The notion that kids today are somehow different because they grew up with digital tools may be overblown, reports the Economist (3/6/10). Sue Bennett of the University of Wollongong, writing in the British Journal of Education, argues that there could be "as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations." She says such generational generalizations "fail to recognize cognitive differences in young people of different ages, and variations within age groups."

The point is that digital natives "do not really have different kinds of brains that require new approaches to school and work." Michael Wesch, a new-media pioneer and cultural anthropology prof at Kansas State agrees that many of his students "have only a superficial familiarity with ... digital tools."His view is diametrically opposed to professors who suggest moving "classroom discussions to Facebook," for instance, or management gurus who want employers to shift from "command-and-control" cultures to more collaborative environments.

It may also upend the idea that "digital natives will grow up to be more responsible citizens" and use their digital prowess "to campaign on social issues and exercise closer scrutiny over their government." Again, "there may simply be too much economic, geographic, and demographic disparity to make meaningful generalizations ... There is also a feeling of superficiality about much online youth activism." Joining an activist Facebook group is one thing, but a Pew Research Center study "found that internet users aged 18-24 were the least likely of all age groups to email a public official or make an online political donation."

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"Most kids wouldn't know a deer from a dog," says Jim Paine, complaining about the lack of interest in hunting among kids these days, reports Mark Yost in the Wall Street Journal (2/10/10). Brad Bowser blames videogames: "Why are they going to come out and freeze in a blind all day and maybe get one shot when they can sit in their living room and shoot all day long?' he says. Ted Nugent, the guitarist, thinks the issue is political: "We need to be celebrating the utter joy and spirituality of hunting, not apologizing for it," he says (sorry).

Others point to the fact that fewer people live on farms, the high cost of hunting and "the stigma of guns. In the 1950s, nearly every high school in New York City had a shooting team. Today, if you brought a gun to school you'd be expelled." Tom DePersia, who runs fishing trips, points to the divorce rate: "A 10-year-old kid can go out and play baseball without his dad, but they can't go hunting or fishing," he says. The outdoor industry is trying to address these issues by serving up more father-son and father-daughter hunting trips, "but with little success."

Some states have tried to help by lowering the hunting age to "as young as five." Cable TV is also stepping up with a show called Whitetail Freaks, "featuring young, attractive, female hunters." Kandi Kisky, the show's host, says, "The message is that it's okay to have pigtails, wear makeup and shoot things." Remington meanwhile is out with "a pink version of its Hot Shot, a single-shot .22 rifle designed for youngsters" (link). Others suggest safaris where the hunters wield only cameras. "It very well may be the future of the business," says Robert Dunn, who organizes such trips.

He says he's had people question whether he's a real person, but skateboarder Tony Hawk denies that he's just a videogame character in a New York Times profile by Patricia R. Olsen (2/7/10). He also says there's "a lot of pressure associated with the title of professional skateboarder. No matter where I go," says Tony, "people expect amazing feats. If I go to a public skate park, kids will sit down and expect me to entertain them." But he says he has no regrets, even though his career path did not include going to college.

"I experienced so many things that I otherwise wouldn't have, and I was exposed to so much culture," he explains, adding: "I'm not saying everyone should skip college, but I learned so much that I feel I'm educated. When my high school classmates were trying to figure out what they were going to study, I already had a career and a house." He says he was drawn to skateboarding because he didn't "have to listen to a coach or rely on a team." Unlike baseball or basketball, he says he got better every time he skated.

Today, he has a company, Tony Hawk, Inc., with "five divisions: merchandising, endorsements, events, film and digital media." And he takes issue with "the attitude that skating professionally is a bad influence on kids or not a viable career option. I do my best to prove the naysayers wrong," he says, adding: "Several years ago I started a foundation to build free skate parks in low income areas. Kids use them from sunup to sundown. Our endorsements can help cut through the red tape in communities. So far we've had a hand in creating 450 parks."

