interesting data

... felt compelled to jot down some of these stats I'm reading today.. stuff to chew on;

from Macleans Jan 21st issue (article called 'How to Fix Boys')
"The most startling change between teenage culture today and 30 years ago is the way more and more teenage boys have moved away from the courtship of girls. Online pornography has displaced the pursuit of real girls for a significant number of boys."

and;

"The pornography of 30 years ago was Playboy .. boys today can watch pornographic material on 50", high definition flat screens - engaging them in an entirely different way. Today, its common for boys to prefer pornography to the real thing: stating that girls are too demanding, they want you to do stuff, they cost too much money, a porn site is $12.95/month and the girls on it are prettier."
From an interview with Leonard Sax, a child development expert who wrote 'Boys Adrift'

How about this comment on our consumptive patterns?
Quoted in an article about the effects of advertising; 'The Distorted Mirror' by Richard Pollay. (in the Journal of Marketing)
(referring to the unintended consequences of advertising from a National Science Foundation review of the effects of advertising on children)
"encouragement of unsafe behavious, confused assessment of products, encouragement of inappropriate standards of choice, promotion of parent-child conflict, modeling of hazardous behaviour, reinforment of (gender) stereotypes, cynicism, and selfishness. "

...most fascinating of all was that the above quote about children and advertising was written in 1978 back when wage earning adults were the target of advertising campaigns. Wonder what studies reveal now that most marketing strategies target children and adolescents?