Monday, February 19, 2007
Essay
Flame First, Think Later: New Clues to E-Mail Misbehavior
By DANIEL GOLEMAN
Published: February 20, 2007
Jett Lucas, a 14-year-old friend, tells me the kids in his middle school send one other a steady stream of instant messages through the day. But there’s a problem.
Skip to next paragraph
Christian Northeast
“Kids will say things to each other in their messages that are too embarrassing to say in person,” Jett tells me. “Then when they actually meet up, they are too shy to bring up what they said in the message. It makes things tense.”
Jett’s complaint seems to be part of a larger pattern plaguing the world of virtual communications, a problem recognized since the earliest days of the Internet: flaming, or sending a message that is taken as offensive, embarrassing or downright rude.
The hallmark of the flame is precisely what Jett lamented: thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard would be put more diplomatically — or go unmentioned — face to face.
Flaming has a technical name, the “online disinhibition effect,” which psychologists apply to the many ways people behave with less restraint in cyberspace.
In a 2004 article in the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior, John Suler, a psychologist at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., suggested that several psychological factors lead to online disinhibition: the anonymity of a Web pseudonym; invisibility to others; the time lag between sending an e-mail message and getting feedback; the exaggerated sense of self from being alone; and the lack of any online authority figure. Dr. Suler notes that disinhibition can be either benign — when a shy person feels free to open up online — or toxic, as in flaming.
The emerging field of social neuroscience, the study of what goes on in the brains and bodies of two interacting people, offers clues into the neural mechanics behind flaming.
This work points to a design flaw inherent in the interface between the brain’s social circuitry and the online world. In face-to-face interaction, the brain reads a continual cascade of emotional signs and social cues, instantaneously using them to guide our next move so that the encounter goes well. Much of this social guidance occurs in circuitry centered on the orbitofrontal cortex, a center for empathy. This cortex uses that social scan to help make sure that what we do next will keep the interaction on track.
Research by Jennifer Beer, a psychologist at the University of California, Davis, finds that this face-to-face guidance system inhibits impulses for actions that would upset the other person or otherwise throw the interaction off. Neurological patients with a damaged orbitofrontal cortex lose the ability to modulate the amygdala, a source of unruly impulses; like small children, they commit mortifying social gaffes like kissing a complete stranger, blithely unaware that they are doing anything untoward.
Socially artful responses emerge largely in the neural chatter between the orbitofrontal cortex and emotional centers like the amygdala that generate impulsivity. But the cortex needs social information — a change in tone of voice, say — to know how to select and channel our impulses. And in e-mail there are no channels for voice, facial expression or other cues from the person who will receive what we say.
True, there are those cute, if somewhat lame, emoticons that cleverly arrange punctuation marks to signify an emotion. The e-mail equivalent of a mood ring, they surely lack the neural impact of an actual smile or frown. Without the raised eyebrow that signals irony, say, or the tone of voice that signals delight, the orbitofrontal cortex has little to go on. Lacking real-time cues, we can easily misread the printed words in an e-mail message, taking them the wrong way.
And if we are typing while agitated, the absence of information on how the other person is responding makes the prefrontal circuitry for discretion more likely to fail. Our emotional impulses disinhibited, we type some infelicitous message and hit “send” before a more sober second thought leads us to hit “discard.” We flame.
Flaming can be induced in some people with alarming ease. Consider an experiment, reported in 2002 in The Journal of Language and Social Psychology, in which pairs of college students — strangers — were put in separate booths to get to know each other better by exchanging messages in a simulated online chat room.
While coming and going into the lab, the students were well behaved. But the experimenter was stunned to see the messages many of the students sent. About 20 percent of the e-mail conversations immediately became outrageously lewd or simply rude.
And now, the online equivalent of road rage has joined the list of Internet dangers. Last October, in what The Times of London described as “Britain’s first ‘Web rage’ attack,” a 47-year-old Londoner was convicted of assault on a man with whom he had traded insults in a chat room. He and a friend tracked down the man and attacked him with a pickax handle and a knife.
One proposed solution to flaming is replacing typed messages with video. The assumption is that getting a message along with its emotional nuances might help us dampen the impulse to flame.
