Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

What's Hot? 10/29/10

Current Top Internet Searches - 10/29/10
   1. facebook
   2. youtube
   3. denise richards
   4. jessica simpson
   5. mariah carey
   6. nicki minaj
   7. eva longoria parker
   8. charlie sheen
   9. best friends animal society
  10. audrina patridge
Source: CyberWyre

Top 10 U.S. Websites - 10/29/10
   1. Google
   2. Facebook
   3. Yahoo!
   4. YouTube
   5. Amazon
   6. Wikipedia
   7. Twitter
   8. eBay
   9. Blogger
  10. Craigslist
Source: Alexa

iTunes Top 10 Downloaded Songs - 10/29/10
   1. We R Who We R - Ke$ha
   2. Whip My Hair - Willow
   3. Like a G6 (feat. Cataracs & Dev) - Far East Movement
   4. Sparks Fly - Taylor Swift
   5. Only Girl (in the World) - Rihanna
   6. Just a Dream - Nelly
   7. Bottoms Up (feat. Nicki Minaj)
   8. Just the Way You Are - Bruno Mars
   9. Monster - Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross...
  10. Innocent - Taylor Swift
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 10/24/10
   1. NBC Sunday Night Football
   2. NCIS
   3. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick
   4. Dancing with the Stars
   5. NICS: Los Angeles
   6. 60 Minutes
   7. Dancing with the Stars Results
   8. CSI
   9. Criminal Minds
  10. The Mentalist
Source: Nielsen Co

Top 5 Most Viewed Videos on YouTube - Week Ending 10/29/10
   1. Karate Expert!
   2. Kanye West - Runaway (clean)
   3. 3 Second Vide0
   4. Chaplins Time Traveler
   5. Nike Basketball: Lebron Rise
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Week Ending 10/21/10
   1. Jackass 3-D
   2. Red
   3. The Social Network
   4. Secretariat
   5. Life as We Know It
Source: Box Office Mojo

Girls Want to Talk About Sex — With Dad?

A new study from New York University suggests that young women could actually use a little more talk about intimate matters from their dads.

Previous studies have concluded that girls who have open communication with their fathers — about everything — tend to have intercourse later in life and also have fewer sexual partners, both of which can be very good for sexual and mental health.

While young women are still mostly influenced and informed on this subject by their mothers, Katherine Hutchinson, associate professor at the NYU College of Nursing, wanted to figure out whether fathers had a role to play. As part of a larger study examining family influences on adolescent sexual risk, she asked a representative sample of 250 or so women aged 19 to 21 what kind of impact their fathers had on their sex education.

The answer was: very little. And, surprisingly, a lot of the women, most of whom were sexually active, wished their fathers had told them more. Specifically, they wanted to hear stuff only guys would know, about how to communicate with men and what the carnal landscape looked like from a male's vantage point. "They felt that if they could have been more comfortable talking with their fathers about issues around sex, they might have been more comfortable talking to boyfriends or potential sexual partners about them," says Hutchinson, whose study was published in the Journal of Family Issues. "And they wanted to know how to negotiate intimacy issues with men."

Source: Time
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2027377,00.html

Caffeine and Alcohol Drink Is Potent Mix for Young

Mixing alcohol and caffeine is hardly a new concept, but a rash of cases involving students and others who landed at hospitals after drinking beverages that combine the two in a single large can has alarmed college and health officials around the country.

The drinks are dangerous, doctors say, because the caffeine masks the effects of the alcohol, keeping consumers from realizing just how intoxicated they are.

A brand called Four Loko — a fruit-flavored malt beverage that has an alcohol content of 12 percent and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee — has come under particular scrutiny after students who drank it this fall at Ramapo College in New Jersey and Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash., ended up in emergency rooms, some with high levels of alcohol poisoning.

