Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

15 April 2014

Project Tomorrow: The New Digital Learning Playbook

Looking for K-12 tech data in schools and at home? Here's the latest Project Tomorrow report, loaded with helpful stats.

Speak Up: Project Tomorrow Report by Derek E. Baird

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 15 April 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

19 March 2014

Content Marketing for Teen Audiences: Pinterest vs. Tumblr [INFOGRAPHIC]

"Want to know, which visual-centric social media is best for your content - Pinterest (an online scrapbooking site) or Tumblr (a micro-blogging platform)?

Well, this all depends on the type of content you will continually be sharing, your target audience and your established following on each network. No surprise here that teens love Tumblr.

Here are a few question to ask yourself and answers to help you decide which network will work best for your visual-content."

View Large on EveryPost

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 19 March 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

14 March 2014

Trend Watch: TeenFacefeed

Part SnapChat. Part Chatroulette. Part Secret. A dash of Instagram. Teens are going gaga for Facefeed.

"This isn't OkCupid or Tinder. This is trying to replicate how you would meet someone at a party.

You see faces of people (no name, no background info), and you can say 'hi' with a smile to anyone you feel looks interesting."

There's no profile to set up. Facefeed doesn't link with any of your social accounts. You just log in, take a selfie, and put it out there in the world.

If someone thinks your selfie looks nice, that person can write you a message. If you want to reply, you can. If you don't, you can block that person forever.

And if you become friends with that person, you can add them to a friends list, so you can write to each other as often as you'd like."

11 March 2014

Kevin Bacon Explains The '80s To Millennials [VIDEO]

Kevin Bacon would like a word with you about '80s awareness.

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Posted by Derek E. Baird on 11 March 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

10 March 2014

Noah: A 17-Minute Film Set Completely on Teen's Laptop [VIDEO]

Noah, a short film that debuted at the Toronto International FIlm Festival, illustrates the flitting attention span and lack of true connection in digital culture more clearly than anything else in recent memory. (Warning: NSFW)

"These words are probably unfurling inside one of many open tabs on your computer screen. Perhaps one tab is for work, one is for chatting, and another is for Twitter. You probably even have some others open for no particular reason.

This is the way we receive information and the way we communicate now: constantly, simultaneously, compulsively, endlessly, and more and more often, solitarily. This strange new mode of living--and its indelible effect on our humanity--is perfectly captured in a new short film that debuted this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The 17-minute, mildly NSFW Noah is unlike anything you've seen before in a movie--only because it is exactly like what many of us see on our computers all the time. Created by Canadian film students Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg, the film begins when our high school senior protagonist types in the password that opens up his laptop, and the narrative takes place entirely on his computer screen.

It doesn't matter how far removed in age you are from the characters, if you are digitally savvy enough to be reading this, Noah will hit uncomfortably close to home."

Read the entire article over on FastCompany

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 10 March 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

04 March 2014

Ellen DeGeneres' Epic Oscar Selfie [STATS]

Earlier today, Twitter released some stats showing just how much of a global social media reach the Academy Awards really had this year.

According to the Twitter Media team, in a 12-hour period starting around the start of red carpet coverage:

There were 19.1 million tweets sent about the Oscars that were viewed a total of 3.3 billion times all over the world.
Individually, 37 million people looked at all these tweets.
Those Tweets were sent by more than 5 million people.

Of course, the celebrity selfie was the absolute biggest moment of the night, and it has now been retweeted over three million times.

Here are the stats Twitter collected for the selfie that broke the internet:

Seen by an audience across Twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile and desktop apps by 8.1 million people — a total of 26 million times.

It was also embedded on 13,711 web pages. Those embedded Tweets were seen 6.8 million times by 5 a.m. ET on Monday.

Together, the two make for a combined impressions figure of 32.8 million for Ellen’s Tweet.

Photo Credit: Ellen DeGeneres

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 04 March 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

02 March 2014

12 Things Buzzfeed Wants You to Know About Viral Content

Ben Smith became editor in chief of BuzzFeed in 2011 when the website known for its listicles and cat photos got into the business of breaking news.

Smith, an early hire at Politico, immediately built a reporting staff. BuzzFeed's mix of news and frivolity attracts more than 130 million visitors a month.

“You can’t trick people into sharing things. They have to really like it and be proud to share it.”

During a talk at the Nieman Foundation, Smith discussed social media as a news distribution channel, the importance of editors, the evolution of beats, the new hegemony of the article as a unit of media, and the value of brevity and high-energy reporters.

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 02 March 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

23 February 2014

Viacom International Media Networks’ “Kids of Today and Tomorrow” Global Study [RESEARCH]

A new global research project conducted by Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), surveyed over 6,200 kids aged 9-14 across 32 countries--one of the largest studies of its kind.

The “Kids of Today and Tomorrow Truly Global Exploration” study focused on what VIMN valls “last wavers,” or the youngest Millennials, born between 2003 and 2008. The findings point to several key traits that shape these kids’ world views and make them distinct from older members of this generational cohort.

Kids of today and tomorrow are more “we” than “me.”

The youngest Millennials extend their positive spirit to also include a commitment to community and the wider world around them.

88% believe it’s important to help people in the community, with 61% having taken part in an effort to raise money for charity in the past year.
94% believe it’s people’s responsibility to protect the environment.

Advances in digital media play a large part in broadening horizons and inspiring kids to use the power they have at their fingertips in a positive manner:

85% agree “my age group has the potential to change the world for the better.”
71% agree “having access to the internet changes the way I think about the world.”

However, they don’t see this as anything out of the ordinary or think of themselves as “techy”:

2 out of 3 kids think that being connected is as much a part of everyday life as eating and sleeping – it’s simply how life is today. As a consequence of being constantly connected in a fast-moving world, it is natural for them to constantly adapt and be open-minded. They are resilient and life-ready.