All this reminds me of a poster on the wall of classrooms I once visited in New Haven public schools. The poster, part of a program in social development that has lowered rates of violence in schools there, shows a stoplight. It says that when students feel upset, they should remember that the red light means to stop, calm down and think before they act. The yellow light prompts them to weigh a range of responses, and their consequences. The green light urges them to try the best response.
Not a bad idea. Until the day e-mail comes in video form, I may just paste one of those stoplights next to my monitor.
Daniel Goleman is the author of “Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.”
Flame First, Think Later: New Clues to E-Mail Misbehavior
By DANIEL GOLEMAN
Published: February 20, 2007
Jett Lucas, a 14-year-old friend, tells me the kids in his middle school send one other a steady stream of instant messages through the day. But there’s a problem.
Skip to next paragraph
Christian Northeast
“Kids will say things to each other in their messages that are too embarrassing to say in person,” Jett tells me. “Then when they actually meet up, they are too shy to bring up what they said in the message. It makes things tense.”
Jett’s complaint seems to be part of a larger pattern plaguing the world of virtual communications, a problem recognized since the earliest days of the Internet: flaming, or sending a message that is taken as offensive, embarrassing or downright rude.
The hallmark of the flame is precisely what Jett lamented: thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard would be put more diplomatically — or go unmentioned — face to face.
Flaming has a technical name, the “online disinhibition effect,” which psychologists apply to the many ways people behave with less restraint in cyberspace.
In a 2004 article in the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior, John Suler, a psychologist at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., suggested that several psychological factors lead to online disinhibition: the anonymity of a Web pseudonym; invisibility to others; the time lag between sending an e-mail message and getting feedback; the exaggerated sense of self from being alone; and the lack of any online authority figure. Dr. Suler notes that disinhibition can be either benign — when a shy person feels free to open up online — or toxic, as in flaming.
The emerging field of social neuroscience, the study of what goes on in the brains and bodies of two interacting people, offers clues into the neural mechanics behind flaming.
This work points to a design flaw inherent in the interface between the brain’s social circuitry and the online world. In face-to-face interaction, the brain reads a continual cascade of emotional signs and social cues, instantaneously using them to guide our next move so that the encounter goes well. Much of this social guidance occurs in circuitry centered on the orbitofrontal cortex, a center for empathy. This cortex uses that social scan to help make sure that what we do next will keep the interaction on track.
Research by Jennifer Beer, a psychologist at the University of California, Davis, finds that this face-to-face guidance system inhibits impulses for actions that would upset the other person or otherwise throw the interaction off. Neurological patients with a damaged orbitofrontal cortex lose the ability to modulate the amygdala, a source of unruly impulses; like small children, they commit mortifying social gaffes like kissing a complete stranger, blithely unaware that they are doing anything untoward.
Socially artful responses emerge largely in the neural chatter between the orbitofrontal cortex and emotional centers like the amygdala that generate impulsivity. But the cortex needs social information — a change in tone of voice, say — to know how to select and channel our impulses. And in e-mail there are no channels for voice, facial expression or other cues from the person who will receive what we say.
True, there are those cute, if somewhat lame, emoticons that cleverly arrange punctuation marks to signify an emotion. The e-mail equivalent of a mood ring, they surely lack the neural impact of an actual smile or frown. Without the raised eyebrow that signals irony, say, or the tone of voice that signals delight, the orbitofrontal cortex has little to go on. Lacking real-time cues, we can easily misread the printed words in an e-mail message, taking them the wrong way.
And if we are typing while agitated, the absence of information on how the other person is responding makes the prefrontal circuitry for discretion more likely to fail. Our emotional impulses disinhibited, we type some infelicitous message and hit “send” before a more sober second thought leads us to hit “discard.” We flame.
Flaming can be induced in some people with alarming ease. Consider an experiment, reported in 2002 in The Journal of Language and Social Psychology, in which pairs of college students — strangers — were put in separate booths to get to know each other better by exchanging messages in a simulated online chat room.
While coming and going into the lab, the students were well behaved. But the experimenter was stunned to see the messages many of the students sent. About 20 percent of the e-mail conversations immediately became outrageously lewd or simply rude.