“This is one of the most dangerous new alcohol concoctions I have ever seen,” said Dr. Michael Reihart, an emergency room doctor at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pa., who said he had treated more than a dozen teenagers and adults over the last three months who had been brought there after drinking Four Loko. “It’s a recipe for disaster because your body’s natural defense is to get sleepy and not want to drink, but in this case you’re tricking the body with the caffeine.”

Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/us/27drink.html

2010 Update: Cheat and Steal: High School Ethics Surveyed

The latest survey findings on the ethics of high school students from the Ethics of American Youth Survey by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, a non-profit based in Los Angeles have been released. The Institute has surveyed teens on conduct and behavior every two years since 1992. This year's study surveyed 43,321 teens ages 15 to 18, from 78 public and 22 private schools.

The findings:
•60% of students said they had "cheated on a test," and 34% did so twice or more. Students at non-religious private schools cited the lowest percentage (33%) while 56% at religious schools said they cheated.

•27% of students said they "stole something from a store.

The results demonstrate a modest improvement over the 2008 study findings, where 64% of students admitted to cheating on a test, and 30% admitted to stealing from a store. Of those students who admitted cheating on tests twice or more, the figure was unchanged from 2008.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/teen-ya/2010-10-26-bullyingONLINE26_ST_N.htm

Bullying Survey: Most Teens Have Hit Someone Out of Anger

Half of U.S. high schoolers say they have bullied or teased someone at least once in the past year, and nearly half say they have been bullied in that time, one of the largest studies ever on bullying finds.

The study surveyed 43,321 teens ages 15 to 18, from 78 public and 22 private schools. It finds 50% said they had "bullied, teased or taunted someone at least once," and 47% had been "bullied, teased or taunted in a way that seriously upset me at least once."

The survey findings are from the Ethics of American Youth Survey by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, a non-profit based in Los Angeles that has surveyed teens on conduct and behavior every two years since 1992. This is the first time it has reported on bullying.

It also found that in the past 12 months:
•52% of students have hit someone in anger.
•28% (37% of boys, 19% of girls) say it's OK to hit or threaten a person who angers them.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/teen-ya/2010-10-26-bullyingONLINE26_ST_N.htm

Teen Car Crash Deaths Decline

Teenage traffic deaths declined nearly 17% in 2009 from 2008 for youths aged 15 to 19, the CDC says in a new report. That’s about 500 fewer deaths, for a total of about 3,000.

The CDC, in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for Oct. 22, says that the traffic death rate has improved partly because of graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs. Such programs extend the period for learner’s licenses, place driving restrictions on young drivers, and limit the number of passengers allowed in their vehicles.

Not only did the national teenage traffic death rate decline in 2009 for 15- to 19-year-olds, but drivers aged 16 and 17 involved in fatal crashes declined 38% between 2004 and 2008, to a rate of 16.7 per 100,000 people, the MMWR report says.

Authors of the article in the MMWR describe the trends as “encouraging” but point out that motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for teenagers.

Source: WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20101021/teen-car-crash-deaths-declining

400,000 U.S. College Students Gamble Online Every Week

Despite US Congress introducing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 to effectively prohibit online gaming in the country, a recent report has revealed the number of college students gambling online has actually shot up over the past few years.

The University of Pennsylvania study by the Annenberg Adolescent Communication Institute revealed that 16% of male college students now admitted to gambling online compared to just 4.4% in 2008.

The telephone study conducted on fourteen to twenty-two year olds also concluded that the number of high school students gambling every month online had risen from 2.7% to 6.2% over the same period. High school females gambling online on a monthly basis were also up from 0.5% to 1.5%.

In total, 400,000 college-aged males were found to gamble each week online or 1.7 million every month. An additional half a million high school students could also be found gambling online every month.

