Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

What's Hot? 07/30/21

Trending Today on Twitter - 7/30/21
1. #USWNT
2. #2021STAYweeK
3. #fridaymorning
4. Questlove
5. Buju
6. Tink
7. Michael Che
8. #IJustNeedAMoment
9. #spreadloveandlovewillspread
10. Grant Fisher
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 7/30/21
1. Mexico
2. Green Knight
3. Allegiant Stadium
4. Djokovic
5. Connor Fields
6. NBA Draft 2021
7. Sunisa Lee
8. Russell Westbrook
9. Olympics 2021
10. SnapChat
Source: Google

Top Five on Spotify - 7/30/21
1. INDUSTRY BABY (feat Jack Harlow) - By Lil Nas X
2. STAY (with Justin Bieber) - The Kid LAROI
3. good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo
4. Kiss Me More (feat. SZA) - Doja Cat
5. Aint Sh*t - Doja Cat
Source: Spotify

Top Five on Apple Music - 7/30/21
1. STAY (with Justin Bieber) - The Kid LAROI
2. INDUSTRY BABY (feat Jack Harlow) - By Lil Nas X
3. Aint Sh*t - Doja Cat
4. good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo
5. Wants and Needs (feat. Lil Baby) - Drake
Source: Apple Music

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 7/30/21
1. Ted Lasso - Apple TV+
2. Yellowstone - Peacock
3. The White Lotus - HBOMax
4. Rick & Morty - HBOMax
5. Manifest - Netflix
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 7/30/21
1. We Got Mobbed...
2. I Survived 100 Days as a SHAPESHIFTER in Minecraft
3. Team USA's Suni Lee Wins Gold
4. Sudafrica vs Mexico
5. Eladio Carrion, J Balvin, Daddy Yankee, Bobby Shmurda - TATA
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 in the U.S. Today - 7/30/21
1. All American
2. Love is Blind: After the Altar
3. Virgin River
4. Resort to Love
5. Blood Red Sky
Source: Netflix

American Elementary School Students Fell 4 to 5 Months Behind During Pandemic

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

Elementary school students in the United States fell behind five months in mathematics and four months in reading by the end of the 2020–21 school year, according to a new report from McKinsey & Company.

Students faced a range of issues, including shifting schedules, being assigned new teachers in the middle of the year, difficulty connecting to the internet, and weariness from classes conducted, for many, mostly online.

That led to a drop in performance and ending the year well behind in math and reading, core learning components of elementary education.

The company compared performance in the spring of 2021 with the performance of similar students prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from Curriculum Associates, which did in-school assessments of students across 50 states for math and 46 states for reading.

Read the full McKinsey report here.

Source: The Epoch Times
https://www.theepochtimes.com/american-elementary-school-students-fell-4-to-5-months-behind-during-pandemic_3922088.html

Back-to-School Shopping Spree: Parents Spending $843 Per Child to Prep for In-Person Learning This Year

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

It’s hard to believe, but back-to-school shopping is already in full swing and this year it seems parents have no qualms about ensuring their kids are prepared. New research shows that parents are sparing no expense, spending an average of $843 on each child!

The survey of 2,000 American parents of school-aged children and shows that projected spending on each child is up by 19 percent from an average of $707 last year.

With spending up, it is no surprise that more than a third of parents (37%) are starting their back-to-school shopping earlier this year. In fact, half of parents (51%) will have started their back-to-school shopping before August arrives! Of those staying ahead of the game and getting their shopping finished early, two in three (67%) are doing so to help them budget better, while 59 percent want to take advantage of sales.

Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Affirm in July 2021, the survey found that clothes (70%), school supplies (43%), and backpacks (39%) are the top things American parents are prepared to splurge on for this back-to-school season.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/back-to-school-shopping-parents-spending-843-dollars-per-child/

Worldwide Increases in Adolescent Loneliness

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

A new study published in the Journal of Adolescence finds that the psychological well-being of adolescents around the world began to decline after 2012, in conjunction with the rise of smartphone access and increased internet use, though causation cannot be proven and more years of data will provide a more complete picture.

Several studies have documented increases in adolescent loneliness and depression in the U.S., UK, and Canada after 2012, but it is unknown whether these trends appear worldwide or whether they are linked to factors such as economic conditions, technology use, or changes in family size.

To provide insight into this question, the researchers of the current study drew from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dataset of 15- and 16-year-olds around the world. More than one million students in 37 countries completed a measure of loneliness at school in 2000, 2003, 2012, 2015, and 2018.

