Why kids are on MySpace

Adults with authority control the home, the school, and most activity spaces. Teens are told where to be, what to do and how to do it. Because teens feel a lack of control at home, many don’t see it as their private space.To them, private space is youth space and it is primarily found in the interstices of controlled space. These are the places where youth gather to hang out amongst friends and make public or controlled spaces their own. Bedrooms with closed doors, for example.Adult public spaces are typically controlled spaces for teens. Their public space is where peers gather en masse; this is where presentation of self really matters. It may be viewable to adults, but it is really peers that matter.Teens have increasingly less access to public space. Classic 1950s hang out locations like the roller rink and burger joint are disappearing while malls and 7/11s are banning teens unaccompanied by parents. Hanging out around the neighborhood or in the woods has been deemed unsafe for fear of predators, drug dealers and abductors. Teens who go home after school while their parents are still working are expected to stay home and teens are mostly allowed to only gather at friends’ homes when their parents are present.

Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace

I recommend reading the entire article, it’s very interesting.

Originality

Savage Chickens Cartoon

 

 

technorati tags: funny, savagechickens

Comment on headphones

After trying many headphones both inexpensive and expensive, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that the Ultimate Ear super.fi Pro 5 are the best in-ear headphones I’ve ever used. My main problem was the lack of bass in the Etymotic series (specifically the Etymotic ER-6, which I own) which I orginally bought for its astouding clarity, but paid for it later when I missed the clean and clear bass found in even the inexpensive Sony Fontopia series. BUT I warn everyone who either owns the Fontopia series headphones or is considering buying them:

If you own them, be careful of the part of the wire that is supposed to go behind the neck, its breaks EXTREMELY easily and renders the headphones useless. To anyone considering to buy the Fontopia series headphones, be sure to buy the Neck Strap Headphones MDR-NX1 because they are the same headphones internally but have the addition of a neckstrap that won’t wear away to nothing. But be warned of the headphone’s short cable as well, it should be fine if you put your MP3 player in your breast pocket or have a small MP3 player like the mobiBLU Cube that can simply hang from the input jack, but for everyone else, either use an extender or if you own an iPod, consider the Apple iPod Radio Remote.

Hope this helps some poor soul like I once was trying to find the perfect headphones.

Original Comment

‘Infomania’ worse than marijuana

Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed.

BBC NEWS | UK | ‘Infomania’ worse than marijuana

 

 

technorati tags: marijuana, email

John Stewart with his iMac in Soho Apple Store

Me in Stealth Stalker mode,
originally uploaded by blueneurosis.

The title pretty much sums it up. I have great admiration for this man (and that’s not just because we share the same birthday), and his owning a Mac is just… awesome.

Fender Standard Stratocaster

Fender Standard Stratocaster is what I’m saving up for. See guys? I’m getting my own (finally).

New Items

Two new things came in the mail today. The first was the previously mentioned Threadless tee, which looks even better in real life than on the site.

The second item was something I’ve been yearning for the past few months. After reading many many reviews of it, I’d finally decided this was the one. It is the Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro. After going through both the White Fontopia® HeadphonesMDR-EX71SL/WK and Fontopia® HeadphonesMDR-EX51LP, I finally decided to move straight up to the big league.

And damn. It was so worth it.

Keep headphone wires from getting tangled – Lifehacker

Keep headphone wires from getting tangled – Lifehacker

Boing Boing: Wasp performs roach-brain-surgery to make zombie slave-roaches

Boing Boing: Wasp performs roach-brain-surgery to make zombie slave-roaches

Spell with flickr

This is pretty awesome. Spell anything you want using pictures of letters from Flickr.