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☆ Opinion | The Fight for Your Kids’ Brains Has Already Begun
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Much of the drama in the charming new Netflix teen comedy “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” revolves around the pitfalls of social media, specifically the public sharing of private videos. A mild spoiler: Stacy completes the jump without injury and to great applause, until her maxi pad floats up next to her and the applause dissolves into laughter. A humiliation like this used to be confined to the memory of the kids who witnessed it, and at worst, it became local lore. They’re 10 and 7 and I don’t allow them to use social media yet, and I feel some comfort having equipped them with as much information as I can about the digital world. I’m not naïve and I don’t think they’re perfect angels — I know they’ll make mistakes, but hopefully they have enough foresight and knowledge that their errors aren’t catastrophic ones.

Persons: Stacy, I’ve, Devorah Heitner, Heitner Organizations: Netflix, ricochet, Northwestern University

☆ I went to Five Below for the first time and it was immediately clear why Gen Z loves it
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

I visited a Five Below store in Maryland to see what exactly the store offers. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. I'd pass the retailer's stores in strip malls, but it wasn't immediately clear by looking at them what they sold. Both Gen Z as well as their parents, who are themselves millennials and Gen Xers, are Five Below's target shoppers, according to an investor presentation from May. I decided to check out a Five Below location for myself to see where the store fits into the broader retail world.

Persons: TJ Maxx, wasn't, Joel Anderson, Gen, Gen Xers, Jefferies, Alex Bitter Organizations: Dollar, Service, Jefferies Locations: Maryland, Wall, Silicon

☆ How Julie Ertz Got Her Game Back
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Claire Fahy | More About Claire Fahy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More important, Ertz, who was 30 when Madden was born, wanted to gauge her progress discreetly before she made any promises to the national team. Ertz was in Phoenix, which is her hometown and where her husband, Zach, plays tight end for the Arizona Cardinals. Taylor and Midkiff connected Ertz with Phoenix Rising, a United Soccer League club with a Major League Soccer Academy program. Ertz arranged to begin training with the club’s under-19 team in February. When Taylor informed the boys on the team that Julie Ertz would be coming to practice, many of the players greeted the news with blank stares.

Persons: Julie Ertz, Madden, Ertz, Zach, Paul Taylor, Matt Midkiff, Taylor, Midkiff Organizations: Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix, United Soccer League, Major League Soccer Academy Locations: Phoenix

☆ Meta to Lower Age for Users of Virtual Reality Headset to 10 From 13
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Mike Isaac | Adam Satariano | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Meta said it would require a preteen’s parental approval to set up an account, and that young users would only see apps and content rated for the preteen age group. The Quest headset allows people to enter the so-called metaverse, an immersive online world, and to play virtual reality games and do other tasks. Over the past year, Meta has slowly been moving the age restrictions for its virtual reality apps lower to reach younger audiences. In April, the company said it would allow people under 18 to use Horizon Worlds, Meta’s virtual reality-based social network. Horizon Worlds will remain restricted to users 13 and older, as reported earlier by The Verge.

Persons: Meta Organizations: Facebook, Meta

☆ U2’s Music Shaped My Life. Then It Helped Save It.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Theodore Kim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Radiation Oncology department in the basement of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York does not seem like a regular home for rock ’n’ roll. But every business day for almost seven weeks this year, U2 blared over the speakers at my request. I became a fan in the late 1980s and have attended nine of the band’s concerts, though I probably fall short of superfandom. While my complication (thankfully) is on track to heal, a small bit of the tumor remains. All of my medical drama led to dozens of trips to Mount Sinai.

☆ ‘Judy Blume Forever’ Review: The Y.A. Author Who Went There First
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Claire Shaffer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There are few living children’s authors who have connected as deeply to their readers as Judy Blume. That’s the argument of “Judy Blume Forever,” a new documentary from Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok that pays unwavering tribute to Blume and her imprint on young adult literature. It’s not uncommon to hear fans of Blume’s work say that reading her books felt as though she was speaking directly to them through the pages. This is thanks, in no small part, to her frank discussion of mature themes that, at the time she was writing, were considered unusual for what we now call Y.A. novels: adolescent sexuality, religion, disability, bullying, and — in many of her books — the unfair expectations of purity and obedience that parents and society place on children.

☆ Opinion | Why Are So Many Girls Suffering From Anorexia?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Pamela Paul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

She was too smart for her school. These are among the 75 explanations given by doctors, therapists and others to Hadley Freeman for her severe anorexia nervosa. Freeman, the author of a riveting new memoir, “Good Girls: A Study and Story of Anorexia,” became sick during the 1990s, but over the last few years, the incidence of anorexia, which predominantly affects preteen and teenage girls, seems to have gone up. We’ve known about anorexia for a long time. Is it related to the general increase in rates of depression and anxiety among girls?

☆ Opinion: The untold story about Anne Frank’s hiding place
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Opinion Roy Schwartz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

British actors Bel Powley and Joe Cole play Miep and Jan, with Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank. Only Otto Frank survived. Anne Frank's (1929-1945) world famous diary charts two years of her life from 1942 to 1944, when her family were hiding in Amsterdam from German Nazis. Anne Frank has particularly been in the zeitgeist in recent years, with the 2021 French animated film “Where Is Anne Frank,” a magical retelling of her story loosely based on the 2018 graphic novel; the 2022 Dutch Netflix movie “My Best Friend Anne Frank,” based on the book “Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend”; the controversial, eventually pulled 2022 book “The Betrayal of Anne Frank”; and “After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond,” coming out in May. While 89% have heard of Anne Frank, 32% don’t know she died in a concentration camp.

