Teens In Tech 2.0 Grows Up

With mild lighting grazing rows of "Google-colored" chairs, and the sweet aroma of cookies, milk and orgasmic French Vanilla lattes wafting from the kitchen; the spacious Google offices in San Francisco made for a cozy spot to host this year's Teens In Tech conference. While the target audience and demographic in attendance largely stayed the same, the conference itself appeared to mature some since its first inception. Case in point, among the noticeably larger crowd of attendees this year were the familiar faces of speakers from last year, but also Steve "The Woz" Wozniak, who made a special appearance prompting older geeks in the crowd to glow with the giddiness of teenage school girls.

As the event got underway, several themes from last year were revisited (more on that in a bit), and once again the air was filled with an entrepreneurial spirit powered by the dozens of teens in attendance, collectively emanating a confidence rooted less in their age, and more in their abilities and the potential stature well within their grasp. Here were some highlights…

Digg.com's charismatic Danny Trinh started off the event with a sequel to his talk from last year on dealing with the "Milk & Cookies" of life, discussing how to bake said "cookies," and prepare oneself for entering the tech industry. Trinh touched on a few motifs that would recur throughout the day encouraging young attendees to not only passionately believe in our ideas and abilities regardless of age, but also to dismiss our fears and inhibitions towards failure, staying on edge by making stupid decisions and taking risks. He reminded the room that the web is a meritocracy, and the expense of failure is belittled by the potential for success so there's nothing to lose by jumping right in. But as a merit-based arena, the skills brought forth by aspiring talent better be sharp enough to cut through everything else that's out there.

From there, the event continued with more energetic talk of entrepreneurship. Along similar thematic lines, the speakers that followed Trinh emphasized the importance of being passionate and thinking big, advising the audience to "start movements, not companies," and to "develop solutions, not just a product," all the while encouraging the younger attendees to not relegate themselves to what society thinks teenagers should/could do.

All of this culminated with conference founder Daniel Brusilovsky interviewing self-made "teen whisperer" Josh Shipp [who spoke at the 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup] on the trials he encountered along the way to becoming an "overnight success." In between constant interruptions of laughter at the irreverent tweets projected on the live Twitter feed in the background, Shipp shared his humble beginnings along with his insight on what actions propelled him to success. This, combined with an inspiring talk by Dropbox CEO Drew Houston near the end of the conference, surely left everyone feeling that "anything is possible"… if you actually commit to do something about it.

A prominent theme from last year was the whole "school vs. work" debate, with most of the speakers surprisingly leaning towards promoting work as opposed to going to/finishing college. This year, however, the consensus among speakers appeared to shift, with virtually all of them covering the importance of school, and how school-vs-work decisions should be handled carefully on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, with speakers citing the main positives of school as "college parties" and "learning how to learn" as opposed to the pursuit of any specific subject, I couldn't help but feel the message was slightly muddled. Overall my takeaway was that there's nothing to lose by continuing one's education, and that doing so can only help those who aren't already well-versed in their field; a reassuring mantra to remember the next time I find myself thinking I'd rather be assaulted by a gang of splintered broomsticks dipped in sulfuric acid than sit through a groan-worthy lectures.

Finally, an interesting theme raised this year was the viability of teenagers, both in a societal context and from a marketing perspective. Best Buy's Tim Showalter-Loch opened the discussion by linking the success of the brand's @15 program to its consideration of teens as legitimate investment-worthy entities. He also raised the familiar contradictions underlying the social dichotomy between teens and adults – with adults simultaneously regarding teens as "naive," "inexperienced," and relatively not "knowledgeable" in a normal context, but in contrast viewing them as experts in technology and technological trends. It was noted that teens are the ones who dictate what gets bought when mom and dad go to a computer store, and serve as a cheaper and more convenient alternative to tech support. In short, without teens, many adults would be lost, yet they are still a relatively voiceless segment in society. Thankfully, companies like Best Buy's increasing interest in the opinions of teens is starting to change this.

