The title of this article caught my attention. I thought it seemed interesting that 'most' teens with mental disorders aren't medicated. I feel like there are too many people on medications who may not really need them. I think doctors are usually too quick to prescribe medicine to someone who could live easily without it. Our society relies too much on medication for a quick fix instead of fixing the direct problem.

The study involved 10,000 middle class teens who had at least a high school education. I thought that this was not a very good sample since they only interviewed people from one social class. I wonder how the numbers would have differed if they had a wider sample of people. In the middle class, I feel like many people have access to good doctors and clinics where they would be more likely to get medication. In the lower class, this might be completely different. Also, many mental disorders stem from how the child is brought up. I think in the lower class mental disorders would be more prevalent.

It was interesting to me that they found that many kids were on the wrong medications for the mental disorder they were diagnosed in this research study. They also said that 2,250 kids are not diagnosed with a mental disorder when they should be on medication. This was really surprising to me because if as many kids as this study says were really on medication it would be a large population being medicated. This study bothered me a little because I don't think medication is the answer to all problems - especially in teenage years when teens are going through a number of emotional and mental changes.

This was an interesting article because it explains the findings from a research study that shows that advertisements in magazines were more likely to be seen on an iPad versus print form. I thought this is was interesting because I feel like the findings would be opposite. I feel like people are so used to the internet and avoiding advertisements online that we are trained not to look at them. We are a generation so accustomed to the internet and pop-up ads and ads everywhere on the computer screen. Plus, in a magazine the advertisements are larger and more interesting to look at. The internet is so interactive, people usually don't want to be looking at a big advertisement. Ads in the iPad edition generated 21% higher recall than ads in the print edition which I thought was substantially higher.

This article caught my eye because it seems like this generation is obsessed with social media. I think it is interesting the way social media has changed so much in the world we live today. It's interesting to see marketing techniques being carried out through social media and its cool to see how much one can monitor on social media.

It's interesting to me that Procter & Gamble Co. would think that research surveys will become obsolete in the near future because information can be found on social media. I look forward to see how social media will change in the next decade and what will be the next fascination. I feel like research surveys will never become too 'old-fashioned' though because they are such a classic way of gathering information. I don't think that it is something that can be replaced by social media.

Break Media did a study on young men ages 18-34 and their perception of advertisements. The number of this article amazed me and I thought it was worth writing about.
Some of the findings that I thought were interesting were:
-47% of online men in that demographic have purchased a product or service after seeing an online ad.
-59% of young men notice ads, 35% like ads that allow them to play a game and 34% like ads that allow them to participate in a contest.
-69% say they can't live without the Internet, compared with 31% for television.
-40% use the Internet for more than 22 hours a week.

The article does not say how the survey was conducted so I cannot say whether this sample reflects the general population but either way I was surprised by how receptive men were to advertisements. The article does not say, but I'm curious to see how women and advertisements compare. I feel like women's numbers would be higher because I assume they are bigger shoppers and spend more money.

I thought this article was funny because I can't believe that the government would waste so much money on such an obvious observation. Clearly, much of today's work environment sits at a desk all day and combined with the typical American's terrible eating habits it will cause weight gain. This is something we talked about in class which was to not waste your time researching something that has already been researched or something that does not need research because it is obvious. However, it does not surprise me that the government spend time and money on something as stupid as this instead of fixing the problem directly with that money. The millions of dollars that were spend on discovering American's weigh more now than they did in the 1960's would have been better spent on finding a solution to this problem.

This article talked about how advertising firms some times use hypnosis to tap into people's real feelings about a product. I thought it was really interesting that advertisers go as far as putting people in a deep hypnosis to see what would make their brand most effective to consumers. I wonder if this is something that happens often and how ethical it is. I feel like it would be easy for people to fake being hypnotized. In the article, it said that people can remember back to the first tv show (or whatever the category they are studying) and they remember not only the show but which episode it was, what they were wearing and other characteristics such as smell and feeling. It's hard for me to believe that this can actually happen and people would be able to remember back that far. However, I would like to do more research on hypnosis and brands because that seems like an extremely effective way to get consumer's real, subconscience feelings toward a brand. I'm surprised every brand does not do this if it is really as effective and it claims in this article.

Another thing I was surprised by in this article is that the focus groups were found by phone interviews and 70-80% of the people contacted for this research study agreed to be hypnotized. Personally, I feel like it is hard enough to get people to answer a short questionnaire so I have a hard time believing that many people would be interested in doing a study where they have to be hypnotized.

This research was interesting to me because it shows how emotionally connected consumers are to brands. This study found that one in four consumers feel an emotion close to love when it comes to choosing what brand to buy. That interesting to find that people feel that deep of an emotion from just a brand.
The research also found that men who feel this love for their favourite beer will purchase 38% more than the average consumer. This study also found that women would buy 60% more of their favorite laundry detergent if they felt a connection to it. It seems like it would be easy for businesses to make money if they could figure out how to create this connection between consumers and their products. I would be interested in seeing research (if there is any) on what makes people prefer certain brands compared to others and what specifically evokes these deep emotions for certain brands.

