Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Teenagers Speak Up on Salinger

It’s pieces like this – when kids and youth themselves get a chance to offer their voices about issues – that make me indelibly happy. Here’s one teenager’s response to the adults’ debate last week about whether J.D. Salinger’s writings still resonate with youth today:

“Well, I am sixteen and find it shocking how cynical all of you adults are about our generation. We just read this book a few months ago and each and everyone of us loved it and felt a deep connection between ourselves and Holden. Times have not changed as much as you think. We are not as shallow as you think. Salinger’s novel is as universal as it is timeless. But I’m beginning to think that maybe Holden was right about all of you.” – maliabadi

You know what? The kids are alright today, I think. The kids are alright.

Feb 02, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

Should Teenagers Be Allowed to Sail Around the World Alone?

A look earlier this week by CNN at the world of teenage sailors, including a look at the journeys of Zac and Abbey Sunderland, Mike Perham, and Jessica Watson.

A comment from Jessica’s father, though, I think best captures the real gravity of what’s at stake:

“It would be devastating if we lost her, but I still think it would be worse to say ‘no you can’t go’ because of that risk, because of what she’s put into it.”

– Robert Watson

This isn’t about perceived risks or dangers, but about whether to believe in dreams – to believe in the greater, unconquerable spirit of humanity.

Oct 30, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Breaking Out of the 'Trashy Pregnant Teen' Stereotype

YPulse follows up from a USA Today survey earlier this week that considered the social and economic circumstances of teenage parents. Contrast the reality with the media portrayals of who teenage mothers are, and you get quite a clear disparity.

It does raise the question of how prevalent the “trashy” stereotype remains, even with celebrity teen moms like Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin. It also brings up the question of how the media can challenge that stigmatizing label across class barriers and broach the discussion of preventing teen pregnancy to a wider audience without being accused of glamorizing the issue.

Interesting discussion to explore, that’s for sure.

Oct 29, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

What Do Teens Want to Read?

Publishers Weekly goes off in search of the answers.

They’re absolutely tremendous statistics to pore over, if you get a chance. Take, for instance:

When asked what formats they prefer, 79% noted paperback while 74% said hardcovers. Audiobooks were favored by 6%, while e-books were noted only by 6% and 13% had no preference as to format.

I don’t think the ‘Death of Print’ is going to happen anytime soon… Not for books, and not for this generation, at any rate.

Oct 29, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

Teenager Launches His Own Fake Airline

It’s a scene right out of “Catch Me If You Can”. Daniel Foggo and Martin Foley, writing for The Sunday Times:

A teenage boy from Yorkshire succeeded in persuading British aviation executives that he was a tycoon about to launch his own airline. Using the pseudonym Adam Tait, the smooth-talking 17-year-old told airport and airline executives that he had a fleet of jets.

Tait, who said he was in his twenties, even flew to Jersey to attend a 1½-hour long meeting with the director of its airport. Their talks were considered promising enough for a further meeting to be arranged, which was due to be held next week.

Other air industry bosses found themselves dealing by telephone or e-mail with Tait’s fellow executives, David Rich and Anita Dash, who proposed to launch a cut-price Channel Islands-based airline servicing most of Europe.

What no one realised was that Tait, Rich and Dash were all the same person: an aircraft buff with the gift of the gab and an overactive imagination.

Exhibit A for why we should never, never underestimate kids’ abilities; and the kicker is that Tait is a teenager with a form of autism. (It’s not stated, but it’s likely Asperger’s.) I’m constantly amazed at how our mental conceptions of an age or handicap are, really and continually, profoundly limited when we look at the sheer scope of human potential. Tait’s father said this about him, and his airline-building efforts:

“People like him are not criminals, they are just misguided — they don’t understand what they are doing. Can someone grab hold of these people and harness their energy and use them for something that could be good?

“If someone with little or no education who has extreme enterprise and talent could have his energy channelled in the right direction, what could they achieve for themselves and our country?”

Frankly, I don’t see how young 17-year-old Tait’s efforts to start an airline are really all that different from a 30-year-old venture capitalist’s efforts.

Jul 23, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

Walter Cronkite, the News, and the Challenges Facing Youth Today

An intelligent piece by Larry Magid, writing for CNET News about the challenges – as well as blessings – facing online youth today:

There’s something to be said for having access to thousands of media outlets. Unlike those of us who grew up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, young people who smartly use the Internet to consume news today don’t have to worry about everything being filtered by a small, elite, and typically white male cadre of journalists working for one of only three broadcast networks or one or two local newspapers. And it’s no longer a one-way street. Today’s news consumers can also be producers thanks to blogs, social-networking sites, YouTube, podcasting, and microblogs like Twitter.

