“The kids who grew up inside AOL chat rooms and came of age on Facebook have an intuitive understanding of the power of networks that our generation will never have. They are not asking us to fix the problems we left them with. They are asking us not to get in their way as they try to dig themselves out. I think we owe them that.” —
my partner Brad Burnham’s speech at the Center For Democracy and Technology’s 2012 Annual Dinner.
(via fred-wilson)
(via fred-wilson)
Fascinating Photos of Young People with All Their Possessions
(via nussbaum)
A great post from China Youthology (link to source post below):
””In 2009, white- collar worker Xie Xie took a vacation in Tibet, and fell in love with an avid backpacker named CaiCai. They parted ways and returned to office jobs in Shanghai and Guangzhou, but soon after XieXie gave CaiCai a call. “Why don’t we both quit our jobs and take a gap year together?”
XieXie and CaiCai’s 10-month journey to 18 countries became a viral sensation on Weibo, their most popular post forwarded over 75,000 times.
‘Gap Year’, or taking a year off to travel, is fast becoming a cultural trend among Chinese youth. An increasing number of first- jobbers and uni grads are putting their careers aside for journeys to exotic places like Tibet and India. These trailblazers might not be a major segment now, but they do share tensions and aspirations with a broad audience avidly following their travel adventures on social media.
A big part of the attraction of a Gap Year is escaping the drudgery of working life for new and exciting experiences. But perhaps equally important is the act of choosing for yourself.
Many Chinese youth grow up complying with expectations of their parents, taught that success comes to those that follow. But with rising uncertainty Chinese youth crave the confidence to make their own decisions. The choice to take a gap year is a rite of passage to becoming a stronger individual, the challenges of independent travel helping equip youth to take care of themselves.
Beyond personal growth, many youth also aspire to social warmth and a positive impact on others. Gap Year travel is highly associated with volunteering.
Although taking a Gap Year comes with social risks, there are also rewards: travel stories can earn Chinese youth an audience of like- minded peers. That’s perhaps why Gap Year travelers skimp and save to stretch their travel for as long as possible, but invest in professional- grade cameras: stunning photos are very shareable social media assets.”
(via GAP YEAR TRAVEL: ON THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE)
[video]
Statement by the President on the Passing of Steve Jobs -
Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.
Bolded our favorite line from this. (Thanks Matt for sending this along)
Pretty amazing stuff from Obama.
A brilliant, brilliant man.
Steve Jobs at Home in 1982
“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs
Will a Harvard Professor's New Technology Make College Lectures a Thing of the Past? -
Another sign that the college lecture might be dying: Harvard University physics professor Eric Mazur is championing the “flipped classroom,” a model where information traditionally transferred during lectures is learned on a student’s own time, and classroom time is spent discussing and applying knowledge to real-world situations. To make it easy for professors to transition out of lecture mode, Mazur has developed Learning Catalytics, an interactive software that enables them to make the most of student interactions and maximize the retention of knowledge.
» via GOOD
“This is a generation of kids that have learned to communicate, search and purchase on very small devices, like mobile phones,’’ said James McQuivey, Forrester Research media analyst. “This year is a guinea pig year, next year the move will be en masse.’’ The trends are already striking. Forrester Research projects that 15.5 million e-readers will be sold this year, a 50 percent increase over last year. While the firm does not break out sales by age, children are a growing customer base. When Barnes & Noble launched a digital library for children last October, it had 120 picture book titles; today it has 570, including classics such as Curious George and Corduroy. Similarly, publisher HarperCollins reports that young adult e-books have surged 125 percent year over year.” — Oh, the pages that glow! - Boston.com (via infoneer-pulse)
(via infoneer-pulse)
“In that sense, one of the key struggles that people face in old age — isolation and boredom — is likely to look very different in the future, if not vanish entirely for some. The people who will be facing these challenges in 40 years will be people accustomed to amusing themselves digitally, and creating a social life for themselves without another person physically present. To put it bluntly, the people who turn 70 in the year 2050 will be people who grew up playing video games. And the digital environment that now seems like a recipe for distraction — a constant feed of personal messages, links, and updates on one’s friends — starts to look a lot like a way for even a housebound person to stay engaged with the world.” —
-Amanda, 25, Shanghai
A Rising Nanjing Thrives on Youth and Art
“It was a Saturday night at Tony’s Bar in Nanjing, China, and as in any good university town, packs of rowdy students were making quick work of their pints. A long-haired guitarist in a black leather jacket crooned Chinese love songs from a small stage. Young men bent low over tables playing boisterous dice games while their girlfriends, hair dyed various shades of red and brown, smoked disinterestedly and texted, their faces illuminated by the glow of their phones.
‘I tell my wife I only have two dreams in life,’ said Tony Zhao, the bar’s owner, who was wearing a jacket emblazoned with the English words ‘Viking School Softball,’ low-slung skater jeans and a goatee.’To open a bar in my hometown and to have kids with her.”
Thanks to a combination of young entrepreneurs like Mr. Zhao, large numbers of university students and revitalization efforts by the local and national governments, today’s Nanjing has an air of youthful exuberance that would have been unthinkable only a few decades ago.”
My next weekend adventure will be a train ride and overnight stay in Nanjing. Is there really anything better than a cheap train ticket, a camera and a weekend left entirely to explore a new (to you) country?
-Amanda, 25, Shanghai
“I hope kids are still finding some way, despite Google and Wikipedia, of not knowing things. Learning how to transform mere ignorance into mystery, simple not knowing into wonder, is a useful skill. Because it turns out that the most important things in this life — why the universe is here instead of not, what happens to us when we die, how the people we love really feel about us — are things we’re never going to know.” —
(via mikehudack)
[video]
I Skyped with my 80 year old grandmother yesterday. She’s never used the internet. She couldn’t believe that she could see me all the way from Maine to China:) I love technology.
-Amanda, 25, Shanghai
“The study surveyed 500 American college students. Seventy-three percent of them said they would not be able to study without some form of technology, and 38% said that they could not even go more than 10 minutes without checking their laptop, smartphone, tablet or ereader.” —
38% of College Students Can’t Go 10 Minutes Without Tech [STATS] (via infoneer-pulse)
-Amanda, 25, Shanghai
(via infoneer-pulse)
Or the spinning noise when rewinding the tape..
Never forget
-Amanda, 25, Shanghai