Source: OnlinePoker.net
http://www.onlinepoker.net/poker-news/general-poker-news/usa-400000-college-students-gamble-online-week/7852

What's Hot? 10/22/10

Current Top Internet Searches - 10/22/10
   1. facebook
   2. youtube
   3. kate hudson
   4. reese witherspoon
   5. beyonce knowles
   6. zooey deschanel
   7. kim novak
   8. jesse james
   9. the hangover 2
  10. kat von d
Source: CyberWyre

Top 10 U.S. Websites - 10/22/10
   1. Google
   2. Facebook
   3. Yahoo!
   4. YouTube
   5. Amazon
   6. Wikipedia
   7. Twitter
   8. eBay
   9. Blogger
  10. Craigslist
Source: Alexa

iTunes Top 10 Downloaded Songs - 10/22/10
   1. Like a G6 (feat. Cataracs & Dev) - Far East Movement
   2. Mean - Taylor Swift
   3. Only Girl (in the World) - Rihanna
   4. Just a Dream - Nelly
   5. Just the Way You Are - Bruno Mars
   6. Bottoms Up (feat. Nicki Minaj)
   7. Raise Your Glass - Pink
   8. Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida
   9. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love (feat. Pitbull) - Usher
  10. Dynamite - Taio Cruz
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 10/17/10
   1. Dancing with the Stars
   2. NCIS
   3. NBC Sunday Night Football
   4. Dancing with the Stars Results
   5. NICS: Los Angeles
   6. The Mentalist
   7. CSI
   8. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick
   9. Criminal Minds
  10. Two and a Half Men
Source: Nielsen Co

Top 5 Most Viewed Videos on YouTube - Week Ending 10/22/10
   1. Cataclysm Cinematic Intro
   2. Ke$ha - We R Who We R
   3. Rihanna - Only Girl (In THe World)
   4. The Internet is on *Cr@ck*
   5. UFOs Over NYC 10/13/10
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Week Ending 10/14/10
   1. The Social Network
   2. Life as We Know It
   3. Secretariat
   4. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls...
   5. The Town
Source: Box Office Mojo

Teen Binge Drinking Linked to Attention Problems

Teens who binge drink may be more likely to experience problems with attention as well as making decisions and carrying them out (executive function), a study shows.

The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also shows that teens who smoke marijuana tend to have trouble with their memory.

Substance abuse during the adolescent years can have significant lifelong consequences on the developing brain. "Both animal models and observational studies in humans suggest that binge drinking during adolescence alters normal developmental processes in a way that negatively impacts learning and social adjustment into adulthood," says study researcher Robert J. Thoma, PhD, a psychiatrist at the Center for Neuropsychological Services of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in an email.

"On one hand, the adolescents in our study were functioning largely within the normal range on cognitive tests, [but] it is likely that they are under-performing on many of these tasks relative to their ability before initiation of binge drinking," he says.

The average number of drinks per drinking day reported by teen binge drinkers was 13. The more alcohol the teens drank, the greater the deficits in their attention and executive function, the study shows. In addition, smoking marijuana had an independent effect on memory.

Source: WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20101019/teen-binge-drinking-linked-to-attention-problems

 

‘Drunkorexia’ a Growing Trend for College Students

While “drunkorexia” is not a medical term, it has become easily understood slang for the practice of swapping food calories for those in alcohol.

And as the college semester is in full swing, campus counselors hear the term in the context of alcohol education and eating disorders.

“It’s a sensationalized term, but it’s a tangible idea for students,” acknowledges Emily Hedstrom-Lieser of the Drug, Alcohol & Tobacco Education Office at the University of Northern Colorado. Students at the school are putting up bulletin boards in residence halls on the topic, and creating a series of events for National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, Monday through Friday.

At UNC, Hedstrom-Lieser says students tell her about seeing their friends drink on an empty stomach, binge on “drunk food” — pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers — then feel guilty and vomit.

A study published in the July 2009 issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders found a connection between binge drinking (four or more drinks in one sitting) and eating disorders. The authors suggest that there is a “crucial need for early interventions targeting binge drinking among college-age women regardless of their current drinking status.”

Source: The State
http://www.thestate.com/2010/10/18/1518029/drunkorexia-a-growing-trend-for.html