I thought this study was funny because I think it does a good job of portraying the American outlook on obesity. The survey was conducted by 2,250 phone surveys and the findings were that Americans agree that other Americans are overweight but they refuse to view themselves as overweight.
Nine-in-ten American adults say most of their fellow Americans are overweight. But just seven-in-ten say this about "the people they know." And just under four-in-ten say they themselves are overweight. Most people agreed that the main reason for obesity is personal habits - specifically lack of exercise.
I think the information for this survey would have been more honest and true of the sample if it was conducted online. During a phone interview people are more likely to lie about their weight or feel uncomfortable about sharing personal information. An online survey would eliminate the feeling of shame or judgement and provide more accurate information.

This survey shows the demographic trend of public opinion on topics dealing with families and marriages from 1960-2008. This is really interesting to show how the population and their values have changed over time. The report shows visuals (pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs) to give the audience a picture of the changing opinions. I think the visuals add a lot to the quality of the report because it gives me a better feel for the numbers since there are a lot of statistics for this study.
It's really interesting to see how societies opinions are changing and to be able to look back at a snippet of time and see what the public opinions were then. I think one of the most dramatic changes noted was the number of child births to unmarried women increased from 5% in 1960 to 41% in 2008. I wonder what sparked the steep change of opinion.

The headline on this article grabbed my attention immediately. The article explains that research performed by PsychTests shows that entrepreneurs have a distinct set of personality traits that sets them apart from other people. I think that it is odd that a personality can be tested and put on paper. In my opinion, a personality would be very difficult to test through a series of questions. Also, the survey was taken online so that is another factor that takes away from the validity of this study.
I also found it funny that the article said, "entrepreneurs describe themselves as more ambitious" which I feel is an obvious characteristic of someone who is bold enough to be an entrepreneur and endure the many risks it takes to do so.

This was an interesting study by Pew Research Center about the birth rate in the United States. The headline caught my eye right away because I thought it was strange that the birth rate in the U.S. is the lowest ever recorded.
This study used preliminary data for the 2011 National Center for Health Statistics as well as data from 1990 to 2010 from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The study shows that the United States is displaying a recent large decrease in birth rate due to very low birth rates for immigrants. The substantially lower birth rate of immigrants is pulling the overall number of birth rates down for the country. I thought this was particularily interesting because it shows that birth rate as a whole is not decreasing but the problem is with a small sector. I think that the high level of immigrants skewing the data could lower the validity of the study.

This research study by Pew Research Center investaged the correlation between cell phone use and holiday shopping.
During a 30 day period before and after Christmas 2011, 38% of cell owners called a friend for advice about a purchase they were considering; 24% looked up online reviews of a product; and, 25% checked prices to see if they could do better elsewhere.
The age group most likely to use cell phones to help make a shopping decision was 18-49, which makes sense since they are the most avid shoppers and cell phone users.

This study shows attitudes of 2,254 respondents toward their cellphones and their usage patterns.The results reported were taken between March 15-April 3, 2012, including interviews on landline and cell phones and conducted in English and Spanish. The overall sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

This survey's numbers were shocking to me because it showed how attached people are to their cellphones. It is interesting that people can be so attached to an electronic device and have such strong emotions toward it. The most interesting fact to me was the overall pressure people feel to be attached to their phones. Whether or not they want to be attached, they feel as if they have to be because other people are so reliant on their phones. It has become a social norm for people to always be connected with their phones.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a study on adolescents and video games. They say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention.
The team divided a group of 44 adolescents into two groups, and randomly assigned the kids to play either "Medal of Honor" (violent) or "Need for Speed" (non-violent) for 30 minutes. Immediately after the play sessions, the children were given MRIs of their brains.
Although they cannot definitely say that violent video games make children more violent, they can say that video games make children more emotionally aroused which may lead to violent behavior.

I thought this was an interesting study because kids are so into video games and it will be interesting to see the long-term effects of video games and personality traits.

I thought this article was interesting because it explains the analytics behind Target's marketing strategy and reveals that major retailers probably know much more than consumers are aware of.

Target assigns customers Guest ID numbers whenever possible and tracks all his/her purchases. This allows Target to target the customer on an individual level and advertise products specifically to the customer based on previous purchases.
Target also purchases demographic information on customers with Guest ID numbers to better target products toward them. Some information available to Target includes marital status, income, gender, age, whether you have kids, what part of town you live in and much more.
Through trial and error and many surveys, Target has learned that the best way to get consumers to become regular customers is to send coupons during pivotal times in their lives. For example, during pregnancy, engagement, divorce, etc. These times in your life you are more likely to get into a routine of purchasing habits. Target uses this knowledge to subtly draw you into their store for products by sending coupons for a baby (if you were pregnant) combined with other products so it was less obvious you were being targeted. Target even gets as specific as targeting you during different times in your pregnancy according to how far along you are.

I thought this was an extremely interesting article because as a consumer I feel like I'm completely blind to advertising techniques such as this. It is interesting to think about how much information about yourself is available to corporations and the way they use this information is genius.