After the success of bringing together our original board with a crew of new teens and twentysomethings (see all their bios here), this year Ypulse is looking to even further expand the YAB network and broaden the scope of young voices that give Ypulse Readers an authentic glimpse into youth culture today.

For the 2010/2011 term Ypulse is opening up 10 slots to youth between the ages of 13 and 24. We're looking for diversity in age, race, geography and experience, but most importantly strong opinions about youth culture that will inform and challenge the ongoing discussion around media and marketing here on Ypulse.

We offer the YAB quarterly incentives, along with, of course, the opportunity to publish on Ypulse (building a body of published work and having your photo/bio on the site), network with other advisory board members, and the potential for college or career references and recommendations. There may also be opportunities to attend conferences or other events as "press."

The board meets on a virtual platform once a month and regularly corresponds over email to discuss editorial ideas, multimedia projects and other contributions.

To qualify as a full member and receive those aforementioned incentives, we ask members meet a few eligibility requirements (5 editorial and/or multimedia contributions per year-long term and a maximum of 3 missed meetings, unless there are extenuating circumstances). Nothing too unreasonable since we know most are students and/or working.

If you are between the ages of 13 and 24, apply here now. Or, if you know a great candidate (especially younger teens as we're looking to balance out the under 18s with the over 18s), please send them this post, and have them fill out this short application.

Deadline for the 2010/11 Youth Advisory Board applications is Friday, September 17 by 5 p.m. PST

View Large | via www.thomascrampton.com

Related: Infographic | World Map of Social Networks

American kids under 18 send and receive roughly 2,800 texts per month, according to Nielsen, or about 93 per day. (Assuming 7 hours of sleep per night, on average, that's about 5.5 per hour spent awake, or one every 10 minutes or so.) In the next two age brackets, text-message usage falls by more than half each.

African-Americans and Hispanics Text the Most

According to Nielsen, African-Americans use the most voice minutes – on average more than 1,300 a month. Hispanics are the next most talkative group, chatting an average of 826 minutes a month. Even Asians/Pacific Islanders, with 692 average monthly minutes, talk more than Whites, who use roughly 647 voice minutes a month.

Hispanics send and receive around 767 SMS messages a month while African-Americans send and receive around 780 – significantly more than Asians/Pacific Islanders (384 texts a month) and Whites (566 texts a month).

The voice and text results are compiled from one year (April 2009-March 2010) of mobile usage data gathered by the The Nielsen Company, which analyzes the cellphone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers each month in the United States.

Women Have Their Say

And if you think women in the U.S. talk more than men on their cellphones, Nielsen data confirms your suspicion. On average, women talk 22 % more than men (856.3 minutes a month compared to men’s 666.7).

Turns out, American women are more communicative in general on mobile devices; they text more, too, sending or receiving an average of 601 SMS messages a month compared to the 447 monthly text messages sent or received by the average American male.

Teens Rule for Texting

Not surprisingly, teens text the most, sending or receiving an amazing 2,779 SMS messages a month. In the next two age brackets, text usage falls by more than half each time, with those aged 18-24 sending or receiving 1,299 messages and those aged 25-34 exchanging an average of 592 messages.

While the text usage varies greatly between those 18-24 and those 25-34, their voice usage is quite close (981 voice minutes for 18-24 and 952 minutes a month for those 25-34 years old.)

The South Speaks Up

Location plays into usage patterns as well. Southerners are the most talkative, but while Florida ranks high in terms of monthly voice minutes used, it ranks very low for text messaging (the state has one of the highest median ages and older Americans text the least.) Mississippi, interestingly enough, ranks high for both talking and texting.

via blog.nielsen.com

Related: Mobile Web Key to Continued Growth at Facebook

If you have a university e-mail address (.edu), you can join the site, where everyone in a school is instantly connected — no friending required (you can block people, though).

Currently there are three schools on the site — Princeton, Yale and Cornell — but it plans to expand.

Users can create profiles where they can include info like what dorm they live in, activities they’re into as well as their classes. They can also upload multiple profile pictures, as well as snaps from Facebook.

CollegeOnly emphasizes that these pictures will only be visible to those on the site, keeping them away from the prying eyes of parents, school administrators and future employers.

A savvy student would be wise to remember that privacy on the web, regardless of the marketing claims, is largely an illusion.

So bottom line: don't post anything online that you don't want to be seen in public.

via mashable.com

The Devoted Few’s debut album, “Baby, You’re a Vampire” is incredible! It was released in 2009 and was mixed by the same guy who produced the latest Kings of Leon album. Be sure to also watch Samantha’s interview with the band.

Kids and Games: What Boys and Girls are Playing Today is a new report launched by M2 Research and youth marketing research firm KidSay. Survey data was collected from over 5,000 kids across the United States.

The report finds a significant increase in kids' online gaming and social media usage. 90 Percent of tweens are playing games online, with mobile and social media use on the rise, as well.

Some of the highlights of the report:

1. Social Networking: Social Networking is increasingly prevalent in children's lives. Facebook is now the favorite website among tween (8-11) boys and teen (12-15) girls.