And now, the online equivalent of road rage has joined the list of Internet dangers. Last October, in what The Times of London described as “Britain’s first ‘Web rage’ attack,” a 47-year-old Londoner was convicted of assault on a man with whom he had traded insults in a chat room. He and a friend tracked down the man and attacked him with a pickax handle and a knife.
One proposed solution to flaming is replacing typed messages with video. The assumption is that getting a message along with its emotional nuances might help us dampen the impulse to flame.
All this reminds me of a poster on the wall of classrooms I once visited in New Haven public schools. The poster, part of a program in social development that has lowered rates of violence in schools there, shows a stoplight. It says that when students feel upset, they should remember that the red light means to stop, calm down and think before they act. The yellow light prompts them to weigh a range of responses, and their consequences. The green light urges them to try the best response.
Not a bad idea. Until the day e-mail comes in video form, I may just paste one of those stoplights next to my monitor.
Daniel Goleman is the author of “Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.”
Friday, February 16, 2007
Dad jumps into wrestling match, tosses son's opponent out of ring
Associated Press
Published February 15, 2007, 2:07 PM CST
AURORA, Ill. -- A father bounded into a youth wrestling match, picked up his son's winning opponent and launched him out of the ring, an episode caught on a home video.
After tossing the 11-year-old boy into the air Sunday, the angry father headed toward the cameraman, the father of the airborne boy.
"I was just wrestling, then the guy throws me," the boy, Nick Nasenbeny of suburban Aurora, told WMAQ-TV in Chicago. It was not known if the boy was injured.
Ray Hoffman, the father in the video and a part-time wrestling coach, told the television station he regrets his behavior and feels embarrassed. He said his son's shoulder was injured. Hoffman also said he will no longer be allowed to coach.
Dean Bogess, a wrestling coach who attended the meet in suburban Rolling Meadows, said Nick was using a legal move to pin his opponent and that the referee was about to stop the match when Hoffman intervened.
"The match was being stopped. He had blown his whistle already," Bogess said.
Nick's father, Dan Nasenbeny, said he was stunned by Hoffman's actions.
"I mean, there is a lot of different ways to stop a match. Not to pick up my son and launch him 5 feet, 10 feet in the air," Nasenbeny said.
Hoffman did not return messages left Thursday by The Associated Press.
Associated Press
Published February 15, 2007, 2:07 PM CST
AURORA, Ill. -- A father bounded into a youth wrestling match, picked up his son's winning opponent and launched him out of the ring, an episode caught on a home video.
After tossing the 11-year-old boy into the air Sunday, the angry father headed toward the cameraman, the father of the airborne boy.
"I was just wrestling, then the guy throws me," the boy, Nick Nasenbeny of suburban Aurora, told WMAQ-TV in Chicago. It was not known if the boy was injured.
Ray Hoffman, the father in the video and a part-time wrestling coach, told the television station he regrets his behavior and feels embarrassed. He said his son's shoulder was injured. Hoffman also said he will no longer be allowed to coach.
Dean Bogess, a wrestling coach who attended the meet in suburban Rolling Meadows, said Nick was using a legal move to pin his opponent and that the referee was about to stop the match when Hoffman intervened.
"The match was being stopped. He had blown his whistle already," Bogess said.
Nick's father, Dan Nasenbeny, said he was stunned by Hoffman's actions.
"I mean, there is a lot of different ways to stop a match. Not to pick up my son and launch him 5 feet, 10 feet in the air," Nasenbeny said.
Hoffman did not return messages left Thursday by The Associated Press.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The New York Times
February 14, 2007
Recipe: Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss (Little, Brown, to be published in May).
Time: 90 minutes, plus cooling
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3½ cups cake flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1½ teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2¼ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1¼ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2½ teaspoons white vinegar.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.
Yield: 3 cake layers.
February 14, 2007
Recipe: Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss (Little, Brown, to be published in May).
Time: 90 minutes, plus cooling
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3½ cups cake flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1½ teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2¼ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1¼ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2½ teaspoons white vinegar.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.
Yield: 3 cake layers.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The New York Times
February 13, 2007
Teenagers Misbehaving, for All Online to Watch
By COREY KILGANNON
DEER PARK, N.Y., Feb. 8 — Dozens of teenage boys hovered outside Deer Park High School Thursday afternoon, some holding schoolbooks, some holding skateboards and some holding camera-equipped cellphones to record the proceedings.
