youth
Latest
Study finds teens still like to hang out behind the Gas N' Sip
According to a recently released report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a telephone study of US youths aged 12-17 found that -- get this -- kids actually put value on "non-online" meetings, such as "talking on the phone" or "hanging out." If you believe these so-called findings, 40-percent of teens say they use that archaic and confusing system of wired telephones, while 31-percent claim to spend time "in person" with friends every day, as though they're not frittering away their time on PCs, DS Lites, and cellphones -- interacting virtually, like the rest of us. Our take? Obvious youth-driven cover-up. Hear us out here. If the 'rents found out kids were growing up so socially disenfranchised, they might just take all those beautiful gadgets away. On the other hand (or OTOH, as the youngsters say on their picture calculators), we don't exactly take a telephone poll of 935 teens as empirical knowledge, so maybe it's possible that kids are pretty much the same as they've always been -- if slightly more distracted. One thing's for sure -- they'll never experience the pain of not knowing the lyrics to Rock Me Amadeus like we did.
Virtual worlds teaching kids consumerism
Here's a CNet article about a USC panel discussion concerning how virtual worlds are affecting children, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, who are investing in research in virtual worlds. Telling points from the discussion:Spaces like Club Penguin and Webkinz encourage consumerism as part of being a good citizen. Well, this is true, but let's lift our heads from the monitor and realize that American culture itself embraces that model, and virtual worlds are merely the latest iteration of that concept. If we're not careful, these things will become yet another scapegoat for undesirable behavior, just like videogames have been and continue to be.Educators continue to extol the virtues of virtual worlds as beneficial for learning. One of the strengths of online distance learning is its ability to provide the chatroom experience, which is inherently social, with the ability to immediately gratify the desire to search for background information. Being in your class in Second Life and Googling facts at the same time brings to your education a valuable 'live' experience that is difficult to match with standard real life classrooms. Add to that the playful nature of speaking through a customizable avatar, and this is a worthy new color in any educator's palette.Real world ugliness is promulgated throughout virtual worlds, including bullying, racism, and homophobia. The problem is that, no matter how you view virtual worlds, either as utopias or dystopias, human behavior is a learned thing, and that frequently begins at home. Respect for your fellow humans must be taught. If it isn't taught, it isn't learned. Of course online spaces are filled with abusive behavior; life itself is filled with it. Like consumerism, this is a problem that virtual worlds are only bringing into sharper relief, not engendering themselves.[Via CNet]
All the World's a Stage: Drawing the line on ERP
All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the mysterious art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.There are some people out there who use online games as a venue for their erotic fantasies, from husbands and wives spending some imaginative time together online, to complete strangers flush with desire and looking for some sort of satisfaction in each other. Most of these people who try out Erotic Role-Playing (or ERP) in WoW realize the need to keep it private; they do whatever they do in private chat channels, where it stays their own affair. But there are a rare few who take ERP to an extreme: they form a guild whose whole purpose is to engage in ERP, and proceed to garner a largely negative reputation for themselves. They wear their suggestive guild name like a sign above each of their character's heads, as if to draw as much attention to themselves as possible. Their members indulge in various sexual fantasies, some of which may even be extremely distasteful and objectionable, played out in an environment where everyone is encouraged to "explore" with one another in anonymity. Obviously, the moral danger here is that young people may be tempted to wander in, way before they are mature enough to understand or deal reasonably with what they experience there. We generally assume adults to be responsible for themselves in such matters, but children may very well be confused and curious, even willing to lie about their age in order to unravel such adult secrets. Indeed, ERP is a subject matter that the vast majority of players do not want to see -- least of all parents who like their kids to grow and learn from their interactions with others within the game, or at least have a safe and fun experience. Therefore, roleplayers of any sort have a responsibility to keep the public environment clean and safe for all who play there, and for the few involved with ERP guilds to do otherwise is dangerous and unethical.
