Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

What's Hot? 03/29/19

Trending Today on Twitter - 3/29/19
1. #FridayFeeling
2. #FridayMotivation
3. #VietnamWarVeteransDay
4. #FridayThoughts
5. Agnes Varda
6. #PowerTrip
7. Shangela
8. Vietnam Veterans
9. Great Lakes
10. Rasmussen
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 3/29/19
1. Her's band
2. Purdue Basketball
3. Phillies
4. MLB
5. Yankees
6. WOW airlines
7. Cubs
8. Gonzaga
9. Virginia basketball
10. Red Sox
Source: Google

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 3/29/19
1. God's Country - Blake Shelton
2. Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
3. Old Town Road - Lil Nas X
4. Sucker - Jonas Brothers
5. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee
6. Sweet but Psycho - Ava Max
7. You Say - Lauren Daigle
8. Wow. - Post Malone
9. Knocking' Boots - Luke Bryan
10. Dancing with a Stranger - Sam Smith & Normani
Source: iTunes

Top 10 TV (Broadcast) Shows - Week Ending 3/24/19
1.60 Minutes
2. The Voice - Mon.
3. NCIS
4. This Is Us
5. God Friended Me
6. NCIS: Los Angeles
7. American Idol
8. Survivor
9. Grey's Anatomy
10. NCAA BSKBL - SA 4 - Sat.
Source: Nielsen Co.

Trending Today on YouTube - 3/29/19
1. Borderlands 3 Official Reveal Trailer
2. David Dobrik Tells Us About His First Times
3. Dollar Store with Liza
4. Trying To Get My Chihuahua To Sit For 20 Minutes
5. G-Eazy, Blueface - West Coast
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
1. Us
2. Captain Marvel
3. Wonder Park
4. Five Feet Apart
5. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

How Parents Feel About - and Manage - Their Teens' Online Behavior and Screen Time

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Pew Research Center.

Smartphones and social media are now an almost universal feature of teenage life in the United States. More than nine-in-ten U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they have access to a smartphone or use social media, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey. But this increased connectivity can come with challenges for teens – as well as their parents. As part of our research into Americans’ digital lives, the Center also surveyed over 1,000 parents of teens to better understand their experiences with raising teens in the digital age.

Here are seven key findings about parents, teens and digital technology:

1. A majority of parents are concerned about the types of experiences their teen might encounter online.
2. Today's parents take a wide range of actions to monitor and police their teen's online behavior.
3. Parents of younger teens tend to take a more active role in monitoring their teen's digital activities.
4. Most parents are confident they can guide their teen to make good decisions, both online and offline.
5. Parents generally get positive ratings from teens about their efforts to tackle online harassment and bullying.
6. Parents are divided on whether today's teens face a set of issues completely different from the issues of their youth.
7. Device distractions aren't unique to teenagers.

To view the entire report from Pew Research Center, click the source link below.

Source: Pew Research Center
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/22/how-parents-feel-about-and-manage-their-teens-online-behavior-and-screen-time/

As Time Online Increased, Teen Happiness Went Down

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Fast Company.

In the past decade, teens have started spending more time online and less time interacting with friends, reading, and sleeping. They’ve also gotten less happy, according to the newly released World Happiness Report, an annual study sponsored by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network showing changes in happiness.

And generally, writes Jean M. Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor who wrote this chapter of the report, teens who spent more time with digital devices were less happy; those who spent more time on other pursuits were happier.

"This creates the possibility that iGen adolescents are less happy because their increased time on digital media has displaced time that previous generations spent on non-screen activities linked to happiness,” she writes. “In other words, digital media may have an indirect effect on happiness as it displaces time that could be otherwise spent on more beneficial activities.”

Of course, as Twenge points out, studies so far haven’t shown that digital media use actually causes unhappiness. While there’s a correlation, it could also be that other factors are driving both unhappiness and digital media use–or that unhappy people turn to their electronics. Still, she points out, some studies have seen people reporting increased happiness after limiting online activities.

“In addition, the increases in teen depression after smartphones became common after 2011 cannot be explained by low well-being causing digital media use (if so, one would be forced to argue that a rise in teen depression caused greater ownership of smartphones, an argument that defies logic),” she writes.

Source: Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/90322825/world-happiness-report-teens-are-online-more-less-happy

Teens Aren't Socializing in the Real World. And That's Making Them Super Lonely

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on USA Today.

