Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Teens Shun Synthetic Marijuana, but Smoke More of the Real Thing

Teens are shunning synthetic marijuana, such as K2 and Spice, but smoking more of the real thing, a national survey of more than 40,000 children in three grades found.

The number of high school seniors who said they used the synthetic drugs dropped sharply from 11% in 2012 to 8% in 2013, the Monitoring the Future survey, released Wednesday, found. A growing number of teens see the drugs as dangerous.

Perceptions of marijuana have slid in the other direction as fewer teens see the drug as harmful and more smoke it. In 2013, one in 15 seniors reported using marijuana daily, up from one in 50 in 1993, the survey found.

Monitoring the Future, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, has surveyed high school seniors since 1975. The survey added eighth- and 10th-graders in 1991. Investigators surveyed 41,675 students in 389 public and private schools.

Teen marijuana use began increasing in 2008 after a decade of decline. About 40% of high school seniors see smoking marijuana as risky, down from 44% last year and 75% nearly two decades ago. Historically, when teens perceive marijuana as safe, use rises, lead researcher Lloyd Johnston said.

About one in four seniors reported smoking marijuana in the month before taking the survey and 36% reported smoking in the past year. Among sophomores, 30% had smoked in the past year and 18% in the past month and 4% daily. About 12% of eighth-graders smoked marijuana in the past year.

Other Monitoring the Future findings:

• In 2013, students who reported using illicit drugs rose slightly over last year. Among eighth-graders, 15% said they had used drugs in the past year. Nearly a third of 10th-graders (32%) and 40% of 12th-graders reported using drugs during the past year. The most popular drug is marijuana.

• Smoking, drinking and getting high on prescription painkillers continued to decline in 2013, the survey found. Fewer than 10% of teenagers reported smoking in the past month, down by two-thirds from its peak in 1997. Among seniors, who have the highest rates of cigarette smoking, the number of regular smokers decreased from 17% in 2012 to 16% in 2013.

• Alcohol use continued its two-decade decline, hitting record lows in 2013, the survey found. Binge drinking also dropped about 2% among 10th- and 12th-graders.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/18/teen-marijuana-smoking-continues-to-rise/4073629/

Teen Pot Use Could Hurt Brain and Memory

Teenage pot smokers could be damaging brain structures critical to memory and reasoning, according to new research that found changes in the brains of heavy users.

Research published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin showed the brains of young heavy marijuana users were altered in so-called sub-cortical regions — primitive structures that are part of the memory and reasoning circuits. And young people with such alterations performed worse on memory tests than non-using controls, despite the fact that the heavy users had not indulged for more than two years, on average, before the testing.

“We see that adolescents are at a very vulnerable stage neurodevelopmentally,” said Matthew Smith, who led the research team at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “And if you throw stuff into the brain that’s not supposed to be there, there are long-term implications for their development.”

Smith’s team recruited 44 non-using healthy controls and compared them with 10 people with a history of cannabis use disorder, 15 with a history of cannabis use disorder and a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 28 with schizophrenia but no past regular use of marijuana. The average age of the people was mid-20s at the time of the testing, but they had been heavy users as teens.

When the team made MRI scans of the three brain regions — the striatum (a collection of bodies key to reward and motivation), the thalamus (the brain’s Grand Central Station for cognition input), and the globus pallidus (involved with both movement and memory) — heavy users showed abnormalities, whether or not they had schizophrenia.

When the groups were given four tests of working memory, like remembering sequences of numbers they’d seen, heavy users, with or without schizophrenia, performed worse than healthy controls and non-using schizophrenics.

“We saw poor performance in the marijuana groups…” Smith explained. “And the younger somebody started using, the more abnormal they looked.”

Source: NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/teen-pot-use-could-hurt-brain-memory-new-research-suggests-2D11741988

Mothers of Young Children Spend Most Time with Smartphones

The number of US mothers using smartphones increased nearly 34%, BabyCenter reported in September 2013. Of this number, 46% of survey respondents said they felt addicted to their smartphones, always keeping them at their sides as “backup brains” while on the go.

