Live the creative life you want

When she was a little girl, Elaina Loveland dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina. The graceful waif of a woman was a dynamic dancer, but after attending the dance program at Goucher College to study for a few years, she realized the reality of her choice might not make for an ideal career.

“It became clear that I should have gone straight to New York City to dance instead of going to college to study it,” she admits. “I also realized that my dance career would probably only last as long as my body held out—and that seemed like a bit of a gamble.”

So she opted for Plan B and became a writer—and ever since hasn’t let anything get in her way. Elaina firmly believes anyone who wants to have a creative career can do it. All they need to do is plan, prepare, and be brave enough to take the leap.

In fact, before turning 30, she penned two books on a subject:

Creative Colleges: A guide for student actors, artists, dancers, musicians and writers,was published in 2005 when Loveland was 27. She followed it up in 2007 with a sequel entitled: Creative Careers: Paths for aspiring actors, artists, dancers, musicians and writers. Both softback trade books were published by SuperCollege LLC, and are chock full of how-to-get-where-you-want-to-go information.

Creative Careers: Paths for aspiring actors, artists, dancers, musicians, and writersoffers details about types of 200 arts-related college, including suggestions on how to evaluate them, sample resumes and curriculums, and inspiring / realistic profiles of people who are living the dream. And Creative Careers dives deeper into life in a variety of fields, offering real options other than the most obvious and glamorous.

Loveland’s takeaway: “Given all the pros and cons each profession, I’d still recommend a career in the arts to anyone who truly wants one,” she says, but warns that the key to success is a willingness to sacrifice and be flexible.

Take show business. “This is not a profession for the faint hearted, or someone who can’t deal with rejection,” Loveland advises, adding that those who dream of being fashion designers are also destined to spend years in the Big Apple, “unless, of course, you are willing to just open a little boutique in your hometown or maybe a favorite seaside town.”

“You have to really know yourself,” she explains. “Finding the right career—and career path—is truly a process of elimination. What I try to show in the book is that there are a lot of ways to accomplish the goal of having a career in the arts.”

And when it comes to helping parents deal with a child who wants a career in the arts, Loveland’s advice to is to simply be supportive.

“Parents should be open-minded if their kids are interested in pursuing a career in the arts,” she says. “While there are 'starving artist' stories, not all jobs in the arts are financially unstable. The arts aren't usually a path to riches but aspiring artists can find career fulfillment and financial stability if they explore many options in the arts and carve out a niche for themselves. Ultimately, that will help them achieve both professional and personal happiness.”

For more information visit: http://www.elainaloveland.com/creative_careers.htm

Bratproofing Your Children

When college professors Janet and Lew Solomon were raising their son Michael, now 33, they were determined to teach him the value of money. On the morning of his 10th birthday, they got their chance. Young Michael came bounding down the steps and announced it would only be 6 more years until he could get a car. Lew (a lawyer who taught taxation and trusts and estates at George Washington University Law School), and Janet (a business school professor who specialized in human resources management) gave each other a sideways glance and sat Michael down for breakfast and a taste of reality.

“We didn’t want to burst his bubble—but we did want to set him on the right path for financial solvency,” Janet says today. “So we told him that we’d pay for the auto insurance on that car he was dreaming about, but that he’d be responsible for saving enough money to actually pay for the car.”

From that day forward Michael became the consummate saver. At last, on his 19th birthday, he had enough cash to buy a brand new Nissan Altima—a car he drove long after he’d made a career as a successful hedge fund manager and could have bought himself a finer ride. (When he finally did pass it along to a young man he was mentoring in the Big Brothers organization, it had more than 200,000 miles but Michael had taken such good care of it that the car was still in good working condition.)

Getting a financial grip

“To say we are proud of Michael is an understatement,” says Janet, who with Lew recently published a new book based their own experience and observations of other families in relationship to money. Entitled, Bratproofing Your Children: How to raise socially and financially responsible kids, the book is a guide to help parents get a grip on discipline and fiscal solvency.

