Blurts

The recent stats released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on adolescent media consumption have raised eye brows. The report indicates that youth 8-18 spend an average of 7 hours 38 minutes consuming media a day and more than 10 hours if you count multitasking. Wow! This much of anything, let alone media, must be a bad thing.

Then I began to think about this. I am guessing my media consumption possibly doubles these totals. Sound appalling? I even have the data. I sit in my university or home office I am guessing 8-10 hours a day and my music is playing all of the time. According to LastFm, I have listened to 97,077 songs since Nov, 19, 2006. I watch a little CNN when I am not in the office and a ball game now and then. Actually, I take the comment about a few ball games back, I watch lots of baseball in the summer, possibly checking my computer and reading at the same time – the music from the computer playing in the background. You can consume a lot of media during a baseball game. I listen to my iPod and watch television while working out. I spend probably 1-2 hours a day reading as part of my work. There is an occasional movie. Using the multitasking definition applied by the Kaiser Foundation, I am certain there are days when my media consumptions is greater than 24 hours.

So, I am guessing the shock value of these numbers may detract from more important issues. More important questions might focus on the purposeful consumption of media for specific purposes. When some of my colleagues in the Music department “listen” to music the intent and the focus is likely very different. I likely “listen” to more hours of music than some of them. but these numbers really explain little about purpose or impact. When I was a kid, I remember spending huge amounts of time reading. I literally read every sports book available in the library I could access. This is not a syntax error – I do mean that the library was a bus that came with books once a week and we could visit and borrow what we wanted. My access to a library was via a bookmobile and was limited. This activity probably developed my comprehension skills and possibly my vocabulary, but likely did little to develop other skills and knowledge that can be developed through reading. My reading habits involved lots of quantity, but not much diversity. Any assumptions regarding how effectively my reading habits developed my understanding of the world would not be informed by knowing what amount of time I spent.

So, the music has been playing as I wrote this post – wracking up the hours trying to keep ahead of the kids. I have now listened to 97083 songs.

There does appear to be a relationship to grades in the Generation M study.

NY Times recently released a lesson plan based on these data.

It appears that the NY Times will soon charge for content. The article seems to imply that users of a new Apple product would have access to some type of subscription service. I very seldom read the actual paper, but I do regularly read articles (I have an app for that). What would bother me in paying a reasonable amount for the content would be not being able to send others to an article via a link. I do think quality writing (actually in this case the research that goes into an article) should be purchased. I think this will be a very interesting test case.

If you have a new iPhone Touch, you should take a look at Dragon Dictate. It is an amazing dictation app. Translate nearly flawlessly. The only thing is could not figure out was my name.

I like this post from Smashing Magazine on web security. it is a little geeky, but it is difficult to describe problems such as SQL injection (one of my own battles) without moving past common knowledge. Of course, common knowledge is part of the problem.

The ReadWriteWeb offers two posts related to the Haiti Quake. The first explains an easy way to commit $10 to the International Red Cross. The second provides satellite imagery showing the devestation.

Donating $10 through your mobile phone account is about as easy as it gets. The NYTimes is reporting that fees on this donation are being waived. I know many people are concerned with scams that take advantage of people’s willingness to donate money. I have read about SMS method in several sources, but I guess we all make our own decisions. Obviously, it is easy. You text HAITI to the designated number. My experience was that I then received a response and was asked to confirm to the same number.

I first commented on Google modification of its policies to gain access to the China market almost four years ago. No, it seems Google may reverse course and back away from special concessions. The percipitating factor appears to be a cyber attack on Google computers intended to gain access to the mail accounts of human rights activists (NY Times). It appears Google feels used. Limiting access to content perceived as damaging to the government was one thing. Google agreed to this. Now, it appears Google feels that it has been used to jeopardize individuals who made good faith use of Google services.

It appears that Google has made some changes. Searching Google.cn no shows images that were previously blocked. I remember being in China and searching for information about Tiananmen Square and I know this access has been changed.

BTW – how the source of an attack is identified is interesting. This Ars Technica post discusses why the Chinese government was implicated.