Rosalind Wiseman

Some of you reading this blog may think that the rosalindwiseman.com writers have some inherent gift for tapping into teenage culture. That we know all the latest trends in music, movies, TV, and videos. Or that we have a special radar to alert us when something new hits the scene. At 25, you’d think maybe I’m close enough to my teenage years that I would know what’s in and what’s not. But I have to reveal a little secret…we don’t! At least, we actually have to work at it to be in-the-know. Teen culture evolves so fast, and to be honest, my iPod is comprised mainly of songs I got when “free downloading” wasn’t exactly considered illegal—that is, between 1999 and 2002, aka ancient history for today’s teens.

So, what do I do to stay connected? Below are the five best tools I’ve found for doing research on teens, tweens, and pop culture. Check them out and in no time you’ll be a teen culture expert!

YouTube.com

Fred is a tween YouTube sensation.

Okay, this seems obvious right? You’ve actually heard of YouTube and you know your kids use it. But did you realize quite how much they use it? A recent study by Symantec Norton (the anti-virus software company) revealed that YouTube is the #1 most-searched keyword by kids. On top of that, the #9 top-searched word is “Fred,” a tween YouTube sensation who makes somewhat-funny videos in an incredibly annoying high-pitched voice. But I digress…kids and teens are using it so that means you need to also. The great thing about YouTube is that you can use it to watch pretty much any music video, as well as lots of TV and movie clips. Not only will you find the official videos, but kids will often make their own tributes (or “video response”) to their favorite ones and post those online, too. These can usually be found under “related videos” on the right-hand column. Start by entering the songs and shows you know your kids like plus the word “official,” and then see where your search takes you. Then, scroll down and see what people have said in the Comments section. Finally, you can check out individual profiles of people who comment or subscribe to a channel and by doing so, get an idea of what the general demographic for that content looks like.

Urban Dictionary.com

Bromance. fauxhawk. butter face. Stanky Leg. kthxbi. postgame. manorexia. fml. Bush league. Twihard.

If you’ve ever heard a young person use a word and had absolutely no idea what in the world it meant, try typing it into the site UrbanDictionary.com. Urban Dictionary is no Merriam-Websters—it’s primarily for slang words and phrases. It allows users to submit definitions for the words and then other people can rate the definitions with a thumbs up or down until eventually the most accurate one rises to the top. It’s extremely useful for avoiding the embarrassment of actually asking a teen what the word they’re using is and sounding like a complete idiot when you pronounce it. However, under no circumstances should you actually try to use said word in everyday conversation—just because you know what it means does not give you instant credibility with teens to use it. Also, as a warning, you might find some vulgar words or phrases that you really, really never wanted to know you kid knows. Don’t worry, in 99.9999% of cases kids use these terms to either be funny or impress their friends, not to refer to people or events in their real lives.

iTunes Store

Why should iTunes—the media downloading program from Apple—and specifically the iTunes Store become your new best friend? Because it does all the work for you! First, the iTunes Store conveniently lists the top-100 downloaded items in every single category (song singles, albums, TV shows, movie sales, music videos, etc.). That means you don’t have to guess what’s popular – it’s all right there and constantly updated. Plus, iTunes gives you a 30-second preview of every song and video, so you don’t have to spend any money to get a quick glimpse of what something’s about. If you do want to make a purchase, most songs are around 99 cents (TV shows are $1.99 and movies start at $3.99). You can download iTunes for free—no matter what computer system you have—at http://www.apple.com/itunes/ then go to the “Store” on the left-hand side of the program and start window shopping!

MetroLyrics / LyricsMode / LetsSingIt / LyricsMania

Most kids know the lyrics to their favorite songs by heart. But even after hearing a song on the radio 100 times, I often still miss some of them. Lucky for us, the Internet makes finding song lyrics ridiculously easy. Just type in the name of a song or artist and the word “lyrics” into your favorite search engine and the results will pop up with various sites containing the lyrics to the song. Since most of these sites rely on user-submitted content, I often will cross-reference among them to verify what the most accurate ones are. But wait, what if you don’t know the name of a song or who sings it? Don’t worry – the beauty is that since what you’re looking for are the lyrics to a song, you’ll usually yield a successful search just by entering in any part of the song that you can remember. You’ll have the best results if you can remember a specific line or two and put it in quotes – for example, “I lost my fake ID” and “lyrics” will bring up Katy Perry’s new hit single “Waking Up In Vegas“.

Teen Blips

Q: What if you don’t have a lot of time to go scouring the Internet for news, videos, blogs, and gossip related to teen culture? TeenBlips is the answer to your prayers. It rounds up all the most popular items in the above categories (from the big dogs like MTV to small bloggers) and delivers it to you in one convenient place. In their own words, “With our unique combination of technology and editorial, TeenBlips brings you the hottest stories teens are talking about, removing the hassle of information overload.” I admit that I only recently discovered this site, but I’m so glad I did.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to talk to the young people in your life to see what they, in particular, are interested in—they’ll respect you for admitting what you don’t know, and will appreciate your interest in their culture.

If you have any other great resources I should check out, let me know in the comments below!