Youth Culture Archives - Page 39 of 57 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

Twilight’s ‘Emo’ New Moon

Posted on: 11/18/09 12:53 PM | by Jonathan McKee

If you have been anywhere around tween girls in the last few days, you’ve probably heard the news… Twilight’s sequal, New Moon, is coming to theatres this Friday.

This is probably THE most anticipated film of the year by teenagers. The buzz for this film is huge. Even if kids aren’t Twilight fans, they are going to be hearing nothing but Twilight for a few weeks. Some kids will just go to see it to see what all the buzz is about.

The question many of you might have is- what message will this film be communicating to our kids?

David and I just wrote a Youth Culture Window article answering that very question, an article that specifically addresses some of the self-destructive messages the film conveys. Here’s just a snippet of that article:

Twilight Goes ‘Emo’
Bella’s Self-destructive Dependence on Edward

There’s a New Moon rising this Friday night in theaters… and your kids won’t miss it. The question is what will this new film in the Twilight Saga communicate to our kids?

The first film was labeled “harmless” by many, despite its numerous subtle messages. (Hey girls, wouldn’t it be romantic if your boyfriend snuck into your room in the middle of the night and made-out with you on your bed?) Harmless?

However, in the second film, Bella seems to take an emotionally-charged turn that’s self-destructive in nature. Whew! It’s a good thing we don’t live in a world where millions of young girls have low self-esteem and engage in self-destructive behaviors because of it.

(Awkward pause)

So… what will this New Moon look like?

The New Moon is FULL
The Quileute Tribe. The Volturi. Shape-shifters. Many adults may not yet know what these fictional agents have in common, but without a doubt, they’ll combine for the biggest event in youth culture this week.

For months, millions of teenagers have been counting down the days to this coming Friday night, November 20th, when New Moon, the second film in the Twilight Saga, is released in theaters around the world.

Youth media and marketing have capitalized on the “pop culture phenomenon” and have taken every opportunity to promote the new film in as many different venues as possible. Tons of websites have been created around the plot and cast (like TheTwilightSaga, TwilightersAnonymous and NewMoonMovie). MTV has highlighted exclusive previews of the upcoming film at both of their awards shows earlier this year and bloggers have been following the cast and speculating about the movie for weeks. When New Moon’s soundtrack was recently released, it easily climbed to #1 on the album charts. Further, The Twilight Saga has even caused other TV networks to offer their own version of vampire stories given the success of this franchise. And of course, vampire merchandise has generated incredibly high sales in several retail stores…

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

The article goes on to talk in greater detail about Bella’s emotional self-destructive behaviors.

Let me be clear. I don’t think this film is bad- it’s probably going to be fairly clean. I just think that parents should ‘co-view” this one with their kids so they can talk about what they saw.

After all, Twilight fans are a different breed… they’re like little “emo-trekies!” If you want an idea of the mentality of the typical Twilight fan, just read some of the comments by teenagers in this blog article I wrote earlier this year (scroll down a little bit and read the responses from kids). YIKES! Scary stuff.

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Media Use

Posted on: 11/12/09 2:43 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Wow… too many articles to blog about. So I’ll just highlight a bunch of interesting media research from The Nielsen Company. Hold on… this is going to be a rapid fire blog with links and stats.

TV VIEWING: The Nielsen Company came out with a recent report on TV viewing in America. Despite rumors that TV watching is going down, TV continues to rise with the 2008-09 at an all time high.

Here’s a peek at 91 til now:

And here’s the entire article.

And a quick glimpse at Monthly Time that each age group (from kindergarten through retirement) spends in front of the TV. Can you believe it… 12-17 year olds average roughly 26 hours a week. Wow.

Also see: TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High,

MOBILE PHONES: In a recent Nielsen report on Social Media I found tons of interesting facts, but this the most intriguing- the age that children own their first phone. Apparently the age just keeps getting younger. In the first quarter of 2009, the AVERAGE age was 9.7 years old!

Here’s a glimpse at mobile ownership by age:

Notice that 76% of phone users get their cell phone at 12-year-old (NOTE: This table isn’t saying that 76% of 12-year-olds have a cell phone. According to a Pew Internet report, that number is 51%). I can attest to that. My 12-year-old daughter does NOT have one and she reminds me of that every day! (“Dad, all my friends have one!” I’ll have to correct her now. “Correction, only 51% of your friends have one!) 🙂

Here’s the entire social media article.

