So What, Who Cares (vol 1, issue 52)
Hello to all of you. I saw my first article on how to make Thanksgiving dishes light and healthy today, which is sort of the food magazine version of seeing Punxsutawney Phil. We're in for six more weeks of wretched caloric excess! BRING IT.
*
Airbnb is launching a print magazine, Pineapple. If this news seems awfully familiar, perhaps you are a member of Generation X and can remember when Travelocity launched a print magazine 14 years ago. Or perhaps you have noticed that a number of online brands -- including One Kings Lane and Net-a-Porter -- are launching print counterparts.
So what? Hooray! The media isn't a dying industry! There's no need to panic about well-established media brands being sold off piecemeal (vol 1, issue 50), right? Right? RIGHT? Pay attention to the fact that the magazine is not ad-supporting.
Who cares? This is could be another sign that print media is moving away from being a mass medium and future paths for print growth will be in two areas: Print as a luxury (experience) differentiator (vol 1, issue 34) or print as a way to help move an online brand to an offline commerce arena (vol 1, issue 31).
*
A 10% increase in non-fatal injuries to children under the age of 5 is due to parents' increased use of smartphones, Craig Palsson of Yale University concluded.
Smartphone-use-while-parenting is also implicated in parents not giving their small children the face-to-face socialization or early verbalization they need, in impairing family memories -- the creation and reiteration of which are essential to happy family life -- and in parents treating their children more harshly.
So what? There are a lot of stories written based on one anthropological study of 55 families at a restaurant, so clearly, there's a need for more research on the day-to-day effects of smartphone use on parent-child interaction. I'd even go so far as to say we need more research on the day-to-day effects of smartphone use on adult partner interaction. Moreover, we don't have data on the long-term effects of smartphone use/decreased parent-child socialization. There is evidence that lots of screen time impairs children's ability to read emotions, but we have no idea how those kids will turn out as teens or adults.
Who cares? Anyone in public who has both a smartphone and a child can now look forward to total strangers seeing one moment of their day, extrapolating an entire parenting history from it, then passing loud, public judgment on them accordingly.
*
Your pop culture note of the day: In honor of Chris Hemsworth being named this year's Sexiest Man by the potentates of People magazine (one presumes Adam Levine is facing his dethroning with stoicism), I present to you, all the Thor entries from the Tumblr "Texts From the Avengers."
I also present to you a blog entry that makes me laugh every time I re-read it, "An objective analysis of the dateability of the male Avengers," by Linda Sharps. I start giggling at "Favorite activities include: smoking a bowl then describing the unparalleled genius of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning album" and by the time I'm to "Inevitably demands to show off his 'William Tell' technique after he’s had a few beers," I'm making undignified snorting noises.
*
Did you miss an issue of So What, Who Cares? The archive is here. Also, there is now a topic index that tells you what was in each issue. If you're like, "When did she send out a picture of Brandon Routh snuggling a kitty cat?" -- well, now you can find it. (It was November 11, 2014, btw.)
As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions via email or Twitter. Always let me know what you think about So What, Who Cares? If you really like it, tell a friend to subscribe.