Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

What's Hot? 8/30/13

Trending Today on Twitter - 8/30/13
     1. #Getaway
     2. #news
     3. #Syria
     4. #WhyIDidntTextYouBack
     5. #chrisbrowntoday
     6. #BB15
     7. Seamus Heaney
     8. Chris Brown
     9. The Tribez
    10. Congress
Source: Twitter

Popular Today on Bing - 8/30/13
    1. Bruce Jenner
    2. Leif Garrett
    3. Olivia Newton John
    4. Raquel Welch
    5. Lady Antebellum
    6. Cassidy Wolf
    7. Nicki Minaj
    8. Phillipine Ship Collision
Source: Bing

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 8/30/13
     1. Roar - Katy Perry
     2. Berzerk - Eminem
     3. Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus
     4. Applause - Lady Gaga
     5. Blurred Lines (feat. T.J. & Pharrell) - Robin Thicke
     6. Wake Me Up - Avicii
     7. Royals - Lorde
     8. We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
     9. Hold On, We're Going Home (feat. Majid Jordan) - Drake
    10. Oh Sweet Lorraine (feat. Jacob Colgan & Fred Stobaugh) - Green Shoe Studio
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 8/25/13
     1. Under the Dome
     2. America's Got Talent - Wed.
     3. 60 Minutes
     4. America's Got Talent - Tues.
     5. NBC NFL Pre-Season Gm 8/25
     6. NCIS
     7. NFL Pre-Season 08/23
     8. The Big Bang Theory
     9. Big Brother 15 - Sun.
    10. Two and a Half Men
 Source: Nielsen Co

Top YouTube Videos - Everyone - Today - 8/30/13
    1. Assumption Parish - Louisiana Sinkhole
    2. Nike Presents - Just Do It - Possibilities
    3. Toni Braxton's Wardrobe Malfunction
    4. Are You Gay?
    5. Dog Plays Dead to Avoid Bath Time
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
    1. Lee Daniels' The Butler
    2. We're The Millers
    3. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
    4. The World's End
    5. Planes
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

The Future of Tattoos? Digital Graphic Implants to be Viewed on Smartphones

Tattoos are skin deep, but new technology can now get them under your skin.

Artist Anthony Antonellis has implanted an RFID chip in his hand, creating what could arguably be the first-ever digital tattoo. The chip stores 1KB of data, and generates a GIF that is only viewable with a smartphone.

Similar to a floppy disk, content on the chip can be swapped out, and replaced with any image or text file that is less than 1KB in size. The chip is embedded inside Antonellis' hand, between his thumb and index finger, and is not much larger than a grain of rice.

The project's aim is to introduce a new way for art to be viewed and stored.

Source: Mashable
http://mashable.com/2013/08/25/digital-tattoo/

Study Suggests Teens' Cognitive Performance Improves When They Walk to School

Encouraging your teenager to walk to school can help them do better in class - especially if they're female.

A study has suggested that a pupil's cognitive performance may be improved if they walk to school rather than be driven in, and girls are more likely to benefit from this than boys.

The new research, published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found performance at school among teenage girls who take a walk to the classroom is better than those who travel by bus or car.

Females who took 15 minutes or longer to walk in outperformed those who live in closer proximity.

The researchers wrote, "Inactive adolescents could be missing out on a very important stimulus to improve their learning and cognitive performance."

Dr. Frank Eves, a Chartered Psychologist, commented that "The study suggests not only that active travel may be related to cognitive performance in girls but also that greater effects may occur for durations of 15 minutes of more."

But Dr. Eves pointed out that while the improvement seemed to correlate directly with the increased activity pre-school, circumstances surrounding the lifestyles and upbringing of those girls that walked to school could also have a bearing on how well the girls performed.

Regarding the study's finding that that there was no beneficial effect for teen boys, Dr. Eves said, "Although the authors seem to argue that girls show greater declines in physical activity during adolescence than boys, and hence are more likely to benefit, there would still be numerous boys who also could benefit."

Source: Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2402162/Study-finds-pupils-cognitive-performance-improve-foot-car.html

Study: Music Affects How Teens Drive

The kind of music teens listen to while behind the wheel affects how they drive, according to a new study.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel found that teen drivers who listen to music from their own playlists commit a greater number of errors and miscalculations.

The study found that male drivers, in particular, make more frequent and serious mistakes when listening to their preferred music than their less aggressive, female counterparts.

For the study, published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, researchers evaluated 85 young drivers. Accompanied by a researcher/driving instructor, the teens took six challenging 40-minute trips.

During two of the trips they listened to music from their own playlists. Two of the trips were conducted with no music, while another two were conducted with background music designed to increase driver safety, such as easy listening, soft rock, and light jazz, the researchers report.

Researchers assessed distraction by measuring driver deficiencies, including miscalculation, inaccuracy, aggressiveness, and violations, as well as decreased vehicle performance.