In fact, according to a study from AOL, mothers are using their smartphones 11.4% more frequently than the average adult smartphone user, racking up 1,850 minutes per month with their phones.

Mothers with young kids (ages 5 and under) were the most active users, devoting almost 37 hours a week to apps and web browsing on their phones—more than mothers of older children, as well as males and females in general and, perhaps surprisingly, millennials. AOL noted that smartphones most likely helped these new mothers adjust to tasks related to their new role, including managing multiple schedules, connecting with friends they had not seen recently, and looking up symptoms—that is, fulfilling multifaceted roles mothers enact as parents, teachers, friends, doctors, and more.

Surprisingly, high usage is not necessarily because mothers are letting their kids share their mobiles—more than one-third reported rarely or never allowing their children to use their smartphones, while mothers said they turned to their phones over 20 times per day.

Instead, escapism (39%), social (23%), and shopping (12%)—the most popular functions among mothers glued to their mobiles, according to AOL—may be leading the charge. In September 2013, BabyCenter revealed that many activities related to such functions, such as using social media and looking at photos and videos, as well as those that helped mothers stay on top of the everyday—for example, checking the weather and managing productivity—surged in usage between 2011 and 2013. And US mothers’ smartphone activities didn’t stop with those categories. With the exception of sports and gaming, all activities saw a leap in usage, most likely due to the increasing amount of time mothers spend with their phones.

Source: eMarketer
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mothers-of-Young-Children-Spend-Most-Time-with-Smartphones/1010453

What's Hot? 12/13/13

Trending Today on Twitter - 12/13/13
     1. #FriendsandFamily
     2. Broncos
     3. Album
     4. #PraytoEndAbortion
     5. #QueenBey
     6. Happy Friday the 13th
     7. Drunk in Love
     8. Pretty Hurts
     9. #Beyonce
    10. #BethanyMotaGiveaway
Source: Twitter

Popular Today on Bing - 12/13/13
    1. Second DNA Code
    2. Susan Saradon Award Shows
    3. Dan Smith Five Diamond
    4. Coby TV Recall
    5. Duck Dynasty Christmas Memory
    6. Marine Catches Shark
    7. Julie Chen Jenny McCarthy
    8. Blake Lively Stuns
Source: Bing

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 12/13/13
     1. Gravity - Alex & Sierra
     2. Say Something - A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
     3. Timber (feat. Ke$ha) - Pitbull
     4. The Monster (feat. Rihanna) - Eminem
     5. Hallelujah - Jeff Gutt
     6. Say Something - Alex & Sierra
     7. Counting Stars - OneRepublic
     8. Let Her Go - Passenger
     9. Story of My Life - One Direction
    10. Royals - Lorde
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 12/08/13
     1. NBC Sunday Night Football
     2. Sound of Music Live!
     3. The Big Bang Theory
     4. The OT
     5. Big 10 Football Champ Game
     6. NCIS
     7. Voice - Tues.
     8. Voice
     9. Blacklist
    10. 60 Minutes
 Source: Nielsen Co

Top YouTube Videos - 13-17-Year-Olds - Today - 12/13/13
    1. YouTube Rewind: What Does 2013 Say?
    2. Casting a Fire Ant Colony with Molten Aluminum
    3. Don't Try This! Impossible Quiz - Part 2
    4. Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, and Conan Share a Lyft Car
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
    1. Frozen
    2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
    3. Free Birds
    4. Gravity
    5. Saving Mr. Banks
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Cutting Increasing Among Adolescents

A new study finds teenage girls are more likely than teenage boys to self-harm.

Researchers also found that a fifth of adolescents who have self-harmed have cut themselves in front of others. The new study also revealed that deliberate cutting is normalizing, as an increasing number of self-reported popular kids are self-harming.

Lead researcher Dr. Shelley James of Massey University in New Zealand claims that self-harm has increased over the last decade. She claims that adolescent girls are also up to eight times more likely to self-harm than their male counterparts.

