Hello and happy Friday.

I’ve developed a bit of an embarrassing weekend ritual: Every Sunday morning, I rush to dismiss Apple’s weekly “screen time report” notification before I can read the top-line number. I simply don’t want to know. And sure, I could turn off the feature, but wouldn’t that be admitting defeat?

With that in mind, I was very interested in learning more about the growing “digital detox” industry, which my colleague Maria explored this week. Also in today’s newsletter: Chef Samin Nosrat shares a climate-friendly recipe with our podcast “How We Survive,” our Shanghai correspondent visits a robot upskilling school in China, and we dive deep into shopping trends ahead of the holiday season.

About a year and a half ago, a friend of mine told me about an app she’d downloaded to help curb her smartphone use. 

“It turns on a camera, and watches me, and I have to do either push-ups or squats for every minute of free use of the apps that I've chosen to lock,” said Hannah Palma, a 31-year-old software engineer. 

The app is called Clearspace. You can tell it how much you want to use distracting apps and it will prompt you to do an exercise or take a deep breath each time you open them. Oh — and it costs $49.99 a year. 

“I realize it’s kind of silly that I’m paying monthly for my phone and then I'm paying yearly to not use it, but I think that's the best way that I've stayed healthy in managing my screen time,” Palma said.

Clearspace is just one of dozens of companies that have popped up in recent years that are in the business of screentime reduction. Market researchers have estimated that the so-called digital detox industry could swell to $19.44 billion by 2032. 

It includes apps like ScreenZen and One Sec, which force you to take a pause before using social media. Others, such as BePresent , allow you to add friends and earn rewards and some have even more gamified features, like the Forest app, in which users plant and grow a virtual “tree” by abstaining from distractions.

After hearing Hannah talk about Clearspace, I signed up too. For a while, it kinda worked. I found that just taking a pause before opening TikTok at least helped me become more conscious of my scrolling. Like a lot of these apps, it has a dashboard where I could track my progress.

“It's fascinating, isn't it? Don't use your phone, but like, come to this dashboard, which will show you how much you've not used your phone,” said Zoetanya Sujon, a reader and program director in communications and social technologies at the London College of Communication.

She says those gamified features, including stats tracking, streaks, and the ability to add friends, are the same techniques that social media companies use to make their platforms so sticky in the first place.

“These apps are trying to give people, well, weirdly, using the same systems and tools to try to give people a sense of control over very pervasive interfaces and technologies,” said Sujon. 

Some startups, including Brick, Bloom, and Blok — yes, that’s three separate companies — sell physical devices that restrict apps when you tap your phone to them. They’re priced between $30 and $60, sometimes with an additional monthly subscription fee.

Copyright and trademarks are rules to legally protect your intellectual property. Some people call it IP, and it’s like other kinds of property you own, but it applies to “creations of the mind” like a song, book or drawing. 

Everybody can be a copyright owner! The moment something is finished it’s automatically copyrighted. That means nobody can copy it without permission. And if they do, you’re legally protected and can take action! 

Registering a copyright with the U.S. government can offer extra protection. Copyright protections last for the life of the creator, plus 70 years. 

Royalties are payments creators earn when others use their work. It’s how authors keep earning money for books they sell, or how musicians get paid when their songs are streamed. 

Trademarks help protect the things that define a brand’s identity like logos, slogans and product names. So, if you want to make a pair of sneakers and slap a Nike swoosh on them, just don't do it.

There’s so much more to learn this week on “Million Bazillion”!

Zhinanche Robot Technology in China’s eastern city of Nanjing gives students hands-on experience with industrial robots.

Its main workshop is lined with robotic arms on one end. These machines are the same ones found in many Chinese factories.

During one of its robotics classes, about 10 students, all young men, organized into groups of three around each robotic arm. The students were given papers printed with rectangles and circles and tasked with programming the robotic arms to trace the shapes.

Mastering these robotic arms is key to getting a decent job in the manufacturing sector. Many Chinese factories have been automating as the labor pool shrinks and fewer educated young people want to go into manufacturing.

“Many young people don’t want to do basic factory jobs,” founder of Zhinanche, Liu Zenglong, said. “So, manufacturing is turning from labor intensive to technology intensive.”

In China’s new five-year plan, which will guide the world’s second largest economy until 2030, top Communist party leaders have pledged to boost manufacturing even more. However, the manufacturing sector has tens of millions of such skilled jobs going unfilled, according to China’s ministry of education. 

Meanwhile, young people, and there are a record 12.2 million graduates this year, are struggling to find suitable opportunities.

That is because of a mismatch between the demands of the job market and labor supply. Schools like Zhinanche are trying to bridge that gap.

At the end of a three-month course, graduates from Zhinanche can work as automation engineers.

“Take the iPhone for example. It’s manufactured in China by Foxconn. But who built the production line for the iPhone? It was another company with automation engineers,” Liu said. “And once the production lines arrive at Foxconn, they need someone to calibrate, operate and repair the machines.”

Four in 10 adults under 44 told the Associated Press recently they often or always watch TV or movies at home with the subtitles turned on. 

“I feel like COVID was maybe the time that I started watching everything with captions, and I think that that was just because I was living in a perpetual couch state,” moviegoer Amelia Van Howe told WPLN’s Justin Barney. “Everyone I know watches with captions, and maybe this is because I’m a millennial, but why not have it in theaters as well?”