Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Texting While Driving Now Leading Cause of Death for Teen Drivers

Texting while driving has become a greater hazard than drinking and driving among teenagers who openly acknowledge sending and reading text messages while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

The number of teens who are dying or being injured as a result of texting while driving has skyrocketed as mobile device technology has advanced. Researchers at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park estimate more than 3,000 annual teen deaths nationwide from texting and 300,000 injuries.

The habit now surpasses the number of teens who drink and drive -- a hazard that has been on a dramatic decline in recent years, researchers say.

An estimated 2,700 young people die each year as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol and 282,000 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Andrew Adesman and a team of Cohen investigators found that while driving between September 2010 and December 2011, among 8,947 teenagers aged 15-18 nationwide, an estimated 49 percent of boys admitted to texting while driving compared with 45 percent of girls.

Texting also increased with age. Only 24 percent of 15-year-olds tapped out messages while driving, compared with 58 percent of 18-year-olds, the data showed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acknowledged Wednesday that distracted driving of all kinds -- including the use of handheld cellphones -- is a growing hazard. Agency officials describe texting as among the worst of driver distractions because conversing by text simultaneously involves manual, visual and mental distractions.

Source: Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036

Snapchat: 150 Million Images Sent Each Day

Apparently, people love Snapchat, the messaging service with pics that disappear moments after you’ve receive them. According to co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel, people are sending about 150 million photos a day.

Instagram, perhaps Snapchat’s closest competitor, is officially way, way behind, with an estimated 40 million new pics uploaded each day. While it’s true that Instagram’s shots are designed to stay on the site (at least until they’re manually taken down), they’re down to a little more than a fifth of Snapchat’s activity, when last quarter they were about dead even.

The idea of Snapchat is, true to its logo, downright spooky, an app that tells your kids they can do whatever they want because a smartphone – a tool which has proven to do plenty of suspect things with your data – promises not to save that picture.” But sending a picture that self destructs doesn’t save you from the Internet’s virality. Even with the app’s tracker-blocking design, people are taking screenshots of the pictures before they self-destruct.

“Since young people are the driving force behind Snapchat… People under 18 may be swapping images that are legally classified as child pornography, and they may be doing it with less trepidation than they would if they were using SMS, since they assume the person they’re sending the photo to won’t screenshot their body,” wrote Digital Trends Kate Knibbs in December.

Snapchat lets you select how long you want your pic to appear for, but as far as screencaps [taking screenshots] are concerned, “Any time at all,” is already too long.

Source: Digital Trends
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/150-million-snaps-sent-a-day-on-snapchat/

Teens Watch More Mobile Video Than Other Age Segments

A new Nielsen report analyzes media habits of 12- to 34-year-olds and finds that those in the 12 to 17 age range spend 18% more time watching video on a mobile phone than 18- to 24-year-olds, and a huge 46% more than those 25- to 34-year-olds.

The report found that those in the 12 to 17 age range spend seven hours and 48 minutes per month on average watching video on a mobile phone.

However, when it comes to Internet video, 18- to 24-year-olds spent the most time watching content on their computers. The 25- to 34-year-olds surpassed those younger than them in traditional TV-watching, clocking in an average of about 136 hours a month.

The numbers and corresponding age groups clearly fit in with the natural progression of technology in recent decades: TV, followed by Internet and now mobile. That could also be why the Nielsen data show smartphone penetration among teens has increased by 45%, between the end of 2011 and the end of 2012.

Source: Mashable
http://mashable.com/2013/04/16/nielsen-survey-teen-tech-habits/

High Media Use Linked to Poor Academic Performance in College Students

A new study published in the journal Emerging Adulthood found that a high use of social media among college students was associated with lower grade point averages (GPAs) and other negative academic outcomes.

Researchers from The Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine found that freshmen women were spending nearly 12 hours a day texting, using the Internet for social media networking, or listening to music and watching videos.

The Miriam Hospital study suggests too much media, especially in early adulthood, a time when many young people are living independently for the first time and are away from parental monitoring, could get in the way of academic activities including studying. This research is unique in that it is focused on college students, rather than teenagers still living under the same roof as their parents.

For this study, the researchers surveyed 483 first-year college women at a northeast university at the start of the semester, and the students were asked about the use of eleven forms of media. These included television, movies, music, surfing the Internet, social networking, talking on a cell phone, texting, magazines, newspapers and non-school-related books and video games. Those surveyed were asked about the average weekday and weekend usage from the previous weekend.

“We found women who spend more time using some forms of media report fewer academic behaviors, such as completing homework and attending class, lower academic confidence and more problems affecting their school work, like lack of sleep and substance use,” said the study's lead author Jennifer L. Walsh, PhD.

Source: RedOrbit
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112821454/facebook-social-media-use-poor-academic-performance-bad-grades-041113/

iOS Devices Still "Apple" of Teens' Eyes

The results of Piper Jaffray's 25th bi-annual teen survey showed Apple to be the most desired brand among American teenagers who care about things like smartphones and tablets.

"We believe that despite the push from competitive products, particularly from Samsung, it appears Apple has solidly remained the platform of choice for teens," wrote Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster.

