Poll Says Teens Are Migrating from Facebook to Twitter

WASHINGTON (AP) — Twitter is booming as a social media destination for teenagers who complain about too many adults and too much drama on Facebook, according to a new study published Tuesday about online behavior. It said teens are sharing more personal information about themselves even as they try to protect their online reputations.

Teens told researchers there were too many adults on Facebook and too much sharing of teenage angst and inane details like what a friend ate for dinner.

“The key is that there are fewer adults, fewer parents and just simply less complexity and less drama,” said Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Research Center, one of the study’s authors. “They still have their Facebook profiles, but they spend less time on them and move to places like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.”

In the poll, 94 percent of teens who are social media users have a profile on Facebook – flat from the previous year. Twenty-six percent of teen social media users were on Twitter. That’s more than double the figure in 2011 of 12 percent.

In what is likely a concern to parents, more than 60 percent of the teens with Twitter accounts said their tweets were public, meaning anyone on Twitter – friend, foe or stranger – can see what they write and publish. About one-quarter of kids said their tweets were private and 12 percent said they did not know whether their tweets were public or private.

Teens are also sharing much more than in the past.

More than 90 percent of teen social media users said they have posted a picture of themselves – up from 79 percent in 2006. Seven in ten disclose the city or town where they live, up from about 60 percent over the same time period. And 20 percent disclose their cell phone number – up sharply from a mere two percent in 2006.

At the same time, teens say they’ve taken steps to protect their reputations and mask information they don’t want others to know. For example, nearly three-quarters of teen social media users have deleted people from their networks or friends list.

The researchers surveyed 802 parents and their 802 teens. The poll was conducted between July 26 and September 30, 2012, on landline and cell phones. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

From Time Magazine; full article HERE.

Map of Twitter usage around the world.

Illegal Drug Use Around the World — 5 Things You Need to Know

Global illegal drug use is expected to rise by 25% over the next few decades as rapid urbanization, industrialization, and population growth in developing countries fuel the demand for illegal substances, the UN’s anti-drug agency said in its new annual report this week. The report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), which underlines the fight against drug abuse with data on the consumption and production of illegal substances, also projects that developing countries will shoulder the burden of the global drug problem in the coming decades.

Here are the highlights of the UN findings:

1. Roughly 230 million people have used an illegal drug at least once in 2010.

In 2010, 5% of the world adult population aged 15-64 used illegal drugs at least once. Problem drug users, who mainly depend on cocaine and heroin, make up an estimated 0.6% of the world adult population, amounting to roughly 27 million. Every year, approximately 200,000 people worldwide die from drug abuse.

2. The global number of illegal drug users will go up by 25% by 2050.

If the annual prevalence of illegal drug use stays stable at 5% of the adult population over the next few decades, demographic trends indicate that the total number of illicit drug users will increase by a quarter by 2050, which is in proportion to world population growth. Although the current rate of 5% might appear like a small proportion of the world’s adult population, if this rate continues, there may be some extra 65 million illegal drug users by 2050 compared to 2009-2010.

(PHOTOS: Mexico’s Ongoing Drug Violence, by Shaul Schwarz)

3. The increase in illicit drug use will be most pronounced in developing countries.

Drug use is linked to urbanization. With the urban population of developing countries expected to double between 2011 and 2050, they will see a marked increase in the demand for drugs. In other words, the burden of the global drug problem will shift to countries that are relatively ill-equipped to deal with it, explains Yury Fedotov, the UN anti-drugs chief. In addition, developing countries’ higher projected population growth and younger populations, the main consumers of drugs, will raise the demand for illicit drugs in those nations.

4. Two of the world’s most popular illegal drugs are cannabis (marijuana) and amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS).

There are an estimated 119-224 million marijuana users globally, making it the most popular illegal substance in the world. Amphetamine-type stimulants, such as methamphetamine (but excluding ecstasy), come in second with around 14-52.5 million users worldwide. As of now there are no signs that marijuana will lose its status as the illegal drug of choice, says the report.

5. More women will use illicit drugs.

While men who take illegal drugs still greatly outnumber women, the gender gap, especially in developing countries, will narrow as conservative, sociocultural barriers break down and as gender equality improves.

Read more HERE from Time.

Why Tuition Has Skyrocketed at State Schools

From Catherine Rampell of the NYT, HERE.

I have an article today about the states’ long-term divestment from public higher education, and what that means for students.

As I’m sure you know, college tuitions have been skyrocketing for decades — with growth outpacing the Consumer Price Index, gasoline and even that great bugaboo of out-of-control costs, health care.

Here’s a chart showing price changes in these categories. The lines represent the price in a given year, as a percent of the price in 1985. For example, if a line reaches 200, that means prices in that year were 200 percent of those in 1985, or twice as high.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

College tuition and fees today are 559 percent of their cost in 1985. In other words, they have nearly sextupled (while consumer prices have roughly doubled).

There’s a lot of debate about why college costs have risen so much. Many people assume that schools are spending too much money on frivolous things like climbing walls and Jacuzzis. That’s true for a handful of elite schools, but not for a vast majority.

Some of the rising cost has to do with other services schools have been adding over the last few decades, like mental health counselors and emergency alert systems. And certainly there are other inefficiencies that have crept into the system as higher education has become more things to more people.