Overall, it was an interesting gathering, and I left pondering what next year will hold both for "Teens in Tech 3.0," and the inspirational teens that make the event possible… also when I could get some more of those French Vanilla Lattes…

About Enrique Gavidia

Raised by a flock of bunnies in the urban metropolis of San Francisco, this young swashbuckling stallion grew up to inherit many of the talents of his furry friends, including the obscure fields of learning to excel at guitar and knowing how to program computers. Now off on his own as a University student living with his human family, he is constantly honing in on his many talents, aspiring to succeed in the fields of digital media, software development, and/or music. And thanks to his fluffy mentors, he is now the [self-proclaimed] hottest thing to grace his neighborhood since spicy Mexican tamarind candy, and hopes that one day everyone can revel in his mild glory.

- Teens in Tech 2.0 Conference (check out this video of the weekend's happenings from ReadWriteWeb. Also look for coverage tomorrow from our own YAB member Enrique Gavidia. And MediaPost, reg. required on the "Social Media Marketing & Millennials" panel from Social Media Week in New York)

- Women outnumber men on campus (prompting the New York Times, reg. required, to run an incredibly cliché-ridden Sunday trend piece. Yikes. Rightfully the feature is getting skewered for its sexist overtones and the mis representation of co-eds in crisis. Also a pink Ouija board catches flak for targeting tween girls. Um, hasn't the Ouija board always been a sleepover staple? (New York Times, reg. required) (Mediaite) (Gakwer) (FOX News)

- Vanity Fair's 'Young Hollywood' issue (catches more heat for a lack of diversity. Ad Age, reg. required, points out the cover not only offends, but as "Hollywood has actually trended toward more inclusion" appears out of touch as well. Also Danica Patrick builds the GoDaddy brand by playing up the sex appeal) (Washington Post)

- Taylor Lautner in Stretch Armstrong (adding more fuel to his budding rep as the next great action star) (MTV Movies)

- ChatRoulette (New York Magazine on the recently launched chatting service "with a median age of 20″ that marks a return to interpersonal randomness, throwing young strangers together via webcam. And speaking of social..EA introduces “Madden NFL" on Facebook) (Bloomberg)

- Parenting works (USA Today puts a positive spin on the recent KFF survey, with props to the moms and dads who set boundaries on media use. Plus the New Mexico chapter of MADD debuts "Broken Teens," a series of PSAs intended to drive home the message drinking can cause permanent brain damage to teens' developing brains) (Ad Age, reg. required)

- iPads are for old people (that is, middle-aged business execs with the money to spend. Meanwhile, the piece points out young consumers will stick with aspiring towards owning an iPhone) (Mercury News)

For all of the spots discussed below and more, check out this roundup from Ad Age reg. required.

Super Bowl XLIV: What Ads Scored With Millennial Values?

Sometimes it's a bad thing to be focused on a single subject, but we couldn't help but spot some advertisers playing to the values held by Millennials better than others during Super Bowl XLIV.

According to generational experts Neil Howe and Bill Strauss, generations move history along, preventing society from suffering too long under the excesses and mistakes that they perceive being made by prior generations as they come of age.

According to Howe & Strauss, the Millennial Generation (born from 1982-2002) can be described with the following 7 core traits:

- Special
- Sheltered
- Confident
- Team-Oriented
- Conventional
- Pressured
- Achieving

Through this lens, let's highlight a few ads that clearly aligned with the values of the Millennial Generation:

"Timothy Richman" by Cars.com: In general, the Cars.com ads do a wonderful job of celebrating individual members of this special and achieving generation, while simultaneously offering a service that helps to overcome their fear of failure. The numerous achievements of Timothy Richman are cited, each a little more impressive than the last. For a generation that has been prodded to achieve since birth, the pressure to do well can sometimes seem overwhelming. Cars.com has aligned itself with the pressure to achieve as well as fear of failure, giving Millennials an opportunity to use a web-based service to achieve their (car ownership) goals.

