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 […]
Gamers Save the World … Maybe
Hey, video game haters out there, listen up. You probably thought that 30-year-old “kid” living in your neighbor’s basement playing non-stop video games was a slouch, right? For that matter you might even be worried that someone in your own family may be succumbing to that button-mashing siren’s call. Well, I’ve got some news for […]
Livin’ la Vida Facebook
I’ve got to admit, I really love the recent Toyota Venza commercial. It focuses on a young girl who’s worrying about her parent’s lack of social connection. You’ve probably seen it, but if not check it out. It’s a really funny shot across the bow of the social network generation that thinks “living” is being […]
Tarted-Up Toddlers
There is something about reality shows that just rubs me the wrong way. I can’t help it, I simply find most of them to be pretty obnoxious—repeatedly grinding our virtual noses in their fame-focused subject’s generally silly choices. Case in point: TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras. Remember when people actually thought TLC stood for “The Learning […]
The Frosh Mindset
Well, it’s time for another incoming class of ex-high schoolers to step up to higher learning. And this year those freshmen were born way back in that ancient year of ye old 1993. Of course, that may mean zippidee to you, but Beloit College in Beloit, Wisc., just published its Mindset List of 2015, which […]
Lions, Tigers and Studies, Oh My
Here at Plugged In we love statistics and studies. In our daily cultural research and media reviews, we’re constantly plucking out quotes and figures from one study or another to back up a point of view or maybe get people thinking. Why, what would morning be in the Plugged In team without a nicely rounded […]
The (No) Paper Trail
As you all know, the world of presidential politics is heating up and will be getting incrementally toastier in the next 18 months. Candidates are vying for attention, and media outlets and opposing campaigns are digging around, trying to find out whether candidate X ever advocated banning drinking water or some silly thing. Anyway, I […]
Heroes in the Tweets
OK, I’ll admit it, I haven’t always been the most vocal supporter of the wonders of social networking. In fact, I was recently contemplating its similarities to the biblical plagues of Egypt—something in the neighborhood of the nagging flies of Facebook and the irritating boils of celebrity tweets. But my faith in the goodness of […]
Techin’ in the Boys Room
I remember the day—many moons back when I was in high school—when the school administration announced that they were going to sanction a certain outdoor spot behind the school as a “smoking area.” Now, not being a smoker, it didn’t really matter much to me. (I mean, my parents were smokers and at home I […]