Forget Disneyland
The men and women of the Make-a-Wish Foundation sure do some great things, helping sick kids bring their fantasies to life. And I say God bless ’em. I just heard about one fulfilled wish, though, that was a little different. Disneyland? Hollywood? The Bahamas? Nah. 7-year-old Maxwell Hinton of Fresno Calif., had one dream: He […]
A Puzzling Christmas Morning
I’m a little bit after the fact here, but as my first blog of the new year let me tell you about what happened at our house this Christmas. Like most families, we have some yearly yuletide traditions. For instance, we always gather for a special family dinner on Christmas Eve that includes sharing warm […]
An Important Christmas Present from Facebook
It’s an odd dichotomy, but at Christmas time we often think about depression. Maybe not our own, but we worry about people whose sadness and grief might somehow be amplified during this typically joyous time. And in fact, if we widen our view a bit, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office states that over the course […]
Video Games: Boon or Bane? Part 1
Editor’s Note: Once upon a time, video games were almost as crude as a cave man’s drawings—a pixelated blip bouncing between two paddles. But as the medium has progressed in the decades since Pong’s inception way back in 1972, so has it’s impressive realism. Today’s games offer players an immersive, interactive and cinematic experience that […]
I Was … Batman
Do you ever stop to think about the many roles we play in our personal and professional lives? You probably shift in and out of your different personas without much consideration: Friend, teacher, sibling, mother, employee, boss, spouse. They’re all very different characters, of sorts, but you can be all of them. It’s just a […]
Occupy Nickelback
As I’m sure you fine thinkers and bloggers have noticed, we here at Plugged In are always keeping our ears to the ground and our moistened fingers up in the air to keep track of societal shifts, changing winds and the impact that different forms of media can have on all of the above. Well, […]
Screeching with a Mouthful of Popcorn
Well, it’s Halloween time again. Jack-o-lanterns are in the windows, fake cobwebs are strung over the doorframes and Paranormal Activity 3 is raking in big bucks at the Cineplex. So it only makes sense, I guess, to ask that age-old question: Why do people love to be frightened out of their wits by horror movies? […]
A Heady Facebook Question
A new study by the University College of London found a link between the size of your brain and the number of friends you have on Facebook. That’s right, more friends, bigger brains. Now, I hesitated sharing this news because: 1. I always wonder just how realistic these kinds of studies can be. 2. If […]
From Newborn to Nintendo
Do you worry about the wicked impact of video games on the youth of today? Do you fear that button-mashing play is growing in popularity and will soon lead your kids to glaze-eyed delinquency? Well, I’ve got some news for you … (Cue the scary ominous music) … IT’S ONLY GETTING WORSE!! Yup. Even though […]
Game Over, Man
Video games are excellent teachers, the experts say. But a new study suggests that these digital diversions may teach some unintended lessons. A gaggle of researchers who conducted a study at Nottingham Trent University and Stockholm University came up with a new video game term: game transfer phenomena (GTP). It seems that after testing a […]