Dear Old People Who Run the World,
My generation would like to break up with you.
Everyday, I see a widening gap in how you and we understand the world — and what we want from it. I think we have irreconcilable differences.
”A report recently conducted in cooperation with the National Association for College Admission Counseling shows that the use of social media in college admissions offices across the U.S. is on the rise.
Universities are using social networking tools to attract, recruit and research prospective students. Social media is virtually transforming the college search.
Sites offering virtual campus tours and admissions information are helping teens explore and compare schools and narrow down their options before applying.
”Whether you were raised on heaping bowls of Boo Berry (1970s), Quisp (‘60s) or Sugar Jets (‘50s), you probably, unknowingly, violated every nutrition and safety maxim of modern day childrearing.
And yet, somehow, despite all that, most of us made it out of our childhoods just fine. So what gives? Is there really any point to denying ourselves delicious, sugary, buttery food, stamping out our cigarettes and straining our muscles at the gym?
”
Of all Americans with mobile phones, 62% say they use text messaging, mostly because it’s a convenient and quick way to communicate.
More than one-third (37%) say they use texting to avoid long or tough conversations, and over one-quarter (27%) say they use it because they dislike talking on the phone.
One-quarter feel it’s a great way to flirt, particularly among the 18-24-year-old set (39%). One in four of American mobile phone users surveyed admitted they have spied and read someone else’s text messages without permission.
This includes looking at the messages of spouses, partners, friends or even their own kids.
”But in recent years, moral panics are becoming even more hysterical. If you believe certain media sources, everyone born after 1990 spends their days happy-slapping, “sexting”, having sex parties and drinking their own weight in alcopops.
A few isolated incidents are repeatedly portrayed as typical of an entire generation. “Young people are held up as a measure of how society is doing, but they’re not asking to be that measure,” says Michael Barron, director of BelongTo, an organisation that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people. “Technically, this should be an influential position, because people are looking at them and taking their cue from them, but it’s much more negative - they’re only a measure of how bad things supposedly are.”
”Despite a failing economy, employment woes and countless other concerns, a key segment of Millennials – people who were born between 1980 and 1990 – remain confident about what 2009 will have in store for them.
According to an omnibus survey conducted by StrategyOne® on behalf of Pepsi, four out of five Millennials are hopeful about the future as the New Year approaches, and nearly all surveyed (95%) agree that it is important for them to maintain a positive outlook on life.
More than 2,000 Americans were surveyed as part of the Pepsi Optimism Project ( POP ), a new and ongoing study examining the mindset of Millennials.
”Technology gets the blame for a lot of health problems: cars make you lazy, video games make you violent and MP3 players make you deaf.
Now researchers at the University of Southern California are hoping to prove that mobile phones, at least, can have a positive effect. They plan to connect 50 obese teenagers to a battery of sensors and use mobiles to text the kids thin.
”
