Tag Archives: Teens

Straight From Teens: What’s Popular

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From time to time I dedicate a post to share what I am hearing from Teens. What they say is popular, possible new teen trends developing or just fun stuff related to teens. Here is the latest installment, enjoy.

pheedA new Social Network has come on the scene.  It is called Pheed and seems to take many of the our favorite aspects of other Social Networks (Facebook, twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc) and combines them into one. I saw several articles stating that this new Social Networking app is VERY popular with teens. Check out this one from Fast Company titled Tweeting Teens Help Propel Pheed to #1 Social App. But when I started talking to teens, I only found one who actually had heard of the app. I don’t think this has gained much popularity yet but it looks like it could have some potential.

Several Apps have popped on the scene lately that allow you to “connect” with Social Media friends that like you more than a friend. One is called “Bang with Friends,” which according to its tag line let’s you “Anonymously find friends who are down for the night.” The other is called Tinder and it let’s you identify Facebook/Twitter friends you “Like” and if they say they “Like” you as well, it will connect you. Their Tag line is “A Fun Way To Break the Ice.” Here is a good article from Johnathan McKee about Bang with Friends.  I will be honest, I have not heard teens talking about these apps. But as they are recently gaining in popularity they probably already know about them. Which means we as Youth workers and parents need to be aware of them as well.

If you have not heard or seen by now, the Harlem Shake is VERY popular. If you have no clue what I am talking about check out my recent blog post Teens are Getting their Shake on.

Popular music with teens today includes the following artists: Maroon 5, Miguel, Chris Brown, Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, Bruno Mars, Lupe Fiasco and Rihanna.  Some stand outs are Sweet Nothing by Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch and Thrift Shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (the Music Video has over 143 Million views on YouTube). I was going to post some links to their videos on YouTube, but after viewing a couple I decided against it based on the content in some of the videos. What I recommend is heading over to iTunes, search for the artist and then listen to the previews of their more recent and popular songs.

What Fun Apps are Teens Playing with on their Smartphones?

Do you want to know what Movies are popular with Teens? If so don’t watch the Oscars. I asked teens about the movies up for Oscars, turns out most had never heard of nor seen any of them. For better luck check out the Movies nominated for MTV Movie Awards. This tends to be a better way to gauge what teens are watching.

What is popular with your teens? Leave a comment and let me know.

Teens are Getting Their Shake On!

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If you have had access to the internet or a teenager in the last two weeks, by now you have probably heard about the Harlem Shake. It is the latest viral video craze that is sweeping the internet teens are getting in on the action.

Here is the basic context. You and your friends put on the song, Harlem Shake by Baauer. For the first 15 seconds one person dances awkwardly, often times with a mask or something covering their face, and everyone else pretends they do not see the person. After 15 seconds (when the songs beat changes) you cut to everyone dancing and going crazy. I know, complex isn’t it. If you have a few minutes or hours to spare just type Harlem Shake into YouTube and you will be amused for as long as you can take it. Here is one of the more popular ones on You Tube that currently has over 22 million views.

I talked to teens across the country and found that almost all of them have been in a Harlem Shake video (or several) with their school, team, youth group, Club, family or friends.

When trends or viral videos like the Harlem Shake pop up, and they pop up almost every month these days, some will say that they lead to negative behavior. This week I heard of two cases where teens were suspended from school for their roles in creating or attempting to create a Harlem Shake video. One case involved teens lying to their teacher about what they were doing and pushing the limits on the appropriateness of the dance moves they were doing.

Overall viral videos like the Harem Shake can be a lot of fun for teens. But we have to remember that teens are still developing and sometimes may not make the best decisions. This is often the case when viral videos or trends get teens in trouble. They see a video like the Harlem Shake and think about what they could do to be more outrageous and get more views or likes on YouTube. This thought can outweigh the logical thoughts they have and cause them to push the limits.

What do I suggest when it comes to trends like the Harlem Shake? I will give you an example. A friend of mine who is a pastor made the following tweet tonight: “Who’s up for a Harlem shake video at mid-week tomorrow night? Bring props and we’ll do it.”

