Top Tunes of 2015

Posted on: 12/22/15 5:45 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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2015-music-coversAs 2015 comes to an end, it’s always intriguing to look back at what young people were listening to.

Many of you may remember exactly how much young people value music from our recent Youth Culture Window article about entertainment media saturation. In this article we not only learned that today’s teens spend about 9 hours a day soaking in entertainment media and technology, but also that they sited music as their favorite media activity, devoting 1 hours and 54 minute per day to their favorite tunes (Common Sense Media, page 18).

The question you might ask is, “What are their favorite tunes?”

Here they are, all the No. 1’s of 2015, in our brand new Youth Culture Window article. These are the songs that made it all the way to the top… and then some tips on how we can dialogue with our kids about them.

CLICK HERE: Mature Messages in Today’s Music

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Top TV in 2015

Posted on: 12/14/15 8:49 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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Families-Watch-Walking-DeadWhat are the top shows Americans are watching in 2015? Nielsen just cranked out the results.

But note that I said, “Americans” …not American teens or American families. That’s a huge difference, simply because Grandpa watches a whole lot more TV than my generation and my kids’ generation (today’s teens like screens, but primetime TV isn’t the top activity on their list). So don’t be surprised when you see Dancing with the Stars and NCIS on the list, and you don’t see The Voice (a teen favorite) on the list.

But Grandpa’s influence aside, you’ll still notice America’s love for Continue reading “Top TV in 2015”

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Teen Media Consumption 2015

Posted on: 11/9/15 6:25 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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12yrgirlipadHow many hours per day do your kids digest entertainment media and technology?

Think about it for a moment. If you add up all the screen time, music, social media, video games, TV, mobile video… all of it! How many hours would it be?

Common Sense Media just did the math in their exhaustive study of thousands of teens (13-18) and tweens (8-12), and the total hours today’s young people spend soaking in media per day might surprise you Continue reading “Teen Media Consumption 2015”

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Moving Kids from Tech-dependent to Tech-enabled

Posted on: 10/6/15 7:36 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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girlsdistractedphonesDoes the smartphone help communication… or hinder it?

That one of the questions I ask when I’m teaching young people to be smarter than their smartphones.

“Think about it,” I suggest. “How many times are you sitting in a circle of your friends and none of them are talking because their heads are all down staring at their phones?”

Students always laugh and point to each other. “That’s so you!”

My point is clear: Phones can be really convenient tools helping us communicate with friends outside the room, but they become a hindrance when they interfere with our connection with people inside the room Continue reading “Moving Kids from Tech-dependent to Tech-enabled”

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3 Tips to Keeping Connected with Your Kids… without Becoming That Creepy Parent

Posted on: 09/8/15 10:51 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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smartphoneA brand new study asking U.S. teens and their parents about their social media and mobile app use revealed some intriguing insights, not only about teen’s attitudes about tech, but about how connected… er… disconnected parents really are from their kids tech communication. The study discovered:

  • 79 percent of teens indicate they rarely say things online they regret (which one media outlet interpreted as them “not thinking before they post’).
  • 52 percent of parents say their biggest concern is how much time their teen spends on social media.
  • 43 percent of parents admitted they do not monitor their teen’s digital activity.

Interestingly enough, 88% of parents say they are aware of all or most of the social networks or apps their teens engage with, but yet Continue reading “3 Tips to Keeping Connected with Your Kids… without Becoming That Creepy Parent”

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MTV Helps Kids Make Sense of the World?

Posted on: 09/1/15 5:45 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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dancing dirty“No art form in the world captures moments like this more powerfully than music. Music helps us make sense of the world. A song can elevate a movement.”
–Jussie Smollett of Fox’s Empire, in his speech at the MTV VMA’s, 8/30/2015

Jussie is right. It was probably one of the few noteworthy statements from Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards (The VMAs).

Music is powerful. It always has been. In the Old Testament we even read about David soothing King Saul with his music. Perhaps today David would send Saul his newest Spotify playlist (at a safe distance from any spears being hurled his way).

MTV is happy to talk about music’s influence… for good. How come we never see them owning up to the contrary?

After observing the effects of music on young people for two decades, I’ve noticed two observations Continue reading “MTV Helps Kids Make Sense of the World?”

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Miley’s VMA Reprise

Posted on: 08/24/15 7:35 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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Miley-VMA-host-censoredThis coming Sunday night MTV will be exhausting all means necessary to garner one thing: ratings.

MTV has a history of stooping to new lows for ratings for their Video Music Awards show. This year’s new low will be Miley Cyrus hosting the show.

Yes, MTV exploiting Miley is nothing new. But this year they’ve been already pushing the envelope, utilizing Miley’s desperation for attention in their TV ads for the upcoming awards show. Maybe you’ve seen them: the topless ad (with little greenscreen dots covering the essentials), the “giving us the finger” ad, or the cloud of smoke ad… Continue reading “Miley’s VMA Reprise”

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PG Porn

Posted on: 08/4/15 10:23 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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Selena Gomez PG PornLast week as I prepped to talk with parents about their kids’ phones, I browsed through the music video charts and noticed some interesting trends, especially from some of the “child actresses” our daughters grew up recently watching on TV—Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Their two music videos at the top of the charts are what I call PG Porn—extremely sensual visuals, with scantily clad girls writhing in pleasure… but with no official nudity driving the rating up. It’s the kind of video that drives a junior high boy to either click on something more severe… or to take a cold shower.

And what are these videos teaching our daughters? Continue reading “PG Porn”

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Filtering Rihanna’s BBHMM

Posted on: 07/9/15 5:45 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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rihanna-BBHMM-videoRihanna released a brand new music video this month that is already causing a stir. The world would describe this scandalous video as shrewd marketing. Others, “art”…

Me?

I call it “selling out.”

Regardless, Rihanna knew that the over-the-top violence, nudity and even racial hatred would ruffle feathers… and garner web traffic!

The explicit video is heading toward 20 million views already.

And music videos like this always stir up a question I hear at literally every one of my parent workshops:

“How can I block this stuff from my kid’s phone?”

That’s why I just wrote a brand new Parenting Help article on TheSource4Parents.com titled “Filtering Rihanna.” This article provides Continue reading “Filtering Rihanna’s BBHMM”

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