iPopCulture.NET

A few days ago I received an email from one of our writers. Upon receiving our magazine in the mail, this is what he had to say:

David,

I am just blown away by the sheer awesome-ness, relevance, and Christ-
centeredness of this magazine. I wanted you to know that. Please, if
there are more opportunities in the future where I could possibly be a
help or contribute at all to Randall House Magazines, let me know. You
are by far the best Christian Magazine I’ve ever been published in, or
read. And I mean that! Thank you so much for contacting me.

I’m not posting that to brag on our magazines or even to try to show how great we are. In fact, upon reading the email, I was shocked and humbled.

But what that letter did for my day cannot be understated. By taking time to express appreciation and gratitude, the writer encouraged me in so many ways. It was an encouragement to see a teenager be so encouraged by what we do. It was an encouragement to see a teenager so on fire for what he believes. It was an encouragement to know someone appreciates what we do. It was an encouragement to see what we’re doing at Randall House is actually making a difference.

Encouraging words go a long way. We often don’t realize the magnitude of encouragement until someone encourages us. It’s easy for us to toss out a compliment or meaningful word to someone. By just uttering a simple phrase, spending a few minutes on an email or card, or even sending a text we can change someone’s hour, day, or even week.

Take the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s day. Offer up a word of encouragement to someone day. Regardless of how simple it may be, it could be a world of difference!

Last week I posted some statistics about adults that texted while driving. Well new numbers have come out from the LG Text Ed Survey. You can find the results by click here. Here are some of the things that stood out most from the research:

• 44 percent of parents admitted to texting and driving.
• 28 percent of parents admit to engaging in some form of “sexting”
• 42 percent of parents admit to texting someone while at the dinner table; whereas 69 percent of teens admit to texting at the dinner table.

• 45 percent of teens admit to texting and driving. And only 4 percent of parents believe their teens ever text while driving.
• 41 percent of teens admit to sending, receiving, or forwarding a text that said something sexual, while only 11 percent of parents thought their teens had ever sexted.

• 90 percent of texting parents felt closer to their teen as a result of the medium.
• 58 percent of teens said being able to text their parents made them feel closer.
• 83 percent of teens prefer their parents check in with them via text.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/do-as-i-say-not-as-i-text-98497159.html

I’m always intrigued by awards shows that cater to teenagers and kids. Seeing the nominees and winners gives you some sort of an idea of where their culture is and where it is headed (or maybe the direction in which corporate American wants their culture to go).

The nominees have been listed for the 2010 Teen Choice Awards, which takes place on August 9. Here are a few things that caught my eye. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about the state of teen culture:

- Eclipse led the way with 17 nominations. 11 of those nominations were for Taylor Lautner

- Katy Perry of “I Kissed a Girl” fame is hosting the Teen Choice Awards

- Here are the shows nominated for Best Teen Drama:
90210
Gossip Girl
Grey’s Anatomy
House
The Secret Life of the American Teenager

- Nominees for Choice TV Show: Comedy include primetime network shows (The Big Bang Theory, Glee, Modern Family) as well as Disney Channel Shows (Sonny With a Chance, Wizards of Waverly Place)

- Here are the nominees for Choice TV: Animated Show: (Looks like the days of SpongeBob SquarePants are long gone)
American Dad
The Cleveland Show
Family Guy
South Park
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

- The awards show includes the following categories:
Choice TV: Reality Show
Choice TV: Reality Competition Show
Choice TV: Male Reality/Variety Star
Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star

- Miley Cyrus is nominated for 13 awards

- Presenters include Khloe, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian

- Salt has been nominated for Choice Summer Movie, even though it doesn’t release until July 23 and voting is already underway

- 3 of the 5 nominations for Choice Movie: Comedy carry an R-rating, meaning teenagers 13-16 can’t even see them on their own. 4 of the 5 nominees for Choice Movie: Horror/Thriller carry R-ratings.

- Marmaduke was nominated for Choice Movie: Animated, although it can be argued that it’s not even an animated movie (There’s no point to this statement…other than it looks like the panel had to stretch hard to get 5 nominees)

- Nominees for Choice: Music Rap Artist:
Drake
Eminem
Jay-Z
Ludacris
Pit Bull

Just some things I found interesting. Like I said, whether this depicts teen culture or only the organizations that have the most money within teen culture…I don’t know. But regardless I think we can learn a lot about today’s youth culture thru these award shows.

Have you seen this Silly Bandz things? I’m not quite sure what they are or what they’re supposed to do, but evidently they’re extremely popular. From what I can tell, they just look like colorful rubber bands that are shaped like ducks, sharks, or some Disney character, and they’re worn around the wrist. They’re also relatively cheap, which probably helps the fad. Regardless of whether you think they’re awesome or cheap and overrated, there’s no denying the love that kids seem to have for them.

Silly Bandz is bringing in over $200 million a year right now, and that number is climbing. The bands are so popular that some schools have even had to ban them because they’re a distraction for students.

While I really don’t have much interest in Silly Bandz, their popularity got me thinking about some of the best/crazies toys or “trends” from the last 25 years. Here’s what I came up with. What do you think should be added to the list?

Furbies

Beanie Babies

Tickle Me Elmo

Pogs

Wii

Pokemon

Tamagotchi/Nano pets

TMNT

The evidence seems to be growing but now it’s hit a very weird point. Several months ago, reports came out from divorce lawyers that said Facebook was to blame for failed marriages. In a nutshell, spouses were reuniting with old flames, becoming too acquainted with friends of the opposite sex, or meeting new potential partners through Facebook. According to an article in USA Today, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says 81% of its members have used or faced evidence from Facebook, MySpace,Twitter and other social networking sites, including YouTube and LinkedIn, over the last five years.

As sad as that is, it’s probably not too shocking. However, the news has continued to get weird. According to an article from Lindsay Robertson of Yahoo! Movies, some women have nearly destroyed their marriages by neglecting their spouses in favor of Twilight-related activities.

It gets weirder. As if that wasn’t enough, apparently FarmVille and World of Warcraft are now to blame for ruined marriages. Men and women are neglecting their spouse and their children in favor of taking care of a virtual farm of fake animals and crops, or fighting mythological creatures in quests on the computer.

While it’s easy to point the finger at Facebook, Twilight, FarmVille, and World of Warcraft, I think we would be pointing the finger in the wrong direction if we passed the blame off on them. While all of those things take up our time and attention, ultimately WE are the ones who choose to spend time on those things. WE choose to get on Facebook. WE choose who we talk to, flirt with, meet up with, and pursue a relationship with. WE choose to spend all day on Twilight message boards. WE choose to give lunch to a virtual cow rather than make lunch for our own children.

When we pass the blame onto a web site or book or game, we’re ultimately removing responsibility from ourselves and placing it on some “thing.”

The truth of the matter is divorce happens because a person or both people fail to live up to their responsibility as a husband or wife. It’s not the fault of Facebook or FarmVille. Those things can be vehicles which help get us off track, but ultimately the responsibility falls on us.

That is why it is so important to have a marriage that is grounded in Christ. If anything else is the basis of our relationship or marriage, we’re building it on a weak foundation.