ONLINE SEARCH: And just to show that Google still “owns”

Here’s the report.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Why Teenagers Grow Up Slowly

Posted on: 11/10/09 10:41 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Why are teenagers growing up so slowly? It’s not that hard to figure out. Just compare the responsibilities of your great grampa to kids today.

100 years ago: Help dad with the farm…. or Mom, sister and the rest of you won’t have any food.

Today: “Mom… I want the new iPhone! All my friends have it!”

Hmmmmm.

For years I’ve been reading about the increasing length of Adolescence and theories as to why. Last week, Newsweek highlighted a new book by Dr. Joe Allen titled, Escaping the Endless Adolescence (more on that in a minute). I loved the article, especially the timing of it- the same week as our most recent podcast, Episode #30, a conversation between Walt Mueller and I about today’s youth culture. In this podcast, Walt describes the crucial time of parenting adolescents as “the space between” (The title of his book on the subject).

Here’s his logic:

We all know that when our kids are young- we think for them.

We all know that someday- our kids will have to think for themselves.

How do we get them from “us thinking for them” to “thinking for themselves?”

Hence, the space between, when we think with them. (Simple, but profound, huh?)

In this podcast (free on iTunes), Walt and I have a great time talking about what this actually looks like day to day for parents who are raising teenagers. Fun stuff.

Back to the Newsweek article. It basically argues that teenagers are growing up slower because our society is not giving them opportunities to think and act for themselves… so we think for them, protecting them from “real life.”

Here’s just a snippet:

Allen has concluded that our urge to protect teenagers from real life – because we don’t think they’re ready yet – has tragically backfired. By insulating them from adult-like work, adult social relationships, and adult consequences, we have only delayed their development. We have made it harder for them to grow up. Maybe even made it impossible to grow up on time.

Basically, we long ago decided that teens ought to be in school, not in the labor force. Education was their future. But the structure of schools is endlessly repetitive. “From a Martian’s perspective, high schools look virtually the same as sixth grade,” said Allen. “There’s no recognition, in the structure of school, that these are very different people with different capabilities.” Strapped to desks for 13+ years, school becomes both incredibly monotonous, artificial, and cookie-cutter.

As Allen writes, “We place kids in schools together with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other kids typically from similar economic and cultural backgrounds. We group them all within a year or so of one another in age. We equip them with similar gadgets, expose them to the same TV shows, lessons, and sports. We ask them all to take almost the exact same courses and do the exact same work and be graded relative to one another. We give them only a handful of ways in which they can meaningfully demonstrate their competencies. And then we’re surprised they have some difficulty establishing a sense of their own individuality.”

And we wonder why it’s taking so long for them to mature…

Fascinating stuff.

(ht to Adam for highlighting the article in the YS Update)

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Miley… Voted Worse Influence

Posted on: 11/5/09 10:25 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay… maybe some of you have already voted off Miley in your own minds. But you’re not alone.

That’s right… her own fans just voted her as the worst celebrity influence of 2009, joining the ranks of Britney Spears and Kanye West.

Last week AOL’s JSYK.com, a website aimed at 9-15 year olds, released the results of their poll where Miley took 42 percent of the votes for worst celebrity influence. Reuters reports:

Miley Cyrus, one of Disney’s hottest stars of the past three years with hit records and hit films, has been voted the worst celebrity influence of 2009 by the very people who made her a star, tweens and teens, according to an online poll on Wednesday.

Cyrus, 16, took 42 percent of votes in the poll for AOL’s JSYK.com (Just So You Know) website aimed at 9-15 year-olds, pushing Britney Spears and rapper Kanye West into second and third places, respectively, in a section on worst celebrity influences of the year.

I’ve actually gone to bat for Miley a few times in my blog. She’s young… and I did some stupid things in my teenage years. But it’s difficult when she keeps returning to her vomit like that Proverbial dog, with antics like those at this year’s Teen Choice Awards. Come on Miley… my kids like you!

But I guess not all kids do… 42%… to be specific.

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Socially Isolated… or Are We?

Posted on: 11/4/09 12:40 PM | by Jonathan McKee

The Pew Internet & American Life Project just came out with a fascinating new report today about Social Isolation and New Technology. The gist of the report seems to contend: Yes, technology does lead some people to become more socially isolated, but not as much as some have argued.