Implications:

To reach these confident kids, it is important to communicate with them with a tone of positivity, smart but not cynical humor; and a playful approach, in line with the fun and happiness they seek in life.
Kids respond best to authentic brand messages: they recognize when someone is trying to sell them, so be honest.
It’s important to be both globally and locally relevant.

Kids of today and tomorrow are grounded.

Authenticity is a key value for kids today and they live with their feet firmly on the ground.

94% report wanting to be true to the close circle around them and 93% to be true to themselves. When it comes to the people who inspire them or the people they trust most, it’s all about close family and friends. They might feel inspired by celebrities and sports stars, but they know not to trust them.
49% of the youngest Millennials name a family member as their #1 best friend– rising as high as 90% in Morocco and 87% in Brazil.

Kids of today and tomorrow are confident.

Today’s youngest Millennials are overwhelmingly happy and optimistic.

88% consider themselves very happy, with happiness levels in this age group increasing over last six years.
Spending time with family and friends is the top factor generating happiness in most countries. Young Millennials enjoy doing activities together as a family.
Humor is important to young Millennials, who use it strategically to navigate life: 64% agree “I use humor to help me get my way.”
Happiness outweighs stress by a factor of 3 to 1: while almost 9 in 10 young Millennials describe themselves as very happy, only 24% report high levels of stress, with stress levels falling since 2006.

Kids today are re-calibrating their sense of what it is to be stressed as well as happy: they have grown up in a world of constant change and global economic crisis – for them, this is the norm.

Even in Greece, where the economic crisis is particularly acute, stress levels are only 36%. The highest stress levels among 9-14s are actually in Singapore and China (41% and 39%) – caused almost certainly by the highly pressured education systems in those countries.
In general, the youngest Millennials are characterized by an optimism with which they approach challenges: 90% agree “I can accomplish anything if I work hard enough” and 89% agree “I always try to be positive.”

At the global level, these high levels of happiness, low stress and growing positivity are combining to form a “virtuous circle” of mutual support that helps kids create an overall sense of confidence.

Belief in themselves: 65% believe not only that they are smart but also that they are smarter than other people.
Belief in their future: Despite everything, a large majority (84%) believe they will earn more than their parents
Belief in their generation: This is the winning generation … the expression “#winning” suits them perfectly and is acknowledged by many more 9-14s than by older Millennials (77% vs. 66% of 15-30s)
Belief in their creativity: 89% believe their creativity will help them to keep on winning in a fast-paced world.

Kids of today and tomorrow are simultaneously more and less sheltered.

The difference is very clearly defined: in the real world, they are much more sheltered than in the past, with parents restricting and controlling their interactions with everything. However, given advances in technology and access to a wide range of devices, there is often relatively little protection – kids have unprecedented exposure to global ideas and images.

43% own their own computer/laptop and 28% own a smartphone.
61% have a social media account (and 11 years is the average age for having a first account – despite being below the age threshold set by many social platforms’ Terms & Conditions).
9-14s have 39 online “friends” they have never met (up from five since 2006).

Kids of today and tomorrow are proud to be.

The youngest Millennials are increasingly expressing a sense of affinity with their country. Their sense of national pride is growing stronger and they are more likely than six years ago to believe it’s important to maintain their country’s traditions.

87% agree that they are “proud to be [their ethnicity]” up from 81% in 2006.
79% agree “it’s important to maintain my country’s traditions,” up from 60% in 2006.
At the same time, they are tolerant of other cultures: 74% think it’s great to have people from other countries living in the kid’s country.

Methodology

This VIMN study is based on 6,200 interviews with the 9-14 age group (at the time of research, born 1998-2003, which we have defined as “last wavers” within the Millennial generation) across 32 countries (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, US, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Hungary, Poland, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa).

Video is also available in the following languages:

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 23 February 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

20 February 2014

Mattel Consumer Insights: Kids, Technology and Digital Play [VIDEO]

Michael Shore, VP of Global Consumer Insights for Mattel, discusses research on traditional play vs. technology play. Has the app and tablet world changed the nature of play for kids today?

This video was shot at the 2014 NY Toy Fair by Scott Traylor from 360 Kid.

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 20 February 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

09 February 2014

Tess Explains It All: Teens, Social Media and the Myth of Internet Addiction

Earlier today I ran across a really insightful (and spot on!) article, written by high school student Tess Harkin, for Huffington Post Teen. In her post, Tess tackles the widely held narrative that teens are 'addicted' to technology and as a result, aren't engaging in real life human connection.

Tess explains the relationship between teens and social media and how it actually does facilliate and foster relationships (IRL!) with her peers.

Turns out, when it comes to teens and technology, they're mostly misunderstood.

"It's almost too easy to agree with the majority and think, "People are right, technology is destroying the human connection." But I think just the opposite.

Technology brings people together. Shocking, I know? It sounds like some crazy marketing ploy, and many commercials support that. But the fact is, it's the truth.

I can talk to one of my friends in California, Canada or Taiwan with the touch of a button. Technology has helped me forge lifelong connection with people I would have lost touch with ordinarily. I can say I talk to more people now, whether it be through Facebook, texting or tweeting, than I did three years ago. And for the argument that nothing compares to face-to-face conversation?

I'd love to engage and be a part of that, but the fact of the matter is, without Skype or Google Hangouts, I wouldn't be able talk to a large portion of my friends. I'm not trying to advocate for technology to replace all forms of in person conversation, I'm just trying to suggest the stigma attached to it isn't necessarily just."

You can read the entire Huffington Teen post here.

Posted by Derek E. Baird on 09 February 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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