MultiTasking for Studious Souls: Flashcards, Mobile, & More

If e-mail and IM is giving way to mobile minutes and 'texting teens' in your house (er, maybe just mine!) take heart, there are a gazillion NEW mobile uses and start-ups that are watch-worthy. As this article in Read-Write-Web conveys, and my own mobile media moments gleaned from the Ypulse mashup ascribe, there's so much shifting to mobile focus it's hard to keep up. … [Read more...]

Beijing Olympics: Will Youth Tune In, Opt Out, or Turn On?

Talk about ‘Good Will Hunting’… If I were a PR person handling the athlete/activist bounce out of Joey Cheek, I’d be mumbling to myself with my head in my hands about now. Just as the world was struggling to ‘turn the other cheek’ and embrace the Olympic Oath in the name of global good will, the Chinese embassy tosses outspoken … [Read more...]

Why Can’t an A-Lister Be An A-Cup? Keira Knightley, Shaping Youth

It’s World Breastfeeding week and ironically, I just prepped my first post over on Eco Child’s Play as a two-parter on breast obsession in media that creates inherent insecurities ‘leaking’ into kids' psyches. In my case, it’s a first-person account (posting here soon) of small-chested self-doubt in an otherwise solid body image when it came to … [Read more...]

Kids’ Online Ethics Part 3: Community Solidarity; Marketing Cheats

At the recent Ypulse Nat'l Mashup, I chatted with teen virtual goods wünderkind Asuka Martin also interviewed here by Benett Carter about Teen Second Life. I'm fascinated by her composure in handling the mining of her intellectual property/content creation, (someone swiping her stuff) as well as the impact on her authentic brand of custom-created virtual textures and 'skins,' … [Read more...]

Kids’ Gaming Ethics and Immersive Virtual Worlds (Part 2)

Are "cheat codes" a symbol of impatient multi-taskers incapable of working through frustration that need to leap frog over the hard part of life? Or a conduit to open new challenges at higher levels of engagement at a self-motivating pace? With fuzzy ethics, blurred boundaries and zig-zags aplenty in immersive gaming environs, I'd say "cheats" is a loaded term in and of … [Read more...]