Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Link Found in Kid's Computer Use and Test Scores

In what researchers describe as one of the first long-term looks at the effects of media use during childhood, a study released Wednesday linked hours at the computer with achievement test scores and behavior and found little sign of harm for children ages 6 to 12 as they increased their screen time over a six-year period.

Moreover, the study found benefits for girls and black boys.

"Generally, adolescent achievement and adjustment showed benefits from the use of the computer, and it didn't have to be studying. It could be playing games," said Sandra L. Hofferth, a family science professor and director of the Maryland Population Research Center.

Hofferth's results, published in the journal Child Development, showed that African American boys' reading scores improved by four points, considered significant, as they increasingly logged more time on the computer.

Girls' achievement test scores for reading and math notched upward by a point. Socially, there was another positive effect: White girls were less likely to be withdrawn as they played more on the computer.

Only white boys showed a decline in test scores -- small but statistically significant -- that Hofferth interpreted as resulting from too much surfing the Web. "Too much just random surfing isn't necessarily good," she said. "However, playing games and studying are more focused, and they have a positive effect."

Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/14/AR2010091407044.html

CDC: Kids Aren't Learning About Contraceptives in Sex Ed

One-third of American teens aren't learning about contraceptives during sex education classes, but most of them are getting schooled in "how to say no" to sex.

A report on sex education programs for teenagers, issued today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offers a glimpse into today's classrooms, community centers and churches, where youth are learning the ins and outs of copulation.

And although around half of teens in grades nine through 12 report being sexually active, only one-third are learning about condoms, birth control pills and other contraceptive methods.

Nearly all teens polled by the CDC for this survey had received some kind of formal sex ed. Girls were more likely than boys to report being taught about birth control methods, with 47 percent of female and 38 percent of male participants saying they'd received a primer.

But if teens aren't learning about contraceptives at school or church, they're certainly picking up facts elsewhere. Prior CDC data indicate that around 83 percent of sexually active girls, and 91 percent of boys, used at least one form of contraceptive during intercourse.

So what are teens getting busy with during sex education classes? For one thing, how to turn down sexual advances. More than three-quarters of females and males said they'd been taught how to "say no" to sex.

Source: AOL News
http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/cdc-teens-arent-learning-about-contraceptives-in-sex-ed/19634957

Kids Texting in Class is the New Normal

According to a new survey by app developer textPlus, which surveyed more than 600 of its users aged 13 to 17, texting is more rampant than ever in the classroom. A whopping 42.5% of teens admit to texting during class, and more than half of those say they text sometimes or constantly. What's more, nearly 80% of students say they've never gotten in trouble for texting during class, suggesting the eyes-down, cell-under-the-desk method is slipping past even your most yard-stick taunting school teachers.

Kids don't feel guilty for texting in class. Roughly 74% of students don't believe it's wrong to text during school time, a mindset which permeates not just learning but homework too: About one in three teens admit to using text lingo (e.g. "u" or "4" or "imho") in written school assignments.

How do we change this? Perhaps we start with the parents: A shocking 66% of teens report that they've received texts from their parents, even when their parents know they're in class.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Source: FastCompany
http://www.fastcompany.com/1687648/over-66-of-parents-text-their-kids-during-school-time

What's Hot? 9/10/10

Top 10 Increasing Web Searches on Bing - 9/10/10
   1. eppicard
   2. us open
   3. reggie bush
   4. facebook.com
   5. rosh hashanah
   6. caroline wozniacki
   7. college football rankings
   8. danielle staub
   9. ryder cup
  10. boise state football
Source: Bing

Top 10 U.S. Websites - 9/10/10
   1. Google
   2. Facebook
   3. Yahoo!
   4. YouTube
   5. Amazon
   6. Wikipedia
   7. Twitter
   8. Craigslist
   9. eBay
  10. Blogger
Source: Alexa

iTunes Top 10 Downloaded Songs - 9/10/10
   1. Just the Way You Are - Bruno Mars
   2. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
   3. Just a Dream - Nelly
   4. Dynamite - Taio Cruz
   5. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love (feat. Pitbull) - Usher
   6. I Like It (feat. Pitbull) - Enrique Iglesias
   7. Love the Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) - Eminem
   8. Take It Off - Ke$ha
   9. Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida
  10. Magic (feat. Rivers Cuomo) - B.o.B
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 9/6/10
   1. America's Got Talent - Tue
   2. America's Got Talent - Wed
   3. Two and a Half Men
   4. The Big Bang Theory
   5. NCIS
   6. Big Brother 12 - Wed
   7. NCIS: Los Angeles
   8. Big Brother 12 - Sun
   9. 60 Minutes
  10. Wipeout - Tue
Source: Nielsen Co

