Ten Years After Napster

3 observations made while overlooking pew internet

1) Even after Napster was shut down for free file shairng, file sharing still increased and album sales dropped. This is going on because kids want free music, they might just want one song off the album so they aren't going to buy the album they're going to look online for that one track.

2) Album sales dropped from just under 700 million in 2004 to just above 400 million in 2008. People don't need the album when they only want a few songs off of it they know they can go online and find the tracks somewhere.

3) File sharing has polluted the sales of album because people want the quickest and cheapest way to get new music.

Teens and Distracted Driving

Five observations made while overlooking pewinternet research on distravted teens driving.
1) Almost every age group on this chart is over 50% for being in a car while the driver was texting except for all teens 12-17 which is close to 50% with 48%. Texters ages 16-17 is the highest with 73%, this doesn't surprise me cause teens now think they'll get pulled over for talking on the phone and not texting.

2) I would have thought texters ages 16-17 that said they texted while driving would be higher than 34% because texting has become so popular and teens are worried about getting a ticket for driving and talking on their cell phone so they text under the dashboard where it can't be seen.

3) I would have thought all the texting while driving would have been higher in every group. I would have felt it was around 50% not in the mid to low thirties.

4) Talking while driving in every age group is nearly the same, around 50%, this makes sense to me because some states its illegal to talk and drive so it has probably decreased over the last few years.

5) I have been in all of these situations and have been guilty of talking and driving and texting and driving, but I have been talking less and texting more while driving because of the new laws, which is why I feel texting percentages would be higher and talking would be lower.

Alan Khazei is running for Kennedy's recently vacated seat in Senate. His mother was a nurse and father was a doctor so he has lots of concerns towards health care and the U.S. plans for health care. He has good points as to why we should have national healthcare much like Canada but it doesn't necessarily mean it is the right approach for our economy. This is a very arguable topic with good points from both sides of the argument. Only time will be able to tell what choice is made and if it was the right choice to make.

picture from http://www.alanforsenate.com/

Teens Online

This Chart is from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/Teens-and-Technology/03-Basic-Demographics-of-Online-Teens-and-Their-Families/3-Most-teens-have-logged-on-by-the-7th-grade.aspx?r=1

3 Observations I Made

1) The biggest jump of teens online is from 6th grade to 7th grade. 6th graders use of online is just under 60% and jumps up to 82% for 7th graders. This is probably because of social networks, more of them are connecting through facebook or other websites like that.

2) 6th grade boys are the reason for the low percentage of online users in their grade. 44% of 6th grade boys use online compared to 79% of 6th grade girls using it. This is probably because they aren't interested in online activities, not really interested in girls yet, just want to play sports and be outside.

3) Online use levels out in 11th and 12th grade at 94% because if they aren't using online by then it is more of a personal choice.

Generations use of Internet

This chart comes from... http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Generations-Online-in-2009/Generational-Differences-in-Online-Activities/2-Internet-use-and-email.aspx

3 observations I made while overlooking this site and chart.

1) The Age Group 70-75 has had the largest increase in online users out of any age gropu from 2005 to 2008; jumping from 26% to 45%.

2) The age group 12-17 leads all age groups in online use at just over 90%, this is probably because they have more in class courses they help them increase their knowledge on the internet compared to the older groups.

3) Email is the most popular online activity, 74% of the people surveyed over 64 said they used email. However, email popularity has decreased amongst teens, 89% said they used it in 2004 and now only 73% say they use email. This is probably because of all the new social networks such as facebook, myspace, and twitter.

Global Warming

According to http://people-press.org/report/556/global-warming

Americans belief in Global Warming has declind dramatically. From April 2008 to April 2009 the percentage of people who felt there was solid evidence of Global Warming decreased from 71% to 57%. Even those who felt it to be a threat dropped more then 10% from 2008 to 2009.