Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

September 1, 2010 It’s the first of September, as the first day of school angst bubbles up throughout the nation on either side of this ‘premiere’ week. (many have started school already, some are about to)

A welcoming ‘first day?’ Hardly. This is classic online product placement meets mean girl drek in “First Day: The Series,” an abysmal branding collaboration between  K-Mart and Alloy Media. “A new series from the executive producers of Pretty Little Liars” made me wince,  knowing full well that Alloy isn’t exactly on my BFF list (per my piece about their Gossip Girl show) And that they’d be bringing their behavioral blights on the trashy media landscape to relentlessly push their vapid values via digital engagement to kids.

I suppose I should be relieved this horrid absurdity is limited to a ‘merchantainment’ digital ditty rather than a full blown TV series, but they’ve hit a new low by giving us a snapshot of “what’s wrong with our culture” in a handy compressed 8-series, 8+minutes each episodic, which enables them to skirt the FTC rules of product integration by taking it online to target kids with snark, sneers and oh, yes, LOTS of sales pitches. Careful retailing industry, branding backlash could cost you even more in this recession.

Lest you think I’m exaggerating the teencentric crud and cues, here’s a transcript of some of the opening dialog, as the bonafide mean girl upends her older sibling in her own “pathetic” home: “First day of school determines who you’re gonna be friends with, which determines if a guy is gonna like you which determines if you’ll ever be kissed, because after awhile you build it up and you get all nervous, until you’re 25 and totally unkissable…and…” Yadayada. Trust me it gets even worse. (more…)

August 19, 2010 Today is World Humanitarian Day and I definitely needed this inspiring humanitarian video to gain some perspective on humanity. (fab 4 mins after the jump, and a how-to disable vid on Facebook Places too!)

I don’t know why anyone would give a flying fig about my whereabouts, but I DO know I’ve had my own personal safety blogger moments and am frankly unwilling to be bait for someone’s pranks, so color me incredulous when Facebook once again set my default geolocation settings far beyond “Only Me.” Not quite a Beacon privacy breach, but still danged arrogant if you ask me. Yep, I started out my morning of media moments wanting to ‘chuck it all’ and “go off the grid” on a digital hiatus from humanity itself.

From this morning’s Twitter tabula rasa/wiped slate data access vanishing act in Casper the ghost style to fiddling with how to disable Facebook’s “Places” location feature on their newly premiered check-in vehicle, I definitely needed a dose of “grouch be gone”  lest I take this great NYTimes article literally and “go outdoors and out of reach” pronto!

Everyone already knows I’m a fan of pulling the plug and dialing down the drama intermittently to get mindshare back and to put peer reality shows on summer hiatus but escaping from digital humanity on Humanitarian Day? Well, kinda ironic… (more…)

August 9, 2010 Consider this a ‘preliminary post’ to address the Eminem/Rihanna video controversy that’s scorching the blogosphere with the Love the Way You Lie lyrics being deconstructed to a farethewell. (read the comments on EW’s music mix, Jezebel, The Guardian, an important one from the Gainesville Sun/GatorSports angle, and  CB, “where escapism can be smart” just to name a few)

Far beyond the flames of dysfunctional relationships and abusively unhealthy dating drama depicted in the video, the notion of media literacy deconstructing this conversation is an important one to uncork with teens, albeit a tough and potentially traumatic one.

I’m out of my league here, as I feel like it’s all hairsplitting when it comes to violence and abuse in relationships. To me, so-called “common couple violence” is oxymoronic at best (what’s ‘common’ about wailing on each other?) so that’s part of the ‘social norming’ backdraft I’d like to PREVENT entering the lexicon (or heads!) of developing teens who may take a media cue that “rough stuff is passion play”…Turns my stomach, really.

So, I have a call in to Susan Risdon, press liason for the NDVH National Domestic Violence Hotline in Washington and the Love Is Respect National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline to try to untangle the verbiage and lexicon that’s stymied many a social media conversation about what does and doesn’t constitute “DV.” (dating violence? domestic violence? can they be used interchangeably?)

When BOTH parties are sparring with verbal/physical toxicity, does this merit a different category than when the power-base of terrorism whirls through like a tornado coming from only ONE-side of manipulation, control and intimidation? These are the kinds of semantics that I don’t remotely pretend to know, despite having just read the upcoming book Tornado Warning by Actionist(TM) Elin Waldal, her own poignant survivor’s memoir of teen dating violence and its impact on her worldview and her kids. (more…)

July 1, 2010 For those mumbling, “COPPA schmoppa, there goes Amy into policy wonk land, please translate media jargon into usable tidbits” I’ll offer a few primers…

What is COPPA? Why do we need it? (see DigitalAds.org for an interactive show-n-tell which all ages can grok for an ‘aha’ moment on food and beverage marketing targeting kids in the digital age) Who are some of the key advocates involved with COPPA?

