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Tomorrow, March 2, is Read Across America day (and this year’s featured book is “The Lorax” — he reads for the trees! The cast of the upcoming film recorded a PSA for the event, and Zac Efron will be on hand for the national... Read the rest of this post

Twitter has topped (100 million active users. Among the interesting usage stats the social network announced, 55% are mobile users, and 40% don’t tweet, logging in only to check out what others are saying. Tumblr users are also prolific,... Read the rest of this post

As kids today are increasingly tech-savvy (marketers must reach them in creative and complex ways. Often this is through online games with virtual worlds, social media campaigns, and in-store attractions, but are kids being bombarded too much by... Read the rest of this post

McDonald’s is revamping its happy meals (to make them healthier. Kids will find fewer fries, and a serving of fruit or veggies instead, lowering the overall calorie content by 20%. McDonalds had thought about cutting out the fries altogether... Read the rest of this post

There was a time when young people didn’t use coupons. They were far less likely than their older peers to read a Sunday newspaper and see coupon inserts, and they didn’t care much about clipping coupons to stretch their money further. That is,... Read the rest of this post

Xbox users can stay involved (even during ads, thanks to in-game ads which use the same voice and motion technology as the Kinect console. Gamers can say a command to tweet or text, or wave their hands in front of the device to vote. Users can... Read the rest of this post

CBS News is targeting the (Facebook and Internet generations with an online news show, “What’s Trending,” which aims to give more context to the headlines that are trending on social media. In other social net news, young... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven't yet, and post there... Read the rest of this post

6 million users on Foursquare (cleverly visualized among other noteworthy stats in an infographic celebrating 2010 as a banner year. Poised to reach 10 million users by June, co-founder Naveen Selvadurai tells Bloomberg the site is valued at more... Read the rest of this post

Ed. Note: Ypulse will be taking the rest of week off for Thanksgiving. Have a safe, happy holiday! Minnie Mouse gets a makeover (from Forever 21 in partnership with Disney, and…well, from the looks of the comments and a few bloggers'... Read the rest of this post

The economy may not be out of the woods just yet — but as positive signs go, a solid holiday shopping season's a big one. Retailers are banking on this season seeing a huge growth in e-commerce sales, in particular: online holiday shopping is... Read the rest of this post

“Why would anyone do that?”
“How does anyone have the time?”

The above are questions I hear regularly when talking with librarians about ways that technology is being used by teens, and by adults too. Most recently these are questions I hear when talking about check-in services. For some librarians the idea of checking-in to a location with FourSquare, Gowalla, or Scvngr, or using a site like GetGlue to “check-in” to let others know about current reading or viewing, seems totally off-the-wall.

As I think more and more about the questions I regularly hear, and how some librarians think about the way teens use technology, I realize again how important it is to separate one’s own experience and way of doing things from the development of library services teens need. For example, I’d suggest that it doesn’t really matter whether or not a librarian understands why teens like to text with each other when sitting beside one another in the library. Or, a librarian doesn’t really have to understand why people like to earn virtual badges on FourSquare or virtual stickers on GetGlue. Librarians also don’t need to understand how people find the time to participate in a variety of social media activities. Understanding the why and how can definitely be helpful, but the first thing a librarian needs to do is simply accept that people like to do these things and that it’s not the librarian’s job to judge the activities and behaviors based on personal experiences and personal likes and dislikes. It is the librarian’s job to find out how these activities can fit into library programs and services, in this case for teens, successfully.

What if every time a librarian found out about a new way that technology is being used the initial reaction always was, “That is really interesting, I’m not sure if anyone in the community is using this technology, and I don’t really get why anyone would, but I’m going to find out who is using it, learn some more about why, and then figure out how to integrate it into what we do so we can do what we do even better.” That reaction isn’t one of judgement. It’s a reaction that is focused on teens – the library user – and not on the librarian’s likes, dislikes, interests, and so on.

Anytime there is something new or a change in the way things are done there is the danger of jumping to judgments because of lack of understanding. Instead of making judgments about teens and Facebook, teens and Foursquare, teens and texting, librarians have to look at the new with an open-mind and I’d even say with a healthy dose of positive curiosity. (This isn’t required just when it comes to technology of course, it is required with books too – street lit, manga, graphic novels, cellphone novels, etc. All of these require the same open-mind as new technologies require.)

One way to get started being positively curious about technology use in your community is to check to see if your library is listed in FourSquare, or Gowalla, or Scvngr. (If it is and library staff are not aware of that, that means community members have been checking-in to the library and have added the site to the location-based software’s database all on their

Taylor Swift goes platinum in one week (The country-pop star's third album, "Speak Now," is the fastest-selling new record in five years, partially thanks to her finely tuned social media sense and an extensive marketing campaign from label Big... Read the rest of this post

Election Day on Foursquare (With the rollout of the new Foursquare Elections page today, founder Dennis Crowley expands on the positive impact of social voting, i.e., checkins, badges, etc. on civic engagement. Not to be outdone [or outdated]... Read the rest of this post

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[Insert witticism here.]

Book Dominoes FTW! [Urlesque]

This week in unnecessarily large versions of unhealthy foods… [Good]

Esquire thinks we can balance the federal budget in 3 days. Good luck with that one, guys. [Esquire]

Type in your own handwriting! [Pilot via GalleyCat]

If you didn’t already know, being vegan is hard. [Gizmodo]

A new blog of short essays. [BOTA]

Former OUPblogger “Johnny” in his Halloween costume… [Bravo TV]

Are you ready to be Super Duper/Epic on Foursquare??? [Mashable]

IKEA gets into the cookbook biz. [Trendland]

“51% of Americans would live with a ghost as long as rent were free, while 27% would share space with a spectre for a 50% reduction in rent.” [USA Today via The Awl]

'Shh.. Don't Tell Steve' comes to TV (Looks like CBS is developing yet another Twitter feed for the small screen. This one will be produced by social-media king Ashton Kutcher. And over in the UK, Virgin Media launches 3D Movies On Demand) (THR) -... Read the rest of this post

Fourquare for Universities (Check-ins are coming to campus with a new program customized for partnered universities to "share information about classes, building hours, campus activities and traditions." We'll definitely be watching this space)... Read the rest of this post

AOL calls on Jonas Brothers to help 'redesign the internet' (AOL CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong name drops the boy band as key creative collaborators in efforts to keep the web from looking like it was "created by people in Silicon Valley with... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to highlight... Read the rest of this post

Perez Hilton to appear on Nickelodeon's 'Victorious' (and not everyone's happy about it. The controversial Hollywood gossip blogger will make a cameo on the primetime show on Aug. 27th) (The Frisky) - Digital overload leads to brain fatigue... Read the rest of this post

'Green Lantern' heats up Comic-Con (and the cover of a special preview edition of Entertainment Weekly. Also Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team up for a remake of vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows." Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Author Seth... Read the rest of this post

MTV buys Social Express (marking its debut in the social gaming space and stirring talk of an eventual publishing platform for independent game developers..and JerseyshoreVille jokes. Plus, as part of a promotional campaign from Zynga, actual... Read the rest of this post

Turning mallrats into bookworms (as simple as relocating your local library to a storefront? PSFK explores the success story behind Bookmarks, the newest branch of the Dallas Public Library. Brilliant) ZooBurst (In other innovative reading news, a... Read the rest of this post

'Eclipse' premieres (with the biggest domestic release in Hollywood history. And A.O. Scott says it's "more robustly entertaining film than either of its predecessors." See our YAB Review from Meg Reid for more. Also Twihards have descended on... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to... Read the rest of this post