But at least at public colleges and universities — which enroll three out of every four American college students — the main cause of tuition growth has been huge state funding cuts.

Every recession, states face a budget squeeze as their tax revenue falls and demand for their services rises. They have to cut something, and higher education is often a prime target.

Why? Struggling states have to prioritize other mandatory spending, like Medicaid. Higher education usually falls under the “discretionary spending” part of the budget — and in fact is often one of the biggest programs, if not the biggest, in the discretionary category.

State legislators also know colleges have other sources of funds to turn to.

“If you’re a state legislator, you look at all your state’s programs and you say, ‘Well, we can’t make prisoners pay, but we can make college students pay,’” said Ronald Ehrenberg, the director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and a trustee of the State University of New York System.

College students do end up paying more. But in the past, after the economy recovered, most states did not fully restore the funds that were cut. As cuts accumulated in each business cycle, so did tuition increases.

Here’s a chart showing what’s happened to state support and actual tuition (what students pay after receiving financial aid, not sticker price) over the last 25 years. It presents just how much cost-shifting has been going on:

Sources: State Higher Education Executive OfficersFigures are per full-time equivalent student, in constant 2010 dollars adjusted by SHEEO Higher Education Cost Adjustment (HECA).

The trend does not look likely to reverse itself, either.

Sure, state tax revenues are growing again, but so are state spending obligations. States will soon have to pay out trillions in public pensions for the retiring baby boomer generation — squeezing the funds for training the next generation of workers even more.

A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College

Here is a link to the New York Times column called the “Choice” (HERE) which is all about the college admission and debt process.  here’s the overview of what the column is about:

Making a college list, filing applications, and marshaling the resources to afford an education can be intimidating. But it need not be. Join Jacques Steinberg, a New York Times education writer and author of “The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College,’’ as he and his colleagues examine all facets of the college admissions process. You can reach Mr. Steinberg by sending e-mail to thechoicenyt@gmail.com.

We also recommend that you follow the Degrees of Debt series in the Times; linked HERE.  Stay smart, students (and families).  It’s your choice and your future.

On Sunday, The New York Times introduced the series “Degrees of Debt,” which examines “the implications of soaring college costs and the indebtedness of students and their families.”

Regular readers of The Choice would be highly interested in this article, as it examines some serious issues we’ve covered about college affordability, student debt and the roles that students, parents, colleges and lenders have played in the issue. It explores whether student lending is the next bubble that may cause an economic collapse; the rationale behind sticker prices and the actual prices that students typically pay; misleading financial aid letters that saddle students with $42,000 in loans; responsible lending practices; and whether college is even worth the cost.

It also examines how state funding has affected college costs and, ultimately, student borrowing. Ohio State University, for example, used to receive 25 percent of its financing from the state. That was in 1990. Today, state financing only accounts for 7 percent of its budget. “The consequence? Three out of five undergraduates at Ohio State take out loans, and the average debt is $24,840,” our colleagues report.

On the issue of affordability, more college marketing companies are promoting the premise that the expense will work out in the end; they choose their words wisely and “focus on the value of the education rather than the cost,” our colleagues write.

The piece begins with Kelsey Griffith, an Ohio Northern University graduate who owes $120,000 in student debt.

“As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it,” she said. “I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that.”

The report examines how, over time, student debt has become a central part of the college experience. In 1993, The Times reports, 45 percent of students who earn bachelor’s degrees had to borrow money to pay for college. Nearly everyone has to borrow now; that percentage has soared to 94 percent. The report says:

With more than $1 trillion in student loans outstanding in this country, crippling debt is no longer confined to dropouts from for-profit colleges or graduate students who owe on many years of education, some of the overextended debtors in years past. Now nearly everyone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is borrowing. As prices soar, a college degree statistically remains a good lifetime investment, but it often comes with an unprecedented financial burden.

Ninety-four percent of students who earn a bachelor’s degree borrow to pay for higher education — up from 45 percent in 1993, according to an analysis by The New York Times of the latest data from the Department of Education. This includes loans from the federal government, private lenders and relatives.

For all borrowers, the average debt in 2011 was $23,300, with 10 percent owing more than $54,000 and 3 percent more than $100,000, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports. Average debt for bachelor degree graduates who took out loans ranges from under $10,000 at elite schools like Princeton and Williams College, which have plenty of wealthy students and enormous endowments, to nearly $50,000 at some private colleges with less affluent students and less financial aid.

The article also includes a detailed interactive chart that shows the increasing levels of student debt at colleges and universities around the country. The data go back to 2004 and allow users to customize the chart using a number of factors, including enrollment size, share of graduates with debt, graduation rates, and whether the school is public or private. It also provides data for a particular college or university, and displays your debt level, adjusted for inflation.

There has been overwhelming response to the piece, and our colleagues hope to hear from more readers about their experience with college loans, for future reporting for the series. Several experts have also weighed in on how, exactly, to control the rising levels of student debt and protect young borrowers from such big financial burdens. In a Room for Debate piece, experts weigh in on loan collection policies, controlling college costs, government spending, “reckless” for-profit colleges and better lending practices.