"Parisian Love" by Google: This generation has grown up with Google, a company that is most often cited in our research as where Millennials would like to spend their careers. In a savvy mirroring of life stages, Google has aligned themselves with helping the eldest of the Millennial generation succeed as they chart a global path to achieve the discovery of love and the beginning of their own families.

[Ed. note: Youth Advisory Board member Amber sent her review of the Google ad as well: From a female perspective, the romantic narrative of wooing a French girl was very sweet, with Google Search helping every step of the way. The commercial was great because it was easy to follow and Google's brand was constantly visible. There was no way a viewer would mistake this ad for another brand. It illustrates the convenience of searching on Google with a cute story. I'm impressed. Some may say that it wasn't Super Bowl relevant, but it definitely stood out."]

Fiddling Beaver by Monster: Let's face it, Millennials have been burned by the Great Recession. Jobs are scarce, internships non-existent and youth unemployment higher than 25%. While the crass and pessimistic worldview exhibited by the CareerBuilder ads falls perfectly in line with where members of GenX are right now, these ads are completely out of step with how Millennials look at the world. The generation that witnessed the election of the first black president, that sees "Hope" as a rallying cry and, despite the downturn, has retained their vision of a better tomorrow would find little in common with the cynical buffoons and the suffering employees that populate CareerBuilder's ads. Instead, an eager beaver who, despite all of the challenges that being a violin playing beaver must entail, manages through perseverance and belief in their dreams to rise to the top of their art is exactly the kind of message that resonates with Millennials. If you were to show a CareerBuilder ad and a Monster ad to a graduating college student and then ask them where they'd like to place their resume, chances are that Monster's alignment to core Millennial values would be more compelling to them.

Hard Times by Coke: From a generational perspective, the storyline of this ad aligns perfectly with the team-oriented values of the Millennial Generation. As the G.I. Generation (birth years 1091-1924) and the Silent Generation (1925-1942) that followed came of age, social institutions to protect and serve Americans were created and expanded. Boomers (1943-1960) and X'ers (1961-1981) bristled under the weight of these institutions and the pendulum swung back in the opposite direction. Personal rights and freedoms were seen as more important than the needs of society as a whole. This pendulum has recently reached the other extreme with the excesses of Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Skilling, et al., leaving Millennials thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to ensure that the entire applecart isn't brought down by a few 'bad apples'. In the Hard Times Ad by Coke, we witness an allegorical tale told of how "The Simpsons" Mr. Burns, yet another 'Billionaire gone broke' as a result of his selfish greed, has been thrust out of his cold and sterile world of individualism and into the society that is celebrating something other than money. The common folk of Springfield are happily pursuing family, community and, Coke. Abu selflessly offers a Coke to Mr. Burns, who, once he's been stripped of everything and experiences this simple pleasure, can now reintegrate with society.

In all fairness, many advertisers haven't woken up to the fact that this generation is unique and see the world quite differently. Meanwhile, some ads did a great job of exploring themes that appeal to all generations, however, expect those that effectively tap into the values of the largest generation in American history to prosper over time.

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Super Bowl dethrones 'M*A*S*H,' sets all-time record! [THR]

About Dan

Dan brings two decades of experience in technology and survey research to the Ypulse team. Based in New York, Dan is a veteran within the online research space. Prior to joining the Ypulse team, Dan was co-founder of SurveyU, drove exceptional growth as Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Polimetrix (acquired in December 2006 by YouGov PLC), served as Vice President of Surveys and Samples at SPSS and was a co-founder of PlanetFeedback.com, an ASP-based consumer affairs portal that rewrote the rules of consumer to business interaction. (PlanetFeedback was merged with Intelliseek and subsequently acquired in January 2006 by Nielsen Buzzmetrics). Dan spent the first decade of his career developing cutting edge research practices and methods on behalf of Burke Marketing, Millward Brown Interactive and the Angus Reid Group, enabling companies to develop online marketing insight.

