POP CULTURE: IS THE INTERNET KILLING FAMILY TIME??

HERE’S AN INTERESTING QUESTION FOR THE POPULAR CULTURE AT LARGE: IS THE INTERNET KILLING QUALITY TIME FOR FAMILIES?? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? CHECK THIS ARTICLE OUT & LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS. CHEERS & ENJOY.

Cell phones make it easier for parents to keep track of where their children are, while giving kids the kind of privacy they wouldn't have had in the days of landlines.

Television has cut into dinner time, and as TV sets became cheaper, they also multiplied, so that kids and parents no longer have to congregate in the living room to watch it.

But Gilbert said the Internet is so engrossing, and demands so much more attention than other technologies, that it can disrupt personal boundaries in ways other technologies wouldn't have.

"It's not like television, where you can sit around with your family and watch," he said. The Internet, he noted, is mostly one-on-one.

Likely because they can afford more Web-connected gadgets, higher-income families reported greater loss of family time than those who make less money. And more women than men said they felt ignored by a family member using the Internet.

The center's latest survey was a random poll of 2,030 people ages 12 and up was conducted April 9 to June 30, 2008, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

More on Internet use

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URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373702/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

FUNNY COMMERCIALS: BURGER KING SQUAREPANTS

THIS IS THE SECOND VIDEO INSTALLMENT UNDER MY “FUNNY COMMERCIALS” TOPIC HEADER. I THINK THE VIDEO IS RIDICULOUS & ABSURD, & I DO UNDERSTAND THE CONTROVERSY SWIRLING AROUND IT. IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, CHECK OUT THE VIDEO, THEN READ THE COMMENTS, & LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT IT. BY THE WAY, THE COMMERCIAL IN QUESTION IS THE BURGER KING SIR MIX-A-LOT SQUAREPANTS COMMERCIAL

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nopKDuydRo

SIR MIX-A-LOT CRITICIZED FOR BURGER KING COMMERCIAL

Sir Mix-A-Lot has come under fire from a children's advocacy group for his new Burger King commercial, in which he spoofs the kids' show "Spongebob Squarepants."

In the TV advertisement, the rapper sings about the cartoon character, who is renamed SpongeBob SquareButt, in a parody of his hit song "Baby Got Back."

The star raps the new lyrics: "I like square butts and I cannot lie" as background dancers show off their square bottoms in tiny shorts.

Now 2,600 members of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood have taken aim at the rapper as well as TV network Nickelodeon, which created the cartoon.

CCFC director Dr Susan Linn says in a statement: "Parents deserve to know whether Nickelodeon -- the most popular children's television network -- signed off on the use of SpongeBob in a commercial that celebrates lechery and objectifies women.