I love it! He is recognizing the trend and engaging with teens in making their own video. This means they will have appropriate supervision and guidance but will also have a great time. It can also bring the group closer together through a fun mutual experience.

Youth Tip: Keep your eyes and ears open for the latest trends and figure out how you can engage with your teens in the latest trend. Also, have conversations with them about how far they are willing to go to get likes and views on social media.

A Teen Perspective on the MTV Video Music Awards Show

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Each year I make an effort to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. I find that the awards show offers a glimpse into current teen culture.  What music is popular with teens, what actors and artists are popular, fashion trends and much more. When I watch the show and try to decipher what I am viewing and put it into context with where teen culture is at I am coming from an adult perspective.  One thing I have learned over my years working with teens is if you really want to understand whats going on with teens and more about their culture you need to ask teens themselves.  With that in mind, I decided to ask a teen who was watching the MTV Video Music Awards to write a guest post for me sharing his review and opinion as a teen.  Check out what 18-year-old DeQuan from New Jersey had to say about this years VMA’s.

So it was that time of year again. That time where the biggest names in music that appeal to most people under the age of 25 get together. That’s right I’m talking about the MTV Video Music Awards. This year marked the 29th anniversary of the ongoing award show. This year’s host was Kevin Heart, no doubt because of the well received reactions to the opening he did at last year’s show. Kevin was a laugh riot throughout the night making jokes about what is going on in the pop culture world.  

There was no huge disagreement amongst fans as to who won what this year.  Chris Brown taking home best Male Video while Nicki Minaj took home best female video. Best Electronic Video went to Calvin Harris while Drake and Lil Wayne took the award for the Hip-Hop category. If there was one complaint about this year’s show perhaps it would have been the fact that MTV doesn’t separate groups and solo artists.

One Direction took home the best new artist award and there was no doubt that they would. Since they debuted their hit single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” it’s been topping the charts everywhere. They even preformed it at the closing ceremony for the 2012 Olympics in London over the summer. They were up against Frank Ocean whose performance was a surprise to everyone and became one of the most talked about performances on twitter with over 30,000 tweets. In my opinion, separating groups and solo artists, would allow some artist’s to stand a better chance at winning. Not that I don’t like One Direction, I enjoy them very much and I have their entire album, however others in that category were Fun and I wanted both groups to win. Perhaps if there was a category for best new groups it would give exposure to more groups and solo artists alike.

Other performances that took the night were those of Pink who played tribute to herself both with her opening song “Get this party started” and by swinging through the air as she did during her highly acclaimed 2009 performance. Also, one can’t forget Alicia Keys whose performances are always memorable and star-studded. She was nothing short of magnificent. Perhaps the most anticipated performance of the night and the one I definitely looked forward to was the performance of the absolutely flawless Taylor Swift. Her new number one smash hit, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” which became the most digitally downloaded songs only two weeks after its release.  Taylor’s performance was very upbeat and had the entire crowd ecstatic and hyped. It’s definitely one for the VMAs history books.

Overall I think we can all say this year’s awards went off without a hitch. There was even attention drawn to Chris Brown hugging Rihanna, really expressing that the vibe of the night was peaceful and just about celebrating music. Special nod to Kevin for really keeping the show flowing as well

On another note, this show does showcase a part of Teen Culture in terms of music as well as other mediums.  This was seen by some of the guests in the audience (Twilight Cast, Dwight Howard, Jersey Shore Cast). I would say that the MTV VMA’s is an accurate way to judge teen culture. Many of the presenters are popular among teen audiences, although many of them were there to remind us that they still exist and that they have an upcoming project.

As far as they way many of them act I feel that it’s just apart of the brand they’ve established for themselves (Nicki Minaj for example). The unfortunate truth is that we are a generation that likes to go uncensored and unfiltered. We like talking about topics and subjects that in the past would be considered very touchy. The problem is we don’t know where to draw that line. Rihanna speaking about wanting someone to be her “sex slave” was a bit much. However, most teens don’t realize the true messages behind the performances, for most of us it’s about the visual and the beat.