But, as I look back at the career of Walter Cronkite, who died last Friday, I also worry that young people are finding it harder to come by trusted sources for news and information. The Internet’s strength as a news resource is also its weakness. We never will nor should return to the days of only a handful of media outlets, but today’s diversified media landscape and especially the Internet, do bring new challenges to consumers of news.

Magid lends a certain healthy awareness of “the way things were” in our past to our collaborative discourse about how they are today and will be in the future; this isn’t one of those “Back in my day” lectures of remorse, but rather a simple, honest examination of how society has changed – especially when it comes to how we get our news –and what the new challenges may be facing those growing up in a digital age.

Without an almost universally respected news anchor to tell us “the way it is,” we have to figure it out for ourselves. It’s not that we don’t have resources—we have more than ever and that’s a good thing. But it does put more pressure on us to think critically about what we see, hear, read, and say.

(Via KidScreen.)

Jul 22, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

Texting Takes its Toll on Teenagers

The New York Times:

Dr. Joffe says parents tend to be far less aware of texting than of, say, video game playing or general computer use, and the unlimited plans often mean that parents stop paying attention to billing details. “I talk to parents in the office now,” he said. “I’m quizzing them, and no one is thinking about this.”

Still, some parents are starting to take measures. Greg Hardesty, a reporter in Lake Forest, Calif., said that late last year his 13-year-old daughter, Reina, racked up 14,528 texts in one month. She would keep the phone on after going to bed, switching it to vibrate and waiting for it to light up and signal an incoming message.

Constant texting is bound to lead to some very real problems, like sleep difficulties, to be sure. But in a way, I can’t help but think these are expected problems – and more importantly, problems that we’ll just have to let kids face.

The “always connected” culture is certainly something uniquely new to today’s youth – never before has information been so readily available, friends so easily reachable. Adults seem quick to find the problems with this dynamic new culture – and who knows, maybe it’s their responsibility to do so. But I think, overall, we need to realize we’d do youth a disservice by indulging in what’s often our gut reaction to this new culture: to simply strip youth of these technologies and experiences.

We need to realize these new technological experiences will almost certainly be a given and required part of the political economy when youth today enter the workforce in a few years. We’d be reckless not to allow them a chance to explore and master things like constant connectivity now.

I was glued to a computer by age 7. I think I had my first Palm pilot and desktop scheduling software at age 13. I finished reading and adopted David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” at age 17. I figured it all out, and now I somehow make money with all of this newfangled technology.

So social phenomena like texting, we have to realize, isn’t necessarily good or bad. The New York Times article actually reminded me of the shenanigans from a few years ago, the frightened choruses that “texting makes people illiterate!” – which, of course, texting doesn’t. If anything, texting has proven to be more like an additional language for youth – think Pig Latin or Klingon, or even a real language like Spanish. Similar things could be said for Twitter, Facebook and any other new technology – these things don’t necessarily subtract from our social ability but rather simply reshape our interaction, in some cases making cross-cultural mobility even easier.

Texting and an “always connected” culture is something today’s youth will have to navigate roughly on their own, without easy answers from adults. And I really believe that’s a good thing. There will be bumps along the way, but we gotta trust that kids can handle it.

Society eventually adapts. Kids and teenagers usually end up being among the first to adapt. It’s the same case with everything new: we figure it out.

Turning back to the article, I’ve decided the last few paragraphs are my favorite – the kids’ responses to their parents’ criticisms of texting:

“She (Reina’s mother) should understand a little better, because she’s always on her iPhone,” Reina said. “But she’s all like, ‘Oh well, I don’t want you texting.’ ” (Her mother, Manako Ihaya, said she saw Reina’s point.) Professor Turkle can sympathize. “Teens feel they are being punished for behavior in which their parents indulge,” she said. And in what she calls a poignant twist, teenagers still need their parents’ undivided attention.

“Even though they text 3,500 messages a week, when they walk out of their ballet lesson, they’re upset to see their dad in the car on the BlackBerry,” she said. “The fantasy of every adolescent is that the parent is there, waiting, expectant, completely there for them.”

May 27, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #