Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Social Media is Brain Candy

Researchers at Harvard have gotten to the bottom of why so many of us are compelled to share our every thought, movement, like and want through mediums like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and Pinterest.

In a series of experiments, the researchers found that the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating food, getting money or having sex. It's all a matter of degrees of course, (talking about yourself isn't quite as pleasurable as sex for most of us), but the science makes it clear that our brain considers self-disclosure to be a rewarding experience.

This may help explain recent surveys of Internet use that show that roughly 80% of posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook consist simply of announcements about one's own immediate experience.

The researchers found that the brain regions associated with reward -- the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) -- were strongly engaged when people were talking about themselves, and less engaged when they were talking about someone else.

Source: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-self-disclosure-study-20120508,0,7870124.story

40% of Teens Video Chat With Friends

More teens are using video chats to interact and communicate with friends, thanks in part to the adoption growth of apps such as Skype, Googletalk and iChat, according to a new study.

A report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that about 37% of Internet users ages 12 to 17 participate in video chats. Not surprisingly, 42% of girls — who tend to be more active on social networking sites — are more likely to web chat with others compared to boys (33%).

Teens of various ages are equally likely to use web chat services. About 34% of online 12 to 13 year olds use video chat, while 39% of 14 to 17 year olds do the same. Teens who are more active online, text frequently and use social media often are, not surprisingly, more likely to video chat.

About 77% of all teens between the ages of 12 and 17 use Facebook, while just 16% use Twitter. Teens who use Facebook and Twitter are more likely to use video chat, with 41% of Facebook users web chatting (compared with 25% of non-users) and 60% of Twitter users using video chat, compared with 33% of non-Twitter users.

The study also found that 77% of all teens have cell phones, 75% of which can send and receive texts.

Source: Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/05/03/teens-video-chat/

Facebook Contributing to Divorce

If you think that “special” time you or your partner spends on Facebook is just a little harmless fun, then you may want to, well, WAKE UP. Studies have found that Facebook can actually be serious trouble for a relationship and is responsible for one-third of divorces. One-third!

A U.K. website that focuses on divorce conducted a study in 2009 and another in 2011 on the reasons why people file for divorce. They found that in 2009, 20 percent of the petitions for divorce cited “Facebook” as among the reasons for the split. If that doesn’t already shock you, the study conducted in 2011 saw that number rise to 33 percent! They also found that the most common reasons behind citing Facebook as a contributing factor included “Facebook cheating,” which refers to inappropriate messages sent to Facebook “friends” of the opposite sex.

The British weren’t the only ones to survey just how many divorces may have been Facebook-related. A survey by American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found that 66 percent of divorce lawyers reported a notable increase in the number of divorces blamed on social networking sites, with 80 percent of those being specifically related to Facebook. It also found that one in every five divorces in the United States involve Facebook. Just as with the results from the UK, inappropriate messages to people of the opposite sex were cited as the biggest problem.

Source: Insiders Health
http://www.insidershealth.com/article/is_divorce_in_your_future_one_study_explains_your_relationship_on_facebook/5106

Doctors See "Cinnamon Challenge" as a Recipe for Disaster

It is known as “the cinnamon challenge.’’ You try to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon without drinking water - or vomiting - preferably as a video camera is rolling. It may sound like silly fun, but health professionals and a growing number of local school systems are warning parents that the practice can cause health problems including respiratory distress and choking.

The YouTube generation finds the trend hilarious. How else to explain the more than 10.9 million hits for a video of a woman with big gold earrings spewing cinnamon after a failed attempt? Or the 30,000 cinnamon-related videos on the website? The challenge has been around for years, but a video posted by two NBA players, and the growth of social media and camera-enabled smart phones, have sent it viral in recent months.

Doctors aren’t laughing. They say the practice can cause serious injuries.

“The biggest problem is that the powder dries your mouth and throat, which makes it easier for it to enter your lungs instead of your stomach,’’ said James Mojica, a pulmonologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.That, in turn, can inflame the lungs, and lead to breathing difficulties, an acute lung injury, an aspiration pneumonia, or lung scarring.

Youths - the very people most commonly ingesting the cinnamon - are at particular risk, Mojica said. “Young patients can generate such high pressure when they cough that their lungs can collapse.’’

Source: Boston.com
http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-24/community/31234565_1_cinnamon-lungs-challenge

Ugly YouTube Trend: Teens Ask World "Am I Ugly or Pretty?"

“People say I’m ugly, so tell me, am I?” is a daring question to ask online, but dozens of teenagers, mostly girls, are unhesitatingly putting out the question on YouTube. Some of these teens are even younger than the required age to use YouTube, according to site’s terms of service – a user must be older than 13 to upload a video. It’s a disturbing trend: some of the videos are garnering thousands, if not millions, of hits.

“I have a pretty basic question,” one girl begins, after revealing that her friends tell her she’s pretty but she’s not sure because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.

There, they face the wrath of YouTube commenters, some of who aren’t very shy or downright cruel about their opinions. “Just the fact that u did this video makes u ugly. But u were ugly already,” a viewer commented on one video.

The fact that some of the teens can be young as 11 years old signifies something is definitely amiss. Does YouTube need to monitor these videos more closely, or is it part of the need for greater parent vigilance when it comes to their children’s online activities? When every action is anonymous, commenters playing on the insecurities of young tweens is exactly the last thing the Internet needs.

Source: Time
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/23/an-ugly-trend-teens-turn-to-youtube-to-evaluate-their-looks/

Additional Media Coverage:
http://jezebel.com/5886241/teens-are-now-asking-youtube-commenters-if-theyre-ugly
http://socialtimes.com/youtube-trend-am-i-ugly_b90013
http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2012/02/20/teens-post-am-i-ugly-videos-on-youtube/

Pinterest: Next Wave in Social Media?