“There’s going to be a fight,” said one boy with shaggy hair over his eyes. “Anything funny or crazy that people would want to see and talk about, we tape it and post it online.”
School officials shooed the boys away, and at a Starbucks nearby, 17-year-old Gary Buley-Neumar explained: “Kids beat up other kids and tape it, just so other kids will see it and laugh. Or they just post stupid things they did online so other kids will look at their Web page.”
The police are watching as well. On Feb. 2, Deer Park officers announced that five teenagers had been arrested for fence-plowing — a recent fad that involves youths taking a running start and hurling themselves into a fence, sending slats flying. The authorities said the teenagers may have been imitating a popular YouTube video posted last year that received three and a half stars and had nearly 70,000 viewers.
Last month, after viewing a video of the beating of a 13-year-old girl that was broadcast on Web sites including MySpace, Photobucket and YouTube, the authorities arrested three freshman girls from nearby North Babylon High School.
Such sites are flooded with teenage-fight videos, and there are many sites, like PSFights.com, devoted solely to similar acts. In response to such cyberbullying, Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, recently asked school districts to designate a staff Internet monitor to watch for Web-posted misbehavior among students.
Schoolyard scraps, spectacular skateboard spills, puppy-love quarrels, goofy antics like placing a slice of American cheese over the face of a snoring buddy, and bruising stunts like hurling one’s body through a neighbor’s wooden fence — these and other staples of suburban teenage life have taken on a new dimension as online cinéma vérité. Instead of being whispered about among friends and then fading away, such rites of ridiculousness are now routinely captured on video and posted on the Internet for worldwide perusal, and posterity.
“Teens have been doing inappropriate things for a long time, but now they think they can become celebrities by doing it,” said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Schneider Children’s Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
“In the past, you’d brag to your friends in the locker room about doing something stupid or crazy or daring,” Dr. Adesman said. “Now the Internet provides additional motivation. But these things can just as easily lead to criminal prosecution as broad celebrity.”
In the classroom, in the cafeteria, in their bedrooms or on the street, teenagers are quick on the draw with the camera phone. They flip, click and post, then hope Web users will watch them.
Most suburban teenagers, it seems, can rattle off a litany of the latest teens-gone-wild offerings as though they were the local multiplex listings: boys holding cellphones under the lunch table to photograph up girls’ skirts; an innocent kiss at a party posted out of context on an ex-boyfriend’s Web site; someone bursting in on friends who are in the bathroom or sleeping, drinking or smoking; students goading teachers into tantrums; assaulting homeless people.
“Teens always do crazy stuff, but it’s just that much more intense and fun when you can post it,” said Nathaniel Visneaskous, 18, of Deer Park. “When you live in a boring town, what else is there to do?”
Parry Aftab, a New Jersey lawyer whose Web site, WiredSafety.org, offers parents help on issues like cyberbullying, noted that “you have girls at slumber parties taking pictures of each other in their bras and panties, and somehow the shots wind up on a porn site.”
“Anytime a teen is around friends now, anything they do can be filmed and put online,” Ms. Aftab said. “They say, ‘I can become a movie star or at least make it onto “The Montel Williams Show.” ’ I tell them: ‘Be careful, because what you do now is forever. When you’re applying to college or an internship or that dream job at MTV, people are going to look at what’s been posted of you online.’ ”
YouTube says it reviews videos posted on its site and removes those that violate guidelines. “If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post,” the Web site warns.
Mr. Levy, the Suffolk County executive, said the authorities’ Internet focus has expanded from stopping sexual predators to making “sure the child is not being humiliated by his or her peers on online video.”
“Some kids want their 15 minutes of fame by holding other kids up to ridicule,” he said. “A premeditated attack is assault, but how about the friend who plots with the perpetrators to film it? When does that become a crime?”
Chris Marotta, a high school junior from Huntington Station, not far from here, said that with so many camera phones and digital cameras around, “at any given time, someone’s taping you.”
“Kids put their fights online for street cred,” he noted. “If it’s a bad fight and their face is in the video, they can get arrested.”