“As a parent, you want your children to grow up to be productive, motivated, financially responsible adults,” Janet says. “But that is sometimes easier said than done. This book helps parents raise thriving kids who will grow up to become emotionally and financially mature adults by teaching them to stave off potentially negative influences of affluence from our consumer culture.”

Teaching your children well

The 200-page paperback—which is part common sense, part financial advisor, and part parenting coach—is divided into halves.

The first chunk provides insightful ideas and ideals from Janet, who offers advice on how to protect children from the potentially negative influences of wealth, including:
ß Imparting four personal character traits (high self esteem, joyfulness / optimism, serenity, hard work / thrift),
ß And three interpersonal character traits (loving kindness, forgiveness, integrity).
ß She also offers a handful of strategies to help parents successfully deal with outside influences.

The second half of the book, “How to protect your wealth from being destroyed by your children and grandchildren,” was penned by Lew and outlines some tough love financial strategies.

“Do not expect every one of your children to become a financial wizard,” Lew explains on page 85. “However, all family members need to be responsible for leaning basic financial concepts. Even if a child never develops much facility with finance, he or she should learn the big picture and feel comfortable raising questions and discussing financial matters with your (and later, their) advisors.”

Lew’ advice:
• Talk about money with your children
• Give allowances
• Have them set aside a portion of their allowance for charitable giving
• Don’t give them a credit card or ATM card
• Encourage and promote their entrepreneurial spirit (something that shows up naturally in most children between the ages of 10 and 12)

He also outlines how to better understand and communicate with an attorney, accountant, and financial planner, and how to use trusts to transfer wealth to you children and grandchildren. Additionally, he offers suggestions for handling family business succession.

Accomplishing your real goals

“Our goal in writing the book was to provide specific, practical strategies that parents can incorporate into their everyday parenting to help them raise financially fit youngsters,” Lew explains. “But the simple truth is that there’s no such thing as a perfect parent—or a perfect child.”

However, by using a little common sense and developing our instincts and expertise about spending and saving money, the authors believe they can teach all of us to raise a generation of financially savvy people.

Speaking for all the parents I know—we hope so, too.

Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Bratproofing-Your-Children-Financially-Responsible/dp/1569803455

Obesity in Kids: What Parents Can Do

"Nearly every single possible combination of the children's meals at KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic, Jack in the Box, and Chick-fil-A is too high in calories," according to Margo Wootan, Nutrition Policy Director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who released a new report, "Kids Meals: Obesity on the Menu" on Aug. 4 at a press conference at the National Press Conference in Washington, DC.

Wootan explained that 93% of 1,474 possible choices at 13 top chains exceed 430 calories—an amount that is one-third of what the Institute of Medicine recommends that children aged 4 through 8 should consume in a day.

The problem, Wootan explains, is that kids are eating out more than ever and when they do they consume twice as many calories as when they eat a meal at home due to the extra saturated fat, less fiber and calcium in fast food meals vs. home-cooked ones.

Here are some other scary facts:

• Chili's has 700 possible kids' meal combinations, but 94% are too high in calories (including country-fried chicken crispers, cinnamon apples and chocolate milk for 1020 calories; and cheese pizza, homestyle fries, and lemonade for 1000 calories).
• KFC has a variety of side items, but their "Laptop Meals," consisting of popcorn chicken, baked beans, a biscuit, Teddy Grahams, and fruit punch has 940 calories.
• Most of the kids' meals at McDonald's and Wendy's are also too high in calories, as are the those at Burger King (92%), Dairy Queen (89%), and Arby's (69%).

Subway's kids' meals came out on the top of the study, and only a third of its Fresh Fit for Kids meals, which include a mini-sub, juice box, and apple slices, raisins, or yogurt, exceed the 430-calorie threshold.