The latest study involved 387 girls between the ages of 13 and 16. Overall, 84 girls identified as self-harmers.

After comparing responses on the number of measures of underlying psychological difficulties between two groups, researchers found that underlying beliefs of vulnerability and low levels of parent influence were more common among self-harming girls. Researchers also found that there were always underlying deeper emotional problems attached to self-harming behavior.

"There were some surprising results," James said in a news release. "The number of girls who had actually harmed in front of other people was staggering to me." "Approximately 23 percent of self-harming kids had harmed in front of other people, and nearly 12 per cent had actually harmed in conjunction with another person, so they had harmed together. I didn't expect to see those kinds of figures."

Furthermore, researchers found that self-harm was no longer considered shocking or associated exclusively to the disenfranchised or those with serious mental health problems. "You have this stereotypical image of this reclusive, socially awkward person that self-harms," James explained. "But the self-harming girls were far more likely to self-identify as being among the popular kids in school, and self-harming was not restricted to those commonly seen as the highly troubled teens."

Source: Counsel & Heal
http://www.counselheal.com/articles/7900/20131209/self-harming-increasing-adolescents-study.htm

Millennial Holiday Tech Wishlist [INFOGRAPHIC]

It's already well into the holiday shopping season and it's likely that your teenager is hoping to find some new tech under the tree. According to a recent poll, here's what they want...

Source: Ypulse
http://www.ypulse.com/post/view/millennial-holiday-tech-wishlist

Study: Movie Violence Accompanied by Smoking, Drinking, Sex

The findings are obvious to most observers, but nonetheless, a new study finds that violent movie characters are also likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and engage in sexual behavior in films rated appropriate for children over 12.

"Parents should be aware that youth who watch PG-13 movies will be exposed to characters whose violence is linked to other more common behaviors, such as alcohol and sex, and that they should consider whether they want their children exposed to that influence," said study lead author Amy Bleakley, a policy research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.

The study, which was published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, sought to find out if violent characters also engaged in other risky behaviors in films viewed by teens.

The researchers analyzed almost 400 top-grossing movies from 1985 to 2010 with an eye on violence and its connection to sexual behavior, tobacco smoking and alcohol use. The movies in the sample weren't chosen based on their appeal to children, so adult-oriented films little seen by kids might have been included.

The researchers found that about 90 percent of the movies included at least one moment of violence involving a main character. Violence was defined as virtually any attempt to physically harm someone else, even in fun.

A main character also engaged in sexual behavior (a category that includes kissing on the lips and seductive dancing), smoked tobacco or drank alcohol in 77 percent of the movies.

It's not clear what this means for children who watch popular movies, however. There's intense debate among experts over whether violence on screen has any direct connection to what people do in real life. Even if there is a link, the new findings don't specify whether the violent characters are glamorized or portrayed as villains.

Source: HealthDay
http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/adolescents-and-teen-health-news-719/movie-violence-often-accompanied-by-sex-tobacco-and-booze-study-finds-682829.html

Teen Athletes Prone to Drink, Less Likely to Use Drugs

Participating in sports may have many benefits, but it also raises the chances adolescents will abuse alcohol, according to a new review of the evidence by Canadian researchers.

They analyzed 17 past studies and also found most showed that kids who participate in sports are less likely to use illicit drugs other than marijuana.

The team searched various databases and found 17 previous studies that followed people over time and were published from 1982 through 2012. All but one of the studies took place in the United States.

Overall, the 17 studies indicate that participation in sports was associated with less illegal drug use, other than marijuana. The association with marijuana use wasn't clear. They also found that alcohol use was greater among students who engage in sports, according to the results published in Addictive Behaviors.

"For a lot of young people, being in sports strengthens who they are," Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org told Reuters Health. He was not involved in the study.

"Sports can be a positive protective factor in a young person's life because of all those great things - structure, goal setting, fair play and achievement," Pasierb said, "But it's not a silver bullet."