For example:

The average size of American’s core discussion networks has declined since 1985; the mean network size has dropped by about one-third or a loss of approximately one confidant.
Users of social networking services at 26% less likely to use their neighbors as a source of companionship.
Internet Users are 40% less likely to rely on neighbors for help in caring for themselves or a family member.

And I found this little fact interesting as well…

Internet users are 38% less likely to rely exclusively on their spouses/partners as discussion confidants.

(I’ll let you decide if that’s good or bad.) 🙂

I was very curious about this report, because I’ve done a lot of research on the subject for two of my recent books.

1. In my book, THE NEW BREED, about recruiting and training this “new breed” of 21st Century volunteers, my dad and I shared several studies about the growing trend toward social isolation. We quoted some studies showing that people have lost at least one core confidant. Funny… this new report shares the exact same thing. Apparently some reports inflate this.

2. In my book about adults connecting with kids that comes out next month (CONNECT), I spent a little bit of time discussing how kids isolate themselves socially, hiding in front of a “screen” of some kind, instead of “face-to-face” communication. I find this Pew Internet report fascinating, because it conveys that technology isn’t isolating people as much as we might think. This made me happy with a decision I made in writing my CONNECT book… I opted to not devote a lot of time to mere “virtual” communication (some people seemed to think we should “put all our cards in this basket.” I disagreed.) I basically concluded that students were isolating themselves more and more, and that face to face communication was becoming difficult for some kids at first. So I recommended becoming familiar with technology and even using it as a stepping stone, but not as a replacement for face-to-face communication. Here’s a snippet:

This increase in social isolation is creating a relational void in the lives of students today. We have an incredible opportunity to meet this need with something real, face-to-face relationships.

Even though teens might be more comfortable with us connecting with them through cell phones and computers, I see these digital mediums only as stepping-stones for youth workers to engage in face-to-face communication. This is not just because of the obvious value of face-to-face conversations, but also because of the increasing dangers emerging with technology. Legislation is changing regarding appropriate digital communication between adult mentors and students. (I’ll touch on this in greater detail in chapter 13 when I talk about the boundaries and precautions we should consider with relational ministry.)

As we make connecting one-on-one a priority in our ministry, we may often utilize technology as a tool to transition toward more face-to-face conversations. In relational ministry, technology should be used as a tool, not a crutch.

(We are offering a great deal on the pre-sale of this book right now on our website, where you can get it from us about a month before anyone else, along with a free ppt training we’re giving away).

I encourage you to check out this Pew Internet report. I fully agree with their results.

Posted in Books, Entertainment Media, Internet, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Chris and Wayne Moving Up Fast

Posted on: 11/1/09 8:46 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last Tuesday a new song and video was released by Chris Brown and Lil Wayne, a song called I Can Transform Ya.

I blogged about it earlier in the week, predicting that it would move up the charts fast. Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly how accurate my guess would be. Today the video (only 5 days old) is already #5 on iTunes, and rapidly moving to the top 10 in downloaded songs. It’s crazy how fast this song is moving up the charts. When I checked iTunes this morning, the video was #7. It has risen 2 spots in just 10 hours!

This song, where Lil Wayne says that he can “transform a good girl to a freak” (my earlier blog about it gave you a glimpse of the lyrics) is the same ol’ trash that hip hop has been dishing out for years. It’s not “explicit” by the world’s standards (no cuss words), it just objectifies women and refers to sex as casually as any other recreational activity.

Sigh.

I’m just sad that I was correct about its rise on the charts.

Keep your eye on it… it will keep rising.

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Heroes Also Goes Bi-curious

Posted on: 10/28/09 11:13 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Same sex experimentation is ‘in.’

Last Monday, NBC’s Heroes jumped in the same bandwagon as… well… everyone else with a “same-sex” kiss between Claire and her college room-mate. Secular media critics seem to agree that it’s a slumpbusting publicity stunt.

Media producers such as the money behind Heroes are realizing that it’s not just sex that sells… but two girls kissing sells even bigger! Threesomes? Even better!

Look at popular songs and music videos of late. Britney’s “3” (her song about a threesome) hit #1 two weeks ago. The music video of Black Eyed Peas’ #1 hit I Gotta Feeling featured several shots of girl on girl kissing. Cobra Starship’s Good Girls Go Bad (also in the top 10 a few weeks ago) ends with a girl on girl kiss. No need to go on- it’s everywhere on the music scene.

