Champ, Sarah and the other cell-phones have one hand on the wheel and one hand on their keypads as they try to navigate their social lives and the freeway.. but will they wind wind up in jail?Champ, Sarah and the other cell-phones have one hand on the wheel and one hand on... more
A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap.
He was texting while being reprimanded for texting.
"It was a subconscious act," says Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. "Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's compulsive."
Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing—accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites—there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?
Some argue they can accomplish a great deal: This generation has a gift for multitasking, and because they've integrated technology into their lives, their ability to remain connected to each other will serve them and their employers well. Others contend that these hyper-socializers are serial time-wasters, that the bonds between them are shallow, and that their face-to-face interpersonal skills are poor.
"The unspoken attitude is, 'I don't need you. I have the Internet,'" says P.M. Forni, the 58-year-old director of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, which studies politeness and manners. "The Net provides an opportunity to play hide-and-seek, to say and not say, to be truthful and to pretend. There is a lot of communication going on that is futile and trivial."
That's far too harsh an assessment, says Ben Bajarin, 32, a technology analyst at Creative Strategies, a consulting firm in Campbell, Calif. He argues that because young people are so adept at multimedia socializing, their social skills are actually strengthened. They're good at "managing conversations" and getting to the pithy essence of an issue, he says, which will help them in the workplace.
While their older colleagues waste time holding meetings or engaging in long phone conversations, young people have an ability to sum things up in one-sentence text messages, Mr. Bajarin says. "They know how to optimize and prioritize. They will call or set up a meeting if it's needed. If not, they text." And given their vast network of online acquaintances, they discover people who can become true friends or valued business colleagues—people they wouldn't have been able to find in the pre-Internet era.
It's hard to quantify whether the abbreviated interchanges of text messaging are beneficial in the workplace, but this much is known: Young workers spend more time than older workers socializing via their devices or entertaining themselves online. In a 2008 survey for Salary.com, 53% of those under age 24 said this was their primary "time wasting" activity while at work, compared to just 34% for those between ages 41 and 65.
More schools are now allowing students to use their cellphones between classes, or even as a learning tool in the classroom. Some teachers are having students text their friends during classes to share feedback on what's being taught. The mantra among educators who try to be enlightened: It's no longer about attention span. It's about attention scope—being able to concentrate on many things at once.
A teenager from Pelham, N.H., is believed to be the first driver charged by local police under the state's new "distracted driver" law, after she allegedly drove her vehicle into a utility pole Sunday afternoon, snapping it in two.
Kittery Sgt. Charles Denault said, when officers looked inside the car, they found a cell phone on the floor, open and in text message mode. Jessica Jones, 19, later admitted she was texting at the time of the accident, police said.A teenager from Pelham, N.H., is believed to be the first driver charged by local... more
The dumbest pageant participant you've ever seen has returned and Conor Knighton shows her to you in this week's roundup of the week in media. Also includes Fox's new look, Screech's 'Saved By The Bell' tell-all, 'The Hills' returns, Rachel Zoe's internet habits, more Tom Delay on 'Dancing with the Stars,' some girl's lady parts on 'So You Think You Can,' the SNL F-bomb, a dancing vampire, and Andy Rooney's latest complaints.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.The dumbest pageant participant you've ever seen has returned and Conor Knighton shows... more
To cut through the clutter, today's PSAs need to have blood, boobs, and gross-out comedy. Hopefully all three.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.To cut through the clutter, today's PSAs need to have blood, boobs, and gross-out... more
This week on infoMania Conor looks at how TV salary is inversely related to IQ and at the scary new age of Public Service Announcements, Ben examines the true value of Twitter, Sergio counts down the top music videos on iTunes, and Sarah offers guys a lesson on scoring hot chicks.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.This week on infoMania Conor looks at how TV salary is inversely related to IQ and at... more
WASHINGTON - Nearly one-in-five U.S. drivers surveyed have read or sent a text message while behind the wheel even though nearly all of the respondents in an AAA survey released on Friday considered it unacceptable.
"Enacting texting bans for drivers in all 50 states can halt the spread of this dangerous practice among motorists nationwide, and is a key legislative priority for AAA in state capitals," Darbelnet said. The group, which provides emergency road services to its members and lobbies on automobile issues, formerly was known as the American Automobile Association.
The random telephone survey questioned 2,500 U.S. residents 16 and older.
Although nearly all respondents considered the practice unacceptable, 18 percent said they had sent a text message while driving within a month of being surveyed.
About a dozen states have imposed prohibitions and proposals for a national ban have been introduced in Congress.