Nancy E. Willard, author of the 2006 book “Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats,” said that adults “might not consider it a great idea to post online a video of yourself committing a crime for all to see, but a lot of teens have this idea that life is a game and it’s all just entertainment.”
“In doing this, they’re jostling for social position and status, or establishing themselves in a certain social group, or just attracting attention,” she said. “To them, this is defining who they are and what people think of them. The idea that ‘people know my name’ is an affirmation of who they are.”
Indeed, Adam Schleichkorn, 25, of Huntington, has been proclaiming himself the godfather of fence-plowing, since his seminal 3 ½-star clip, popularized on YouTube, was cited by the news media in reporting the Deer Park fence-plowing arrests. Mr. Schleichkorn, admittedly a bit old for teenage tricks, said he never meant to promote vandalism; the video, he said, shows his cousin hurling himself through a segment of fence that relatives owned and that needed to be torn down anyhow.
No matter. The fence-plowing frenzy, Mr. Schleichkorn said, has driven tens of thousands of visitors to his YouTube page, where his more serious projects — he is a producer of films, videos and advertisements — can also be found.
“A week ago, no one knew who I was — now my name has been on every news and talk show,” Mr. Schleichkorn said. “I don’t care that it’s for something stupid. I was on Fox News cracking jokes. Maury Povich called me today.
“So I’m known as the fence-plowing kid,” he added. “At least I’m known.”
February 13, 2007
Teenagers Misbehaving, for All Online to Watch
By COREY KILGANNON
DEER PARK, N.Y., Feb. 8 — Dozens of teenage boys hovered outside Deer Park High School Thursday afternoon, some holding schoolbooks, some holding skateboards and some holding camera-equipped cellphones to record the proceedings.
“There’s going to be a fight,” said one boy with shaggy hair over his eyes. “Anything funny or crazy that people would want to see and talk about, we tape it and post it online.”
School officials shooed the boys away, and at a Starbucks nearby, 17-year-old Gary Buley-Neumar explained: “Kids beat up other kids and tape it, just so other kids will see it and laugh. Or they just post stupid things they did online so other kids will look at their Web page.”
The police are watching as well. On Feb. 2, Deer Park officers announced that five teenagers had been arrested for fence-plowing — a recent fad that involves youths taking a running start and hurling themselves into a fence, sending slats flying. The authorities said the teenagers may have been imitating a popular YouTube video posted last year that received three and a half stars and had nearly 70,000 viewers.
Last month, after viewing a video of the beating of a 13-year-old girl that was broadcast on Web sites including MySpace, Photobucket and YouTube, the authorities arrested three freshman girls from nearby North Babylon High School.
Such sites are flooded with teenage-fight videos, and there are many sites, like PSFights.com, devoted solely to similar acts. In response to such cyberbullying, Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, recently asked school districts to designate a staff Internet monitor to watch for Web-posted misbehavior among students.
Schoolyard scraps, spectacular skateboard spills, puppy-love quarrels, goofy antics like placing a slice of American cheese over the face of a snoring buddy, and bruising stunts like hurling one’s body through a neighbor’s wooden fence — these and other staples of suburban teenage life have taken on a new dimension as online cinéma vérité. Instead of being whispered about among friends and then fading away, such rites of ridiculousness are now routinely captured on video and posted on the Internet for worldwide perusal, and posterity.
“Teens have been doing inappropriate things for a long time, but now they think they can become celebrities by doing it,” said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Schneider Children’s Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
“In the past, you’d brag to your friends in the locker room about doing something stupid or crazy or daring,” Dr. Adesman said. “Now the Internet provides additional motivation. But these things can just as easily lead to criminal prosecution as broad celebrity.”
In the classroom, in the cafeteria, in their bedrooms or on the street, teenagers are quick on the draw with the camera phone. They flip, click and post, then hope Web users will watch them.
Most suburban teenagers, it seems, can rattle off a litany of the latest teens-gone-wild offerings as though they were the local multiplex listings: boys holding cellphones under the lunch table to photograph up girls’ skirts; an innocent kiss at a party posted out of context on an ex-boyfriend’s Web site; someone bursting in on friends who are in the bathroom or sleeping, drinking or smoking; students goading teachers into tantrums; assaulting homeless people.