Teens whose face time with friends is mostly on their phones are the loneliest of all, but even those who mix real-world socializing with social media still are increasingly isolated, a new report shows.

Loneliness isn't just an age thing; it's generational, says the author of the study, San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge. The percent of high school seniors who said they often felt lonely increased from 26 percent in 2012 to 39 percent in 2017.

The number of 12th graders who said they often felt left out also increased, from 30 percent in 2012 to 38 percent in 2017.

The data and study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, are from nationally representative surveys of 8.2 million U.S. adolescents between 1976 and 2017.

The study comes as the topic of loneliness gains considerable interest in the health care field because of its link to mental and physical health, as well as life expectancy.

Research out last year from the insurer Cigna found teens reported being loneliest, but it wasn't clear whether that was due to age or being from a different generation.

"We find it is a generational difference, since loneliness increased among teens 2012 to 2017," says Twenge, who is also the author of "iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood."

The increase in loneliness might be due to how teens spend their leisure time, Twenge says. When compared to teens in earlier decades, Gen Z are less likely to "get together with friends in person, go to parties, go out with friends, date, ride in cars for fun, go to shopping malls, or go to the movies," she reported.

Other statistics from Twenge's study:

• In the late 1970s, 52 percent of 12th graders said they got together with their friends almost every day but, by 2017, only 28 percent did.
• In 2017, teens got together with their friends 68 fewer times a year than they did in the early 1990s and high school seniors went out on dates 32 fewer times a year.
• Gen Z 10th graders went to approximately 17 fewer parties a year than Gen X 10th graders did.

Source: USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/03/20/teen-loneliness-social-media-cell-phones-suicide-isolation-gaming-cigna/3208845002/

What's Hot? 03/22/19

Trending Today on Twitter - 3/22/19
1. #NationalPuppyDay
2. #BestPartOfBeingAKidWas
3. #FridayFeeling
4. #WaterWorldDay
5. #FridayMotivation
6. Izzo
7. Bryce Drew
8. Pompeo
9. Danny Manning
10. Stephen Sondheim
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 3/22/19
1. Tom Izzo
2. Ja Morant
3. Us
4. Wofford
5. Louisville basketball
6. Cliff Dixon
7. Michigan State basketball
8. Justin Carter
9. LSU basketball
10. Auburn basketball
Source: Google

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 3/22/19
1. Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
2. Sucker - Jonas Brothers
3. Wow. - Post Malone
4. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee
5. You Say - Lauren Daigle
6. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Logic
7. I Don't Belong in This Club - Why Don't We & Macklemore
8. Sweet but Psycho - Ava Max
9. Walk Me Home - Pink
10. Dancing with a Stranger - Sam Smith & Normani
Source: iTunes

Top 10 TV (Broadcast) Shows - Week Ending 3/17/19
1. NCIS
2. The Voice - Mon.
3. 60 Minutes
4. FBI
5. NCIS: Los Angeles
6. The Bachelor - F
7. The Bachelor
8. Blue Bloods
9. The Good Doctor
10. This Is Us
Source: Nielsen Co.

Trending Today on YouTube - 3/22/19
1. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum New Trailer
2. How to Aerial Silk Dance
3. Trying Hair Braiding Tutorials
4. Markiplier Answers the Web's Most Search Questions
5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Official Teaser Trailer
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
1. Captain Marvel
2. Wonder Park
3. Five Feet Apart
4. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
5. Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Teens Are Using Google Docs as the Modern Version of Passing Notes in Class

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Digital Trends.

Google Docs is no longer just a powerful collaboration tool for students and working professionals, as teens are now using the software as a messaging app in the middle of classes.

Teens have reportedly upgraded from passing notes written on tiny pieces of paper to sending digital messages through Google Docs, and unsuspecting teachers have no way of catching them as laptops are becoming common fixtures in middle and high schools, according to The Atlantic.

With their phones put away while in the classroom, a teenager told The Atlanticthat they move to Google Docs to talk with one another. Sometimes, they use the software’s live chat function, which is not open by default and is not known by many teachers. The service also allows users to highlight certain words or phrases, to which the students can comment through pop-up boxes. If a teacher is sharing a file, they will clone it and chat in the comments to make it look like they are taking notes. If the teacher walks close by, they can click on the Resolve button to delete all traces of their conversations.

Teens also sometimes create a shared Google Doc file where they can chat throughout the day in school, even when in different classrooms, using different fonts to differentiate who is saying what. Then, at the end of classes, they can simply delete the file, and start a new one the following day.