For more coverage of youth marketing, go to the Ypulse Youth Marketing Channel sponsored by Youth Marketing Connection

Our Side of the Screen: Skittles.com Redesign

What is it: Not quite a year ago, YAB member Caro reviewed the Skittles.com site. “Site” is probably not the correct term—Skittles.com directed you to a widget that allowed you to click through Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube search results for the candy. I called out the site as one of my Worst of 2009 due to Skittles’ lack of involvement in the conversations they served up as search results. Now they have relaunched a slick new site that still strives to become part of the offbeat, random, and yes, viral culture of the Internet, but in a less blatant way.

Where do you come in: I heard about the website through an Adweek article, but Skittles hopes that most teens and twentysomethings will see it in a friend’s Facebook status, tweet, or email. They embed sharing links under each piece of content so I can post to Facebook or Twitter with just one click.

What works: The site is structured to be one endless scroll of content, from an image of a clown in astronaut gear to a fire hydrant wearing a business suit. Think LOLcats meets Buzzfeed or StumbleUpon. All videos are around 10 seconds, and most images and videos make no mention of Skittles. The best parts of the site are the ones that use real-time content, like the running tally of which color is mentioned most frequently on Twitter (purple/grape).

ShareSkittles.com is a microsite launched in conjunction with the new homepage. Its concept is equally simple: two videos paired on the home screen, one of someone giving Skittles and the other of someone else receiving them. I watched several pairs of these and showed them to my fiancé because they’re fun, offbeat, and unexpected. There’s an option to submit your own video, and it would be fun to see how my Skittles handoff turns into a stranger’s Skittles reception. Because it’s entertaining and I could actually picture myself getting involved, I would be much more likely to share this site with friends than the homepage.

Challenges: On Skittles.com, I wanted more interaction. I kept mousing over images and videos hoping to find something to click on. But instead of allowing me to interact, vote a piece of content up or down, or remix it in my own way, Skittles is just serving me a buffet of Internet randomness.

The final verdict: The redesign step in the right direction, but ShareSkittles.com is much more compelling. Skittles could’ve saved a buck and developed just that site to use for the homepage.

About Libby

After growing up on a farm in North Dakota, Libby Issendorf moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota. She discovered her passion for brands and media as a member of her school’s first-place National Student Advertising Competition team. After graduation in 2008, she began her career as a media analyst at an ad agency in Minneapolis. Libby now works as a New Media Strategist at an ad agency in Fargo, ND. Outside of work, she loves blogging at Yaybia.com, the Minnesota Twins, being really geeky with her iPhone, and finally living in the same city as her fiance.

After just 10 months as president and CEO of Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero division, former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig is packing up shop and relocating to online textbook rental startup Chegg where he will hold the same title. (ReadWriteWeb)

Animation industry veteran Kathy Page is appointed VP/Production, Hasbro Studios. She will oversee production for programming produced by the studio, much of which will be featured on the new network The Hub. Page was most recently VP/Animation, Sony Pictures Television. (Cynopsis Kids)

Nokia and education company Pearson have formed a joint venture in China dubbed Beijing Mobiledu Technologies to grow MobilEdu, the wireless education service that the Finnish mobile giant launched in China back in 2007…Elizabeth Knup, Pearson's chief representative in China, said the joint venture will be an independent company, and Nokia and Pearson will just guide it in terms of its business direction. (Global Times)

AOL Inc.’s Bill Wilson is leaving as chief of content production after nine years with the Internet company and will be succeeded by David Eun, a veteran of Google Inc. and Time Warner Inc. Eun, 43, will oversee more than 80 Web sites, including Lemondrop and Politics Daily; Seed, the publishing platform for assigning and distributing freelance journalism; and video creator StudioNow.(BusinessWeek)

Chorion continues to grow its licensing team with the appointment of Lauren LaBumbard as Director/Retail Development. She will be responsible for expanding the presence of Chorion's properties at key US retailers, as well as exploring direct to retail partnerships. (Cynopsis Kids)

Richard Dickson, the general manager credited with making Mattel Inc.'s Barbie doll brand fashionable again, is leaving the toy maker for a position that puts him in line for a shot at chief executive of New York clothing manufacturer Jones Apparel Group Inc. (Wall Street Journal)