“Teens always do crazy stuff, but it’s just that much more intense and fun when you can post it,” said Nathaniel Visneaskous, 18, of Deer Park. “When you live in a boring town, what else is there to do?”
Parry Aftab, a New Jersey lawyer whose Web site, WiredSafety.org, offers parents help on issues like cyberbullying, noted that “you have girls at slumber parties taking pictures of each other in their bras and panties, and somehow the shots wind up on a porn site.”
“Anytime a teen is around friends now, anything they do can be filmed and put online,” Ms. Aftab said. “They say, ‘I can become a movie star or at least make it onto “The Montel Williams Show.” ’ I tell them: ‘Be careful, because what you do now is forever. When you’re applying to college or an internship or that dream job at MTV, people are going to look at what’s been posted of you online.’ ”
YouTube says it reviews videos posted on its site and removes those that violate guidelines. “If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post,” the Web site warns.
Mr. Levy, the Suffolk County executive, said the authorities’ Internet focus has expanded from stopping sexual predators to making “sure the child is not being humiliated by his or her peers on online video.”
“Some kids want their 15 minutes of fame by holding other kids up to ridicule,” he said. “A premeditated attack is assault, but how about the friend who plots with the perpetrators to film it? When does that become a crime?”
Chris Marotta, a high school junior from Huntington Station, not far from here, said that with so many camera phones and digital cameras around, “at any given time, someone’s taping you.”
“Kids put their fights online for street cred,” he noted. “If it’s a bad fight and their face is in the video, they can get arrested.”
Nancy E. Willard, author of the 2006 book “Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats,” said that adults “might not consider it a great idea to post online a video of yourself committing a crime for all to see, but a lot of teens have this idea that life is a game and it’s all just entertainment.”
“In doing this, they’re jostling for social position and status, or establishing themselves in a certain social group, or just attracting attention,” she said. “To them, this is defining who they are and what people think of them. The idea that ‘people know my name’ is an affirmation of who they are.”
Indeed, Adam Schleichkorn, 25, of Huntington, has been proclaiming himself the godfather of fence-plowing, since his seminal 3 ½-star clip, popularized on YouTube, was cited by the news media in reporting the Deer Park fence-plowing arrests. Mr. Schleichkorn, admittedly a bit old for teenage tricks, said he never meant to promote vandalism; the video, he said, shows his cousin hurling himself through a segment of fence that relatives owned and that needed to be torn down anyhow.
No matter. The fence-plowing frenzy, Mr. Schleichkorn said, has driven tens of thousands of visitors to his YouTube page, where his more serious projects — he is a producer of films, videos and advertisements — can also be found.
“A week ago, no one knew who I was — now my name has been on every news and talk show,” Mr. Schleichkorn said. “I don’t care that it’s for something stupid. I was on Fox News cracking jokes. Maury Povich called me today.
“So I’m known as the fence-plowing kid,” he added. “At least I’m known.”
Sunday, February 11, 2007
In Depth
Mental Health
Foods that help boost your brain
Last Updated January 24, 2007
By Michelle Gelok
Fruit and vegetable juices have also been found to protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. (CBC)
There's growing evidence that healthy eating habits play a role in brain health by protecting against cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer's and dementia, and by boosting regular brain activity like memory and concentration.
January is Alzheimer's Awareness month, and an estimated 290,000 Canadians over the age of 65 have the disease, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. While Alzheimer's disease is normally acquired later in life, more and more research is indicating that foods eaten on a daily basis can have a protective effect on maintaining overall brain health.
Vitamins, nutrients, food combinations and meal timing can all influence cognitive function and brain health, according to current research, which says the following foods and eating habits have been shown to boost brain health.
Foods that protect the brain
Omega-3 fatty acids: A diet rich in the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenioc acid (DHA) has been found to significantly reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
In fact, a study published in the November 2006 issue of Archives of Neurology found that people with the highest levels of DHA in their blood were 47 per cent less likely to develop age-related cognitive diseases, compared to those people with lower levels of DHA.
The best food sources of DHA are omega-3 enriched eggs and seafood and fish, especially cold-water fish, such as mackerel, salmon and herring. A great way to enrich your diet with DHA is by eating a four- or five-ounce serving of fish two to three times a week.