2. Key Demographic and "Sweet Spot": Online games dominate for boys and girls ages 8-11. 91% of tween boys and 93% of tween girls play games online.

3. Nintendo Dominates Handheld Gaming Space: But thanks largely to the iPad and iPhone, Apple is becoming a significant player especially with girls.

4. Portable Platform Discrepancy: Sony's PSP has largest gender discrepancy. 17% of teen girls play games on the PSP compared to 44% of teen boys.

5. Strong Videogame Franchises: Franchises continue to flourish at the top of the "Favorites" list for boys and girls. The videogame franchise girls prefer is the Mario Series, with 20% of girls picking it as their favorite. Boys prefer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, with 36% of teen boys picking it as their favorite game.

"We have found kids tend to play a wide variety of games, and their favorite games and gaming sites change often." explains Louise Curcio, M2 Research Analyst. "There are opportunities for companies, and we believe the kids market has been overlooked."

IN 2007 Danah Boyd heard a white American teenager describe MySpace, the social network, as “like ghetto or whatever.” At the time, Facebook was stealing members from MySpace, but most people thought it was just a fad: teenagers tired of networks, the theory went, just as they tired of shoes.

But after hearing that youngster, Ms Boyd, a social-media researcher at Microsoft Research New England, felt that something more than whimsy might be at work. “Ghetto” in American speech suggests poor, unsophisticated and black. That led to her sad conclusion: in their online life, American teenagers were recreating what they knew from the physical world—separation by class and race.

A generation of digital activists had hoped that the web would connect groups separated in the real world. The internet was supposed to transcend colour, social identity and national borders. But research suggests that the internet is not so radical. People are online what they are offline: divided, and slow to build bridges.

via www.economist.com

For those of you living in a cave, Angry Birds is the addictive game that has become the top iPhone app in the world.

The game has over 7 million downloads and is poised to be the next big entertainment franchise. Think Sponge Bob. Mark my words, Angry Birds is going to be huge.

via gigaom.com

Does Dr. Drew offer Angry Bird rehab yet?

First, the segment went by pretty quickly! Secondly, the segment started with a discussion about "digital natives." Long time readers know my thoughts on that topic. I also briefly shared the new research about college students', Google and web credibility.

During the roundtable, my position was that--when used in moderation--Facebook can have a place in the classroom. On the other side of the roundtable was a teacher who felt that Facebook and social media didn't have a place in the classroom.

In preparation for the segment, I prepared some notes and thought I'd share them with you. I didn't get to cover all of these topics, but here they are anyhow. Thanks to Richard Brown for having me on his show!

The Afternoon News with Richard Brown NewsTalk 980 | Sept 3, 2010

There’s always been something “new” that freaks parents’ and teachers' out--rock n’ roll, The Beatles, Madonna, Lady Gaga, video games and now Facebook. I like to say Don’t Panic!

Tweens behavoir is the same behavior that teens have had for eons, they’re just using different tools. You used a phone (the one with a cord), they use a mobile phone (the one without the cord). You passed notes in class, they post on their friends' Facebook wall. The best rule: moderation in everything.

• In the US Facebook is the favorite website among tween boys/girls (M2 Research)

• Facebook handles 2 million abuse reports every week, 80% of those are false.

• According to the National Center for Mission & Exploited Children 1% of child victimization cases involved the internet, but they make the news and make it seem a greater problem than they are.

• Facebook has Safety Center online, lots of great resources for parents, students, teachers (http://www.facebook.com/safety) as well as a FB Safety page (http://www.facebook.com/fbsafety).

• Contrary to what you may have heard in the media, kids' do care about privacy and are better at managing their digital footprint than adults.

Facebook Apps: Informal learning opportunites for kids/parents

There are literally thousands of Facebook apps that are related to learning. Here are a few of my favorites.

• HeyMath (math tutorials, activities, used in Singapore school districts)
• Math Formulas (contains math formulas for parents/kids)
• Flashcards: With this application, you can create flash cards to help you study on Facebook.

Docs.com - Allows kids to collaborate

Docs.com for Facebook is a web-based version of Microsoft Office that is designed to be used on the Facebook platform. The service allows students' to easily share Powerpoint/Word Documents in Facebook. Sharing Docs on FB is "baked in."

Togetherville

Social networking services like Togetherville allow kids to connect with their classmates (via their own student social graph) in Facebook. Built on top of the Facebook platform, Togetherville has a school-based friending feature that allows kids to safely and easily find their friends from school and suggest them to parents for approval. Think of Togetherville as Facebook with training wheels.

Teachers Using FB Groups

Teachers can use Facebook Groups to organize their class and provide them with an easy way to communicate and share with parents, various apps, share/create permission slips and handouts via Docs.com and other productivity apps.

Facebook for Parents

Facebook for Parents, co-authored by BJ Fogg and Linda Fogg Phillips, is definitive guide on how to effectively use Facebook as a parenting tool. The book is designed to help parents to navigate the world of Facebook and provide them with best practices. These strategies should also be used by any teacher using Facebook in a school setting.