ym360 Trends and Culture Update (Vol 19)

At ym360, we're committed to equipping youth workers. While most of our energy is dedicated to doing this in the areas of Bible Study Resources and Training, we believe it's valuable for youth workers and parents to stay in the loop on what is happening in youth culture and culture in general. (Read why we think it's important here.) A couple times a month, we'll do a post like this one, where we link to relevant articles and studies that give you a better glimpse into the world teenagers are living in. [Note: By nature, some of the articles and subject matter we deal with in Trends & Culture often conflicts with our beliefs and ethics as Christ-followers. Our purpose in linking to this type of material is to simply give you the option of knowing the culture your students are surrounded by. Use discretion to determine which links to click on.] We'd love to know that we're not just equipping you, but those you serve, as well. Consider using this article to equip your community in the following ways:

• Email this link to your adult volunteers
• Repost it on your blog or church website
• Email the link to all your parents to help equip them to better understand their teen's world
• SHARE IT with your youth ministry networks. This is a great way to help your peeps!

Without further ado, here are some relevant links we think you should know about.

Some Social Media & Tech News

• Rihanna has passed Lady Gaga as Facebook's most popular woman. As we track culture in order to be able to help students discern culture, remember these two women's influence have less to do with music and more to do with leveraging their fame. And I might be wrong, but I think I'm seeing hints that people are growing tired of Lady Gaga's "in your face everywhere you turn" act. We'll see . . .
• From an interesting survey, 21% of young adults said they would turn down a job if it didn't allow them to access social network sites or their personal email during work hours. (h/t YPulse)
• Surprise, surprise! Teens prioritize their phone usage differently than adults. But, a real surprise? 16% of teens would give us their car for their phone. (This is a very cool article. Skip the first few paragraphs and jump to the chart in the middle.)
• Fans watching the Women's World Cup Final set the "Tweets per second" record, with 7,196 tweets per second being tweeted globally with the #wwc hashtag. The last women's World Cup performance was a boon for girl's sports, with participation among teenagers and adolescents showing increases. Wonder if we'll see a similar trend? (h/t Mashable)

A Glance At Recent Research

• New study shows that teenage girls' brains are hit harder by binge-drinking than boys.
• Interesting study . . . Teenagers prefer drinks with caffeine. But, hold on. It's not what you think. In a test, teenagers prefer caffeinated drinks even when they don't know there is caffeine in them, which points to a biological link.
• This is a fascinating finding: A new study finds that second-hand smoke doubles the risk of teenage hearing loss.
• A new study shows that a good parent-teen relationship fights depression in teenagers.

The World of Youth-Culture & Entertainment

• The last installment of Harry Potter breaks the "Midnight Box Office" record taking in 43.5 million this past Friday night. Wow.
• In what is always such a tragic conversation, Kate and Pippa become the latest "pro-ana" or "thinspiration" icons. (h/t CPYU)
• Here's a great article on the new "helicopter parents": The iParents. (h/t YPulse)
• Ugh. The top 5 songs according to Billboard's Hot 100, which measure songs' popularity across multiple platforms, are pretty uniformly awful. Your students and/or their friends are probably listening to these songs. It might not be a bad idea to familiarize yourself with them (if you can stomach it).
• We tweeted this last week, but worth a mention again: CA passes a bill requiring schools to teach historical contributions of homosexuals.

    That's it for this edition of the ym360 Trends & Culture report. Look for another one the week of August 1st.

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Any specific study or link stand out to you? Disagree with anything? Let us know by sharing your thoughts below.