The results of the study found that school loneliness increased 2012–2018 in 36 out of 37 countries. Worldwide, nearly twice as many adolescents in 2018 (vs. 2012) had elevated levels of school loneliness. Increases in loneliness were larger among girls than among boys and in countries with full measurement invariance. In multi-level modeling analyses, school loneliness was high when smartphone access and internet use were high. In contrast, higher unemployment rates predicted lower school loneliness. Income inequality, GDP, and total fertility rate (family size) were not significantly related to school loneliness when matched by year. School loneliness was positively correlated with negative affect and negatively correlated with positive affect and life satisfaction, suggesting the measure has broad implications for adolescent well-being.

Source: ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197121000853

Netflix Plans Push Into Video Games

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

Netflix announced that it’s hired a Facebook executive to lead games development — apparently signaling its intention to leap into publishing video games.

The news that the world’s largest streaming power is focusing on games for its first content production foray beyond films and TV shows is already making waves in the gaming world.

GameStop Corp shares dipped 6% and shares of other gaming players declined by smaller margins in premarket trading on Thursday, as Netflix shares rose 2.4%.

The executive picked to be Netflix’s vice president of game development, Mike Verdu, has most recently served as vice president of Facebook Inc.’s Reality Labs, overseeing Oculus Studios and teams bringing games and other content to Oculus virtual-reality headsets.

Specifics are scarce at this stage, but Bloomberg sources report that Netflix is planning to build out its gaming team in the coming months, and has begun recruiting to fill game-development positions via ads on its website, with the goal of offering video games on its streaming platform within the next year.

Netflix plans to offer the games as a new programming genre on the streaming service, alongside existing content — and currently does not plan to charge additional fees for the games, those sources said.

Video games should help Netflix compete for new subscribers and retain existing ones amid the expanded array of major streaming services — some of which, unlike Netflix, offer access to live sports. They could also serve to help cross-promote Netflix’s original streaming content, and perhaps eventually allow the company to increase its service fees while minimizing subscriber losses.

“This feels like a significant event with broad ramifications across the video games landscape," Citigroup analyst Thomas A. Singlehurst wrote in a note cited by MarketWatch.

Netflix’s entry is likely to accelerate video games’ transition to cloud-based platforms, which could trigger a “shift in the monetization model for the traditional PC/console side of the market," he wrote.

Source: MediaPost
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/365091/netflix-plans-push-into-video-games.html

What's Hot? 07/23/21

Trending Today on Twitter - 7/23/21
1. Guardians
2. Dragon Quest
3. Tom Hanks
4. #fridaymorning
5. Tonga
6. Kay Ivey
7. Washington Football Team
8. #loveeternal
9. Chief Wahoo
10. John Legend
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 7/23/21
1. NBC Olympics
2. Industry Baby
3. Guardians
4. Donda
5. Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
6. 13 Reasons Why
7. Dune
8. Snake Eyes
9. Activision
10. Greg Knapp
Source: Google

Top Five on Spotify - 7/23/21
1. Stay (with Justin Bieber) - The Kid LAROI
2. good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo
3. Kiss Me More (feat. SZA) - Doja Cat
4. Aint Sh*t - Doja Cat
5. Beggin' - Maneskin
Source: Spotify

Top Five on Apple Music - 7/23/21
1. Stay (with Justin Bieber) - The Kid LAROI
2. good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo
3. Wants and Needs (feat. Lil Baby) - Drake
4. Aint Sh*t - Doja Cat
5. RAPSTAR - Polo G
Source: Apple Music

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 7/23/21
1. Dr. Death - Peacock
2. Schmigadoon! - Apple TV+
3. Ted Lasso - Apple TV+
4. Rick & Morty - HBOMax
5. The White Lotus - HBOMax
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 7/23/21
1. I Survived 100 Days Of Hardcore Minecraft!
2. Dune | Official Main Trailer
3. Apex Legends: Emergence Launch Trailer
4. The Kid LAROI - Not Sober
5. Battlefield 2042 | Battlefield Portal Official Trailer
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 in the U.S. Today - 7/23/21
1. Virgin River
2. Never Have I Ever
3. Manifest
4. Twilight
5. Twilight: New Moon
Source: Netflix

Teens with a History of Self-Harm Have a Significantly Higher Threshold for Pain

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

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with Glasgow University, has found that teenagers who have self-harmed five or more times in their life have a significantly higher threshold for pain compared to adolescents that have not.

The study, which has been published in JAMA Network Open, is the largest study of its kind looking at the relationship between self-harm and bodily sensation, found that the threshold for sensitivity, both painful and not, increases significantly the more a participant had self-harmed in the past.

