Mythical Online Threats to Offline Relationships

I'm not among those who suspect digital networking undermines offline relationships, especially romantic ones. I believe the basic need for emotional intimacy is not going to be eroded or replaced by expanding social media connections and constant mobile chatter. But when 66% of American couples (adults who are married or in committed relationships) say the Internet, mobile devices and social media are key factors in their lives, I suppose it's a concern worth exploring. A recent report by the Pew Research Internet Project should reassure. Its 2013 survey found 72% of online adults in marriages or committed relationships said Internet use has had "no real impact at all" on their partnerships. And of couples who said the Internet had an impact, 74% said it was positive! In fact, 21% of cell owners or Internet users said they actually felt closer to a partner because of online or text/cell message exchanges. Not that digital communications don't have negatives: For example, 25% of all coupled adults complained a spouse or partner was distracted by mobile use when they were together, 8% had an argument about the amount of time a partner spent online, and 4% got upset at something they found out a partner was doing online. There also were age differences that reflect the higher digital affinity of younger adults. I'm sure you've noticed that mobile device deprivation causes anxiety in people under 30. So 45% of 18- to 29-year-olds in serious relationships reported a significant relationship impact (both good or bad) from digital communications (compared with 25% for all couples). Now I admit there is one digital trend that does make me a tad queasy: Sexting is on the upswing for both couples and singles, with 9% of cell owners saying they sent a sext of themselves (up from 6% in 2012) and 20% saying they received a sext (up from 15%). For more on the Pew findings, go to http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/11/couples-the-internet-and-social-media/

Time Flies When You're Getting Older

I recently read a fiction work that played with time and memory. With the turn of a page, the reader was taken from long, intense passages of youthful experience to brief words of graying regret, and I recognized with dismay a similar warping in my own time perception. Simply put, as we grow older, time seems to speed up. The memories of youth may remain rich and crowded, but recent events pass in a blink. Why? Sure, one day to an 11-year-old is about 1/4,000 of his or her life but is just 1/20,000 of a lifespan for a 55-year-old, so any random day literally counts for less with age. But that's just mathematics and doesn't explain why I perceive time accelerating moment by moment. A common theory is that children and young adults are actively engaged in learning and adapting to new stimuli, while older people draw on experience, routine and mental habit, so older brains form fewer rich memories and rely on pre-mapped reactions that basically treat familiar stimuli as invisible. The increase in invisible, unremembered moments will make the subjective perception of time pass at a faster rate as we grow older. No matter your age, studies show there are ways to put the brakes on flying time. We perceive time as moving more slowly when we experience certain strong emotions, such as fear or awe. Time also seems to slow down when we are engaged in a cognitively demanding task or experiencing multiple changes in a short interval or faced with novel stimuli. So there are solutions to my illusion of speeding time if I want to take a little effort. A recent New York Times opinion piece on time and aging by psychiatrist Richard Friedman put it aptly: "It’s simple: if you want time to slow down, become a student again. Learn something that requires sustained effort; do something novel. Put down the thriller when you’re sitting on the beach and break out a book on evolutionary theory or Spanish for beginners or a how-to book on something you’ve always wanted to do. Take a new route to work; vacation at an unknown spot. And take your sweet time about it." For more, see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinion/sunday/fast-time-and-the-aging-mind.html?_r=0

Modern Echoes of the 'Penny Dreadful'

The term "Penny Dreadful" has been revived by the recent Showtime horror-thriller series. "Penny dreadful" refers to cheap and lurid British publications catering to the newly literate youth of the late 19th century. Thanks to increased public education, a growing number of English working class adolescents had learned to read at a basic level, and had income for inexpensive escapist entertainment. An American parallel would be the "dime novel." Aimed mainly at young adult males, the "penny dreadful" began as serialized stories on cheap pulp paper (costing a penny per installment). They offered sensational tales of paranormal chills, violent crime and youthful adventurers. For example, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who has been recently reincarnated as a Broadway and film star, was a penny dreadful invention. Other series featured "Varney the Vampire" and "Wagner the Wehr-Wolf." Actually, the penny dreadful tales don't sound that different from current best sellers in the Young Adult genre. Clearly, the teen taste for horror-thriller adventure is unabated. But I wonder if the penny dreadful content has modern-day parallels because the elementary literacy of Victorian youth--who demanded short-attention-span excitement devoid of literary and historical allusions and difficult vocabulary--is also still with us. A 2012 study of reading trends among high school students found that the average student reads at the 5th grade level--the reading level of the Hunger Games and Twilight series. For more on penny dreadful history, see http://vichist.blogspot.com/2008/11/penny-dreadfuls.html

Young Adult Fiction's Star Keeps Rising

Young Adult literature is experiencing a new golden age. Just consider the impact on popular culture, including movies spawned, of the Harry Potter series, the Twilight novels, the Hunger Games books, and Markus Zusak's award-winning The Book Thief. As YA and children's fiction crosses over to generate adult fans and purchasers, watch for adult fiction writers to follow and adapt/adopt these popular YA trends, as identified by Millhouse Press: dystopian tales (The Hunger Games); special needs protagonists (My Brother Charlie is an example); paranormal romance with vampires and more (such as Beautiful Creatures, a 2013 movie, too); mythology-based fantasy (see the Goddess Girls series); return of the venerable diary/journal format (such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid); and multimedia (exemplified by the Skeleton Creek series). But what's coming next? Writers want to strike gold with the next hot trend, not mine an exhausted vein. A recent story by Husna Haq in The Christian Science Monitor suggests that vampire-zombie-werewolf romance, Potteresque magical fantasy and dystopian adventure all may be running out of steam at last, and cites these hot new YA content predictions courtesy of Bookish.com editors: novels about a "loveless future," where teens struggle against societies seeking to eradicate love; modernized fairy tales, perhaps with a cyborg Cinderella or an unusual viewpoint, such as the not-so-wicked witch or stepmother (Disney seems to be tapping into that with its Maleficent film); a rise in male protagonists to end the long reign of girl power a la Katniss Everdeen; and a melding of YA with cyberpunk virtual reality and AI villainy (James Dashner's The Eye of Minds is an example). Some of the 2014 YA debuts certainly fit those new categories. For a list of the best YA of 2014, see the Young Adult Library Services Association's picks at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2014-best-fiction-young-adults