"People may not get a heart attack until their 50s or 60s, but arteries begin to clog in childhood," explains Wootan. "Most of the kids' meals appear to be designed to put America's children on the fast track to obesity, heart attack, or diabetes."

Recommendations:

• Wootan and the CSPI suggest that chain restaurants reformulate their existing menu items to reduce calories, saturated and trans fat, and salt.
• Chain restaurants should also reformulate their existing menu items and add healthy options like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
• They should also provide nutrition information on menus and menu boards, as is required by menu labeling policies passed in New York City, San Francisco, and Portland.

For more information visit: www.cspinet.org/kidsmeals.

Brain researcher Patricia Wolfe on what babies really need to develop

Pat Wolfe is worried about your toddler.“I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about the growing number of parents who are concerned about getting their children into the best academic preschools to ensure they do well when they begin their formal schooling,” the leading brain researcher and author of "Brain Matters," tells The Parent Diaries. “Some are even signing their babies up before they are born. Given the research on early brain development, trying to create a ‘super baby’ or ‘super child’ doesn’t make sense. In fact, it runs counter to what we know about how a child’s brain develops.”

Here’s what Wolfe suggests:

1. Understand the science.

In the past decade, there has been an explosion of information in the field of brain research (neuroscience).

“No longer a mysterious black box as once was thought, researchers can actually see what is going on inside our skulls while we interact with our environment,” Wolfe explains, noting that contrary to an earlier belief that a baby’s brain was a blank state, scientists have discovered that learning begins before birth (babies are born recognizing their mother’s voice and music they heard while in the womb).

“We now know that young children learn faster than was ever thought possible,” she adds. “In fact, in the first three to four years the young child’s brain develops connections (synapses) between cells at an amazing rate, one that will never be duplicated again during the child’s life.”

Unfortunately, this information has been misinterpreted to mean babies and young children need extra stimulation during this critical period. “This is not only an over-simplification of the research,” Wolfe insists. “It is not true.”

2. Separate fact from fiction.

The fiction: Synapses represent learning, and the more synapses a child has the smarter he’ll be.

The fact: In truth, the brain overproduces connections in the first two years, and an important part of learning and development is to prune away the unnecessary ones. For example, Wolfe explains that babies are born with millions of cells that potentially allow them to pronounce the sounds of every language spoken in the world. “However, only the connections for sounds of the language they hear everyday are strengthened,” she says. “The ones not used are simply pruned away, which allows children to understand, and eventually speak, the language spoken at home.”

The fiction: Enriched environments are essential during the early years to develop a child’s brain to its fullest potential.

The fact: Excessive use of flash cards, workbooks, language tapes and “educational” computer games is not only inappropriate, it also deprives children of the natural interaction with their world so important to development. “As Stephen Meltzoff states in his book, The Scientist in the Crib, perhaps the question parents need to ask is not: “What is the effect of the environment on the brain?” But rather: “What is the effect of a deprived environment versus a normal or an enriched environment?”

3. Use good common sense.

Consider what truly is a deprived environment, she says. “We know the ability to speak a language is lost by about age 10 if children, because of deafness or lack of exposure to language, do not master this skill in their early years,” Wolfe notes. “Being raised in a severely impoverished environment can cause a child’s emotional growth to be stunted, as reported in the studies of Romanian orphans.”

Fortunately, most children are not raised under severely deprived conditions. But, she asks, does an enriched environment somehow change a child’s development? Is it really better? Can we produce “super babies?” Or are high-priced toys marketed to frantic parents a waste of time and money? The bottom line, Wolfe says, is that there is no proof extra stimulation is necessary for cognitive or social growth. “Rather, too much activity may result in over-stimulation and damage to a young child,” she concludes.

4. Take a simpler approach.

Parents would be helping their babies more by reading nursery rhymes and books by Dr. Seuss to the child to their little ones. “They are ideal because they introduce children to sounds that are alike, which is a natural introduction to beginning phonics,” she offers, adding that educators need to explain to parents that the human brain is innately curious and designed to learn. “Young children are driven to master their world. Hands-on play is best because it gives children a chance to explore their own interests with the support of involved adults.