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/20/us-athletes-drink-idUSBRE9AJ1BW20131120

What's Hot? 12/06/13

Trending Thursday on Twitter - 12/05/13
     1. #UnboxJoy
     2. #BonaHoliday
     3. #fueledbymm
     4. #AskAustin
     5. #GOPsensitivitytips
     6. #tbt
     7. Christmas
     8. Aoki
     9. Austin Mahone
    10. Amazing Spider-Man 2
Source: Twitter

Popular Thursday on Bing - 12/05/13
    1. Liam Miley
    2. Identical Triplets
    3. Prohibition 1933
    4. Duchess Kate
    5. New Wonder Woman
    6. Jessica Simpson Red Carpet
    7. Oldest Human DNA
    8. Airport Loose Change Bill
Source: Bing

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 12/05/13
     1. Say Something - Alex & Sierra
     2. Timber (feat. Ke$ha) - Pitbull
     3. Say Something - A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
     4. The Monster (feat. Rihanna) - Eminem
     5. Counting Stars - OneRepublic
     6. Story of My Life - One Direction
     7. Let Her Go - Passenger
     8. Royals - Lorde
     9. Demons - Imagine Dragons
    10. Little Drummer Boy - Pentatonix
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 12/01/13
     1. NBC NFL Thurs Special
     2. 60 Minutes
     3. NBC Sunday Night Football
     4. Dancing with the Stars Sp 11/26
     5. Dancing with the Stars 11/25
     6. NCIS: Los Angeles
     7. Person of Interest
     8. Voice
     9. Castle
    10. Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer
 Source: Nielsen Co

Top YouTube Videos - 13-17-Year-Olds - Thursday - 12/05/13
    1. Justin Bieber - All That Matters
    2. How the Media Failed Women in 2013
    3. Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout
    4. Studio C - Best Friends
    5. Pitbull - Timber ft. Ke$ha
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
    1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
    2. Frozen
    3. Thor: The Dark World
    4. The Best Man Holiday
    5. Homefront
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Five Teen Trends for 2014 And Beyond

Teens are the gatekeepers of cool, always willing to try new things and setting the standard for what’s hot and what’s not. They are early adopters and an important barometer for brands.

Here are five trends that appear to be taking off with teens as we look to 2014 and beyond.

1. The End of Oversharing. As teens migrate from Facebook to new social sites like Tumblr, SnapChat, and Vine, the effect is that they’re actually saying much less online. Instead of lengthy status updates that lead to drama, they’re posting an image with a hashtag or a mini video with a brief caption. For teens, social media has become less about their personal lives and more about their personal interests and staying in the know.

2. The Use-It-Then-Lose-It Mentality. Teens have come to prefer when things aren’t permanent, a behavior they’ve learned from apps like SnapChat that erase their old messages. Teens are less attached to possessions (well, except for their phones) because they know they can always find a way to get what they need when they need it. And after an item has served its purpose, they don’t want it cluttering up their lives or becoming a burden of responsibility.

3. Tuning Out TV. Teens are saying there are very few shows they care to watch live, instead preferring to watch shows on Netflix or other online sources. And they’re quite content to watch on a computer or tablet instead of a big screen. Watching TV in the traditional sense seems archaic to teens; they can’t fathom the concept of sitting through commercials or having to wait until the next week to see what happens.

4. Spy-Level Technology. It’s no secret that teens are attached to their phones, but now their phones can literally be attached to them! The wearable tech market has expanded from devices that track athletic performance to iPod Nano watches to Google Glass. These new technologies make it possible for teens to strap their favorite device right to their wrists, bringing social media updates, text messages, and all their favorite music even closer than the palm of their hand.

5. Random is the New Funny. While adults scratch their heads at the latest video from Ylvis, teens (and the rest of the youth population) are cracking up. Random humor has become mainstream and youth marketers are starting to use it to great effect, from Skittles’s long-running campaign to Kmart’s recent commercial puns to the Dodge Durango spots featuring Ron Burgundy. The tactic is key for youth marketers today; with teens’ media saturated lives, it takes random, unexpected humor to grab their attention.

Source: Engage: Teens (Mediapost)
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/213979/five-trends-for-2014-and-beyond.html