Google Glass Envisions Sci-Fi Future
If you think having a really nifty, current-generation smart phone represents the pinnacle of personal information integration, well, think again. A new wave of technology is about to break, one that promises—for better or worse—to tether our lives to the Internet with ever-more seamless constancy. So much so that it might make our cherished smartphones […]
No Flesh, Please, We’re the Grammys
The Grammy Awards are supposed to be about music. But this year, that focus got somewhat pre-emptively derailed by a leaked CBS memo that spelled out, in precise anatomical detail, exactly how anyone who might end up on camera—presenters, award winners, even those sitting in the audience—was supposed to dress. I’ll republish the memo here, […]
The Essence of Immorality’
Sometimes quietly profound insights in life occur in the most mundane moments imaginable. Like, say, in your kitchen. While making toast for breakfast on a normal Monday morning. That happened to me a couple of days ago. While spreading Jiffy on my toast, I happened to glance down at one of those 365-page flip calendars […]
Music Magic: Adam Holz’s Year-End Picks
If you’re anything like me, you’ve already jumped down in this post, not even bothering to read this sentence first, to see what albums and tracks have been chosen as among the best of 2012, from Plugged In’s point of view. After all, it’s the lists that matter, right? So, OK, now that you’re back […]
Social Media Torpedoes Productivity
Social media combined with Internet usage is devastating workers’ productivity and nuking students’ studying time. That’s the assessment from the folks over at learnstuff.com, who synthesized data from multiple sources into a sobering—albeit very colorful—summary of charts and graphs detailing that damage that Americans’ collective surfing habits is doing these days. For instance, six out […]
What Was Impossible 60 Years Ago and Dangerous 40 Years Ago and Difficult 20 Years Ago Is Now Becoming No Big Deal’
One subject we spend lots of time thinking about here at Plugged In is how media influences our culture. Each week we publish a feature called Culture Clips (check it out here if you’ve never done so before) where we often summarize stories that illustrate how some kind of entertainment is influencing and shaping attitudes among […]
Shooting Reopens Violence-in-the-Media Dialogue
The unimaginable killing of 20 young children and seven adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., last week has not only reinvigorated longstanding cultural conversations about gun control, it’s also reignited the ongoing dialogue about the impact of violence in the media. At issue is the question of how—and how much—portrayals and depictions of […]
Maintaining Digital Vigilance
In our increasingly wired world, sometimes we run into really nasty things in cyberspace through no fault of our own. I had one of those experiences over the weekend. And it happened at my local YMCA of all places. I was pedaling away on a recumbent stationary bike while my wife jogged on a treadmill […]
PG-13: Red Dawn Revisited
Back in 1984, movie violence was ratcheting ever upward—even in films with a PG rating. A nasty little beastie got baked in a microwave and exploded in Gremlins, for instance, and an unfortunate sacrificial victim got his still-beating heart ripped out in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The common denominator in both movies? […]
Polls, Politics & Postmodernism
If you’ve been paying attention to the news during this presidential election cycle, you’ve probably noticed the wide variance among different polls. Over at Fox News or drudgereport.com, you might find polls that indicate one thing. Watch network TV, and you’ll see different numbers. Read The New York Times or The Washington Post or The […]