When the teen drivers listened to their preferred music, virtually all — 98 percent– demonstrated an average of three deficient driving behaviors in at least one of the trips, according to the study.

Without listening to music, 92 percent made errors. However, when driving with an alternative music background designed by Brodsky and Israeli composer Micha Kisner, deficient driving behaviors decreased by 20 percent, the researchers report.

The researchers concluded, “Drivers in general are not aware that as they get drawn in by a song, they move from an extra-personal space involving driving tasks, to a more personal space of active music listening.”

Source: PsychCentral
http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/08/24/new-research-finds-music-affects-how-teens-drive/58821.html

What's Hot? 8/23/13

Trending Today on Twitter - 8/23/13
     1. Today Show
     2. #Batman
     3. #BetterBatmanThanBenAffleck
     4. #kanyesoundslike
     5. #TGIF
     6. New York
     7. Steve Ballmer
     8. Chicago
     9. #DelbertBelton
    10. Man of Steel
Source: Twitter

Popular Today on Bing - 8/23/13
    1. Lady Antebellum
    2. Lee Thompson Young Dead
    3. Larry David
    4. Fantasy Football
    5. Princess Diana
    6. Oscar Pistorius
    7. Steven Rhodes
    8. 1967 Ferrari Auctioned
Source: Bing

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 8/23/13
     1. Roar - Katy Perry
     2. Blurred Lines (feat. T.J. & Pharrell) - Robin Thicke
     3. Wake Me Up - Avicii
     4. Royals - Lorde
     5. Applause - Lady Gaga
     6. Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake) - JAY Z
     7. That's My Kind of Night - Luke Bryan
     8. We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
     9. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
    10. Safe and Sound - Capital Cities
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 8/18/13
     1. Under the Dome
     2. America's Got Talent - Wed.
     3. America's Got Talent - Tues.
     4. CMA Music Festival
     5. NCIS
     6. 60 Minutes
     7. The Big Bang Theory
     8. Unforgettable
     9. Big Brother 15 - Sun.
    10. NFL on Fox Preseason
 Source: Nielsen Co

Top YouTube Videos - 13-17-Year-Olds - Today - 8/23/13
    1. Finatticz - Don't Drop That Thun Thun
    2. Versace - Migos ft. Drake, Meek Mill & Tyga (Explicit)
    3. Bill Clinton Singing Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
    4. It's watermelon, inside of watermelon
    5. "New Beer" - Marijuana Policy Project NASCAR Ad
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
    1. Lee Daniels' The Butler
    2. We're The Millers
    3. Elysium
    4. Planes
    5. Kick-Ass 2
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Many Teen Girls Use Tanning Beds

Despite the risk of skin cancer, including deadly melanoma, nearly 30 percent of white female high school students use tanning beds and nearly 17 percent use them often, a new report finds.

Among white women aged 18 to 34, nearly 25 percent use tanning beds and 15 percent use them frequently, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The high rates of indoor tanning among this population is very concerning," said report coauthor Gery Guy Jr., of the division of cancer prevention at the CDC.

Moreover, there have been no significant changes in the prevalence of indoor tanning in recent years, he said.

"Indoor tanning has been associated with skin cancer, particularly melanoma," Guy said. "The risk is increased among younger users and those who use it frequently."

The report was published online Aug. 19 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/08/19/many-teen-girls-using-tanning-beds-report

California's Teen Driving Law Reduced Crashes by 68 Percent

An analysis of California’s teen-age graduated driver licensing law (GDL) implemented 15 years ago shows that it has been effective in reducing fatal and injury collisions for novice drivers.  The number of at-fault fatal and injury crashes for 16-year-old teen drivers declined by 68 percent, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. Among 17-year-olds, the drop was 51 percent.

The GDL law, passed in 1997 and implemented in 1998, eases novice teen drivers into the driving experience, and reduces their exposure to the most dangerous risks by imposing restrictions that prohibited young passengers and limit nighttime driving.

“While an early Auto Club analysis of the law in 2001 showed California’s law to be effective, GDL has now been around for 15 years,” said the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Senior Traffic Safety Researcher Steven A. Bloch, Ph.D. “The current analysis – more than 10 years later – shows that the law continues to be effective in saving lives.”

“Parental involvement, more time behind the wheel, removing young passengers from the vehicle and limiting late night driving have all helped reduce teen driver crashes and are all part of GDL,” said Bloch.  “We need parents and teens to continue to understand and follow the law to further reduce crashes.”

Delaying licenses until teens become older did not appear to have an effect on their crash rates.

Source: AAA California
http://news.aaa-calif.com/news/study:-teen-driving-law-reduced-crashes-by-68-percent

Students Get Financial Aid at Highest Rate Since WWII

More college students are receiving loans, grants and other financial aid than at any time since the debut of the GI bill after World War II, new data show.