Fruit and vegetable juices: Fruit and vegetable juices have also been found to protect against the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Findings published in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Medicine found that a daily glass of juice is enough to make a difference. Study participants who drank fruit or vegetable juice a few times a week were 76 per cent less likely to develop the disease compared with individuals who drank less than one glass a week.
The protective effect is thought to be a result of polyphenol, a natural compound found in the skin and peel of fruits and vegetables. Rich sources of polyphenols include apple, grape and citrus juices.
Choose 100 per cent fruit or vegetable juice instead of "beverages," "cocktails" or "drinks," since products with those designations contain some juice with the balance being water and sugar.
Mediterranean diet: There is increasing evidence that a Mediterranean diet can significantly protect against Alzheimer's disease. A study published in the December 2006 issue of Archives of Neurology found that closely following a Mediterranean diet could lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease by up to 68 per cent, while even a moderate compliance to the diet was shown to have a protective effect.
A Mediterranean diet is rich in legumes, whole grains, fish, nuts, fruits, vegetables and olives. It contains little meat and dairy products; as a result it is low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat and dietary fibre. Some studies have shown the Mediterranean diet can protect against a variety of diseases, including heart disease and some cancers.
Foods rich in vitamin B: In case you need another reason to eat your greens, research suggests that green, leafy vegetables can protect against age-related dementia.
A 2005 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found eating foods rich in B vitamins could protect against age-related mental decline. These findings support a 2004 study by Harvard researchers that found that middle-aged women who ate green leafy vegetables, a rich source of B vitamins, preserved more cognitive abilities in their 70s, compared to women who did not eat the nutrient dense vegetables.
Rich sources of B vitamins include turnip greens, Swiss chard, spinach and collard greens. Try adding dark green leafy vegetables to your salad, or steaming the greens with a drizzle of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar.
Maintain a healthy body weight
While obesity is a known risk factor for a variety of diseases, new research from the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia suggests dementia and Alzheimer's disease may be added to the list of diseases associated with a high body mass index (BMI). A BMI between 20 and 25 is considered healthy, a BMI over 25 is considered overweight, while a BMI over 30 is obese.
Maintaining a healthy body weight through a healthy diet and regular physical activity may lower your risk of age-related dementia as well as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.
Meal timing
It seems it's not only the foods we eat that play a critical role in maintaining regular brain function, but also when we eat them.
Skipping meals and eating at irregular times can affect short-term brain function. Going for long periods between meals deprives the brain of the nutrients and energy it needs to function properly. As a result, brain functions such as memory, concentration and mood can be affected.
To optimize your brainpower, eat meals at regular times and have a healthy snack, such as a handful of nuts or piece of fruit, between meals to provide a steady supply of energy to the brain.
Importance of breakfast
There is increasing evidence that breakfast may be the most important meal of the day for our brains. Studies have shown that when students are given a healthy breakfast, it has a positive effect on cognitive function related to memory, test grades, creative ideas and school attendance.
Breakfast kick-starts our metabolism and brain function at the start of the day. Eat a breakfast to fuel brainpower by choosing foods that are high in fibre and are nutrient dense, such as whole grains and fruits.
The bottom line
Healthy eating and staying active are encouraged by health experts to help protect the body against heart disease, cancer and diabetes, but these precautions can also protect and improve brain health. Incorporating brain-healthy foods into your diet can boost brain function in the short term by promoting memory and concentration and protect against age-related cognitive diseases in the long term.
And don't forget: Healthy eating habits are most effective for keeping the brain sharp when combined with regular physical and mental activity.
Mental Health
Foods that help boost your brain
Last Updated January 24, 2007
By Michelle Gelok
Fruit and vegetable juices have also been found to protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. (CBC)
There's growing evidence that healthy eating habits play a role in brain health by protecting against cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer's and dementia, and by boosting regular brain activity like memory and concentration.
January is Alzheimer's Awareness month, and an estimated 290,000 Canadians over the age of 65 have the disease, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. While Alzheimer's disease is normally acquired later in life, more and more research is indicating that foods eaten on a daily basis can have a protective effect on maintaining overall brain health.