5. No, TV is not evil, but ...

“Baby Einstein is not bad,” Wolfe concedes, “but raising a happy, healthy child is a matter of finding balance. Mostly, children need models of appropriate social interactions and a physically and psychologically safe haven in which to grow up.” The bottom line, she says, is to provide a rich, varied, natural environment, “and this will happen without a lot of intervention. I believe parents know instinctively what they need to do to raise their kids well. They simply need to relax and trust their own intuition.”

Three Scenarios for Virtual Education

Virtual education is a concept that has mostly been embraced by adults who want to go back to school--but just can’t find the time in their schedule to get to campus. But in the years to come this trend will not only appeal to those who want to improve their skills post-college, it has the potential to change the way Americans learn, says futurist Mark Justman of the futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies.

“Virtual education is definitely a growing trend in World I, but how it will play out depends on a variety of factors,” Justman expalins, and in an attempt to determine the most likely scenarios, Justman described three potential evolutionary paths for virtual education: digital enrichment, clicks-and-bricks hybrids, and e-tutoring.

Scenario One: Digital Enrichment

Currently, schools integrate computers into student learning via dedicated computer labs and classes, besides having computers in classrooms themselves. Continuing evolution of this practice—using information technology to enrich existing curricula—could steer the future of virtual education toward wider use of digital tools and virtual learning environments designed to supplement conventional classroom instruction.

Drivers for this scenario include:
• Mainstreaming of computer gaming. Immersive videogames and multi-user online game environments are gaining cultural influence.
• Technophile youth. Members of the millennial generation have grown up as “digital natives,” having a high comfort level with information technologies.
• Web-based collaboration tools. Tools for digital collaboration, such as blogs, wikis, and
Podcasts have become much simpler to use, and are now common in social and news-based contexts.

Potential developments in this scenario:

• Digital writing tools. This scenario implies extensive use of digital writing tools by students, for instance, in online journals using Weblogs, collaborative work using wikis, and Web publishing. “Students could move beyond social networking sites like MySpace to more sophisticated online communities that allow actual collaboration, but are still teen-oriented,” Justman says.
• Expanded virtual tools. Additional educational applications of virtual tools could include computer-generated environments for simulating historical communities, battlefields, and economies. “Simulation games could allow students to immerse themselves in historical contexts and engage in interactive decision-making,” he explains. “Students can also conduct virtual experiments—a cost-effective way to perform realistic physics, biology, or chemistry lab simulations on the desktop.”
• Cross-cultural connections. Much like social networking, the Internet could also be used in the educational arena to connect students across cultures in a deeper integration of sister-school programs and “live” language labs.

Scenario Two: Clicks-and-Bricks Hybrids

This scenario involves expanding existing class offerings by adding new, virtual online classes alongside existing teacher-led ones. Activities would still occur largely within the confines of conventional schools, but distance learning would slowly be added to the curricula, allowing for a cost effective expansion of educational offerings without significant investments in additional staff or facilities.

Drivers for this scenario include:

• Educational cost containment. Schools face perennial funding challenges, which can be exacerbated locally by rapid population growth. Virtual classes could help schools adjust to sudden or temporary increases in the number of students.
• Demand for curriculum expansion. College-bound students and their parents are demanding greater access to Advanced Placement classes and International Baccalaureate programs.
• Turnkey curricula. Commercial virtual curricula are beginning to come to market, making it easier for schools to purchase specific virtual classes as the need arises.

Potential developments in this scenario:

• More choices. By providing virtual classes onsite at existing school facilities, schools can offer a wider range of educational choices. Small rural schools can offer choices that rival those of suburban powerhouses, and virtual classes could allow more students on the college track to take more rigorous courses.
• Cheaper teachers. Teachers’ aides and assistants could replace certified teachers, especially at the high-school level, with scripted instruction and planning.
• Impact on college years. Virtual classes may have a larger impact during the college years, for after years of learning on their own, a greater proportion of students will be self-motivated. “Online classes could also replace lecture-style introductory classes, and be complemented by periodic face-to-face discussions led by graduate students,” Justman suggests.

