Blog entries that are worth reading

1. Nicole's post about an apartment fire in New York contains enough information about the event and reactions from survivors that she shows she read the story. She makes personal connections to the topic, so we know why she chose it. And she included two really scary large photos.

2. In her 2/22 post, Alexis talks about an article from CNN about the moms of two Olympic gold medalists, and their experience in raising successful children. She combines information from the article with her own experiences, and then links to another article from the Today show about former Olympian Lindsey Vonn.

3. I never know what I'll be reading about when I click on Jason's blog. Men in tight shorts kicking one another? Hackers in masks? The best part about Jason's blog is that he's entertaining to read, no matter what he's writing about. The things he includes make his entries visually interesting (especially his captions), and he sometimes goes the extra mile by including links to additional stories.

4. Maxx has truly embraced the number one rule of writing, which is to have a point.

5. Itzel is another person who has a strong writing voice--she sounds like herself in her blog posts. I like that one of her links in this post was to a page of quotes about being different--went very well with the bullying article that she read!

6. Jon has a blogging explosion happening. Wow.

7. People really like lists. Anthony took this list that someone wrote about what is better--hot or cold weather--and answered the author, point by point.

8. Brandon writes about a lot of topics, but the one about the death of his friend was exceptionally sad.

9. Enough. About. Flappy. Bird. :)

10. Enough. About. Bieber. :)

Technology

I love reading about technology that's on its way out. Usually it's not a surprise to me (like when I heard that fewer and fewer people were using Palm Pilots...look up Palm Pilots.), but sometimes the predictions on the list give me pause.

Here's the latest list I came across, which includes Blu-ray/DVD players (because Netflix), stand-alone GPS units in cars (because smartphones and built-ins), and dial-up Internet (wait, people are still doing that?).

Those weren't so surprising, but the items on the list that surprised me a little were low-end digital cameras and car keys. I never use my low-end digital camera anymore--I rely only in my iPhone to take pictures, basically, and I'm happy enough with the results. Here are two pictures that I like, the first was with the iPhone 4 and the next was with the iPhone 5:

Now I feel sad for my Canon Whatever it is, sitting unused and dusty in my closet, probably never to be used again. But my iPhone does everything I need it to. And I am definitely not a photographer. I don't need anything fancy. Unless I ever want to buy an SLR camera, I can't see buying another low-end digital camera. So I guess the list is right.

The last thing on the list that surprised me is car keys. My boyfriend's car is "keyless" in that you just push a button, but the key has to be "near" the car. Well, that's a gigantic pain in the butt. So you forget that they key is in the cup holder, you "stop" the car with the space-age button, you go into Target and lock the door on the way out of the car, and when you get back to the car, the key is still in the cup holder because who thinks to grab a car key out of a cup holder??? He leaves the key in his pocket but girls don't have pockets like boys have pockets! I hate his keyless car! The article does predict starting your car with an app, which I can get behind, so until that happens, please give me my keys. And his keys. Real keys. Physical keys. Thank you.

Facebook is so 2010

It isn't surprising to Grandma Coughlin (not literally, I'M NOT A GRANDMA) that fewer and fewer teenagers are using Facebook, at least according to this article from The Guardian. I know this in part because my twelve-year-old daughter has never asked me for a Facebook. She has, however, asked me if she could sign up for the following:

• An Instagram account
• A Kik account
• A Snapchat account
• A Vine account
• A Creepy Older-Man-Friend-Catcher account
• A Capture Your Private Information And Let It Simmer Online For The Rest of Your Life Account

I let her have an Instagram, but that's it. She has no interest in Facebook and sees it as a place where old people like me and her aunts and uncles hang out--which it is.

The article cites a study that polled teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18 who live in European countries, but the results would probably be the same in the Unites States. Teenagers like what is trendy and edgy--and with everyone and Quinn's mom on Facebook...Facebook isn't it.

It's not surprising to me that teenagers gravitate towards sites that are image-driven (like Instagram and Vine) because to me, Facebook is a place to read about what people are doing, and to gather links to interesting news articles. Those are not activities that many teenagers would seek out. They like the shocking ugliness of a Snapchat from their best friend or to be tagged in an Instagram photo with someone cool doing something cool when the rest of the world is at home doing something lame. Like reading Facebook?