MySpace Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn will soon be leaving the company, as heard from multiple sources. Hirschhorn joined MySpace in April 2009 as part of the major executive shakeup that replaced the old guard, including long-time CEO Chris DeWolfe. After current CEO Owen Van Natta was chosen, Hirschhorn and COO Mike Jones were quickly brought on board to fill out the newly vacated roster. (TechCrunch)

The Jim Henson Company names Lisa O'Brien as Executive Director/Children's Entertainment, reporting to Halle Stanford, EVP/Children's Entertainment. O'Brien will work with Stanford to develop and produce new projects across all kid's media, as well as provide promotional support for Henson's existing long-form and short-form properties. O'Brien joins Henson from PBS Kids Sprout, where she worked with Henson on its short-form productions The Pajanimals and Musical Mornings with Coo, as well as co-creating/writing The Good Night Show and overseeing production of the channel's branding elements, interstitials and promotional campaigns. (Cynopsis Kids)

- Barnes & Noble enlists Common Sense Media (to power a new "For Parents" section on the children's section of its site. Plus a young publishing professional offers the "Gen Y reaction" to Macmillan’s piracy plan. Hint: it's analogous to the Gen Y reaction to record companies. Also Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan wins the 2009 Aurealis Award in the category of best young adult novel) (Digital Book World) (SLJ)

- Get more 'Enchanted' (Disney sets a sequel for next year. Plus controversy stirs in the comic book community with talk of  continuing the "Watchmen" franchise ) (Bleeding Cool)

- Does online student speech (fall under the first amendment off-campus? With conflicting precedents, the issue seems ripe for the Supreme Court. Also young TechCrunch contributor Daniel Brusilovsky learns some hard truths with his first scandal. And All Things Digital reviews PBS' 'Digital Nation' ) (Valleywag) (Wired)

- Participation points (five tips on creating a "movement" [read engagement] when marketing to Gen Y. Also more on the rise of QR codes. And the limitations of GPS location apps like Foursquare) (MediaPost, reg. required) (GenDigital) (BusinessWeek via Mobile Behavior)

- Rise in student suicides in India (tied to academic pressure. Also Yale students kick off Sex Week to raise awareness of sexual health issues) (CNN) (US News & World Report)

- Emma Watson (beats out Cameron Diaz as Hollywood's highest earning female actress. Not bad at 19. Plus will female Millennials close the gender pay gap?) (The Star) (CBS)

- Teens aren't irrational thinkers (or any more so than adults, according to recent series of studies. Plus schools in the UK criticized for distributing pregnancy tests and other sexual health services to girls. Also FDA says candy-like dissolvable tobacco will appeal to kids and young adults) (Slate) (Telegraph) (Washington Post)

- The [other] Simpsons (are coming to Nickelodeon. Joe Simpson, father to Jessica and Ashlee, signs a deal for a show loosely based on his musical family. Also Disney XD signs up for a second season of "Zeke and Luther." And apparently Jersey Shore-inspired style is catching on with the kids. Hmm) (THR) (Variety) (AP via Yahoo! News)

Youth Advisory Board: Describe the field of user experience research and your job at Google.

Laura Granka: I first started at Google as an intern for the Search Quality Group in 2004. From there, I was exposed to the User Experience team, which consists of researchers, designers and tech writers. Whenever a product is developed at Google, our team will evaluate it and ensure that Google is taking the most user-centered approach to the product. I came back to Google after my internship in 2005 and have been working since then as a User Experience researcher. I primarily work on search products and on developing new search features.

YAB: How do you study search habits?

LG: Our team uses a repertoire of many different methods and collaborates closely with various designers and engineers depending on the type of question we have. Some of our methods are macro, such as field studies. We’ll talk to people in their own homes or places of work to see how they’re using Google in relation to all the other products they have on their computers. Our goal in doing this is to see how they use search in relation to applications like Word, e-mail and printing. It’s important for us to understand how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together in terms of search and other applications.