Online pinboarding site Pinterest is fast-becoming one of the most talked about services in the social networking space.

According to a report by TechCrunch, the site has reached more than 11 million unique monthly users in the US alone, making it the fastest independent site to reach over 10 million users. While Google+ has more users, it also had the benefit of a built-in user base. This is according to data from comScore.

In December, comScore also reported that users were spending a considerable amount of time on the site per month. “Pinterest is exceptionally sticky and keeps it users engaged for long periods of time,” notes comScore. The average visitor spent nearly an hour-and-a-half on the site over the course of a month and more than 15 minutes per visit, ranking it third on consumer engagement (after Facebook and Tumblr).

Despite still being in beta and an invitation only service, Pinterest's growth is said to be driven by its predominantly female user base (58%), who use the service as a digital scrapbook to share content relating to fashion, interior design and photography. This marks an interesting departure from the norm of tech-savvy early adopters first flocking to a new service.

“Pinterest is on its way up, and online pinboarding looks like it just may represent the next wave of social networking,” says Eli Goodman of Search Engine Watch.

Source: IT Web
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51364

Laptop Shooting Dad Says He'd Do It Again

Tommy Jordan, angry dad from North Carolina, became an overnight Internet folk hero for meting out gunslinging justice to his rebellious 15-year-old, who had recently posted a disrespectful update on her Facebook page.  On Thursday night, he posted the act of discipline on his daughter's Facebook wall, and on YouTube. By Monday morning, a stunning 21.4 million people had watched it -- far more than watch an episode of “American Idol”or even NBC's “Today” show.

While  experts interviewed by msnbc.com were highly critical of the public nature of the discipline, the vast majority of parents expressed enthusiastic approval for Jordan, most pointing out that it's high time "someone stood up to these spoiled kids."  An unscientific poll of 93,000 voters on Today.com found 74 percent agreed with Jordan's brand of discipline.

He was also visited by the police and Child Protective Services during the weekend. "Of course they came. They received enough ‘Oh my god he's going to kill his daughter’ comments that they had to," he wrote. He made light of the visits, however.  The police congratulated him, he said, and one officer added that he planned to use the video in presentations he does for the school system.

Despite the surprising notoriety, Jordan said he'd do it all over again in a statement designed to answer questions posed by reporters. “If I had it to do again... let's see... I'd do it almost the same," he wrote on his Facebook page in a note addressed to Anita Li of the Toronto Star. He wouldn't be smoking in the video, he said, then added, "I'd have worn my Silverbelly Stetson, not my Tilley hat, if I'd known that image was going to follow me the rest of my life and I'd probably have cleaned my boots. That's it."

"To answer 'Why did you reprimand her over a public medium like Facebook' my answer is this: Because that’s how I was raised. If I did something embarrassing to my parents in public (such as a grocery store) I got my tail tore up right there in front of God and everyone, right there in the store. I put the reprisal in exactly the same medium she did, in the exact same manner," Jordan wrote.

Source: MSNBC
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/13/10397269-laptop-shooting-dad-after-21-million-views-says-hed-do-it-over-again

 

Half of 12-Year-Olds are on Facebook

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace are supposed to be limited to people who are ages 13 and up, but this is far from being the case, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which found that nearly half of American 12-year-olds -- 45% -- have profiles on these sites. Assuming the 12-year-old population has remained stable, around 3.96 million since the latest Census projections in 2009, that means 1.78 million 12-year-olds are evading Facebook’s age limits.

These figures, while large, don’t come as much of a surprise following an earlier estimate from Consumer Reports that 7.5 million children under the age of 13 are on Facebook, including five million children under the age of 10. And they’re in line with separate data from Harris Interactive, which found that half of parents with 12-year-olds know that their children are on Facebook. What’s more, seven out of ten of these parents actually actively helped their children evade the security protocols meant to prevent anyone from under age 13 getting on the site.

Source: MediaPost
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/162981/half-of-12-year-olds-are-on-facebook.html?edition=40631

Teen Girls Twice as Likely as Boys to Tweet

Teens have some of the highest social networking penetration of any age group. eMarketer estimates that 81% of internet users ages 12 to 17 will use social networks at least monthly this year, rivaling the 90% of online 18- to 24-year-olds and the 82% of 25- to 34-year-olds who will do the same.

Pew Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the Family Online Safety Institute and supported by Cable in the Classroom, found in July that 16% of online teens used Twitter, doubling the 8% figure found in September 2009.

Teen girls were more than twice as likely as boys to use the microblogging service, at 22% vs. 10% of the respective populations. Moreover, black internet users were more than three times as likely as whites to do so, and also significantly more likely than Hispanics. Older teens were also more active, as were those with lower household incomes.

Source: eMarketer
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1008690&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4&R=1008690

Bullying More Common In Person Than Online

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project entitled Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Networks confirms much of what we already know about cyberbullying. Most kids aren't bullied and most kids don't bully either online or off.

While most teens (88%) say they have witnessed or experienced "someone being mean or cruel online," the study concluded that "[m]ost American teens who use social media say that in their experience, people their age are mostly kind to one another on social network sites." Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of teens said that peers are mostly kind while 20 percent said peers are mostly unkind with 11 percent saying, "it depends."

The numbers track very closely with previous scientific surveys on bullying and cyberbullying. The largest source of bullying (12 percent) was in person, followed by text messaging (9 percent). Eight percent said they had been bullied via email, a social networking site or instant messaging and 7 percent were bullied via voice calls on the phone. Girls are more likely to have experienced what we typically call "cyberbullying," while boys and girls are roughly equal when it comes to in person bullying.

Source: CNET News
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-57320587-238/online-bullying-still-way-less-common-than-in-real-life/