There are plenty of spins on the Spider-Man 3 record-breaking $382 million worldwide “priciest movie ever made" buzz...so I’m going to take a deconstructionist view about summer box office biggies, and look at the impact of media hype-fests on kids. Not pickin’ on Spidey, here; haven’t even seen the flick yet, I’m talking about a global web … [Read more...]
The mousehouse has some holes in its cheese, and this one really stinks. Disney's new preteen social networking portal is geared to fill a void for chatty tweens, as TechCrunch reports here. I'm not alone in finding it unfathomable that Disney didn’t do their due diligence on naming it Disney Xtreme Digital, and branding it Disney DXD. Aside from … [Read more...]
Call it a marketing hook, tween baiting, or young teen branding brilliance, Zwinktopia, the online virtual world that just launched Monday has leveraged their growth substantially by familiarizing kids with their avatar site Zwinky, first. Kids have been creating customizable Zwinky identities to plop on their blogs, profiles, IM and chat sites representing themselves for … [Read more...]
On the Edutopia site, you'll find a piece by Evany Thomas called Techno Prisoners, a first-person flashback from the author harkening back to 7th grade. (which I just forwarded to my 6th grade middle schooler for context that this stuff 'twas ever thus') It resonated with me, because at that age I remember being a new kid in town, and a 'blonde haole girl' to boot in Hawaii, … [Read more...]
Keeping my finger on ‘whassup’ in youth culture can lead to ‘life’s most embarrassing moments’ in a keystroke. Case in point? I stay apprised with what’s circulating the net using a handy tool called Top Viral Videos to see what’s clicking through with 6 million viewers and such. Einstein, the amazing talking bird and sweet otters … [Read more...]
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