To an extent, as a teen it does bother me. I’m not angry with Rihanna, I love her as an artist. But the truth is in this society with the level of success and fame that many of the artists featured on the show have achieved the responsibility of being a role model. As an author of a series of books for young adults, I try very hard to ensure that the right messages are being sent out. The truth is songs like Rihanna’s are acceptable and are considered the norm among most teens. I think there needs to be a limit yes, moments like Kanye’s were frowned upon. And though it was wrong, yes I think promoting songs about sex and drugs aren’t that great either.

What it comes down to unfortunately  is that the MTV VMA’s promote artists that are popular, they have no control of what record industries allow to be put on the radio. But MTV does know that if they want ratings then they must feature those artists who are currently popular. I don’t think any artist is perfect but they should strive harder to send positive messages. An adult watching might get many mixed messages, but the truth is being a teen these days, that’s how our lives are. We get many mixed messages from the media

There you have it. The MTV VMA’s from a teens perspective. I want to thank DeQuan for his guest post. DeQuan will begin studying film making and screenwriting in January at the New York Film Academy. He is the creator and author of the Danger Kids Series with the first novel to be released December 12th. He is an avid blogger and blogs about thing that currently affect his generation from politics to media. 

One of my Top Tips for Working With Teens

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Have you ever been in a conversation with a group of co-workers, and someone makes mention of a story in the news or a song by a new band, and it seems that everyone in the group knows what they are referring to except you. What do you do?  Do you ask, do you follow along with the groups reactions and later use Google to find out what they were really talking about? How do you feel in that moment? Torn between wanting to know what they are talking about and feeling a little embarrassed that you don’t know what they are talking about.

I have been caught in this situation when someone throws out words that to me sound like they came out of the latest Harry Potter movie. I have no idea what the word means but often I feel dumb asking.  Sometimes I ask but on many occasions I later Google the words.

It is human nature to feel insecure in these situations. Now changed the scenario from co-workers to a group of teens you are supervising.  You are supposed to know more than them, you are older, you have had more education and life experiences.  I found myself in this situation daily working with teens. They would mention a band, song, TV show, celebrity, slang word, new style of dance, alcoholic drink and a list of others things that I had no clue about.  In my early years as a youth worker I sometimes would ask the teens what they were talking about, but more times than not I would just pretend I knew or just pretended I did not hear what they said at all. Often I would write myself a note to look it up later, but between clobbering teens in ping-pong and doing my best Matrix moves playing dodge-ball I would lose that note.

I quickly learned that the pretending game was not getting me very far, and decided to go with the motto of “just ask.”  If I heard a teen mention a new artist, saw them browsing a website I did not recognize or use a slang word. I asked them what it meant, who the artist was or what site they were checking out.  I was amazed by how open and willing the teens were to share with me.  What I gradually realized is that teens actually liked that they knew something that I did not.  It made them feel good to share with me and in many cases they enjoyed teaching me.  It was like the roles were reversed and they were the teacher and I was the student.  This actually helped strengthen many relationships with teens.

Just asking has become one of the most important lessons that I share with youth workers.  Not only does it help you stay knowledgeable and relevant, it shows the teens that you really do care about them because you are showing interest in something they are interested in. Now two points.  One, you have to come at them in a non-judgmental manner.  The more you can show that you are truly interested the more likely they will be to open up.

Second, it also takes knowing the teens you work with.  For example, I worked with a lot of teens that were involved in gang activity.  If I heard a teen mention something and he was around his peers I may not ask right then.  But I would seek him out later, one on one, and ask about whatever it was he was saying.  More times than not I would find out about who was involved in what gang, what the latest beef was and once I even learned about the meaning of new graffiti popping up in town before the gang team for the local police department did.  The guys would not want to share in front of their peers and be seen as a snitch, but I was amazed by how much they would share when they were not worried about someone over-hearing.

Maybe you don’t have the same struggle I did as a young youth worker and it comes easy for you to ask teens questions.  Either way, I encourage you to keep asking questions and  keep showing the teens you care about them.

