the pandemic than newer ones like video chats, collaborative

...