Vitamins, nutrients, food combinations and meal timing can all influence cognitive function and brain health, according to current research, which says the following foods and eating habits have been shown to boost brain health.
Foods that protect the brain
Omega-3 fatty acids: A diet rich in the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenioc acid (DHA) has been found to significantly reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
In fact, a study published in the November 2006 issue of Archives of Neurology found that people with the highest levels of DHA in their blood were 47 per cent less likely to develop age-related cognitive diseases, compared to those people with lower levels of DHA.
The best food sources of DHA are omega-3 enriched eggs and seafood and fish, especially cold-water fish, such as mackerel, salmon and herring. A great way to enrich your diet with DHA is by eating a four- or five-ounce serving of fish two to three times a week.
Fruit and vegetable juices: Fruit and vegetable juices have also been found to protect against the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Findings published in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Medicine found that a daily glass of juice is enough to make a difference. Study participants who drank fruit or vegetable juice a few times a week were 76 per cent less likely to develop the disease compared with individuals who drank less than one glass a week.
The protective effect is thought to be a result of polyphenol, a natural compound found in the skin and peel of fruits and vegetables. Rich sources of polyphenols include apple, grape and citrus juices.
Choose 100 per cent fruit or vegetable juice instead of "beverages," "cocktails" or "drinks," since products with those designations contain some juice with the balance being water and sugar.
Mediterranean diet: There is increasing evidence that a Mediterranean diet can significantly protect against Alzheimer's disease. A study published in the December 2006 issue of Archives of Neurology found that closely following a Mediterranean diet could lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease by up to 68 per cent, while even a moderate compliance to the diet was shown to have a protective effect.
A Mediterranean diet is rich in legumes, whole grains, fish, nuts, fruits, vegetables and olives. It contains little meat and dairy products; as a result it is low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat and dietary fibre. Some studies have shown the Mediterranean diet can protect against a variety of diseases, including heart disease and some cancers.
Foods rich in vitamin B: In case you need another reason to eat your greens, research suggests that green, leafy vegetables can protect against age-related dementia.
A 2005 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found eating foods rich in B vitamins could protect against age-related mental decline. These findings support a 2004 study by Harvard researchers that found that middle-aged women who ate green leafy vegetables, a rich source of B vitamins, preserved more cognitive abilities in their 70s, compared to women who did not eat the nutrient dense vegetables.
Rich sources of B vitamins include turnip greens, Swiss chard, spinach and collard greens. Try adding dark green leafy vegetables to your salad, or steaming the greens with a drizzle of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar.
Maintain a healthy body weight
While obesity is a known risk factor for a variety of diseases, new research from the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia suggests dementia and Alzheimer's disease may be added to the list of diseases associated with a high body mass index (BMI). A BMI between 20 and 25 is considered healthy, a BMI over 25 is considered overweight, while a BMI over 30 is obese.
Maintaining a healthy body weight through a healthy diet and regular physical activity may lower your risk of age-related dementia as well as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.
Meal timing
It seems it's not only the foods we eat that play a critical role in maintaining regular brain function, but also when we eat them.
Skipping meals and eating at irregular times can affect short-term brain function. Going for long periods between meals deprives the brain of the nutrients and energy it needs to function properly. As a result, brain functions such as memory, concentration and mood can be affected.
To optimize your brainpower, eat meals at regular times and have a healthy snack, such as a handful of nuts or piece of fruit, between meals to provide a steady supply of energy to the brain.
Importance of breakfast
There is increasing evidence that breakfast may be the most important meal of the day for our brains. Studies have shown that when students are given a healthy breakfast, it has a positive effect on cognitive function related to memory, test grades, creative ideas and school attendance.
Breakfast kick-starts our metabolism and brain function at the start of the day. Eat a breakfast to fuel brainpower by choosing foods that are high in fibre and are nutrient dense, such as whole grains and fruits.
The bottom line
Healthy eating and staying active are encouraged by health experts to help protect the body against heart disease, cancer and diabetes, but these precautions can also protect and improve brain health. Incorporating brain-healthy foods into your diet can boost brain function in the short term by promoting memory and concentration and protect against age-related cognitive diseases in the long term.
And don't forget: Healthy eating habits are most effective for keeping the brain sharp when combined with regular physical and mental activity.