More than 125 years after David McConnell pioneered Avon, 22-year-old Kristiauna Mangum is "ringing doorbells" for cosmetics on Facebook and Twitter, reports Camille Sweeney in the New York Times (1/14/10). Kristiauna is not an Avon Lady but a Mark Girl, but it's all in the family because Avon launched Mark about seven years ago. Being a Mark Girl means Kristiauna is "one of more than 40,000" young women in North America, "who are changing the nature of direct sales by using the brand's personalized e-boutiques, iPhone app and new Facebook e-shop."

So successful is Kristiauna that she "manages 155 other Mark Girls" at Ohio State University, "selling Mark beauty products and fashion accessories for a commission in the range of 20 to 50 percent." She makes about $800 a month at this, using the proceeds to help pay off her student loans. "It's really a grass-roots kind of thing, hitting the dorms, sororities, Facebook," says Kristiauna. Claudia Poccia, president of Mark, says the concept is a natural.

"We've taken the same DNA of direct selling that has always been a part of Avon's history and applied it to the digital world for our Mark reps to reach our customers," Claudia explains. Mark also features its own product line, offered at relatively lower-price points than Avon products. The products themselves are designed with a younger shopper in mind, as well. Hook Ups, which sell for about $10, are "two-ended cosmetic dispensers that can be customized to connect, for example, lip gloss and lip pencil, eyeliner and mascara." Last year, Mark's revenues were about $70 million.

When it comes to taking fitness supplements, there seems to be something that separates the boys from the girls, reports Max Roosevelt in the New York Times (1/14/10). A young guy like Alex Feintuch, 20, for instance, has "spent more than $1,000 on fitness supplements" over the past year. Before heading to the gym, he takes a pill called Arimatest, to raise his testosterone levels. "Before, during and after his workout, he drinks "a branch-chain amino acid powder mixed in water to hasten muscle recovery. And he caps his gym visits with a whey powder shake."

Steve Hoffman, a trainer, approves of certain supplements, too. "If you're looking to bust through a plateau, taking five grams of creatine before your workout might help you do that," he says. Steve also likes "products with arginine (an amino acid) or caffeine." He says, "They're awesome for working out -- just be careful." However, Dr. Teri M. McCambridge, a pediatric sports doctor, says most youngsters don't need supplements and "don't know the importance of a recommended dose" anyway. She's also worried that using supplements might lead to harder stuff, "like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone."

Stacey Zimmerman, 25, is similarly wary. "The idea of needing to take a supplement to reach my fitness goals seems to counter the goal itself," she says. Another issue is that the supplements, while widely available, "are also minimally regulated, with a majority going untested by the Food and Drug Administration." Alex Feintuch admits this is a problem, and notes that he's wasted a good sum on ineffective supplements. Gunnar Peterson, a celebrity trainer, thinks that's reason enough to get the F.D.A. involved in regulating supplements. But he does see some pyschological benefit, even if the stuff doesn't actually work. "It's like putting jumper cables on motivation," he says.

Ten years ago, Lego "seemed to have lost its way," but now it is enjoying "a sharp revival" of its fortunes, reports Kim Hjelmgaard in the Wall Street Journal (12/24/09). In fact, in the first half of this year, Lego's sales were up 23 percent, compared to a five-percent decline in toy sales globally. This still places Lego, at $1.83 billion in sales, as the third-largest toy company after Mattel ($5.5 billion) and Hasbro ($4 million). But its robust position is somewhat surprising, given that its toys tend to be a bit complicated and expensive.

Sean McGowan, an industry analyst, explains, "The fact that Lego is relatively expensive is secondary to the fact that it provides many hours of repeatable joy ... Parents remember that, which makes a $40 purchase a better value than $20 toy that may lose its appeal by the time Christmas leftover sandwiches are served." The company's chief executive, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, says the company's success is also a function of its perceived virtues, particularly where its licensing deals with Star Wars are concerned.

"We take the virtues of Lego and the virtues of Star Wars and create something more optimal out of it," says Jorgen. "Here you have a category [videogames] where many parents perceive it as not really creative and not very good for their children, but when it becomes Lego ... it has the benefits of both worlds." He compares playing with Legos to reading books, suggesting that the toy "teaches children to be systematic, creative problem-solvers." Jorgen has also embraced the virtues of cost-cutting, having "cut jobs and outsourced manufacturing to far-flung places like the Czech Republic, and, more recently, Mexico."

