ICYMI – March 6, 2012
If you are like me you try to read as many articles, blogs and books as possible but just cannot catch all of them. “In Case You Missed It” is my way of pointing out a few “reads” that I think are too good to miss.
Lady Gag Launches Foundation – Michael B. Farrell and Christina Reinwald
When Lady Gaga stepped on stage at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre yesterday to launch her youth foundation, it was hardly a typical appearance for the pop star who has built her reputation with over-the-top theatrics.
She didn’t hatch from an egg, or appear in a dress made of raw steaks. Instead the 25-year-old Gaga wore a subdued full-length black dress and spoke to a polite audience of students, academics, and educational specialists about the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit charity whose mission is to “foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.’’
The official rollout of the foundation was held at Harvard because the university’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and its Graduate School of Education are offering assistance to the fledgling organization.
Tweets at the Table? More of Us Mix Social Media with Food – Joann Pann
Social media is changing the way we eat. Many of us are giving up around-the-table dinners to dine with their computers or phones.
A new study called “Clicks and Cravings” examines this trend — and suggests it’s not a bad thing.
More than 29% of social media users are on a social networking website while eating or drinking at home. Outside the house, the figure is 19%. About 32% of us text or socialize on a mobile device at meal time. Not surprisingly, the youngest demographic in the survey — 18-34 year olds — tweet, Facebook and text during mealtimes at a higher rate of 47%.
‘Hyper-connectivity’ among young adults a mixed messenger, study finds – Ted Gregory
CHICAGO — David Macias has five personal electronic devices: a laptop, smart phone, e-reader and not one but two iPods — one for his car; one for workouts at the gym.
“I have trouble sleeping sometimes,” the 19-year-old college freshman said while taking a break from watching a movie on his laptop in the College Of DuPage cafeteria. Macias said he sleeps with his cellphone, which wakes him when he receives a text.
“It’s crazy,” said Macias of Aurora, Ill. “I’ve got to turn it off.”
Macias and others his age and younger are a growing concern because of their “hyper-connectivity.” The word describes the constant connection to electronic devices as practiced by many of the so-called millennials, the generation born from 1981 to 2000 who came of age in the new millennium.