While my kids aren’t the pickiest eaters I’ve ever encountered, they both have long, evolving lists of likes and dislikes. In that spirit, I asked readers of our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter to tell us about the New York Times Cooking recipes their kids request on repeat, the meals that make them do a little happy dance when they hear they’re on the menu. What’s beloved one day might be detested the next, and one kid’s favorite dish could make another gag. (Get dinner ideas sent straight to your inbox weekly: Subscribe to the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter.) See these and more kid-friendly recipes at New York Times Cooking

☆ I was an early YouTube creator. Here's how CEO Susan Wojcicki improved the site in 10 years, helping me make money and even find a community of close friends.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down after nearly ten years at the helm. Under her leadership, the video platform cemented itself as a favorite of online creators. YouTube Shorts, the company's direct competitor to TikTok, recently surpassed 50 billion daily views and opened up monetization to creators. Still, under Wojcicki's tenure the video platform was rarely mentioned in discussions about the ills of social media, and the CEO was not regularly hauled in front of Congress like other tech leaders. Under Wojcicki's tenure, YouTube expanded monetization and released a slew of new ways to make money, like a merchandise shop.

☆ As his beliefs have seeped into homes and classrooms, children as young as 11 think Andrew Tate is their 'god'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Lindsay Dodgson | Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Insider spoke with teachers and parents about how Tate's beliefs are seeping into young boys' minds. Insider spoke with seven teachers who said Tate's words and beliefs have significantly impacted their students — some as young as 11 years old. Many young boys are drawn in by this promise of personal development. Mary McCarthy, a mother of four from Dublin, told Insider that Tate seems to have an "intoxicating" effect on her 14-year-old son. Speaking to the BBC, Nia Williams, a psychologist and academic, addressed why so many young boys get "sucked in" by Tate's image.

Throughout the decades, I’d cling to winter wonderlands I saw on television and the feeling of my first Christmas at my Catholic school. It had everything I associated with Christmas, this holiday I’d quickly fallen in love with: community, friendship, love, belonging and the best songs ever written. These qualities felt wrong in my house but right in my American life. We don’t need all this stuff.”I thought the better I made Christmas, the more American I would feel. The next day, I released my family from the pressure of having to make the right holiday memories.

☆ The 6 most interesting quotes from the podcast hosted by Elon Musk's friends that Twitter staff were reportedly told to listen to amid layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Twitter staff were told to listen to a podcast hosted by Elon Musk's associates, Platformer reported. A Twitter VP reportedly told staff it would provide insight into why layoffs were necessary. David Sacks and Jason Calacanis — two of Musk's close associates who have stepped in to help him at Twitter — also cohost the show. 'Just helping a friend'During the podcast, Sacks and Calacanis attempted to clarify their new roles at Twitter. It later emerged that they were likely practical jokers pretending to be laid off Twitter staff.

☆ Mom of 5 died after ketamine injection by a paramedic, family alleges in wrongful death suit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Deon J. Hampton | Deon J. Hampton Is A National Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

DENVER — The family of a woman who died four years ago shortly after a paramedic injected her with the powerful sedative ketamine have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the health care worker and the ambulance company. LaCour's family alleges in the lawsuit that Jason Poulson, a paramedic for American Medical Response Ambulance Service, administered 400 milligrams of ketamine to LaCour despite objections from a firefighter who was also an emergency medical technician. Shortly afterward, LaCour stopped breathing, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of her and her husband's five preteen children. LaCour died from acute alcohol and ketamine intoxication, the El Paso County Coroner's Office said in its report. Poulson and American Medical Response Ambulance Service Inc. are named as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit.

☆ Self-driving cars were supposed to take over the road. What happened?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Caitlin O'Hara/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesGeneral Motors bought a self-driving company in 2016. Big talk, smaller resultsUrmson, while leading Google’s self-driving car project before founding Aurora, talked of his preteen son never needing to get a driver’s license. A self-driving car, without a steering wheel or pedals, would have to be able to drive itself in literally every situation possible. “It’s really, really hard,” Waymo’s then-CEO John Krafcik said in 2018 of self-driving technology. Companies developing lidar, widely seen as a key component for self-driving vehicles, as well as self-driving companies, have seen their stocks plummet recently.

☆ 'Revealing' teen costumes, on-set massages, and a gender-discrimination complaint: Inside Dan Schneider's 'disgusting' Nickelodeon empire
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-30 | by ( Kate Taylor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

For many Nickelodeon actors, life at the network was surreal, the "Amanda Show" actor Raquel Lee told Insider. Schneider set up a meeting to discuss the situation. On the one hand, the success of Schneider's shows provided rare stability in a chaotic industry. None of Schneider's shows credited more than two female writers in the entirety of their runs; "Zoey 101" and "Drake & Josh" had zero. The writer wrote that Schneider once pressured her into simulating "being sodomized" while she was telling a story about high school, to her embarrassment.

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