Too Common Problems
I saw an article on usatoday.com splashing the news that Disney teen star Demi Lovato left her tour with the Jonas Brothers to check herself into a treatment center so she could “deal with emotional and physical issues.” The report went on to repeat statements from an anonymous “person familiar with the situation” who said […]
Bloga Bloga Bieber Gaga
Yep. We have another tidbit of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber news for your impassioned consumption. Drum roll please. Wait for it … Lady Gaga has officially beaten mop-top Justin Bieber and become the first artist to rack up over 1 billion views on YouTube. Not that the teen cutie heartthrob is far behind. He’s […]
Hit Me With Your Best Shock
Forty years ago, author Alvin Toffler looked at his world and made some striking societal forecasts about the future in a book called Future Shock. Toffler believed that technology and science would develop at such an accelerated pace that many people would be unable to process the enormous amounts of new information available and simply […]
Hollywood’s Parents. New and Improved?
I recently saw a doublex.com article titled “The Era of Great Parents in Teen Movies is Upon Us” in which author Laruen Bans examines a number of parental roles in past teen movies. She points out that, for years, teen comedy parents have been portrayed as, at best, oblivious and disconnected from their kids, or […]
Getting Better All The Time
Here’s a little test: Think about some stupid moral choice you’ve made and would rather forget. (Don’t worry: You won’t be required to tell us about it when we’re done here.) Whatever that dredged-up indiscretion was, researchers are willing to bet that you’ve subconsciously chosen an incident from your distant past, or you’re unknowingly fiddling […]
The Graying of Network TV
Broadcast TV has a problem. (No, not Two and a Half Men, although, trust me, that show’s got more problems than my uncle Benny’s waistband after an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord.) The trouble here is that the average TV audience is getting older while advertisers are still grabbing for the youth market golden ring. A new Baseline […]
There’s a Worm in my Tweet!
Twitter was infected this week by a virus that flooded user’s accounts with odd messages and prompted un-clicked pop-ups—some of which contained malicious code that could take over your computer if it didn’t have the right safeguards. Even the White House’s official Twitter feed was blitzed. Yeah, it was all cleaned up in short order, […]
Search Engine Censorship
Let’s face it, you can find just about anything on the Internet. And that’s not always such a good thing. In fact, National Public Radio recently reported on how some have gotten so fed up with the flood of Internet flotsam that they’re turning their backs on traditional search engines and finding online helps that […]
3-D Traffic Stopper
If you’re reading this blog in Canada, you may have already been part of a new road-going experiment. But for the rest of you, let me set up a scenario: You’re tooling along in your aging family sedan, a bit late and pushing the speed limits, when out of nowhere a little girl darts in […]
It’s a Girl Thing
It seems everywhere you look nowadays there’s a new story about girls going wild. And I’m not talking about spring-break videos. I’m referring to young girls unleashing rage-filled rants or Fight Club-style beat-downs. Is there something in the water, or what? Now, I guess I ought to quickly backtrack to add that I’m not being […]