Conceived in Austria as an alternative to smoking, Pez candy "took on a vibrant new life as a children's product," in America, reports Margalit Fox in the New York Times (1/5/10). The turning point came in 1955, when the late Curtis Allina, who died last month at 87, convinced headquarters to start producing Pez in fruity flavors and packaging them with whimsical, plastic heads -- "TV characters, cartoon figures or historical personages" -- that flipped back to dispense the candy.

At the time, Pez was strictly for grownups and "mint-flavored (the name is a contraction of pfefferminz, the German word for peppermint.)" They were packaged in "plain, long-stemmed dispensers meant to suggest cigarette lighters." But Curtis, a Holocaust survivor who had emigrated to America, somehow managed to get approval from the very conservative home office in Vienna to dress up Pez in "two character dispensers, Santa Claus and a robot known as the Space Trooper."

It's not known whether Curtis, himself, came up with the idea; the only thing that's for sure is that he was the guy who made it happen. And, after years of struggling in the American market, Pez became a hit -- and, of course, has since become a baby-boomer, pop-culture icon, featuring characters from Popeye to Mozart. Pez today "sells tens of thousands of dispensers each year in 80 countries," and its vintage collectibles continue to do a brisk business on eBay and various Pez conventions.

"The imagination is absolutely vital for contemplating reality, not just those things we take to be mere fantasy," says Harvard psychologist Paul Harris in a Wall Street Journal piece by Shirley S. Wang (12/22/09). Jacqueline Woolley of the University of Texas has made a study of this by looking into "how kids learn to distinguish what is real and what isn't." She refers to the process "magical thinking" and the goal is to gain better understanding of "developmental delays and conditions such as autism."

Child-development experts also believe that imagination is critical to "learning about people and events we don't directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world. For young kids, it allows them to ponder the future, such as what they want to do when they grow up." To test for this, Jacqueline conducted various studies, one of which asked 91 kids whether Santa Claus or the garbage man were real. The two are kind of similar in that one makes gifts appear while the other makes trash disappear -- and kids never actually see either of them.

The result was that fewer three-year-olds believed in Santa than did five-year-olds, and belief in Santa didn't start to decline until age seven. Researchers think this is because three-year-olds don't yet have the cognitive skills to be misled by their parents. Belief in the garbage man meanwhile exceeded belief in Santa among all age groups, and by age nine "nearly all reported the garbage man was real." Researchers say it's okay if kids don't engage in fantasies, but that it's a good idea to find other ways to encourage their imaginations, "such as by playing dress-up or reading fiction."

Watching her two-year-old daughter draw a picture of a daisy gave Tish Ciravolo the idea to design electric guitars of a feminine sort, reports Matt Krantz in USA Today (12/15/09). Tish is a guitarist herself, and so "naturally she drew a neck" on the daisy. The light bulb went off: "There are a million, heavy, thick, black guitars out there," says Tish. "We're offering an alternative." But while Daisy Rock guitars "come in nail-polish colors" and "some are shaped like hearts, flowers and butterflies," the difference is not just cosmetic.

The guitars are also designed with a thinner neck, "making it easier for female guitarists to wrap their fingers around and hit the chords." Their contours are also "slightly curved so it can bend more comfortably around the curves of a woman." They're also lighter weight. "They're cut down in just the right places," says Wanda Jackson, the legendary singer. And yet Tish has met with some resistance in a male-dominated category -- indeed, it's estimated that 90 percent of electric guitarists are male.

For example, Andy Rossi of Fender guitars dismisses Daisy Rock guitars as "pandering, insulting and not what females want ... Women want real guitars, not toys," he says, adding: "There's no such thing as a girl's guitar." Vicki Peterson of the Bangles begs to differ, saying that the guitars are her favorites, and "not a toy." Nor is Daisy Rock just about selling guitars to particular market segment. It's also about "actively encouraging girls to pick up the instrument." As Tish puts it: "Any girl who wants to play the guitar should be able to do it ... We're here to help you."