Sharp's KD-E1: the e-dictionary for your offspring
We've always wondered why companies kept cranking out e-dictionaries for the demographic too proud to actually bust one out in public and get their learning on, but Sharp is making amends by offering up a new model in the KIDSDIC series. The KD-E1 arrives in a colorful orange and white enclosure, and features an internal speaker, headphone jack, color display, several mini-games, stories, and songs to keep your kid intrigued in between vowels. Judging by the button layout, it looks like this is a Korean-only gizmo for the time being, but those in Seoul can try to convince their kids that this is cooler than a PSP for a stiff ???365,000 ($397).[Via AkihabaraNews]
Young gamers smoking the game pipe earlier
We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control. Kids are adopting gaming at younger ages according the the latest NPD group research data. The first time kids take the red pill has dropped from 8.1 years of age to 6.7 in 2007. Doesn't mean they like what they play. Just that they're indoctrinated.Portable game systems lead the pack in child adoption rates with 39%. Console systems come in at 29%. Given the sales of the Nintendo DS and the Pokémons, that doesn't seem very surprising. Anita Frazier, industry analyst for The NPD Group, says, "[Children] appear to have no fear of technology and adopt it easily and without fanfare, making these devices a part of their everyday lives." Now if only their parents weren't so frightened of the "pokemans".
SanDisk Sansa Shaker does MP3s for the kids
We've seen plenty of times where good toys go bad, but SanDisk's latest Sansa music player looks like a pretty solid bet. The forthcoming Sansa Shaker features a tubular design with blue and pink color schemes to appeal to the younger set, and aside from sporting 512MB of internal capacity, dual headphone outputs for BFF listening, an SD flash card slot for loading up additional tracks, an integrated speaker in case you've lent out your earbuds, and unique "band" playback controls on the top and bottom of the tube. Interestingly, the Amazon product page refers to a mysterious "interactive Shake feature" to be included as well, and while no hard release date nor price is currently listed, we imagine SanDisk will try to keep this one in the $50 range and get it here sometime before summer.[Via AnythingButiPod]
AT&T and Verizon kick kid phones to the curb
In an announcement sure to make tweens scream and parents sigh, both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have seemingly simultaneously decided to stop featuring their respective kid-centric handsets. Folks interested in Verizon's Migo will now be shown LG's 3450L flip-phone instead, as the company claims that its texting abilities and Chaperone capability will lend itself to being an effective youth-oriented option. As for AT&T, its Firefly mobile will now be sold solely online, but there was no mention of what the carrier planned on offering when paranoid parents showed up looking for a highly controllable device in-store. Of course, both of these phones should remain available in other mass market channels for those still interested, but we're sure your nine-year old kid will be lobbying for something a bit more sophisticated in a few months anyway.[Via PhoneScoop]
Game addiction on the rise, but 'stable' genes should prevent violent outbursts
When combined, a pair of new studies (conveniently stacked on GamePolitics.com) suggests that game addiction is a rising concern among American youth, but, if we also trust Aussie researchers, violent side effects are not. According to a new Harris poll, 8.5% of the US's youngsters are now clinically addicted to games, and as many as 23% have felt the jonesing itch for a fix. Thankfully, Australia's Swinburne University of Technology has published findings which indicate that violent games ('cause let's face it, violent games are the only kind American tweens get lifted on) don't increase the likelihood of a "stable" child becoming more aggressive.The Swinburne study seems to define "stable" as non-hyper. So, considering that about 7% of children are currently diagnosed with ADHD, presumably about 0.6% of America's young people (percentage of ADHD-diagnosed kids addicted to games) pose a potential threat to society. A small percentage no doubt, but with a reported 73.5 million children in the US in 2005, we could be living among something like 450,000 latent killer gamers -- hit the panic button![Disclosure: blogger's math skills have not been evaluated since December 1999; some calculations may be inaccurate. Call for panic still very real!]Read - Poll Indicates Game Addiction on the Rise Among YouthRead - Study Says Stable Kids Unaffected by Game Violence
Samsung's stylish 19-incher: the CX931B LCD
Joining the staggering array of 19-inchers out there (and ones soon to come) vying for your hard-earned dollars is a trendy new model from Samsung, dubbed the CX931B. While we don't have a lot of hard deets at the moment, the curvalicious display is apparently targeting "design-conscious" young consumers (or their oh-so-generous parents, that is) by sporting a futuristic design as well as coming in black or the ever-popular white color schemes. AVing has it that the svelte display boasts a 700:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness, gamer-friendly 5-milliseconds response time, and an 18-degree tilting stand, but there's no word on the native resolution or selection of inputs just yet. The CX931B can probably be found infiltrating college dorm rooms soon for 360,000 KRW ($382).
Horrible Halo site of the day
When the best thing about your Halo machinima site is a picture Chuck Norris as Master Chief, you're in trouble. You're also probably trapped in the throes of puberty. Reader Bill says his Mom won't let him play Saints Row. He also says his site "so horrible it's funny" and needs some traffic. I'd say the emphasis is on horrible, but here's a little link love to take the sting out of Mom's censurous attitude towards simulated gangland violence.
