With all the noise pouring out of their pockets, it seems like more teens are using smartphones for music than they are for talking with their friends. Music apps are some of the most popular in online stores, downloads, and sharing tunes has become big business for some Internet companies. The most popular music apps among teens are popular for a good reason — they’re the best.

Teens and Music

Surveys show that teens’ loves their smartphones, spending hours and hours on them each day. Almost half of all British children aged 12 to 15 own a smartphone. According to one study, a large portion of them use smartphones while they’re eating and even in bed. According to the research, two-thirds of teens with smartphones have downloaded apps to their mobiles. Further research shows that around 90% of people listen to the radio. Currently, around 36% of them listen to digital radio, a hugely popular smartphone service.

Muve Music

Muve Music Sessions with J. Cole helped increase the popularity of the Muve music app, but Cricket’s contribution to music was doing well even before the rapper started talking about it. Cricket Wireless offers unlimited music downloads through Muve music, which gives teens tons of ringtones and ringback tones, not to mention access to all the latest tunes.

Muve music operates like a music rental program, because while the tunes are playable on the phone, they’re not transferable to other devices. Since teens use their smartphones for music more often, the app’s limitations aren’t a problem for many. Meanwhile, Muve music sessions with J. Cole can be watched on video-sharing sites and plenty of other places on the Internet.

Digital Music

Teens use lots of music apps on smartphones that help them organize and play music they’ve downloaded, but digital music is also highly popular. Streaming music services work like the radio, offering constant tunes by genre. Pandora, SoundCloud, Buzznet and Last.fm are the most popular digital music services for smartphones in the United States and Canada.

Streaming music doesn’t have to be downloaded. Like the radio, it can simply be turned on. Some commercials do interrupt the free services, but even the free digital music offerings are highly customizable. Listeners have the option of skipping songs they don’t like, and give positive votes to the ones they do. Teens using smartphones to listen to music often download apps that allow them to listen to their downloaded tracks, as well as those that allow for digital streaming.

In general, the parents of Asian American teens moved to the United States for either academic enrichment or to seek financial opportunities not available to them in their home country. Essentially, the importance of academics becomes a center piece for many Asian American families who believe that education will pave the way towards a good and stable future. Many American families hold this belief, but immigrants are often the deepest believers of this idea for one simple reason: their struggles have been met with success, or they’ve struggled to provide for their children the best of everything. As a result, Asian American teens are often encouraged to focus on their studies, learn a sport or instrument, and focus their sights on entering a good university after high school.

While yes, this is a general stereotype, it is also rooted in social patterns among Asian American families. In saying this, Asian American teens must learn to balance the expectations of their parents while still maintaining a healthy and enjoyable lifestyle.

As an Asian American teen, it may be hard to find role models that fit your career or future aspirations. However, with the rise of Asian Americans in the media and on adstalker.com, a portal of information on Asian American culture, it may not be long before Asian Americans become a staple in American culture. Jeremy Lin, the new rising point guard for the New York Knicks, is just one example of how Asians are forcing the public to address the blatant stereotypes held by other Americans about Asian Americans.

It is very important as an Asian American teen to understand who you are and where you come from. Learn about your parents’ histories and struggles, about Asian American history, and develop your own sense of individuality amidst it all. Understanding your past will aid your future and help you become someone, not defined by race or stereotypes, but by your own merits and achievements. The worst thing you can do for yourself is reject who you are and your background, so instead, embrace it and make the best of what you’ve got.

Photo courtesy of: Kheel Center, Cornell University

Where to Find Good Education

1. Make sure that you consider both traditional campus colleges, and online colleges as well. Go here to look at some of the top online schools and what they have to offer to their students.
2. Make a list of what qualities you want to find in a school. Your school should completely meet your needs to benefit your education and career goals.
3. Keep in mind that some colleges offer hybrid offerings between online courses and courses on campus. Both types of courses can benefit you significantly depending on the course subject. For example, a biology class would best be taken on campus for the hands-on format, while a history class could be taken online to save time and cut down on travel to and from the campus.
4. Make sure that you plan out your education goals before applying for enrollment. It’s important to ensure that the school is going to meet all of your goals. If a school you are considering doesn’t offer the classes you are interested in or the degree program you want to pursue, it may be time to choose a new school.