We also do usability studies, where we bring people to a lab here at Google and try to evaluate features before they are launched. We use eyetracking to assess what people look at on a webpage and how their eyes scan and process search results. We also use it to evaluate how many search results users look at before they click on one and how long this whole process takes. In addition, we will put news headlines, images and video on the search page to see if the eye does something different when it is presented with different types of information. I had done this type of eyetracking research prior to my work at Google during my master’s at Cornell.

YAB: What do you think makes Google the leading search authority for young people?

LG: In general, Google’s core principle is to focus on the user and that’s what we do in terms of quality. We want to provide the highest quality information best suited to what a user needs and not put advertising in front of it. We’re clear about what we think are really good search results and very good advertisements, and users trust that. Google is also innovative in terms of features while keeping everything simple. We just launched the new fade-in home page, which is an example of a feature that is simple but implemented to enhance the user’s experience and make search easier. At any given time, we are running 50-200 search experiments in which a small percentage of our traffic will see a new variant of something before we launch the feature. We do this to ensure our new features are helpful and not problematic or confusing.

YAB: What have you discovered about the way teens and young adults use Google? How do their search habits differ from those of adults?

LG: Google’s Director of User Experience said this really well: the issues that youth have when they’re searching are the same as the problems everyone else has, though sometimes they may be magnified in certain respects. Search queries may be different or more question-oriented, but in terms of eyetracking, there seems to be a somewhat general consensus among the academic community that there aren’t too many specific differences among age groups. This is probably because eye movements occur so quickly that it’s a subconscious process.

YAB: How could marketers and advertisers use eyetracking research to help them develop products or campaigns for young people?

LG: When targeting individuals, there can be a lot of variability. For example, if someone is searching to buy a new backpack, sometimes a user will click on an ad on the right side of a Google search results page, while others will want to see comparisons of different backpacks. It really depends on an individual’s state of mind. It’s also important to think about social connections. People reach out to their social networks before making purchases – they like recommendations or the confirmation from a trusted source that the purchase they’re going to make will be a good one. Using eyetracking for search results is a relatively new advancement. In 2004, my advisor and I were the first people to use eyetracking for search research. Before that, eyetracking was used primarily for research with websites, newspapers and advertisements. Eyetracking could prove very useful to advertising and marketing professionals in helping them better understand how young people’s eyes are going to move around an ad, which can assist with determining image and text placement.

YAB: Which Google applications resonate with young people?

LG: We conducted some field studies in the Kirkland Seattle area with 18-24 year olds. What we gathered was that the social aspect of applications is incredibly important to young people. There’s a sort of “always-on” mentality in young people, of always being connected online and being able to easily ask a friend for a recommendation or coordinate via e-mail with respect to a search. We’ve seen people validate, via their friends, the choices they’ve discovered in a search. For instance, one person we talked to would always email different options he found with search to his “techie friend” before making a purchase. The more familiar people are with technology, the more likely they are going to use it to connect with other people. Mobile is also a big initiative and mobile devices are even more popular in other countries than they are in the U.S., so we’ve done a lot of mobile research outside the country. Late last year, Google launched Social Search in Google Labs, a feature of Google Search designed to help you discover publicly available web and image content from your network of friends and contacts online. The feature was so popular that it is now available to everyone in beta on Google.com.

YAB: You have TA’d several undergraduate courses at Stanford and interact with college students on a regular basis. In your opinion, how is the college student of today different from the college student of the past?

LG: Young people’s expectations for the type of information and access they can receive from technology are growing. With devices becoming more portable and information increasingly accessible, there is a growing sense among teens that you can fulfill your curiosity about a topic at any given time. The ability for students to have laptops in the classroom has really changed search. I sit in on a class at Stanford and observe that most students are on their laptops during the lecture. I can see them searching on Google for something the professor is talking about in real-time. It is really cool for me to see people searching for supplemental, in-depth information in the context of what the professor just mentioned, so I think having this technology in the classroom is a very powerful tool. It can help students expand upon or clarify certain points brought up in class.

