Bluuuuuue Moooooon shines on linkspam
Teenagers and social networking - it might actually be good for them:
New technologies always provoke generational panic, which usually has more to do with adult fears than with the lives of teenagers. In the 1930s, parents fretted that radio was gaining "an invincible hold of their children". In the 80s, the great danger was the Sony Walkman - producing the teenager who "throbs with orgasmic rhythms", as philosopher Allan Bloom claimed. When you look at today's digital activity, the facts are much more positive than you might expect.
Indeed, social scientists who study young people have found that their digital use can be inventive and even beneficial. This is true not just in terms of their social lives, but their education too. So if you use a ton of social media, do you become unable, or unwilling, to engage in face-to-face contact? The evidence suggests not. Research by Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Research Centre, a US thinktank, found that the most avid texters are also the kids most likely to spend time with friends in person. One form of socialising doesn't replace the other. It augments it.
Plus, it also indicates that 'social media' does not begin and end with FaceBook, which does not score highly in this research.
In other news:
Gladwell's manifesto for the underdog is flawed, argues David Runciman: in fact we note that some of his claims are open to the same objections as my perennial unfavourite, syphilis and genius. See also, claims that Dante had narcolepsy.
Was life really better in the good old days? asks Katharine Whitehorn:
I'm not saying that everything's marvellous these days, but as we struggle with all the new inconveniences we have, we can at least cheer ourselves up by remembering just how tiresome the olden days could be.
This is rather grim: There may be five million IVF success stories, but for many millions more women, the treatments have failed. So why do we never hear from them?: '77% of treatments fail.... a world of sleight of hand, massage and plain lying by omission in the world of fertility statistics.'
O, Country Diary, bless: A special delivery arrives beside our doorstep: a hedgehog dropping.
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