Top 5 Most Viewed Videos on YouTube - Week Ending 9/10/10
   1. 2NE1 - Clap Your Hands
   2. XBox Girls Get Revenge
   3. Rope Swing Fail
   4. Snookie Burns the Quran?
   5. Woman Takes Watermelon to Face from Giant Slingshot
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Week Ending 9/2/10
   1. Takers
   2. The Last Exorcism
   3. The Expendables
   4. Eat Pray Love
   5. The Other Guys
Source: Box Office Mojo

Facebook Use Can Lower Grades by 20 Percent

Does the "F" in Facebook stand for an "F" in school? A new study says that college students who are on Facebook while studying or doing homework wind up getting 20 percent lower grades than students who don't have the social networking site in visual range, or even running in the background on their computers or mobile phones.

The study, reported in the Daily Mail of Britain, was done by Netherlands psychologist Paul A. Kirschnera of the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies at the Open University of the Netherlands, and Aryn C. Karpinskib of Ohio State University. It will be published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Kirschnera told the Daily Mail that his team studied 219 U.S. university students between ages 19 and 54, and found that Facebook users had a typical grade point average of 3.06, while "non-users" had an average GPA of 3.82.

The psychologist said the study wasn't about whether Facebook's good or bad, but goes more to the stereotype that younger people are fluid multi-taskers —sending text message, listening to music, reading a book, all at the same time, for example — without any problems. (Driving and texting at the same time is, of course, being the among the most dangerous multi-tasking activities anyone can do.)

"Our study, and other previous work, suggests that while people may think constant task-switching allows them to get more done in less time, the reality is it extends the amount of time needed to carry out tasks and leads to more mistakes," said Kirschnera.

Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39038581/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Hot College Courses

A listing of hot college courses from "The Daily Beast"...

• "Science and Cooking," Harvard
• "Eco-Shakespeare," Brown
• “Millennial Media: Youth Audiences and Commercial Culture,” Middlebury
• “The Financial Panic of 2007-2009,” Yale
• “Studies in Genre: Forms of Life,” Case Western
• “Monstrosity and Otherness,” Kenyon
• “Ghosts and Machines,” Harvey Mudd
• “American Agricultures,” Oberlin
• “Ecology of Eating: Reporting from the Fields of Science and Art," Wesleyan
• “Talking Trash,” Smith
• “iPhone Application Development,” Stanford
• “Techniques of Surveillance,” Brown
• “Mobile City Chronicles: Gaming With New Technologies of Detection and Security,” UC-Berkeley
• “Robotic Design Studio,” Wellesley
• “The Twilight of the Gods: Ragnarök and the Apocalyptic Tradition,” Harvard
• “Making Media for Democracy,” Hampshire
• “Total Noise: Going Deaf in the Information Age,” Smith
• Theory of Comedy,” Kenyon
• “Sexuality,” Columbia

Source: The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2049/1/?loc=interstitialskip

Self-Embedding Takes Teen Self-Injury to the Extreme

Some teens are engaging in "self-embedding," an extreme form of self-injury, in which people -- often adolescents -- deliberately hurt themselves or mutilate their bodies without intending suicide. Self-embedders insert objects made of glass, wood, metal or other materials under the skin.

Determining how many teens "self-embed" is difficult, doctors say. As with other forms of self-harm, such as "cutting" or burning, many teens are ashamed of what they're doing and take steps to conceal their behavior, said William Shiels, a pediatric interventional radiologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Between 13 percent and 23 percent of U.S. teens have reported intentional self-injury, according to background information in a study by Shiels and colleagues that was released online Sept. 7 in advance of publication in the October print issue of the journal Radiology.

Shiels' team found that of about 600 patients of all ages who went to the hospital to have foreign bodies removed from under their skin, 11 patients, or about 1.8 percent, had intentionally inserted the objects. They ranged in age from 14 to 18, and nine were girls.

The 11 teens had other psychological disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the study.

"One girl told us it's easier to deal with physical pain than the emotional pain in her life," Shiels said. "The reason they cut and embed is an effort to relieve their internal pain, the pain that's inside."

In all, Shiels and his colleagues removed 68 of 76 self-embedded objects from the arms, necks, feet, ankles and hands of the 11 patients. In one case, an 18-year-old boy had embedded 35 objects, including staples, a comb tooth, a fork tine and nail polish wands.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2010/09/07/self-embedding-takes-teen-self-injury-to-the-extreme.html

Adult Texting Increases, Teens Still Text More

Texting by American adults has increased substantially over the past year, but still does not approach the magnitude of text messages exchanged by adolescents. Some 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages now, up from 65% in September 2009. Fully 87% of teen cell users text. Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical 10 text messages sent and received by adults per day.