YAB: What might marketers/media executives be surprised to learn about the way young people seek out information and process search results on Google?

LG: Young people are exposed to a huge variety of technologies at increasingly younger ages. They are used to more immediate access to content, and we’ve also seen a growing desire to contribute to the information that’s on the Web. That provides a whole new level of context for search. In addition, young people have a desire for social interaction and feedback while they’re searching. We’re doing a lot of work with social search that will help people leverage their social network in terms of finding out how different people they know think about, and search for, different topics.

There is a growing appetite for real time information. People are constantly updating their Facebooks, and Twitter was a new model for quick, up-to-date information. Real time information is increasingly becoming more relevant and expected, and Google incorporates real time results and headlines into our search results. So if you search for something that is timely and newsworthy, Google will be scanning the web and will display real time search results from various sources, including Twitter.

YAB: What projects or new innovations at Google are you most excited about?

LG: It has been really cool at Google to see all the different ways we can improve search and make it smarter. We have launched features that help us better detect intent, and we now can offer snippets of information extracted from a page, such as the hours of a store or the menu from a restaurant. We also now have “Breaking News,” a search feature where you can see search updates in real time. It’s important to be able to harness information in real time in order to feed the increasing desire for instant information.

Social is definitely here to stay and it’s a theme that resonates across the web. On iGoogle, we recently launched a handful of social gadgets. You can now play Scrabble with your friends in real time, share YouTube videos on a constantly updated feed, or recommend a book. It’s more interesting to see what your friends are thinking and find interesting.

Sorta Related
Helping Children Find What They Need on the Internet [The New York Times]

About Raymond

Raymond is a sophomore at Stanford University majoring in Science, Technology and Society with a focus on Media Studies and Management Science and Engineering. When he's not studying creativity and entrepreneurship in cutting edge organizations like Google and the impact of technology on media production and consumption, he enjoys politics, testing out new restaurants with friends, social advocacy, and traveling (he's lived in six cities and speaks three languages). Other passions include writing, reading, magazines, concerts/live music, Pinkberry, and following new trends and technologies. He's also working on a YA novel that he started writing as a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy. Ypulse Readers can also follow Raymond at @raymondbraun.

Video Production Editor at Rockstar Games
Industry: Entertainment
Location: New York, NY
Description: We are looking for a highly capable and experienced individual who has the skill to edit video game trailers in a high pressure environment. Experience editing high profile trailers, short form TV and internet assets preferred. Storytelling is a very important aspect of our games so the applicant must be able to communicate the emotional content and vibe of a game within a 60 second format. The applicant will be primarily responsible for initiating concepts, directing game capture artists and editing trailers as well as working on TV commercials and other marketing and production based materials.. This is a position best suited to an experienced self motivated editor as opposed to someone looking for a switch from assisting to full time editing. More (via Mediabistro, reg, required)

Associate Manager, Product Marketing, Digital Publishing at Disney Interactive Studios
Industry: Marketing/Entertainment
Location: Glendale, CA
Description: This position will play a key role in our digital product marketing efforts, including leading initiatives to capture the quick movement of the mobile & connected console entertainment space, such as developing product strategies, monitoring customer behavior trends, facilitating the strategic marketing plan, executing competitive product analysis and coordinating primary research for the digital content division of Disney Interactive Studios. More

Development Director at VOX Teen Communications
Industry: Nonprofit/Development
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Description: VOX Teen Communications seeks a resourceful, committed, organized, creative and enthusiastic team member to lead our fundraising efforts. The successful candidate must have a passion for youth development, work easily with teenagers and adults, and understand and subscribe to VOX’s mission. He/she must have the ability help lead the Board and staff in advancing the organization in accordance with our strategic plan. VOX’s Development Director will strengthen our current fund-raising systems and lead the implementation of an ambitious fund-raising program focused on expanding the organization’s revenue base. The successful candidate will come with strategies and contacts to facilitate the growth of VOX’s budget to achieve the goals in the strategic plan. More (via Idealist.org)

