New Silents Tag

29 Jan

Posted at 17:12h in Uncategorized by
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When the New Silents look back on the month of January 2012, they might recall a few contradictory events that had bearings on how they handle digital information. On January the 5th Sweden officially recognized Det Missionerande Kopimistsamfundet (the Missionary "Copy-me" society) by granting it religious status, which in essence sanctifies the act of file sharing. This political gift to file sharers can only be seen as endowing moral righteousness to an activity that usually is viewed as immoral and illegal. Contrarily, on January 18th websites like Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Mozilla and others blacked out their websites in protests of the anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA that were up for voting in the U.S. Congress. Anti anti-piracy advocates argued the bills if enacted were flawed and would go far beyond preventing illegal file sharing, but in reality open the floodgates for internet censorship. After 4 million petition signatures and 250,000 messages to Congress, several legislators changed their minds and killed the bills. For now anyway. Yet the very next day FBI

04 Jan

Posted at 16:44h in Uncategorized by
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"Kids nowadays! Hmpf!" Whether you're 5 or 85, at some point you might unwittingly have been dragged into a generational comparison in which your age cohort is made out to look ruder, lazier or more spoiled than the bygone youth of the spokesperson. The statement is often followed up with a sentence that starts with "In my days.." Usually we attribute this type of sentiment to the occasional hissy fits endured by otherwise beloved older relatives whenever the need to blow off some steam escalates to intolerable proportions. And often it is better respond with an approving nod than to go into a drawn-out and probably futile explanation about "how things have changed" and how the old ways of doing things simply won't work anymore. Or we reason that the curmudgeon is probably right anyway, that we're all degenerating under moral standards in free fall.

15 Dec

Posted at 13:41h in Uncategorized, Values by
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In Growing up with Princess Inc earlier this year I wrote about growing gender polarization. In the post I discussed the idea that shifts between androgynous and more overtly gendered fashion trends and body ideals are linked to social and economic fluctuations. Generational experts Strauss and Howe explained in The Fourth Turning that in eras when society struggles to recover from crisis, order, stability and traditional values gain momentum. From social science research we know socioeconomic lower classes tend to embrace traditional gender ideals to a greater degree than does the middle class. The middle class on the other hand, possesses economic and educational resources that allow them to push social boundaries without serious negative

17 Nov

Posted at 23:13h in Economy, Uncategorized, Values by
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Inspired by a string of generational reports from the PEW research center, NPR has recently focused on generational differences in politics and economics. All the stories in their “Generational Politics” segment follow the four generations that currently constitute the voting population. The series looks at typical economic situations given the economic downturn, political leanings, value systems and their projected political sympathies in the 2012 election. The relationship between age and voter turnout has intrigued political scientists at least since 1960. Two rivaling theories are set out to answer the question of age and political alignment. The answer is likely to be a little bit of both.

20 Apr

Posted at 17:20h in Uncategorized by
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  Generational experts Strauss and Howe argue that the kids from the Silent generation (born 1924 -1942) were the most gender-polarized in the 20th century until they became radicalized in the early 1960s. From Shirley Temple's sausage curls to eerie robotic wives in their squeaky clean Stepford homes, girls and women fit neatly into the gender stereotypes until they rebelled against them as grown women. So how did the princess business become so successful half a century later? After an era when de-genderization of toys was the ruling meme among early childhood advocates, feminists and savvy parents, the toy distributors got busier than ever dividing up their stores into pink isles and blue isles.

14 Apr

Posted at 04:07h in Uncategorized by
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Institute for Emerging Ethics and Technologies are discussing these days the appropriateness of discussing transhumanism with children, or more precisely: Should we tell them that they have a plausible chance of living forever? I remember the first time my oldest daughter asked me if I will ever die. Knowing that life extending technologies probably will have the capability of offering much longer, healthier lives than today, I assured that her I probably will be able to stick around for a pretty long time. But I didn’t mention anything about immortality. Ever since this conversation, singularity and transhumanist scenarios have been riveting more people and are even starting to appear in mainstream

13 Apr

Posted at 15:19h in Education, Uncategorized, Values by
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[caption id="attachment_182" align="alignright" width="300"] Source: http://www.allvoices.com/cartoons/c/71772450-tiger-mother[/caption] ‘Tiger mother’ Amy Chua refuses to let her children go to play dates and sleepovers. She protects them from the evils of TV and computer games. She protects them from a whole world outside of violin practice and top grades. Are these types of parents really the opposites of indulgent Helicopter parents or are they rather the extreme version of them? Amy Chua is hardly the first remarkable Tiger mother. As she proclaims herself, Chinese parents and parents who are first generation immigrants, are often much more authoritarian than ’Western’ parents. So why is she getting so much attention in the media? Good timing is probably the answer.

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