Google Docs as a secret messaging app is also reportedly being used at home, for teens who are banned from their phones or social media while their homework is not done. Parents may see what appears to be a school project, but they do not know that their kid is also in a chatroom with friends.

Google Docs allows users to create documents and collaborate on them with others, with the files saved online for easy access, and savvy teens have impressively found its alternate use as somewhat like Snapchat for classrooms. The software has both a native grammar checker and Grammarly, so hopefully, at the very least, Google Docs is helping students write their secret chats with proper grammar.

Source: Digital Trends
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/teens-using-google-docs-as-messaging-app/

Fewer Boys Are Suffering Head Injuries, But Rate Rises for Girls

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

There's good news and bad news from a new study of children visiting U.S. emergency departments for head injuries: The rate of these potentially serious events has fallen among boys, but risen for girls.

In recent years, the danger of concussion from contact sports -- most notably football -- has garnered much media attention. So the authors of the new report theorized that new "safety-minded rule changes" for high school football, or even more parents saying no to boys participating in the sport, might be driving the decline in head injuries.

The study involved data on U.S. emergency department visits for sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injury in people under the age of 18, tracked between 2010 and 2016.

The investigators found that rates of these cases for boys rose from about 487 per 100,000 in 2010 to 559 in 2012. However, the numbers then began to drop, so that by 2016 the rate of traumatic brain injury in boys had fallen to about 483 cases per 100,000.

Still, traumatic brain injury remains "a significant public health problem," said a team led by Kelly Sarmiento, a researcher at the division of unintentional injury prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sarmiento's team said efforts to limit "player-to-player contact and rule changes that reduce risk for collisions are critical to preventing traumatic brain injuries" in football, soccer and other contact sports.

The study also showed that any gains among boys weren't being seen among girls. While the rate of ER-treated head injuries for girls under the age of 18 was 216.5 per 100,000 children in 2010, by 2016 that rate had risen to about 254 per 100,000. It's not clear why girls have experienced an increase in these events, the study authors said.

Overall, across the seven-year study period, an estimated 2 million children were taken to an ER because of a traumatic brain injury suffered during sports or other recreational activities, the study found. That translates to about 283,000 such cases annually.

Not surprisingly, boys were twice as likely as girls to experience these types of injuries, and among boys contact sports accounted for 45 percent of cases, the findings showed.

Broken down further, football-related head injuries made up about 27 percent of all cases of traumatic brain injury for boys. Among girls, soccer was the contact sport most apt to cause this type of injury, the CDC team reported.

The report was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/cognitive-health-information-26/traumatic-brain-injury-1002/fewer-boys-are-suffering-head-injuries-but-rate-rises-for-girls-743810.html

More U.S. Teens, Kids Seeking Mental Health Care in ERs

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

U.S. emergency departments are seeing a surge in the number of kids and teens seeking help for mental health problems, new research warns.

Between 2011 and 2015 alone, there was a 28 percent jump in psychiatric visits among Americans between the ages of 6 and 24.

"The trends were not a surprise," said study author Luther Kalb, given that "using the emergency department for mental health reasons has been increasing for a while" among all age groups.

But why is it happening among young people?

"The rising suicide and opioid epidemics are surely a factor," given that "the ER plays a critical role in treating overdoses," he said.

"Emergency Department providers could also be more likely to detect and/or ask about pediatric mental health issues, which leads to increased detection," added Kalb, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. "Parents may be more likely to report the child's symptoms as well.

"There is also an increase in outpatient mental health service use overall among youth in the U.S.," he noted. "This may lead to a trickle-down effect, where the provider sends the child to the [emergency department] during times of crisis."

The omnipresence of social media may also play a notable role in upping youth depression risk, Kalb acknowledged, though he stressed that "it is unknown if social media plays a role increasing psychiatric ED use."

The analysis revealed that while there had been about 31 psychiatric-related visits to the ER for every 1,000 Americans between the ages of 6 and 24 back in 2011, that figure had risen to more than 40 by 2015.

But that number shot up even higher among some groups.

For example, a roughly 54 percent increase was seen among adolescents as a whole, and black kids and young adults in particular. Among Hispanic youth, that figure rose to more than 90 percent.

What's more, visits by adolescents of all backgrounds that were specifically related to suicide risk more than doubled during the study time frame.

