- Fashionspace (social networking for fashionistas last year is evidently doing pretty well. And check out Coolspotters where you can find out how to dress like your favorite celeb. Plus Stardoll launches an app for girls to design their own virtual clothes) (Reuters) (Media Post, reg. required)
I wanted to let Ypulse readers know about a couple of great events happening -- one IRL (in real life) in the Bay Area and another streamed live online. First up is an event put on by SDForum, the leading Silicon Valley not-for-profit organization providing an unbiased source of information and insight to the technology community for the past 23 years. The SDForum has also been a valued partner of Ypulse in helping us promote our annual Mashup event. Next week (May 13) they will be hosting Teens Plugged In! Their Second Annual Teens in Technology Conference in San Jose. This conference really focuses on supporting teen entrepreneurs and seems incredibly cool. Highlights include:
- Profile in Entrepreneurship: Anshul Samar, Alchemist Empire, Inc.
- High School Panel
- Marketing to Teens: A View from the Tech Community
- What will Happen? Teens in the Workforce
- Profile in Entrepreneurship: Salina Truong, Gumball Capital
- Investing in Teens and Teen Products: What Does it Take to Succeed?
- What's Happening with Teen Entrepreneurs?
- Inspiring Teens in Technology and Entrepreneurship: What Non-Profits are Doing
Ypulse publisher Charles Pelton will be at the SDForum event -- silver hair, black Converse high tops. If you see him, say hello.
The other event is the live webcasttomorrow of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center Inaugural Symposium, Logging Into the Playground: How Digital Media Are Shaping Children's Learning. I was invited to attend, but am speaking at another event in San Jose on May 13th (which is why I won't be at the SDForum event) and then catching a Red Eye to Toronto (I'm tired just thinking about this). Didn't want to zig zag across the country. This event is packed with heavy hitters from industry, academia and the non-profit/foundation space. It is literally the embodiment of what I wrote about needing to happen in my BusinessWeek Online column a few months back. Check out their full agenda here (.pdf). Of course it starts streaming at 6 a.m. for us west coast folks (ouch). I hope they will put video up on YouTube later as well.
A comeback for "Square Pegs" (the '80s show will be released on DVD and remade into an upcoming movie - is there anything better than pre-SATC Sarah Jessica Parker?) (Washington Post, reg. required)
- OMFG ("Gossip Girl's" gay teen character is outed. I liked the scene with mom. Plus the show regains the top spot on iTunes) (Queerty) (Lost Remote)
Correction from Anastasia: In my jet lagged state, I posted in yesterday's Essentials that 7 Eleven was doing a Rockband promotion when it was actually a Guitar Hero promo with Slurpee. Thanks Chris!
The week before last, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released research on how growing up "totally wired" is impacting teens' formal writing. I had a chance to interview Pew's senior researcher Amanda Lenhart and Richard Sterling, the emeritus head of the National Writing Project about the report...
Ypulse: What surprised you the most in these findings [what surprised me was how many teens still write by hand when they're "writing"]?
Amanda Lenhart: There were many findings that I found surprising. In particular, I was heartened by the number of teens who said they enjoyed the writing they do, both for school and for themselves. Of course, as the writing is of their own choosing, they are more likely to enjoy what they write outside of school than in-school, with 90% of teens saying they enjoy out of school writing "some" or "a great deal," and 67% expressing similar levels of enjoyment with their writing for school.
YP: How do you explain this disconnect? 73 percent of teens believe their informal communications don't impact their writing yet 64 percent admit that they do. Ideal vs. real?
AL: Certainly I think some of what is going on here is the difference between the way we would like to be and the way we actually are. But I also think that for many teens, these impacts are relatively minor and accidental, and as teens grow older they get better at keeping these informal styles out of their formal writing. Also, other data in our study suggest that teens have a neutral view of technology. They see it as a vehicle for expression, but ultimately feel responsible for the quality of the ideas expressed in the writing they produce.
YP: The teens talked about wanting to write for an audience - why do you think there aren't more teens keeping public blogs with more formal writing for an audience vs. using a blog as casual communication with friends?
AL: In our focus groups, teens did talk about the motivation of writing for an audience broadly. We don't have data that suggests one way or another that more teens are keeping open public blogs or have casual blogs limited to friends. But regardless, both of those types of blogs have an audience, or at least an imagined audience. Whether you're writing mini op-eds as a blog post or narrating the story of your life to your friends, you're still writing, and my sense from the educators that I've talked to is that they think that both kinds of blogs are beneficial.
YP: Do you think casual digital communication is helping teens' writing in some other way we haven't quantified? Is there genius in using acronyms or finding ways to be economical with language?
Richard Sterling: It's important to remember that language is changing all the time, most often very slowly. We use fewer commas than we did fifty years ago; our sentences tend to be shorter, especially for communications that are sometimes called transactional. One may even compare the language of a Henry James novel to Norman Mailer's. If there is "creep" then teachers will be happy to say when and where such informality is appropriate. But, to the extent that experiments in language add a dynamism and freshness to language, it could well be leading to innovation both in thought and process. It is too early to say whether it will be a dead end street or a new vista!
YP: What do you think educators can take away from this research, especially writing teachers?
RS: The good news is that young people are writing more than ever. They are communicating more often with more people, and they are creating content on the internet in significant numbers. The challenge for teachers is to capture the energy and enthusiasm that teens display outside of school and build bridges to the curriculum in school. Teachers need to help students learn a variety of writing skills, understand when and where to use formal and informal language and to push their thinking in writing. Our society needs young people who can understand and express complex ideas, ideas that we know teens will need as they progress though their education. That is the task for educators.
