Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

July 2, 2009 Back to part three in our series on healthGAMERS in a jiff…but first, a quick coffee break, with some health news you can use.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Starbucks’ ubiquitous media and marketing presence has had a grande (venti?) impact on kids.

From status symbols of socioeconomics in school, to age compression where caffeine-culture equates with being a ‘grown-up,’ children have been sucking down coffee drinks and frappuccinos like costly candy bars.

This past June, I watched uniformed kidlets whipping out their Starbucks card in ‘my treat’ mode as if on a date at this yuppie chow chain and harkened back to my exposure  to coffee somewhere around my newsroom days…But since this isn’t a Herb Caen retro piece, let’s just say caffeine, and sports/energy drinks were a non-issue in most childhoods of today’s parents.

This post is about the welcome trend toward healthier fast food options, marketplace demand for natural, organic, and REAL food fare, and, yes,  Starbucks newly launched values into the sea change…getting back to grassroots community building (their Shared Planet program, responsiveness to green initiatives, new V2V conversations, and the basics: offering tastier fare) Let’s face it, they HAD to do something fast… (more…)

June 30, 2009 Today in my Twitter feed (yes, I finally joined, see sidebar badge!) I immediately benefited from the ‘following’ phenom to shortcut my research time when a new friend/follower in Australia, Tania Andrusiak, pointed to today’s Scientific American story called “Take two video games and call me in the morning” —(’ReTweet’ visual at left)

Guess it’s time for me to ‘eat crow’ realizing Twitter’s not for the birds in terms of ‘too much information’ to manage, as it may in fact help rather than hinder my data flow being able to filter topics and follow key links without making myself crazy trying to ‘keep up.’

This article today is about as ‘spot on’ for a healthGAMERS Part Two update as I could’ve hoped for, so THANK you all for nudging this stubborn soul into the stream, and sorry for being such a ‘twit’ and lurking incognito for so long. (Lisa Ray from Parents for Ethical Marketing said, “Twitter is your friend” and Andre, from healthGAMERS gave me the final Facebook nudge in a comment on my profile page) (more…)

June 28, 2009 There’s no question healthGAMERS are exploring the opportunities of using a “perceived problem as a solution” in the gaming world.

Humana is now offering $5000 to create a healthy game concept, RWJF crowdsourced ideas in Teen Second Life with their Dream it. Do it. venture for healthier communities and Elf Island’s already seeing therapeutic results in their use of virtual worlds to lift spirits of pediatric patients in hospitals…

Andre Blackman of healthGAMERS addresses the vast untapped potential to leverage this sector for good in his interview with WiiMommies’ Julie Maloney of Momspective who literally put together an e-guide on how the Nintendo Wii changed her life and helped her lose 60 pounds…and a couple days ago USA Today’s Jinny Gudmundsen raved about Tap Runner as the breakout game in “Tap into a new way to play on the Wii”…so clearly there’s media traction toward benefits as of late.

The ongoing blame game between junk food giants’ finger pointing at kids’ engagement with the $13.5 billion video gaming industry as a likely link for childhood obesity and the digital learning sphere like Joan Ganz Cooney Center (of Sesame Workshop) studying the vast potential of advancing health rather than precluding it…It leads me to the obvious question: Can we leverage the Appetite for Profit on BEHALF of kids’ health and well-being by turning the profit motive into some viable solutions? (more…)

June 26, 2009 Just as some kids can sniff out an ‘educational’ experience and shut the learning light switch off (or dim it at best) others do the same with the phrase “Serious Games.”

Though it’s an accurate label for the new healthGAMERS site, I hesitate to use ‘serious games’ because it can send people bolting in the opposite direction faster than you can say ‘disease management’(Talk about a Health 2.0 term that needs a branding overhaul!)