The findings were published online in the journal Pediatrics.

Dr. Susan Duffy is a professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and is an attending physician at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I. She coauthored an editorial accompanying the study.

"Data suggests that over 20 percent of adolescents aged 13 to 18 have experienced a debilitating mental health disorder," said Duffy. "For the past 10 years, there has been an increasing trend in children's, youth and young adult mental health visits, and increasing recognition that the resources do not meet the need for care."

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/adolescents-and-teen-health-news-719/more-u-s-teens-kids-seeking-mental-health-care-in-ers-743964.html

What's Hot? 03/15/19

Trending Today on Twitter - 3/15/19
1. New Zealand
2. Christchurch
3. #NewZealandShooting
4. #NZMosqueShooting
5. PewDiePie
6. #PowerTrip
7. #IdesOfMarch
8. Islamophobia
9. #FridayMotivation
10. Napoli
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 3/15/19
1. Elizabeth Holmes
2. KU basketball
3. Candace Owens
4. Nebraska
5. Nadeleine McCann
6. New Zealand
7. Avengers: Endgame
8. Tesla Model Y
9. Frank Cali
10. Louis Tomlinson
Source: Google

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 3/15/19
1. Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
2. Sucker - Jonas Brothers
3. Wow. - Post Malone
4. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee
5. Sweet but Psycho - Ava Max
6. You Say - Lauren Daigle
7. 7 rings - Ariana Grande
8. Dancing with a Stranger - Sam Smith & Normani
9. Ridin' Roads - Dustin Lynch
10. Please Me - Cardi B & Bruno Mars
Source: iTunes

Top 10 TV (Broadcast) Shows - Week Ending 3/10/19
1. The Big Bang Theory
2. Young Sheldon
3. The Voice - Mon.
4. The Voice - Tues
5. 60 Minutes
6. Mom
7. Blue Bloods
8. American Idol
9. This Is Us
10. American Idol
Source: Nielsen Co.

Trending Today on YouTube - 3/15/19
1. Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame - Official Trailer
2. Shaq Tries to Not Make a Face While Eating Spicy Wings
3. A Tour of My Plants
4. Ozuna - Vacia Sin Mi feat. Darell
5. Tesla Model Y event in 3 minutes
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
1. Captain Marvel
2. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
3. Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral
4. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
5. Alita: Battle Angel
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Binge Drinking in Adolescence May Increase Risk for Anxiety Later in Life

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on MedicalXpress.

A growing body of evidence supports the idea that alcohol exposure early in life has lasting effects on the brain and increases the risk of psychological problems in adulthood. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that adolescent binge drinking, even if discontinued, increases the risk for anxiety later in life due to abnormal epigenetic programming. The findings of the study, which was conducted in animals, was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

"Binge drinking early in life modifies the brain and changes connectivity in the brain, especially in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional regulation and anxiety, in ways we don't totally understand yet," said Subhash Pandey, professor of psychiatry in the UIC College of Medicine, director of the UIC Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics and lead author of the study. "But what we do know is that epigenetic changes are lasting, and increase susceptibility to psychological issues later in life, even if drinking that took place early in life is stopped."

"Epigenetics" refers to chemical changes to DNA, RNA, or specific proteins associated with chromosomes that change the activity of genes without changing the genes themselves. Epigenetic alterations are required for the normal development of the brain, but they can be modified in response to environmental or even social factors, such as alcohol and stress. These kinds of epigenetic alterations have been linked to changes in behavior and disease.

Adolescent rats were exposed to ethanol (a type of alcohol) for two days on and two days off or to the same protocol using saline for 14 days. All rats underwent an assessment for anxiety.

Pandey and his colleagues exposed adolescent rats to a regimen designed to mimic binge drinking. Those rats exhibited anxious behavior later in life, even if the binge drinking regimen stopped in late adolescence and the rats were allowed to mature to adulthood without any further exposure to alcohol.

These rats also had lower levels of a protein called Arc in the amygdala. Arc is important for the normal development of synaptic connections in the brain. Rats with less Arc also had about 40 percent fewer neuronal connections in the amygdala compared with rats that weren't exposed to alcohol.

"We believe that the decrease in Arc levels is caused by epigenetic changes that alter the expression of Arc, and an enhancer RNA, which modifies the expression of Arc. These changes are caused by adolescent alcohol exposure," said Pandey.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-03-binge-adolescence-anxiety-life.html