- Gay teens kissing again (on "As The World Turns" luring teen viewers to CBS daytime) (Media Life Magazine)
- Spike Lee teams with Nokia (to "direct a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers and adults using their mobile phones") (New York Times, reg. required)
- Scrapping abstinence only (I say scrap it and replace with comprehensive sex ed emphasizing abstaining) (WebMD)
P.S. I'm bummed that Carly got booted off "Idol." Do you think her husband's tattooed face influenced the voting? Also, I'm interviewed on YourBusinessChannel in a bunch of shows here. I realized I said Soulja Boy was from Memphis -- oops, he's actually from Mississippi.
We are always hearing that this generation's writing skills have deteriorated with their reliance on technology -- reliance on spell check, using texting or IM shorthand in more formal writing or communication, and of course the death of penmanship. On penmanship, I feel like technology has saved many of us who never had good penmanship (mine will always be "bubbly") from a lifetime of embarrassment (as well as having given kids with learning disabilities who may have poor penmanship confidence they didn't have before). Pew just released its latest research focusing on teens, technology and writing. Here are the summary findings:
While teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world and craft a significant amount of electronic text, they see a fundamental distinction between their electronic social communications and the more formal writing they do for school or for personal reasons.
- 87% of youth ages 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites (I would think this would be more like 100 percent)
- 60% of teens do not think of these electronic texts as "writing."
Teens are utilitarian in their approach to technology and writing, using both computers and longhand depending on circumstances. Their use of computers for school and personal writing is often tied to the convenience of being able to edit easily. And while they do not think their use of computers or their text-based communications with friends influences their formal writing, many do admit that the informal styles that characterize their e-communications do occasionally bleed into their schoolwork.
- 57% of teens say they revise and edit more when they write using a computer.
- 63% of teens say using computers to write makes no difference in the quality of the writing they produce.
- 73% of teens say their personal electronic communications (email, IM, text messaging) have no impact on the writing they do for school, and 77% said they have no impact on the writing they do for themselves.
- 64% of teens admit that they incorporate, often accidentally, at least some informal writing styles used in personal electronic communication into their writing for school. (Some 25% have used emoticons in their school writing; 50% have used informal punctuation and grammar; 38% have used text shortcuts such as "LOL" meaning "laugh out loud.")
Eight in ten parents believe that good writing skills are more important now than they were 20 years ago, and 86% of teens believe that good writing ability is an important component of guaranteeing success later in life.
I love that 73 percent of teens believe their informal communications don't impact their writing yet 64 percent admit that they do. To me this research should remind parents, educators and employers to emphasize to teens that they need to be careful about these "slips." They will impact grades and the perceived level of professionalism on the job. It's a teachable moment.
Last night I went to the Common Sense Media/MacArthur event "From MySpace to Hip Hop" down at Stanford. I got lost (as usual) and was late so I missed most of the research presentations and mainly caught the summary and the panel. I think they will post video of the event here later. I actually took really detailed notes and then forgot my notebook at the dinner (which I crashed). I'm going to try to briefly summarize the themes I heard last night (this is like the condensed Cliff Notes - please check out the webcast once it's live).
There are essentially two types of youth internet users the researchers are focusing on -- more mainstream teens who primarily use the internet to recreate their offline social networks, i.e. it's more of a digital extension of their real lives with all of the banality, drama, flirting, status, bullying, etc. that goes with it.
The other group are the interest driven teens who tend to expand their networks beyond offline relationships based on participating in a community around something they are super passionate about, whether it's anime or running a business in Teen Second Life or being a fan of Harry Potter. It also can include creating music online at an after school program. This group tends to be more marginalized teens, but there are more and more mainstream teens exploring these types of interest driven niches or activities (managing multiple spheres - their real life friend sphere and their interest driven sphere).
There was also lots of talk about how the existing paradigm of school just doesn't match up to the kind of learning the interest driven teens are doing on their own, outside of school. School is BORING and delays gratification -- it's about preparing for college or preparing for the future. Whereas participating in an interest driven community offers more instant feedback and validation from peers and other amateur creators (of all ages) teens aspire to be like or can learn from.
My sense is that while there may be passive learning happening in the first group, the more active, independent and exciting learning is in the interest driven space. The challenge is how or if this type of learning can ever be integrated into schools or whether schools have become an outdated institution all together.
One funny aside: I got an email while I was at the event from LinkedIn telling me they removed my photo (an artsy shot of me looking down) because you couldn't totally see my face. LinkedIn's founder Reid Hoffman was there, so I jokingly pretended I was really upset by this. Evidently there are no avatars or artsy photos allowed on LinkedIn -- and it's strictly enforced! Has this happened to any of you?
Note from Anastasia: Please note Ypulse's new assistant editor Casey's first post today as well as our ongoing Ypulse Books coverage from Alli (the Ypulse Books channel is coming soon).
Parents Television Council goes after 'Gossip Girl' (And although The CW is claiming a ratings victory after damming the stream online, the Alley Insider says "not so fast." And, of course, "Gossip Girl" fashion is becoming its own cottage industry. Speaking of, did anyone else notice MTV plugging fashions worn by "The Paper's" Andrea?) (MediaWeek) (New York Daily News)
- Social shopping/networking for good (I'm intrigued by Fanista's social shopping for a cause model as well as Socialvibe's team with brands and donate to your charity models. Oh and here's the actual Piczo press release - blogged about their new channels yesterday in Essentials)
P.S. I received this email stating: "We're a bit perplexed at present because ComScore's data shows that MySpace and Facebook get more traffic from 9-11 year olds than Webkinz and Club Penguin do...." Waiting for the news story on this one...
'Deathbowl to Downtown' (cool looking doc about the New York City skateboarding scene from the 70s 'till now - thanks Bill!)