Scenario Three: E-Tutoring

Instead of enriching or supplementing traditional instruction, virtual learning in the E-Tutoring scenario gradually begins to replace traditional instruction. E-tutoring software has several educational advantages, such as allowing learners to progress at their own pace, standardizing instruction, and simplifying routine mastery testing. It could gain a foothold through remedial instruction, and then gradually spread to other areas of the curriculum.

Drivers for this scenario include:

• Falling costs of IT. Computer costs continue to fall, as exemplified by the One Laptop per Child initiative, which has developed student laptops that cost less than $200 for Worlds 2 and 3.
• Mandatory testing. Schools are placing more emphasis on meeting testing requirements, in part driven by testing mandates like the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal educational initiative.
• Global competition. The globalized knowledge economy is elevating the competitive importance of educating highly skilled knowledge workers.

Potential developments in this scenario:

• Quantity of instructional time. E-tutoring can allow students to proceed at their own pace and therefore to take as much (or as little) time as they need to master a topic. The risk is that slower students may not complete required coursework by the end of the school term.
• Back to basics. E-tutoring is a more traditional, back-to-basics educational approach that emphasizes demonstrated skills mastery. Educators who have embraced more progressive approaches are likely to characterize e-tutoring as another form of misguided “drill and kill” pedagogy.
• Improved performance. E-tutoring could boost US students’ performance on international standardized tests due to its greater emphasis on content mastery. “However,” Justman notes, “it is unclear whether such increases in proficiency and content mastery would come at the expense of creativity and the ability to learn how to learn.”

Implications for education

According to Justman, elements from each of the three scenarios are likely to play some role in the future of virtual education, but certain scenarios may be more probable for certain types of school districts.

“Well-funded suburban school districts are likely to gravitate toward a digital enrichment approach, while under funded or rural school districts are more likely to adopt a clicks-and-bricks hybrid approach to virtual education,” he says, noting that in both cases, the approach to virtual education is an evolutionary change from conventional instructional practices.

The E-Tutoring scenario is more of a wildcard scenario—one that has a much greater potential for disruption, he believes.

“The e-tutoring approach to virtual education has potential for widespread grassroots adoption,” Justman explains. “As ‘helicopter’ parents attempt to position their children for top colleges, they could find online e-tutoring services to be a cost-effective alternative to more expensive after-schooling services like Sylvan Learning Center or Kumon.”

He believes e-tutoring services could also appeal to parents concerned about the so-called “fuzzy math” curricula, because e-tutoring approaches tend to place a stronger emphasis on more traditional measures of content mastery.

School districts concerned about demonstrating progress toward their NCLB goals could also turn to e-tutoring technologies as a more effective means for boosting student performance on standardized tests, he believes.

“If e-tutoring curricula are able to deliver measurable improvements in student learning, they have the potential to spread rapidly, driven by both concerned parents and school districts struggling with demonstrating improved learning outcomes on state standardized tests.”

Meet: Mark Justman

Mark Justman is a futurist who is focused on tracking and analyzing consumer and technology trends in the automotive, retail, and energy industries. Since receiving his MA in future studies from the University of Hawaii in 1999, Mark’s primary interest is identifying the emerging issues and discontinuities that have the potential to impede, accelerate, or modify extrapolative trends. Mark has worked at the Institute for Alternative Futures, where his project work included construction of biotechnology scenarios for the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and creation of an
Interactive forecasting tool for healthcare on behalf of the World Health Organization.

Futurist Kevin Osborn on "Helicopter Parenting"

In celebration of Father's Day 2008, we asked futurist Kevin Osborn to talk about a topic near and dear to his heart: Helicopter Parenting.