Seventy-one percent of all undergraduate students received some type of financial aid in the 2011-12 academic year, up from 66% four years earlier (2007-08), data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) show. The average amount was $10,800, up from $9,000 four years earlier.

Most of the increase in student aid is coming from federal sources. Last year, 57% of undergraduates received some form of federal aid, including grants, loans and work-study funds, up from 47% four years earlier. Over the same period, the percentage of undergraduates receiving state aid or help from their college remained relatively flat, at 15% and 21%, respectively.

Other findings from the 2011-12 academic year:

• 59% of undergraduates received grants averaging $6,200, up from 51% four years earlier when the average was $4,800.
• 42% of undergraduates took out loans, borrowing an average of $7,100, up from 39% who borrowed $7,000 on average.
• Seventy percent of graduate students received aid, averaging $22,000, including loans.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/20/student-aid--amounts-increasing/2677237/

Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2017

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, authors of The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal (John Wiley and Sons), it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references.  It quickly became an internationally monitored catalog of the changing worldview of each new college generation. Mindset List websites at themindsetlist.com and Beloit.edu, as well as the Mediasite webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million visits annually.

When the Class of 2017 arrives on campus this fall, these digital natives will already be well-connected to each other. They are more likely to have borrowed money for college than their Boomer parents were, and while their parents foresee four years of school, the students are pretty sure it will be longer than that.  Members of this year’s first year class, most of them born in 1995, will search for the academic majors reported to lead to good-paying jobs, and most of them will take a few courses taught at a distant university by a professor they will never meet.

The use of smart phones in class may indicate they are reading the assignment they should have read last night, or they may be recording every minute of their college experience…or they may be texting the person next to them. If they are admirers of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, they may wonder whether a college degree is all it’s cracked up to be, even as their dreams are tempered by the reality that tech geniuses come along about as often as Halley’s Comet, which they will not glimpse until they reach what we currently consider “retirement age.”

For this generation of entering college students, born in 1995, Dean Martin, Mickey Mantle, and Jerry Garcia have always been dead.

1. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend.
2. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal.

3. GM means food that is Genetically Modified.

4. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen.

5. “Dude” has never had a negative tone.

6. As their parents held them as infants, they may have wondered whether it was the baby or Windows 95 that had them more excited.

7. As kids they may well have seen Chicken Run but probably never got chicken pox.

8. Having a chat has seldom involved talking.

9. Gaga has never been baby talk.

10. They could always get rid of their outdated toys on eBay.
11. They have known only two presidents.

12. Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger.

13. PayPal has replaced a pen pal as a best friend on line.

14. Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car.

15. The U.S. has always been trying to figure out which side to back in Middle East conflicts.

16. A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning.

17. Threatening to shut down the government during Federal budget negotiations has always been an anticipated tactic.

18. Growing up with the family dog, one of them has worn an electronic collar, while the other has toted an electronic lifeline.

19. Plasma has never been just a bodily fluid.

20. The Pentagon and Congress have always been shocked, absolutely shocked, by reports of sexual harassment and assault in the military.

To view the entire list of 75 items, click here.

Source: Beloit College
https://www.beloit.edu//mindset/2017/

Copyright© 2013 Beloit College

Mindset List is a registered trademark

Professors Influence Students' Choice of Major

Undergraduates are significantly more likely to major in a field if they have an inspiring and caring faculty member in their introduction to the field. And they are equally likely to write off a field based on a single negative experience with a professor.

Those are the findings of a paper presentedat the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association by Christopher G. Takacs, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Chicago, and Daniel F. Chambliss, a professor of sociology at Hamilton College. The paper is one part of How College Works, their forthcoming book from Harvard University Press.

In their study, they tracked the educational choices of about 100 students. The students were interviewed about their original educational plans and why they either followed through on those plans or changed them, and they were tracked over their college careers and after graduation as well.

What they found challenges the views of many experts that choice of major is “fixed” by such factors as a desire for a lucrative career. Overwhelmingly, the authors write, students’ "taste formation" in choice of major is due to faculty members, although the influence can go either way. "Faculty determine students' taste for academic fields by acting as gatekeepers, either by welcoming them into an area of knowledge, encouraging and inspiring them to explore it, or by raising the costs of entry so high so as to effectively prohibit continuing in it," Takacs and Chambliss write. "Faculty can positively or negatively influence student taste for a field -- some compelling teachers can get students engaged in fields that they previously disliked, while other, more uncharismatic faculty can alienate students from entire bodies of knowledge, sometimes permanently."

The research found the role of the first faculty member is strong whether the student has an intended major or doesn’t. And the interviews -- up to four years after graduation -- found that students remembered the professors who inspired them and those who annoyed them, and attributed their decisions on majors to those faculty members.

Source: Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/12/study-finds-choice-major-most-influenced-quality-intro-professor