This foundation will help you find the right education institution to meet your needs.

Image by shingleback via Flickr

This is a sad fact, but — yes, they are. However….

You’re actually seeing a great deal of responsibility behind all of it these days. Back when it seemed like the whole race of humanity was only just beginning to explore the concept of sex, it seemed that teens were only just discovering it and not realizing how crucial the decision was to lose your virginity. Teen pregnancies skyrocketed, and there was almost a mere shock from it happening. Some teen fathers were even more shocked that it was happening to them!

It’s a bit different now. Teens understand the consequences, even when they risk them. They have a better understanding of their options — whether it’s abortion, adoption, or simply keeping the baby. More of these teens are taking an active role in the responsibility that comes with being a mother. And — yes, this is a good thing — more teens are simply learning their lessons!

Sex education, in this writer’s opinion, is working. Maybe not exactly the way we intended, but nevertheless it’s working. It’s opening the eyes of our teens, it’s helping them stay aware of what’s out there, what’s coming ahead.

This isn’t to say, though, that it’s okay to just go ahead and ‘try it.’  Being prepared isn’t the same as being smart.

But at the very least, you can count on your teens to keep a clear head about what they’re doing. In this imperfect world, you really can’t ask for much more than that. And in all honesty, that’s about as close to perfection in life as you can get.

What you’re looking at is a dilemma that could involve some serious law-breaking. Needless to say, teens are not of the age that they can legally drink, or even legally buy a drink; so the what can be done?

Remove the alcohol.

Enter: the ever-popular and continuing-to-be-popular trendy teen club. You’ve got your flashy dance floor, DJ, and even a menu with food. What you don’t have are the cocktails. Does that really change anything?

Truthfully, it does. It promotes a healthier lifestyle, more fun, and a better outlook on what it means to ‘party.’ When kids get older, they may get a little more responsible about what to drink and realize that alcohol, honestly, isn’t at all necessary. Come to think of it, this particular writer wonders why alcohol should be a part of pop culture! Why do we need to drink to feel socially accepted anyway?

Here’s the unfortunate downside, though — the dancing. Remember the nights at the school dances when you’re getting down on that floor to some Spice Girls or Expose, and (let’s say you’re a woman reading this) your date tries to slip a hand down the butt. It happens. But you can guarantee that the chaperones don’t like that.

At a teen club, there are no chaperones. There are no ‘teachers.’ Just the owner, the DJ, security, and that’s it. Teens can dance, pretty much, as dirty as they’d like to (within reason, of course), thereby still promoting a willingness to, well…explore themselves!

That’s part of the bottom line with the trendy teen club — bad or good? You decide.

Image via Wikipedia

They do, just not in the way many of us might hope (at least those of us that are absolutely sick of the genre). The fact remains: vampires are a valid part of pop culture. Why?

To really get into the core of what they’re all about, you have to understand that vampires — more than any other mythological creature — have a duality that is priceless among storytellers and morals. They have an inner humanity as well as an inner bestiality. The same goes for the ever-loving werewolf, except for this:

A vampire doesn’t need a full moon to get into full-on beast mode!

To make it short and simple, vampires are simply interesting. The moral ideas of an inner struggle to deal with immortality and a never-ending thirst for blood, not to mention unforgettable fragility. Fragile? you ask? Come on! Yeah, simply consider some of the mythologies of the vampire — they hate crosses, they hate holy water, they hate sunlight, they even in some legends are terrified of werewolves!

There are numerous other ‘weaknesses’ that make vampires that much more simple to deal with. Quite frankly, you could say it’s the one creature that can easily be destroyed!

Despite all their power, all their rage, all their immortality, their basic humanity, their relation to the hunger for everything from sex to plain sustenance — we all identify with it so well. No matter how much we end up hating them in our books, films, and other mediums. They’ll always be around to bite us on the necks.