For those not familiar with the term, “helicopter parents" are those well-intentioned Gen Xers who are micromanaging their offspring not just in kindergarten and elementary school, but all the way through college and into adulthood.

Osborn, a senior analyst at the Washington, DC-based futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies, has conducted extensive research on the topic, and in his brief on the topic entitled, “Helicopter Parents: Hovering over Childhood—and Beyond,” he explains that the numbers of helicopter parents are on the rise — and that the trend will have ramifications for educators and employers alike as well as for the parents and children themselves.

“The phenomenon seems to be spreading beyond pushy preschool parents,” he explains. “As a result, some educators have called the 80 million children of baby boomers the most protected and programmed children ever.” Here’s why.

Levels of engagement

This spreading behavior goes beyond pressuring teachers to explain poor grades or asking to place their children in advanced classes, Osborn insists.

“Many of these micromanaging parents continue to overstep boundaries and attempt to control their children’s lives at every age level.”

• Elementary school—Hyper-involved and often pushy, these parents volunteer as school aides to maintain a constant presence in their children’s lives, request specific teachers year after year, and may do the bulk of work on their children’s school projects.

• High school—Helicopter parents become intrusive micromanagers, text messaging their kids in class, continuing to do their homework projects and papers for them, and writing their college application essays.

• College—Parents intervene in roommate disputes, try to register their kids for classes, and contact professors to question grades. At some schools, more parents than kids attend freshman orientation.

• Career—College career offices, corporate recruiters, and human resources departments are all reporting increased involvement and interference from parents. Reportedly, one interviewee at Boeing brought his mom into the interview.

What is driving the trend?

The reasons for the trend are complicated, but somewhat predictable, Osborn believes.

“As family sizes shrink, attention is focused more intently on the one or two children and some parents have responded by sheltering or smothering them,” he says. “Also, many baby boomers have worked hard to develop close bonds with their kids, often positioning themselves as their children’s best friends or closest confidants.”

Plus, he says, the growing spread of suburbs has made spontaneous community interaction more difficult.

“Parents who want their children to have active social lives start planning play dates and signing them up for sports and extracurricular activities at a young age. Some may never step back from these habits of active management.”

Other drivers include safety fears, a heightened sense of competition among baby boomers who fear for their children’s future economic security, and ubiquitous infotech-enabled connection. Additionally, an increasing number of college parents see themselves—in the face of soaring tuition costs—as savvy consumers and their children’s education as a product.

How will it play out?

“If seeing other parents hover compels more parents to join them to ensure that their own children don’t fall behind, the practice will likely continue to spread,” Osborn shares, noting that a number of different outcomes are possible.

• Anxiety disorders—Some children of over-involved parents are likely to become more anxious, risk-averse, and self-conscious.

• Confidence deficit—Denied the accomplishment of setting goals and achieving—or failing to achieve—these goals on their own may carry into these children’s adult years, making them less assertive, possibly less competent, and more eager to conform.

• Suing schools—If parents become more meddlesome in primary schools, the market for liability insurance for teachers will grow rapidly. The number of teachers purchasing liability insurance already jumped 25% between 2000 and 2005, according to insurer Forrest T. Jones.

There are business implications to this trend, as well, he says.

“Hovering helicopter parents want to keep strict tabs on their children, which will expand the market for ‘emergency’ mobile phones for very young children and surveillance devices for older children,” Osborn forecasts, adding that as this group ages parents will continue to want to control. “They may demand control over credit and debit cards, checking and savings accounts, and other financial services.”

From a father’s point of view

But Osborn can relate. The award-winning author and editor of more than 40 books — including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bringing Up Baby (Macmillan, 1997; 2006), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Classical Mythology (Macmillan, 1998; 2004), and The Encyclopedia of American Sports Heroes (Scholastic, 1996) — is also a father.