And…for those who have been waiting on pins and needles to hear what new roles and rules are taking shape with mobile, video game and behavioral ad marketing to kids, the COPPA coalition has provided an update (summary here) to keep the FTC abreast of the ever-expanding spectrum of targeting kids as it pertains to privacy protections and digital (er, human) rights. This was a huge discussion at the Ypulse 2010 Mashup as marketers, academic researchers and tween moderators/online community leaders grappled with compliance, ethics, and ‘what ifs’ to try to get a handle on loopholes that need closed, as well as misinterpretations of age restrictions and residual fallout from a policy and practices standpoint.

Here’s the full release, the gist of the filing, and what the COPPA coalition specifically asks the FTC to do: (more…)

May 26, 2010 When I mention social media being part of kids’ identity, parents often cringe and squinch up their faces like I’ve force fed them BeanBoozled Jelly Bellies in pickle and ‘rotten egg’ flavor.

Some parents perceive social media to be one behemoth danger zone of Facebook/Formspring/Game Chat/Text-fest “words that wound”—injuring kids like drive-by hit-n-run color commentary.

Can’t blame ‘em, as the constant stream of disturbing new stories on kids’ digital abuses far outweigh the ‘long lost brothers reunited on Twitter’ conversations, kids as heroes mobilizing for change, mobile apps for social good, children for peace linking friendships across global borders to create better understanding, or youth service learning with rapid responses in Haiti shipping tents and donating their own time on their own dime to deliver lightening fast aid.

As one of the contributing authors to The Age of Conversation 3, my goal is to use the social media conversation to DO something…(besides chat, sell stuff and engage in a ‘colossal time sink’ as we adults carp about from time to time) So what are the best practices to  ‘get busy,’ learn the ropes of digital citizenship and apply them to our causes…Enter the social media sages of Age of Conversation 3… (more…)

May 20, 2010 Riddle me this…

What dynamo 6th grade boy from Edmond, Oklahoma performed LadyGaga’s Paparazzi managing to segue the local audience from ‘ho-hum, just another piano number’ talent show inattentiveness to jaw-dropping admiration in ‘omg, this boy has some SERIOUS pipes’ style? (video after the jump) AND…

How did digital media turn Greyson Chance into this week’s Susan Boyle vaulting from a YouTube video to land on the Ellen show May 15th with 18,650,416 hits and climbing, as I write this? Not to mention the wonder of his amazing composure and seasoned style, having just been pulled out of math class via text from his mom with news of his TV debut the day prior to board his very first flight to L.A.?

Greyson now has a Twitter account open (a mere 5 days old with close to 43,000 followers/fans already) and has already cut a record deal with LadyGaga’s label Interscope. Add to that, his skilled aplomb handling media moments is a tribute to the entire ‘M-generation’ of so-called ‘digital natives’ who are much more comfy and charismatic on the virtual stage than camera shy media dodgers like me…Truly inspiring. Wait! There’s more… (more…)

May 17, 2010 As irony would have it, on Thurs, May 13, in New York City, a small tribe of thought leaders convened on how to best address rampant sexualization of youth in media and marketing.

Each invitee of this diverse group was hand-selected for the purpose of “bringing their entire communities” into the conversation and sharing next steps, best practices, and public health data to turn up the static and turn down the media volume of toxic cues blasting kids.

Who was at the table for this intimate planning session? Academic rockstars like Jean Kilbourne author of So Sexy So Soon, filmmaker of just released Killing Us Softly4 and one of the earliest pioneers in this conversation long ago…Then there was Shaping Youth advisory board member Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D, co-author of Packaging Girlhood (and one of the  core crew initiating this important dialog, along with True Child, Women’s Media Center, Hardy Girls Healthy Women, etc.) and yes, yours truly, who was honored to be amidst such luminaries

All told, about two dozen heavy hitters dedicated to changing the channel of media influence to a healthier frequency convened, discussing how fast our culture is frying brain cells into full tilt desensitization (as evidenced by my own Miley Cyrus/L.A. Times yawn awhile back). Meanwhile…(simultaneously, ahem…) (more…)