It’s something often overlooked but what can be found in many countries: young people are drinking less alcohol. But a news study shows that young people in England aren’t just drinking less alcohol, more of them are never taking up alcohol at all, and that the increase is widespread among young people. From the press… Read More Again: more young people are choosing not to drink alcohol
Remember this magazine cover? Looks pretty similar to this cover from 1976: Or this one from 1985? Or do you remember this picture? Yeah, I debunked this story already here but these pictures suit the image of the egocentric, smartphone obsesses youth, and for sure this selfie-taking generation will be more narcissistic for sure? Well… no.… Read More The present generation students is… slightly less narcissistic
The worst thing Marc Zuckerberg ever did is calling connections on Facebook ‘friends’, but still that doesn’t mean friendship doesn’t exist online or doesn’t mean a thing. Many parents worry about how much time teenagers spend texting, sharing selfies and engaging in other online activities with their friends. However, according to a recent research synthesis, many… Read More The meaning and qualities of friendship offline and online
This new paper at first surprised me – we know the average age of the menarche has become younger the past century – and didn’t surprise me – we are on average longer ‘young’ as we seem to wait longer to become an adult. So, for me it seems to depend on how you define… Read More Surprising or not? Teens are growing up more slowly today than they did in past decades
A new study states that listening to music from other cultures furthers one’s pro-diversity beliefs. I’m not that surprised as one of my own little studies I conducted showed a similar effect (check here). From the press release: Jake Harwood turned his lifelong hobby as a musician into a scholarly question: Could the sharing of music… Read More Learning diversity through music
There are two popular – but opposing – ideas about the internet and young people: Internet makes them more stupid versus Internet empowers them and we should look at the kids to now our future. Kathryn Mills made a review of the existing evidence and concludes: Adults are concerned about the effects of new technologies on… Read More Despite popular claims: little experimental evidence for influence of the internet on teenage brains (review)
Virtual Reality is great, but maybe some games can become a bit too real…
To many people selfies are sign of the present narcissism. And pictures like this don’t help it: Hoe de media in korte tijd is verandert #politiek #media #selfie #clinton (fotocredits: @barb_kinney) pic.twitter.com/goAtlmauT0 — Marco Derksen (@marcoderksen) September 26, 2016 But this new study does give some consolation: regularly snapping selfies with your smartphone and sharing photos with… Read More How a selfie can make you feel happier (study)
This study is a bit of fun as it looks at how our smartphones makes us feel connected or disconnected. Oh, wait, the study was conducted with a specific age group, so it’s rather about how connected their smartphones make students feels. It’s a pretty straightforward study with less simple results, as gender seems to… Read More Is that smartphone making students more or less connected with friends and family? Answer: it depends