“Naturally all parents want the best for their children—the best education, the best job, the best life partner, the best life,” Osborn observes. “And all parents want their child to succeed and to be happy. But what many of today’s parents don’t seem to realize is that what they see as 'the best' may not be best for their children."

The surest road to happiness and success is to define—and then pursue—them oneself," Osborn believes.

"By not giving their children the room to discover and define what makes them happy and what success means to them—by not letting their children grow up—they may be leaving them rudderless—and ultimately unhappy—throughout their adult lives.”

The Future of Youth Happiness

Last year, MTV approached the futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies to help them answer a question: “What makes 12- to 24-year olds happy today and going forward into the future?”

“We had some basic ideas,” says futurist Andy Hines, who headed up the study. “We figured that friends and technology would be important to this group. But how did they feel about religion, their parents, fame, and money? We began reading everything we could on the topic, and then the real research started.”

MTV also enlisted the Associated Press to add a quantitative component to our qualitative findings. Their researchers polled 1,280 more youths in the 12-to-24-age range, and in late August 2007, published a series of press releases based on this data. Here’s what they found:

The findings

Hines says that like most people, today’s youth pursue happiness through a combination of three strategies: the pleasure of the moment, relationships with family and friends, and the long-term search for meaning and purpose.

“But when we probed more deeply we discovered that, more than any generation before them, today’s young people recognize happiness is something that can and should be worked toward,” he says. “In short, we found they have a very practical approach to happiness.”

Specifically, he found they pursue this practical approach in the context of what they see as an uncertain and rapidly changing world. They realize they can’t go it alone, and are highly reliant on friends and, perhaps more than is often recognized, on family and on spirituality or faith.

Consider faith “For today’s youth, it is not about ardent conversion to a religious cause. Instead, they see faith as useful for making sense of the world, and embrace it for that reason. Same with family: this is not about a wholesale return to traditional family values; it is a practical recognition that family provides security and direction that help along the road to happiness.”

Consider family “Initially, we postulated that youth might be looking to shoot down helicopter parents who hover over their every move like Secret Service agents. To our surprise, while they do find this annoying, it is only mildly so and largely tolerable. In fact, they told us they appreciate the concern and believe parents are looking out for their best interest.”

Consider fame “Do youth want to be famous? Absolutely, the youths we interviewed but they recognize the odds are not in their favor. Celebrity life is appealing, but they are content to fall back on a more “normal” life if fame doesn’t work out.”

Consider technology “The key word here is tool, for it is a means, not an end,” Hines notes. “Moreover, because they are completely comfortable with it—it is a native language for them, not a second language like for the rest of us—they are comfortable building relationships via technology. Perhaps a quarter of youth makes little distinction between F2F and virtual relationships, and that percentage is likely to grow. But this doesn’t mean human contact is not important—au contraire.” In fact, technology is not replacing “physical” friends, Hines insists. it merely opens up a wider range of social options. Sure, a small percentage of kids overdo it, using the online world to escape from reality, but most see it as simply part of their daily routine.

The bottom line

After months of research, Hines says the essential finding is that youths are taking a more practical, proactive approach to happiness than previous generations. “On the surface they may come across as overly concerned with cool—or perhaps as cynical—but family, friends, and faith are hardly the stuff of rebels,” Hines says. “Yet they also want to make a difference. And I wouldn’t bet against them.”

Matt Catapano, senior director of programming at MTV, agrees. “What we loved about the study is that we were taking a snapshot in time,” Catapano explains. “If you look at young people overall, you see that they are incredibly optimistic about who they are, where they are going, and what their future holds. That’s a constant to being young. They will always be impulsive, indestructible, impatient, and want to have fun.”

He confides that the findings have proven significant to MTV’s directors. “We have shared the report with every department at MTV, and also bring it out when we spend time with our salespeople and advertising partners,” Catapano adds. “It now is helping our advertisers refine their campaigns, and the report is even influencing the shows we decide to put on MTV.”

For more information, visit www.socialtechnologies.com/mtv.