Our latest wrap of the week’s news and trends explores: parents fretting about tech distractions; youth needing more sleep; Nintendo putting its Wii first; job market worst for teens in 60 years; and babies get fashion-conscious.
Tech Trouble
Many parents would like to screen their teens from screens a bit more—particularly television, computer and cell phone screens. According to a survey from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, 38 percent of parents fret over how much time their children spend watching TV, and 37 percent say computers are a concern for them (with 25 percent pointing a finger of blame specifically at Facebook and other social networking sites). Another 33 percent say they worry their youth spend too much time playing video games, and 27 percent think their teens text too much. (Business Week)
Some Eye-Opening News
Youth aren’t getting enough sleep, and some experts are blaming the gadgets around them. “Cell phones, Facebook, iPods and video games are keeping kids up later at night,” says Nancy Collop, president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “The literature is suggesting it’s getting worse, not better.” According to Collop’s organization, 25 percent of children have trouble getting enough sleep; and it tends to get worse as children get older. By the time kids enter adolescence, 40 percent report some sort of sleep difficulty. While a small percentage of these teens have a real medical problem, for most youth the real solution is—perhaps for them—depressingly simple: Go to bed earlier. Of course, it’s not entirely fair to pin teens’ lack of sleep entirely on their phones and Facebook accounts. Many youth are simply overwhelmed by obligations, ranging from homework to spending time with friends and families. Experts say that even if teens have really good excuses for not getting enough shuteye, that won’t mitigate the problems: Teens who don’t sleep enough have trouble concentrating, don’t perform as well in sports and can be at greater risk of depression. (USA Today)
For Teens, Jobs Hard to Find
The results are in, and it’s official: The summer of 2010 was dismal for teens looking for jobs. Finding work has been bad for pretty much everyone, of course: In July, the unemployment rate hovered around 9.5 percent. For teens, it reached a staggering 26.1 percent—and July’s typically the month when teen employment is at its highest. It marked the worst summer for teens looking for employment since 1949. “The teens are facing heavy competition, from people in their early 20s particularly, who are taking some of those better teen jobs that usually they leave alone,” said John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. (MSNBC)
If the Jeans Fit…
Clothing company Baby Gap has introduced skinny jeans…for babies and toddlers. The company makes the fashionable jeans to fit even newborns—largely because the children’s mothers often want their tykes to look like miniature versions of themselves. That said, Baby Gap had to make some style sacrifices for practicality. The jeans are far bigger up top, in order to accommodate the obligatory diaper. (Gap.com)
The Wii Generation?
Nintendo has sold 30 million of its Wii consoles in slightly less than four years—the fastest any video game system has reached the 30 million mark. It took Sony’s PlayStation 2 five years to sell 30 million units. (IndustryGamers)