Development Editor at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
Industry: Publishing
Location: New York, NY
Description: Work with editorial management on the development of approximately 40 titles per year (most are revised editions or annuals with 2-3 new titles per year); Work with subject matter experts (SMEs) to coordinate and develop materials created by authors, content reviewers, and independent contractors; Work with SMEs to set schedules and project budgets; Work with author/freelancer on materials before and after submission; Prepare manuscript for production and review all stages of manuscript according to schedule. More (via Mediabistro, reg. required)

Online Strategy Manager at Room to Read
Industry: Marketing/Nonprofit
Location: San Francisco, CA
Description: Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children’s literature, constructing schools, providing education to girls, and establishing computer labs. Room to Read is looking for an Online Strategy Manager to facilitate and integrate our online communication, fundraising campaigns, and email marketing. This person will also be called upon to project-manage online marketing initiatives, which will involve interfacing with other departments, including Development, Programs, Communications, and Finance. This newly created position reports to the Director of Information Technology but works closely with the Director of Marketing to identify the best interactive tools for various audiences and ensure that marketing messages are consistent with our brand. The ideal candidate should be familiar with using content management systems and design software as well as search engine optimization and keyword advertising through Google and other vendors (layout, html and css capabilities are a plus), along with a working knowledge of communications/public relations. More (via Idealist.org)

Loopt donates to relief efforts in Haiti (by pledging $1 for every check-in at select locations. Also Doodle 4 Google returns inviting students from kindergarten to grade 12 to create variations on the Google logo inspired by the phrase "If I could do anything, I would…") (Los Angeles Times)

- Bling Ring (a disturbingly glamorized look at the ring of teens accused of stealing more than $3 million in clothing and jewelry from Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and others) (Vanity Fair)

- McDonald's debuts 'Dreaming in Mono' (a satirical Scandinavian web series. Also KIA's Super Bowl ad targets millennial moms and alternadads. And does a "Best Bottom" contest from American Apparel go too far?) (Viral Blog via Threebillion.com) (MediaPost, reg. required) (Shaping Youth)

- Nick Cannon presents 'School Gyrls' (a musical comedy set to debut on Nickelodeon and coincide with the release of a new multimedia book series beginning with a novelization of the movie. Also I <3 Vampires, the teen web series, debuts its second season) (Cynopsis Kids)

- Access denied (what school content filters really block by denying students access to social media sites. Also TechCrunch spotlights Israeli edu tech start up Time to Know as revolutionizing the classroom) (Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning)

- NFL joins That's Not Cool (to tackle digital dating abuse with a Callout Card Contest inviting teens to create snarky e-cards to raise awareness of teen dating violence. Also TechCrunch drills down on this stat from the Pew Report: kids who pay for their own phone are 4 times more likely to sext) (UPI)

- Teens redefine success (as much about giving back as it is about getting ahead. Also more coverage on One Young World a Davos-esque confernece where the under-25 set tackle issues including the economy, the environment, faith, media and politics) (MediaPost, reg. required) (Contagious Magazine via Threebillion.com)

What I found interesting about this research is how teens are sending less private messages and group messages or bulletins on social networking sites. My theory is that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are becoming more of a place to share status updates with all of your friends (and maybe the world depending on a teen's privacy settings) and less "the new email." The rise of texting since '06 with this population has made sending group texts or communicating with friends via text or IM on a phone a much more gratifying form of instant communication than sending a private message on Facebook or a MySpace bulletin.

The non-shocker (to us at least) was that teens are really not tweeting, though more young adults are. The teens who are on Twitter? High school girls, most likely following some celeb, musician or other pop culture phenomenon (i.e. Twilight or Miley before she signed off). When you look at the decline in blogging for young adults, you have to wonder if the shift has really been to Twitter in addition to mobile SNS status updates (and soon to services like Foursquare). Not sure if the researchers included short form "blogs" like Tumblr in that question to young adults either, but the reality is that being able to post a photo, quote or just a few words has probably overtaken the traditional blog for busy youth in general.