So have you been guilty of this? And often??? Should it be outlawed?WASHINGTON - Nearly one-in-five U.S. drivers surveyed have read or sent a text... more
Not even a year old and the site that's best known for hilarious one-sided texts is already optioned to be a TV show.
Under the guidance of nerd-sitcom The Big Bang Theory's Steve Holland, the show will likely be a sitcom that focuses on--what else--embarrassing texts.
Best of all? Fox is the one who'd benefit from this show.
Now whatever happened to that Twitter sitcom? Will it before or after the Tumblr reality show?Not even a year old and the site that's best known for hilarious one-sided texts is... more
While the best known U.S. public service announcements involve Rachel Leigh Cook smashing eggs with pans and teenagers who become flat skin piles after smoking pot, it appears the Brits, Irish and Aussies have the market cornered on making short horror films.
Using PSAs.
Ranging from the Irish troubles set to "Cat's Cradle" to this grim bowling analogy, these short PSAs are chilling.
And...oddly incredibly well done.While the best known U.S. public service announcements involve Rachel Leigh Cook... more
This four-minute British PSA is shocking but very effective in communicating what happens when drivers make poor choices. Once you see this graphic clip, you’ll see why it’s gone viral on YouTube. The PSA is part of a larger 30 minute drama produced and directed by award winning BBC producer Peter Watkins-Hughes. The PSA was shot with the Gwent Police Department located approximately 150 miles west of London.This four-minute British PSA is shocking but very effective in communicating what... more
"So much of parenting means drawing lines, then deciding where to stand in relation to them. More accurately, it means discovering lines you didn’t realize were there (because they are constantly moving) until u trip over them. It’s easy to recognize those lines: they are the spots where you find yourself saying “just because all your friends are doing it…”
One such line – how much technology is appropriate and at what age? – was drawn brightly by an article by John Biggs (continued)"
I think its a big arguement, I wasn't allowed a phone until I was 17. Now I see you kids with iPhones. Tis a strange worldIs it too young?
"So much of parenting means drawing lines, then deciding where to... more
As the school year begins, be ready to hear pundits fretting once again about how kids today can't write—and technology is to blame. Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into "bleak, bald, sad shorthand" (as University College of London English professor John Sutherland has moaned). An age of illiteracy is at hand, right?
Andrea Lunsford isn't so sure. Lunsford is a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, where she has organized a mammoth project called the Stanford Study of Writing to scrutinize college students' prose. From 2001 to 2006, she collected 14,672 student writing samples—everything from in-class assignments, formal essays, and journal entries to emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. Her conclusions are stirring.
"I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," she says. For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.
The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them. That's because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, a stunning 38 percent of it took place out of the classroom—life writing, as Lunsford calls it. Those Twitter updates and lists of 25 things about yourself add up.
It's almost hard to remember how big a paradigm shift this is. Before the Internet came along, most Americans never wrote anything, ever, that wasn't a school assignment. Unless they got a job that required producing text (like in law, advertising, or media), they'd leave school and virtually never construct a paragraph again.
But is this explosion of prose good, on a technical level? Yes. Lunsford's team found that the students were remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos—assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across. The modern world of online writing, particularly in chat and on discussion threads, is conversational and public, which makes it closer to the Greek tradition of argument than the asynchronous letter and essay writing of 50 years ago.
The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing. In interviews, they defined good prose as something that had an effect on the world. For them, writing is about persuading and organizing and debating, even if it's over something as quotidian as what movie to go see. The Stanford students were almost always less enthusiastic about their in-class writing because it had no audience but the professor: It didn't serve any purpose other than to get them a grade. As for those texting short-forms and smileys defiling serious academic writing? Another myth. When Lunsford examined the work of first-year students, she didn't find a single example of texting speak in an academic paper.
Of course, good teaching is always going to be crucial, as is the mastering of formal academic prose. But it's also becoming clear that online media are pushing literacy into cool directions. The brevity of texting and status updating teaches young people to deploy haiku-like concision. At the same time, the proliferation of new forms of online pop-cultural exegesis—from sprawling TV-show recaps to 15,000-word videogame walkthroughs—has given them a chance to write enormously long and complex pieces of prose, often while working collaboratively with others.
We think of writing as either good or bad. What today's young people know is that knowing who you're writing for and why you're writing might be the most crucial factor of all.
Email clive@clivethompson.net.As the school year begins, be ready to hear pundits fretting once again about how kids... more
Apparently we're a nation of toilet texters. In a survey of 2,000 Britons just over a third (34 per cent) of those polled said they had sent a text message while on the toilet, 33% said they had a telephone conversation and 7% revealed they had searched the internet.
Men are more keen to look for distractions on the loo. 58 per cent read newspapers, compared to 29 per cent of women.