It’s not new to TV either. MTV’s Real Cancun not only had a threesome in one of their episodes, but also provided a front page teaser for the download so viewers could watch it again and again. Gossip Girl is trying to create buzz about their upcoming “threesome” in an episode on November 9th. MTV.com interviewed Gossip Girl’s Michelle Trachtenberg (sadly, I remember her from watching Ice Princess with my daughters) about the upcoming threesome and she says, “It’s worth waiting for.” The interview is sad, really. The interviewer asks her, “If you had to be in a threesome with two other characters in the show, who would be your pick?” Michelle replies, “All of them!” (in 10 days our Youth Culture Window page will be featuring an article about this new trend).

Heroes ratings have been dropping and they needed a boost. What better boost to create buzz in today’s world than some girl on girl action. And if you have any doubt about NBC’s intentions, then ask yourself, why is it that they released pictures of the kiss and tried to create buzz about it before the episode even aired? News sources talked about the possibility as early as July. In early October geek sites and numerous other news sources released photos of the kiss, referring to it as a “perfect ratings slumpbuster.” TV.com’s Tim Surette writes:

Let the show’s hottest female character make out with her female college roommate. Bam! Genius! And just so we don’t forget that the kiss is coming next week, they’ve released a still photo.

Genius? Really?

Hardly.

I would tend to agree with this perspective from the National Post:

Two weeks ago I suggested that Claire’s kiss with Gretchen was a transparent publicity stunt designed to bring salivating teenage geeks back to the show. At the time I thought, mistakenly, that the kiss was a one-off destined for the regularly emptied dustbin of television history.

Instead, it seems that Heroes’ writers have chosen to elongate this college experimentation cliché in order to dangle the possibility of future Hayden Panettiere lesbian love scenes in front of the aforementioned geeks, seemingly unaware that google and PVRs have long since made actually watching the show a requisite for seeing such action.

It’s not that all lesbian storylines are somehow inherently cynical, they’re not; it’s just that in this particular context the same-sex narrative is about as dramatically credible as the recent lesbian kiss in Megan Fox’s movie Jennifer’s Body. The Claire kiss even received a pre-show publicity blitz similar to one for Jennifer’s Body centred on the promise of a topless Sapphic scene featuring the Transformers starlette. That scene ended up being an unfulfilled promise (left on the cutting room floor), and the geeks saw right through it, kind of like how we can all see through this sad and vaguely offensive attempt to keep Heroes interesting.

I used to enjoy Heroes. The truth of the matter is, the show lost my interest long ago… and Claire’s kiss didn’t bring me back.

Nice try!

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Chris Brown + Lil Wayne = Same ol’ Trash

Posted on: 10/27/09 5:00 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Chris Brown is back, and he’s not alone.

I guess Chris’ mom never warned him to be careful who he hangs out with, because after a long period of silence since pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna, Chris has now joined forces with a guy with a little legal trouble of his own- Lil Wayne – for a new song and video called, I Can Transform Ya.

Watch the charts, because this one will move up fast!

Today it is the #26 most downloaded song on iTunes and #16 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart (but watch, it will be moving up the Hot 100 very soon!) Kids are downloading this one like mad, and if parents only block songs deemed explicit, then this song will slip under the radar, because it’s not explicit… it’s not clean either.

Instead of whining about the “rating system” just do a quick Google search for the lyrics. You’ll find this:

hehe, i take you to wherever its warmer,
then i gotta rip off your dress like a warm up,
hehe, but Im just getting warmed up…

cos her form puts me in a trance,
i transform smaller and she puts me in her pants,
Swiss on the Beat, Chris move ya feet
and we can transform a good girl to a freak

Nice Chris! See what happens when you let Wayne in on your material?

If you’re curious what your kids will be seeing, you can check out the video for yourself on MTV.com in this article about the premiere of this video. I don’t see the video on iTunes yet (which, by the way, has quite a few clean videos in the Top 10, including David Crowder’s How He Loves at #7, Owl City’s Fireflies at #9, and Taylor Swift’s Fifteen at #1. Pretty cool. Just don’t look at videos 11-20… all but one are pure trash. Funny how the rankings turned out today.)

(ht to Tom B.)