Seriously.  It could even be part of Oprah’s “I know this much is true” schtick…

I’ve been in dire need of a forum like this to get a handle on ‘what works and what doesn’t’ as we’re all eager to share our ‘best practices’ so we don’t cover the similar ground. Most of us concerned with the kids’ health sphere are out to stealthily seed knowledge in whimsical, fresh new ways where it’s not like a “spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.” So I truly prefer to think of healthGAMERS differently than just ’serious games.’

For me, healthGAMERS represents an emerging community that aims to be an up-to-the-minute, one-stop collective knowledge pool, sharing resources and feedback from various perspectives…Educators, researchers, medical pros, game developers, even kids and parents splashing in the same waters… (more…)

June 23, 2009 Changeblogger and informal learning pro Jasmin Tragas, (also one of my fellow NextNow Collaboratory global gal pals and co-contributors to the Age of Conversation Gavin Heaton and Drew McClellan’s collaborative social media project for Variety, the Children’s charity) has put together a stunningly simple alphabet slide show that’s Sesame-Street-easy in imparting the A,B,Cs of social media! (after the jump)

Jasmin’s blog, WonderWebby is chock full of FREE tips, ideas, and compelling ways of distilling information into fun but meaningful formats to champion change. Her Shout Out Social, her WorldShapers book (which I was honored to be in) and her simplified media nuggets about Trust Banks and microloans put knowledge into ‘common sense’ terms non-digital natives can understand! Brava!

She keeps giving away all her knowledge for free, which I’m amazed she’s not ‘selling’ in “Change the world one e-book at a time” mode to fundraise for her noble Opportunity International microfinancing projects to help women and children lift themselves out of poverty. Jasmin is in the FINAL WEEK of her microloan quest in the Philippines..and she’s at about 60%, so she’s asking us to ‘Tweet’ and/or  ‘ChipIn.’ (more…)

June 22, 2009 Youth culture is highly visual and iconic, no doubt about it. According to Graham Brown’s article, Youth in Iran, about 60% of the population in Iran is under 25, so it’s no surprise that the death in the streets of 26-year old “Neda” has become iconic very, very fast.

As students and global citizens rally using social media mobilization to protest the outcome of the Iranian election, the shift toward worldwide community and empathy toward human beings of all ages pours forth like tears in raw, real time. It’s readily apparent media’s mouthpieces have changed forever…

With  multiple “ReTweets” of the uprising, mini-clips of handheld video streamed in citizen journalism style and auto-translation of Persian messages tearing down language barriers, clearly “we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto”...Even if the web has turned into the ‘Emerald City’ of green.

The “Green Wall” of thumbnail photos on Twitter, Facebook profiles, and Paste Magazine’s “Iranicon Me” are highly visual, stimulating ways to show support en masse on a global scale…But as we enter these media conversations at lightening speed we need to carefully sharpen critical thinking skills and “teach our children well” to do the same.

That green tint should be accompanied by a red stoplight for kids to be able to answer basics like, “What’s happening in Iran right now?” or “Who IS Neda?” rather than bandwagoning current affairs into nebulous explanations that mirror the Beatles lyrics to Revolution.

The “click to help” crowd needs to balance motivation and emotion with historic background, knowledge, and context or else we’re at risk of seeing mass movements that take hold more like ‘memes’ than meaningful protests. (more…)

June 21, 2009 As I cruise through all of the “Dads & Grads” posts about “what guys want” and “last minute gifts for Dad” I can’t help but think the  consumption cues heralding “Father’s Day gifts on the cheap, under $200!” (or even under $50) are head-spinners for folks like me.

Young kids who genuinely want to do something nice for Dad today beyond the homemade, sentimental favorites, find that even parting with a Jackson is like solid gold, so what if we take the benchmark down to “Gifts for Dad under $5” that kids can buy themselves?

Yes, I realize that won’t even buy a movie ticket anymore, and one on one experiential gifts, like go-see-do days, hugs, handmades, attaboys and back-patting from appreciative spouses AND kids are irreplaceable, so this is more of a ‘if kids want to buy for the guy’ type of gesture that won’t break junior’s piggybank or seed consumption in the double-triple digits… (more…)