Still, for most adults, voice calling is their primary use of the phone. They make and receive about 5 calls per day on average.

“Texting among adults has reached the mainstream and the charge is being lead by African-Americans, Hispanics and young adults,” said Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author the report. “Of course, none of these adult groups hold a candle to teens when it comes to texting, who swamp adults in messages sent per day by a factor of 5.”

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults.aspx

What's Hot? 9/3/10

Top 10 Increasing Web Searches on Bing - 9/3/10
   1. hurricane earl
   2. ndlea recruitment
   3. danielle staub
   4. us open
   5. pbte.edu.pk
   6. facebook home page
   7. noaa
   8. dominos pizza
   9. national hurricane center
  10. la barbie
Source: Bing

Top 10 U.S. Websites - 9/3/10
   1. Google
   2. Facebook
   3. Yahoo!
   4. YouTube
   5. Amazon
   6. Wikipedia
   7. Twitter
   8. Craigslist
   9. eBay
  10. Blogger
Source: Alexa

iTunes Top 10 Downloaded Songs - 9/3/10
   1. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
   2. Just the Way You Are - Bruno Mars
   3. Dynamite - Taio Cruz
   4. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love (feat. Pitbull) - Usher
   5. Just a Dream - Nelly
   6. Love the Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) - Eminem
   7. Take It Off - Ke$ha
   8. I Like It (feat. Pitbull) - Enrique Iglesias
   9. Mine - Taylor Swift
  10. Magic (feat. Rivers Cuomo) - B.o.B
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 8/29/10
   1. Emmy Awards
   2. America's Got Talent - Tue
   3. America's Got Talent - Wed
   4. NFL Preseason - Steelers/Broncos
   5. NCIS
   6. 60 Minutes
   7. Two and a Half Men
   8. The Big Bang Theory
   9. Big Brother 12 - Wed
  10. Wipeout - Tue
Source: Nielsen Co

Top 5 Most Viewed Videos on YouTube - Week Ending 9/3/10
   1. Drake - Miss Me ft. Lil Wayne
   2. Pervert!
   3. Security Guard FAIL
   4. Wizards of Waverly Place **Spoof**
   5. The Last Exorcism - Best of Chatroulette reactions
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Week Ending 8/26/10
   1. The Expendables
   2. Eat Pray Love
   3. Vampires Suck
   4. The Other Guys
   5. Piranha 3D
Source: Box Office Mojo

Study: Teen Pot Smoking Won't Lead to Other Drugs as Adults

Personally, I'm not yet ready to discard the idea that marijuana is a "gateway" drug for teens - a drug that may lead teens to use "harder" drugs. But, here's a new study which concludes that marijuana is not a "gateway" drug for teens.

New research finds little support for the hypothesis that marijuana is a "gateway" drug leading to the use of harder drugs in adulthood.

Teens in the study who smoked marijuana were more likely to go on to use harder illicit drugs, but the gateway effect was lessened by the age of 21, investigators say.

Harder drugs in the study referred to illicit drugs that include analgesics, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers.

The study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Failure to graduate from high school or find a job were all bigger predictors of drug use in young adulthood than marijuana use during adolescence, says study researcher Karen Van Gundy, who is a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire.

Van Gundy says she did not set out to disprove the idea that marijuana is a gateway drug when she and co-researcher Cesar J. Rebellon examined survey data from 1,300 mostly male Hispanic, white, and African-American young adults who attended south Florida public schools in the 1990s. The participants were followed from enrollment in the sixth or seventh grade until they reached their late teens or early 20s.

"Most of the previous research has examined early drug use among people with serious drug problems," she says. "These people do tend to progress from alcohol and marijuana use to other drugs."

When the teens in the study were followed forward into young adulthood, however, a different picture emerged.

"We were somewhat surprised to find the gateway effect wasn't that strong during the transition to adulthood," Van Gundy says. "It really didn't matter if someone used marijuana or not as a teen."

Specifically, the study found illicit drug abuse in young adulthood to be much more closely linked to stress during the teen years and whether or not the young adults were employed.

But Columbia University sociologist Denise B. Kandel, PhD, whose research early in the decade found marijuana to be a gateway drug, calls the new research highly flawed and the conclusions "ill founded."

Source: WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20100902/teen-pot-smoking-wont-lead-to-other-drugs-as-adults