Youth Worker Tips:

  • When you don’t know, ask.
  • Have a formal teen focus group to ask teens what is new in the community, what issues they are dealing with, what trends are out there etc.
  • Identify the teens that you know will always share the latest trends (good and bad) with you and seek them out. Soon they will be coming to you asking “Have you heard about…”
  • If you have a computer lab, at the end of the day look at the history on the computers.  If you do not recognize a site, make note of it and ask some teens about the site and why teens frequent it.

Teens Stumble Upon tumblr

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Recently when speaking with a group of teens from across the US, I asked them “what were some recent trends they had seen recently with teens?”  In the course of the conversation we began talking about websites and one teen mentioned that when they got home from school they went right on tumblr.  I thought this was random, that one teen had gotten into blogging and found tumblr as a space to do this.  I thought this since I knew tumblr mainly as a blog site used by adults. In fact, I tried to start a tumblr page at one time showcasing the different restaurants I visited while traveling and provide brief reviews.

But soon about half the teens I was speaking with acknowledged they had a tumblr page or they at least knew other teens who had recently created a tumblr page.  I looked into it and found out that in fact the percentage of teens using tumblr in the last year has gone up(recently it was listed at 2% recently by Pew Internet).  That may not be much, but when a site goes from little to no teen use to some teen use in a short period of time and has teens talking, I see that as a website to keep an eye on and learn more about.

So what is tumblr? According to it’s website, “Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be.”  So it can be blogging but it can also be sharing your life experiences.  In fact when I asked teens about why and how they used tumblr, that is exactly the response I received.

One teen said , “It (tumblr) is a recollection of my past shows/music/photos/events/everything else in the form of a photo. You customize it to your own needs and put whatever you want on it. Tumblr is whatever you make it to be.” Another teens summed it up saying, ”If teens are like me, we use it to relate to other people through pictures.”  The consensus of the teens I spoke with agreed that it captures their life in the form of pictures and quotes. 

I am not saying that this is the next big thing or that every teen is using tumblr or will be using tumblr in the near future. But I am hearing some buzz around it lately from teens and those who work with teens. Which to me means as a youth worker, it is a site to be familiar with and understand.  In fact, I encourage you to ask teens that you know or work with if they use tumblr and ask them if you can view their page.

Getting Teens Outdoors

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I recently had the privilege of speaking at the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies national conference in Omaha Nebraska.  A little different crowd than what I am used to speaking to but none-the-less they were interested in figuring out how to get youth interested in outdoor activities like fishing, hiking, camping and hunting.

Statistics show that over the last ten years the percentage of teens getting outside and participating in outdoor activities such as fishing, hiking and camping has declined drastically.  Based on the nature of these organizations and their resources I made three suggestions to help them connect youth to the outdoors.

One, Connect with Existing Groups. What I meant by this was reach out to existing groups or places where teens are a part of a group (school, church, Boys & Girls Clubs etc) and offer to lead their group in these outdoor activities. Teens are relationship oriented. If they are connected to a group they most likely have a positive relationship with the leader/advisor. If they ask the teen or group to participate in a new activity they have a comfort and trust with that person and are more likely to give it a try because of that relationship.  Many after school programs look to partner with other groups to provide positive opportunities for their members.

Two, Start in their Comfort Zone. Don’t ask them to give up their electronics, drive 5 hours to a place they have never heard of before to do an activity they have never done before.  Start by bringing the gear or equipment to them. Spend some time at a place they are comfortable walking through how to use the equipment. Then go some place close to participate in the activity where they could ultimately go back on their own if they were interested.

And three, Connect it with an Environmental Cause or Issue.  Teens are showing an affinity towards supporting causes. So introduce a cause to them related to the environment and show them how they can affect positive change to that issue in their community.  Great example is just a beach clean up. Teens love the beach. Show them that if it is not taken care of, they may lose it for good.  You could even have a beach clean up and while they are there have some fishing poles and demonstrate how to fish.

I love the outdoors and desire to bring my girls up engaging in various outdoor activities. My hope is that organizations that have the resources to get youth outdoors, will look to new ways they can connect with youth and get them excited about what the world holds in the outdoors.

(A great resource on this topic is the 2011 Outdoor Participation Report Outdoor Foundation)