With teens, the web is, like, addicting:: Nearly 40% say they spend three hours

Teenagers are known for their tendency to overdramatize, but when it comes to the internet their passion is no exaggeration. More than two-thirds say that 24 hours without internet access outside of school would, like, totally ruin their day. That's according to a new study by Burst Media that surveyed more than 1,800 web users ages 13-17. By the looks of it, teens may have the most serious internet habit of any demographic. Nearly 40 percent of teens say they spend three hours or more per day on the internet, and another 18 percent say they spend two to three hours online. Only 20 percent spend less than an hour. By comparison, the average internet user spends just over two hours online per day, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Among Burst's other findings: Teens use television along with the internet more often than any other offline media, followed by listening to the radio. Three out of five respondents had visited a social networking site such as MySpace, and half play online video games. Chuck Moran, manager of market research at Burst Media, the ad network, talks to Media Life about teens™ affinity for the internet, how advertisers can reach them online, and why girls are more likely to be doing homework while on the web than boys.

Wal-Mart Fights for 'Smiley' Ownership

The yellow smiley face may strike most people as an overused piece of e-mail shorthand, or a cute interjection in the scribbled notes passed between American teenagers, or a throwback to the era of bright happy colours in the 1970s. But to Wal-Mart, the world's largest and most controversial retailer, it represents big money and a legal battle it fully intends to win.

Wal-Mart has long since adapted the smiley face, in its familiar yellow-balloon incarnation, as its unofficial logo, plastering it on shopping bags, promotional posters and many retail items in an effort to make people feel good when visiting its often soulless, discount superstores with their endless aisles and vast suburban car parks.

An Academic Blog for Students

Every student will soon be a blogger at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences — and the authors won’t just be filling their pages with party anecdotes.

As part of summer registration, members of the class of 2010 are receiving from the college personalized “academic blog” pages, where they are asked to fill out what amounts to an online questionnaire. The students’ first online journal entries will focus on their intellectual interests, academic concerns and educational experiences. Many bloggers will outline their strengths and weaknesses, and create a personal mission statemen

Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use of His Creation

A daily glance at education-technology headlines
for Monday, June 12.

A service of The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 12, 2006

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia compiled by a distributed
network of volunteers, has often come under attack by
academics as being shoddy and full of inaccuracies. Even
Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, says he wants to get the
message out to college students that they shouldn’t use it
for class projects or serious research.

Speaking at a conference at the University of Pennsylvania on
Friday called “The Hyperlinked Society,” Mr. Wales said that
he gets about 10 e-mail messages a week from students who
complain that Wikipedia has gotten them into academic hot
water. “They say, ‘Please help me. I got an F on my paper
because I cited Wikipedia’” and the information turned out to
be wrong, he says. But he said he has no sympathy for their
plight, noting that he thinks to himself: “For God sake,
you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.”

Mr. Wales said that leaders of Wikipedia have considered
putting together a fact sheet that professors could give out
to students explaining what Wikipedia is and that it is not
always a definitive source. “It is pretty good, but you have
to be careful with it,” he said. “It’s good enough knowledge,
depending on what your purpose is.”

In an interview, Mr. Wales said that Wikipedia is ideal for
many uses. If you are reading a novel that mentions the
Battle of the Bulge, for instance, you could use Wikipedia to
get a quick basic overview of the historical event to
understand the context. But students writing a paper about
the battle should hit the history books.