Today’s youth are practically hardwired into our media-centric world, absorbing terabytes of information every week. Want to know if Britney has custody of her kids these days? If Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” is a remix of the Chordettes’ classic? What does Twilight have that Buffy doesn’t? Ask a youth (or better yet, read their blog). They’ll tell you.
To help you keep up, YouthWorker Journal has compiled its own list of “must-bookmark” Web sites. These sites—mainstream and Christian—will keep you in the know and (if you’re lucky) a step ahead of your wired-in youth.
Center for Parent/Youth Understanding: Managed by youth and culture expert Walt Mueller, CPYU offers scads of information skewed for a Christian audience. News blurbs are updated almost daily, and Mueller himself pens a weekly column. http://www.cpyu.org/Default.aspx
EW.com: From the people who crank out Entertainment Weekly, this site serves up news, reviews, celebrity interviews and film trailers—along with some pretty entertaining slideshows. Q&As occasionally appear, allowing you to peek into the minds of pop culture’s kingpins. http://www.ew.com/ew
Idol Chatter: The official pop-culture blog for Beliefnet.com. It’s updated several times each day and exudes a nice, informal vibe. While it covers pop phenomena other secular sites would shun (Kirk Cameron’s Fireproof, anyone?), it’s distinctly non-preachy. http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter
MTV News: Though a little long in the tooth, this site still serves up a wealth of what’s hot in music and film. For those who don’t know the difference between rappers Weezy and Jeezy, this is the place to get a little Web-side education. http://www.mtv.com/news
Plugged In: This Focus on the Family site examines movies, music, television and video games from a distinctly Christian, family-friendly perspective. The film reviews are the site’s bread and butter, but the feature stories are its not-so-hidden treasure. http://www.pluggedinonline.com
Pop Culture Junk Mail: Call it professionally eclectic. Run by the entertainment editor for MSNBC.com, PCJM combines interesting tidbits from the entertainment world to—well, the just plain weird. Absinthe-flavored lollipops? Weapons branded with “Hello Kitty” symbols? You can find those oddities and much, much more here. http://pcjm.blogspot.com
PopMatters: This pop-culture clearinghouse could be either exhaustive or exhausting, depending on your frame of mind. The site is teeming with columns, features, reviews and lots and lots of words, much of it generated by unpaid contributors. http://www.popmatters.com
Relevant Magazine.com: It’s one of the nerve centers of the Emergent Church; and it boasts thoughtful reviews and challenging essays about movies, music and other pop touchstones. http://www.relevantmagazine.com
Thunderstruck: Christian culture expert Steve Beard manages this eclectic grab bag of ever-updating links that gives readers license to explore the life and death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn with one click and “The Geekiest Wedding Ever” (where participants and guests dressed as Star Wars characters) with the next. http://www.thunderstruck.org
Zap2it: This site sticks to movies and television, with a distinct emphasis on what’s seen on the small screen. It’s got a bit of everything—news, interviews, reviews, blogs—in a nicely polished package. http://www.zap2it.com
Rotten Tomatoes: Want to know what the Los Angeles Times thought about The Dark Knight? What about The Village Voice? Rotten Tomatoes is the best place to gauge a film’s overall critical buzz and zero in on individual reviews to find out what critics are saying about the topic. http://www.rottentomatoes.com
YouthWorker Journal: Don’t forget, you can get access to Journal content, plus tons of other cool content at: http://youthworker.staging.wpengine.com/
Now It’s Your Turn
What did we miss? Where do you go for your entertainment and youth culture information? Let our readers know about your own secret resources by e-mailing us at feedback@youthworker.com