64 participants aged between 12-17 were recruited from a mixture of community and residential care settings, as well as schools and youth groups in London and Glasgow. Each individual underwent a series of 13 tests, including thermal detection and pain thresholds, and pressure pain thresholds to establish at what point they detected a change in sensation or first began to feel pain.

Dr. Dennis Ougrin, the study's Co-Lead author from King's IoPPN, said "From the studies that we conducted, we can see that teenagers who have self-harmed five or more times in their past have a dramatically higher pain threshold, particularly in individuals that are living in care."

"Once a person has become comfortable enough with pain, when they have raised the threshold far above what it would normally be in someone that hasn't self-harmed, it is at that point we can say that they are at greater risk of suicide."

The investigators now hope that these findings can be converted into a simple test using a pressure sensor to effectively identify at-risk individuals so that they can be provided with targeted support.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-teens-history-self-harm-significantly-higher.html

Remote Learning Hurt High School Students Academically, Emotionally

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

There were academic, social, and emotional consequences for U.S. high school students who attended classes remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows.

The study included more than 6,500 students in Orange County Public Schools in Florida, who were surveyed in October 2020, when two-thirds were attending school remotely and one-third were attending in person.

On a 100-point scale, in-person students scored higher than remote students on social well-being (77.2 versus 74.8), emotional well-being (57.4 versus 55.7), and academic well-being (78.4 versus 77.3).

This "thriving gap" was consistent across gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, according to the study published online in the journal Educational Researcher.

"Notably, the thriving gap was larger among students in 10th through 12th grades than it was among ninth-graders," study co-author Laurence Steinberg, a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, said in a journal news release.

While the differences between the two groups of students aren't large, even small effects are significant when they impact millions of people, the researchers explained.

"Many news stories have reported on individual stories of teenagers who have suffered from anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges during the pandemic," said study author Angela Duckworth, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder and CEO of Character Lab.

"This study gives some of the first empirical evidence of how learning remotely has affected adolescent well-being," Duckworth added.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/b-7-16-remote-learning-hurt-high-school-students-academically-emotionally-2653777547.html

Teens with Secure Family Relationships "Pay It Forward" with Empathy for Friends

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on EurekAlert!

Teens' ability to empathize -- to understand others' perspectives and emotions, and to care for their wellbeing -- is an important contributor to their relationships, including with friends. Prior research shows that teens who have more secure family relationships report higher levels of empathy for others.

Now, a new study has tested whether teens' secure, supportive family relationships at age 14 related to their ability to provide their friends with empathic support across adolescence and into early adulthood. Findings indicate that secure attachment (reflecting on close relationships in an emotionally balanced, coherent, and valuing way) predicts teens' ability to provide empathic support to their close friends. Close friends were also more likely to seek support from teens who had secure family relationships in early adolescence. While having secure family relationships at age 14 predicted greater empathy with peers across adolescence, those teens who did not have secure family relationships in early adolescence showed a pattern of catching up, increasing their empathy towards close friends as they developed.

The study featured a sample of 184 adolescents (86 males, 98 females) recruited from a public middle school (seventh and eighth grades) in suburban and urban populations from the Southeastern United States.

The findings were published in a Child Development article, written by researchers at the University of Virginia and led by Joseph P. Allen, Hugh P. Kelly professor of psychology.

"Our findings showed that teens who were more secure in their family relationships at age 14 provided greater empathic support to their friends at ages 16, 17, and 18, and they were consistently able to provide that support over time," said Jessica Stern, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia. "Teens who were less secure in their family relationships at age 14 showed lower empathic support for friends in early adolescence, but their empathic abilities grew over time. What's especially interesting is that close friends also sought out more support from securely attached teens."

Source: EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-07/sfri-tw070821.php

Best & Worst States for Teen Drivers (2021)

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

A recent study from WalletHub examined the risks for teenage drivers on a state-by-state basis. Overall, WalletHub researchers studied 23 key data points ranging from teen driver fatalities and the presence of impaired driving laws to the cost of car repairs. Based on the data, WalletHub has compiled its list of the best and worst states for teen drivers in 2021. Below is a summary of WalletHub’s findings.

10 Best: New York, Oregon, Connecticut, Alaska, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, Maryland, New Jersey

10 Worst: South Carolina, New Hampshire, Arkansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming

Best State: New York
State with Lowest Teen Deaths: Rhode Island
State with Lowest Increase for Teen Auto Insurance: Hawaii
State with Best Road Conditions: Tennessee

Source: Automoblog
https://www.automoblog.net/best-worst-states-teen-drivers/