The key findings:

• 91% of teens say they plan to buy a smartphone for their next high-tech device, up from 86% last spring and 90% last fall
• 59% of teens say they are likely to buy an iOS device (unchanged from fall)
• 48% of teens already own an iPhone, compared with 40% last fall
• 62% of teens plan on making an iPhone their next mobile device (flat vs. fall 2012)
• 51% already own a tablet, up from 44% last fall
• Among teens who own tablets, 68% own iPads, down from 72%
• 17% of teens plan on buying a tablet in the next 6 months (vs. 20% Fall 2012), with 68% of these planning to buy an iPad

Source: CNN Money
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/09/apple-teen-survey-iphone/

More Americans Multitasking While Watching TV

The proliferation of media-able devices in our households (PCs, smartphones, tablets) is leading to a division of our attention when it comes to traditional television viewing and programming.

According to Accenture’s third annual “Video Over Internet Consumer Survey,” 90% of consumers watch at least some video content over the Internet. Not only are they watching more content over the Internet, but when it comes to watching traditional television, attention is increasingly more divided. According to the results, 77% of respondents said they use their computer or laptop while watching TV -- up 16% from last year.

“It’s impressive how much multitasking is increasing,” Francesco Venturini, broadcast lead for Accenture’s media and entertainment group, tells Marketing Daily. “Many people [who are] in front of TV are doing something else. Their expectations from traditional linear TV [programming and content] are decreasing.”

At the same time, the tablet is becoming the go-to device for multitasking while watching television. According to the survey, 44% of consumers used their tablets for multitasking (up from 33% last year). Significantly, 14% of consumers used their tablets to search for content and engage in social media directly related to the television program they were watching.

Source: Marketing Daily
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/197669/more-more-devices-more-multitasking.html

Teens' Mobile Access to the Internet is Pervasive

A new report from Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that smartphone adoption among American teens has increased substantially and mobile access to the internet is pervasive.

One in four teens are “cell-mostly” internet users, who say they mostly go online using their phone and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer.

Seventy-eight percent of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of them own smartphones. That translates into 37% of all teens who have smartphones, up from just 23% in 2011.

“The nature of teens’ internet use has transformed dramatically — from stationary connections tied to shared desktops in the home to always-on connections that move with them throughout the day,” said Mary Madden, Senior Researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project and co-author of the report. “In many ways, teens represent the leading edge of mobile connectivity, and the patterns of their technology use often signal future changes in the adult population.”

Source: Pew Internet
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Tech.aspx

Teens Rule the Web [INFOGRAPHIC]

The following infographic examines the dualistic phenomenon of how teens rule the web, but they’re not always as careful with it as they should be.

Source: OnlineClasses.org

Catfishing: Online Relationships and Deception

A 'Catfish' "is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances” according to UrbanDictionary.com.  About two months ago, most Millennials, and certainly most adults, didn’t know what the term meant despite the release of a 2010 documentary of the same name. Now, it’s become a common catchphrase in culture, is the subject of a hit reality show on MTV, and is national news following Manti Te’o’s scandal. Millennials are redefining dating in the digital age, and unfortunately that sometimes means being misled online.

Having a relationship that solely exists on the Web is more common among Millennials than one might think. Two in ten (22%) say they’ve been in an online relationship before, and nearly this same percentage (19%) believes that an online relationship is just as meaningful as an in-person relationship. This generation has grown up forming friendships and relationships on the Internet, so it’s no surprise that they feel close to others through a screen. (JL note: Generation Z — post-millennials born around the turn of the century to present — kids who are now entering their teenage years will be similarly, if not even more accustomed to establishing online relationships! Parents and ministry leaders should seek to help equip today's teenagers to successfully navigate online relationships.)

Typically, a "Catfish" creates a fake profile for the purpose of putting on a front and forming a relationship with someone online. According to Ypulse research, 44% of Millennials understand the term Catfish and of those, 19% known someone who’s been Catfished. While this percentage is relatively low, it still shows how this behavior exists beyond Manti Te’o’s story.

Source: Ypulse
http://www.ypulse.com/post/view/digital-dating-and-the-catfish-phenomenon

Teachers Flip for "Flipped Learning" Class Model

A technology-driven teaching method known as "flipped learning" is catching on in schools across the nation as a younger, more tech-savvy generation of teachers is moving into classrooms.

The model is called "flipped learning" because it flips the time-honored model of classroom lecture and exercises for homework — the lecture becomes homework and class time is for practice.

Under the model, teachers make eight- to 10-minute videos of their lessons using laptops, often simply filming the whiteboard as the teacher makes notations and recording their voice as they explain the concept. The videos are uploaded onto a teacher or school website, or even YouTube, where they can be accessed by students on computers or smartphones as homework.

When students come to class, they (in theory) have already learned the day's lesson - and then spend class time focusing on practical applications of the lesson, while the teacher moves among the class rom to help students who are having trouble.

Although the number of "flipped" teachers is hard to ascertain, the online community Flipped Learning Network now has 10,000 members, up from 2,500 a year ago, and training workshops are being held all over the country, said executive director Kari Afstrom.

The concept has somes downsides. Teachers note that making the videos and coming up with project activities to fill class time is a lot of extra work up front, while some detractors believe it smacks of teachers abandoning their primary responsibility of instructing.

"They're expecting kids to do the learning outside the classroom. There's not a lot of evidence this works," said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, a New York City-based parent advocacy group. "What works is reasonably sized classes with a lot of debate, interaction and discussion."

Others question whether flipped learning would work as well with low achieving students, who may not be as motivated to watch lessons on their own, but said it was overall a positive model.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation/2013/01/27/flipped-learning-class/1868733/