Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

Update May 1, 2010: Out of town but posting soon. Taking a hike and reining in the ‘sky will fall if I don’t post’ life balance distortion. Healthy media management musts!

April 22, 2010 “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always ourselves we find in the sea. –e.e. cummings”

I’m late with my Earth Day post because I was outdoors in nature instead of bridging online to offline green and eco digital communities. Go figure.

Every Earth Day I circle back to fun, fresh ways we can embed sustainability messages in media to inspire kids as stewards of the planet so we don’t get into ‘either/or’ thinking and instead embrace ALL forms of apps, techno tools, outdoor fun and Save My Planet contests (extended ’til May 25!) to create a green scene a la kids CauseWorld.

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way from the marketing of guilt trips, dire, dry stats and hopeless doomsday predictions to marketing mindfulness and hope, embracing positive change that kicks “actionists” into high gear as a force for the future to be reckoned with…

Today alone “YOUth” movements like Green My Parents.com launched all over the media in the NYT Opinionator on Yahoo Shine and GMP on Twitter (congrats GMP!) Plus mega-moguls like DisneyNature’s Oceans premiere to save our seas and coral reefs is not only raising awareness about conservation, but leveraging social media to pool funds via quick click and change agent pledges (e.g. SaveMyOceans) (more…)

April 18, 2010 Many of you know I clench when I hear the word ‘reporter’ (even though I’m one and the same, it’s different when you’re behind the keyboard) because media has powerful potential to ignite infernos and give too much heat to ill-placed words, creating drama instead of preventing same.

…So imagine my exhale when today’s edition of the Chicago Tribune rightfully quoted me about the need for media literacy and context when it comes to bullying or ANY digital hypefests.

Chicago Tribune reporter Heidi Stevens used a children’s literature corollary with one of my favorite book club picks, “The Hundred Dresses” that dates back to 1944 in a “that was then, this is now” flashback of monumental perspective. Turning a negative topic into a positive opportunity using storybooks for teaching moments? Kudos all around.

As we all mourn the loss of teen tragedies like 15-year old Phoebe Prince, splashed on the cover of People, and hear Oprah shows with devastated moms discussing kids “Bullied to Death” it’s imperative to apply critical thinking skills to media’s role in the conversation to enlighten and inform with prevention and education, rather than fan the flames in drama fests and social norming cues that are just not accurate of youth as a whole.

It’s SO refreshing to hear great material from colleagues and girls’ advocates like Rachel Simmons (interviewed extensively in the Trib article) that add solutions-based talking points, rather than hand-wringing stressors… And for reporters to look at all sides of the equation to temper the tenor being pumped into the media sphere. (more…)

April 16, 2010 About a year ago, TruthOut featured a poignant article called “Commodifying Kids, The Forgotten Crisis” by academic Henry A. Giroux, and though I read it with lots of head bobbing agreement on the tipping point of toxicity, I have to strongly DISagree with the “forgotten” notion.

This issue is not the LEAST bit forgotten…it’s on fire, baby and it’s gaining huge momentum.

Entire SUMMITS are being hosted about market values, human values, and the lives of children…(first time I’ve missed CCFC’s excellent mashup of academics in 3 years, while I was unplugged in Catalina!)

Plus, our own massive traction over just a few short years at Shaping Youth where we’ve been reporting/researching media and marketing’s influence on kids is proof positive people are starting to “get it” that selling off  childhood to the highest bidder is a price that will ultimately cost us all…

Now add on other like-minded nonpartisan, non-censorship, non-religious based middle-roaders dedicated to reclaiming childhood from cruddy credos served up in our current pop culture and hey, we’ve got ourselves a movement in the making. Like? Adproofing Your Kids and Healthy Media Choices and Common Sense Media and Parents for Ethical Marketing and  a whole slew of “I’m not a prude, but…” teens, parents, and advocacy orgs that prefer media and marketing live up to its fullest POSITIVE potential! (more…)

April 13, 2010 We’re back from Catalina…(sniffle, sob, cue Dinah Washington singing, “What a difference a day makes…Twenty-four little hours…Brought the sun and the flowers… Where there used to be rain…”)

Alas, the school social scene has ferociously invaded the last 24 hours turning calm into chaos, plummeting moods from giddy tip-toe through the tulips carefree whimsy to stomp on the freakin’ flowers, full-blown angst.

In classic recombinant media art, I’m hearing ‘we’re baaaack’ coupled with the screech of the Psycho fx, a visual of The Ring’s off the hook receiver swaying in the abandoned phone booth, and the anxious warning bark of intrusion by watchful dogs. (Oh, wait, those are my barking dogs; there’s a squirrel out the window, scratch that…)

After taking a media “breather” as Anne Collier of ConnectSafely calls it in this great post about managing digital drama/media overload, I find the pendulum swing has gone from heaven to hades with uncanny speed, and this disturbs me beyond just ‘harshing our collective mellow’ as my Scottish pal Julie would say.

Is it REALLY that tough to segue back to a teen’s “totally wired” world from being “unplugged” for a week without some sort of ‘re-entry’ phase and prep like a shuttle landing? In my house, apparently so… (more…)

April 3, 2010 While media reports often churn out attention-getting stereotypes of spring break scenes of rowdy youth antics under the auspices of ‘what sells,’ to feed the money machine, we all too often don’t see the coverage of ‘alternate spring breaks’ and a major shift that’s taking hold in the cultural zeitgeist of service learning and youth.

As I head out on spring break to start a week of UNPLUGGED teen bonding (a generational media experiment in itself) it’s interesting to note that Lee Fox at startup KooDooZ will be convening an entire Ideation Conference (Love Human Do Good April 5 & 6 in Long Beach, Ca) just a ferry ride away, all about empowering youth in the community and in the classroom to tap into their energy of digital and doing with experiential learning. Here’s a fabulous 7 pp pdf which sums how this generation of ‘digital natives’ is excited not only about ‘virtual’ but also by ‘virtuous’ so she’s exploring how we can funnel these findings into a win-win for good with compelling outreach rather than drone edu-focus on testing acumen in a “Race to Nowhere”…(film about the dark side of America’s achievement culture) Brava!

As I leave today on spring break to go ‘semi-dark’ for a week (term coined by ConnectSafely’s Anne Collier who is doing the same starting today) I  leave the emotionally draining negative coverage of youth in headline news and turn over the blog to youth for positivity and asset-based thinking for teens… (more…)