There's nothing about the time spent on the loo, but it certainly seems that mobile phones more of a home in the toilet than they did in the past Dr Simon Gabe from at St Mark's Hospital in Harrow, north-west London, said of time spent:
''In the past this was with a newspaper, magazine or book, but now involves using a wireless device to access the internet or answer emails."
Does this match your toilet habits?Apparently we're a nation of toilet texters. In a survey of 2,000 Britons just over a... more
Seeking. You can't stop doing it. Sometimes it feels as if the basic drives for food, sex, and sleep have been overridden by a new need for endless nuggets of electronic information. We are so insatiably curious that we gather data even if it gets us in trouble. Google searches are becoming a cause of mistrials as jurors, after hearing testimony, ignore judges' instructions and go look up facts for themselves. We search for information we don't even care about. Nina Shen Rastogi confessed in Double X, "My boyfriend has threatened to break up with me if I keep whipping out my iPhone to look up random facts about celebrities when we're out to dinner." We reach the point that we wonder about our sanity. Virginia Heffernan in the New York Times said she became so obsessed with Twitter posts about the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest that she spent days "refreshing my search like a drugged monkey."Seeking. You can't stop doing it. Sometimes it feels as if the basic drives for food,... more
What’s the worst thing that could happen upon trying to send your “boo” a text message while driving down a busy road? No, it’s not colliding with another car, it’s colliding with a car and then getting hit by an additional deathly car – oh yeah, and as your cellphone flies out of your hand and shatters, causing your text message never to send.What’s the worst thing that could happen upon trying to send your “boo” a text... more
Everyone knows the law, though few of us abide. But the studies are rolling in and they're saying texting while driving is not only illegal -- it’s dangerous.
Sure, you might object to the evidence: there have been few conclusive empirical studies about the dangersof texting while behind the wheel, but if it’s important enough for Obama to convene a national summit about it, perhaps it’s worthy of a closer look.
Texting, also known as SMS (short message service), refers to the 160-character messages sent and received on modern mobile phones.
A Car and Driver study released in June, although not the most academic (because of its very small sample size), nonetheless revealed results that will make you doubt your ability to text and drive carefully at the same time.
The study measured the reaction times of two different male test subjects (ages 22 and 37) texting while driving and again while intoxicated, to compare the two. When a red light mounted on the windshield at eye level lit up (like a car’s brake lights), the driver was to hit the brakes. A data logger recorded the test data. (See the article here for more of the study’s technical methods.)
The 22-year-old subject’s slowest reactions times driving at 35 mph while reading a text caused him to travel an extra 21 feet (more than a car length) beyond his baseline reaction time before hitting the brakes, and an extra 16 feet while writing a text. While reading a text and driving at 70 mph, the same subject traveled about 31 extra feet while typing. In comparison, he traveled half that -- 15 extra feet -- while drunk.
The 37-year-old subject wracked up far worse scores. Even during his bestreaction time while reading or texting, the subject traveled an extra 90 feet beyond his baseline performance. In the worst case, he went 319 feet farther down the road. That's almost the length of a regulation football field.
Now, this is not merely a case of ageism -- the study is really just trying to show that no matter what age, even while using a phone familiar to them, and with no traffic, road signals, or pedestrians, drivers are seriously distracted when they are typing out a tiny 160-character message.
You might feel safe knowing that you only text when fully stopped at red lights. But in a Jan. 1 article about new California laws that issue fines to drivers who text while driving, CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader reminded us that you can still get a citation even if your car isn’t moving.
The Car and Driver study also kindly reminds us that the results are by no means advocating drunk driving. “[The intoxicated results] only look better because the texting results are so horrendously bad.”
Let’s not wait until the accidents caused by texting while driving increase and force us to see that this phenomenon is as dangerous and unacceptable as driving while under the influence.
Choose safety first: Try new hands-free texting services, a nifty Bluetooth, or just plain pulling over to text.Everyone knows the law, though few of us abide. But the studies are rolling in and... more
In Lockport, NY near Buffalo, NY a texting tow truck driver rear ends a car with a woman and child in it, causing him to land his truck in a swimming pool, and sending one of the cars hooked up to his truck into a house. http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=69017&catid=37In Lockport, NY near Buffalo, NY a texting tow truck driver rear ends a car with a... more
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I think even talking on a cellphone should be illegal while driving. When I worked in retail, this lady was pushing her buggy around my store and talking on her cell. When she went to turn into an aisle, she ended up running into the endcap. If they can't push a buggy and talk on a cell without running into stuff, what about being behind the wheel of a vehicle?! Of course, how often would this law get enforced??I agree wholeheartedly with this. I think even talking on a cellphone should be... more