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Taylor Swift Hype

Posted on: 10/26/09 6:57 PM | by Jonathan McKee

She’s country, but she gets mainstream airplay, she’s clean (wow!)… and four of her concerts just sold out in two minutes!

19-year-old country singer Taylor Swift has only become more popular in recent months, with songs continually in the top 10 of Billboard charts, and winning MTV’s best female video (having that moment swiped by Kanye).

On Friday, tickets to four of her 2010 Fearless tour dates sold out in literally two minutes! According to this article, she was the best selling artist of 2008 and will play 37 shows in the US and Canada and seven down under.

Today, Taylor is all over the charts:

Her album Fearless is #1 on Country Albums, and actually #7 on the Billboard 200 album charts (it peaked at #1)
Her title album (Taylor Swift) is #13 on the Country Albums chart (it peaked at #1)
Her song You Belong With Me is #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at #2)
Love Story is #9 on the Adult Contemporary chart (it peaked at #1)
Fifteen is #11 on the Country Songs chart, #67 on the Hot 100 chart, and #53 on the Radio Songs chart

Keep your eyes on this girl. Our kids are watching her.

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Lil Wayne Pleads Guilty… but Doesn’t Feel Guilty

Posted on: 10/24/09 10:20 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s so hilarious to me, it’s hard for me to even report.

Here it is, in a nutshell: Lil Wayne gets pulled over AGAIN because the police smelled Marijuana emanating from his tour bus (not the first time this has happened). When authorities entered the bus, they saw him throw a Louis Vuitton bag to the floor… a bag that contained a .40 caliber.

My words of advice to Lil Wayne:

1. Don’t carry a gun.

2. If you’re gonna carry a gun, don’t brag that you always carry a gun, like in your foul song, Always Strapped

3. If you’re gonna carry a gun, don’t also brag that you carry a gun AND are “ducking the law,” like in your song, F**k the World, or your song She Feelin’ Me where you say “f**k the police” and then describe that your gal hides weed in her… (Well… I just don’t think I should dive that deep into a woman’s anatomy in this blog- peek at the lyrics for yourself if you’re curious) … but Wayne, you’re just daring a cop to pull you over!

4. If you’re gonna carry a gun, brag about carrying a gun, AND badmouth the police, don’t carry a gun in New York, where in 2006, they passed a bill, that then-Governor George Pataki changed into law, where mere possession of a loaded weapon in New York State is a felony, whether you planned to use the gun or not.

5. If you’re gonna carry a gun, brag about carrying a gun, badmouth the police, AND get pulled over in New York, then don’t whine that you’re treated unfairly and act like such a victim. You got caught. Face it. Do your time like T.I. and shut up about it. After all, this isn’t your first run in with the law:

In August, 2006 you were arrested in Atlanta for possession of a controlled substance. During your stay at the Twelve Hotel, management smelled marijuana and called the police, who found two illegal drugs. (Yeah, you eventually beat those charges.)
Out on bond, you got arrested in Boise in October 2007 for a felony fugitive charge linked to your Atlanta arrest (Yeah, you beat those too.)
In January 2008 your tour bus was stopped in Yuma, AZ where border patrol agents found marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy. (You still have to stand trial for that one next March. Beat that one!)
Those arrests don’t even include your legal suits like the one you settled with The Rolling Stones for sampling their song, and the two suits by concert promoters for taking advances and not performing (you’re obviously a real man of integrity!)

But Wayne… I’ve gotta give you props for being smart enough to plea on this New York gun charge. You’ll probably only do 8-10 months, where if you wouldn’t have plead, you’d have been looking at 3 and a half years if found guilty by trial.

Thus endeth my advice to Lil Wayne.

Perhaps Wayne is finally going to eat his words. He talks pretty big in all his lyrics, in songs like, F**k You, where he said, “Murder ain’t nuttin’ but a misdemeanor.”

Well too bad gun possession is a felony!

Even though Wayne is finally going to be held accountable for his actions, it’s interesting that in this country, it looks like he never will be held accountable for his words. This week’s plea by Lil Wayne is rather timely, only days after the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released their report that “the effect that popular music has on children’s and adolescents’ behavior and emotions is of paramount concern.”

Then I wonder what effect the lyrics of Lil Wayne’s hit song Lollipop had on our kids, a song that adults gave him a Grammy for, the song that rode the number one slot more than almost any other song last year, the song that was the #3 most downloaded song last year.

Hmmmmmmmm.

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