It’s no secret that among corporate America, the prime demographic that they target and want to reach are young people, generally between 18-40 years old. That’s a large part of why so many shows on TV -- whether they’re dramas, sitcoms, or reality shows -- are geared towards young people, as well as the commercials contained within them. But where does that leave baby boomers who still constitute a large portion of all TV viewers? As the Associated Press reports, a backlash among baby boomers may be forming against TV’s obsession with youth:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they believe that most TV programming and advertising is targeted toward people under 40, the survey said. More than 80 percent of adults over 40 say they have a hard time finding TV shows that reflect their lives. A significant number of baby boomers -- 37 percent -- say they aren’t happy with what’s on television, according to the study. . . .

To a certain extent, the generation that decades ago warned against trusting people over 30 can blame itself for the predicament. The TV industry’s slavish devotion to ratings within the 18-to-49-year-old demographic started when most baby boomers fit into that group. . . . The Harris Interactive study found that half of baby boomers say they tune out commercials that are clearly aimed at young people. An additional one-third said they’d go out of their way NOT to buy such a product.

There’s two issues in play here. The first is that baby boomers are apparently being jilted by the same trend that they first enjoyed. In other words, as the article notes, the practice of advertisers targeting young people began with baby boomers. Apparently they didn’t mind when they were the ones receiving all the attention but now are feeling left behind as they grow older, like they’re being traded in for a newer model. So on the one hand, I think their objections sound a little like sour grapes.

On the other hand, I absolutely agree that corporate America has a slavish mentality regarding youth culture, or what they perceive to be youth culture. In other words, in their ever-ending quest for capitalist profit, corporate America and the mainstream media frequently pursue young people with a narrow, tunnel vision-like obsession and in the process, ignore all other possible uses of their resources.

To that we might add that with the advent of the Internet and associated high-tech gadgets like iPods, cell phones, TiVo, video-on-demand, etc., traditional TV outlets are in danger of becoming obsolete in the near future. So this obsession with youth culture on TV is like chasing an increasingly fleeting target to begin with and in fact, may be turning off and alienating the one demographic that may be the most loyal to traditional TV.

But I guess that’s just like corporate America and the mainstream media -- desperately trying to influence us but oblivious to the often contradictory effect that they’re actually having on us.

We all know by now that students these days are generally pretty adept at using various forms of technology, whether it’s text messaging and snapping pictures on their cell phones, listening to their iPods, or networking on sites like Facebook and MySpace. But are students really skilled at processing the tons of information out there on the Internet and determining what’s useful versus what’s useless? As Inside Higher Education reports, in a lot of cases, the answer is no:

A new report released Tuesday by the Educational Testing Service finds that students lack many basic skills in information literacy, which ETS defines as the ability to use technology to solve information problems. The original impetus for the study came from librarians and professors who have found that students can use technology for socializing or entertainment but still have problems finding information, evaluating it and then putting it to use, said Irvin Katz, a research scientist with ETS. . . .

Results also show that students might even lack the basics on a search engine like Google. When asked to narrow a search that was too broad, only 35 percent of students selected the correct revision. Further, 80 percent of students put irrelevant points into a slide program designed to persuade an audience.

I think the bottom line here is that all the technology in the world does not change the fact that in order to function well in college today (and in the contemporary globalized society in general), students still need to know basic research skills. These research skills are different from the ability to program addresses into a cell phone or to upload a video to one’s iPod. In other words, it seems as though students still need lots of practice when it comes to analytical and cognitive reasoning abilities.

It’s been reported before that Americans’ math skills are in decline, especially in comparison with other developed countries. In fact, experts warn that if these trends continue, American competitiveness in the global marketplace will start to decline. In this context, as the New York Times reports, education officials are not reversing their policies to place a greater emphasis on basic math skills:

For the second time in a generation, education officials are rethinking the teaching of math in American schools. The changes are being driven by students’ lagging performance on international tests and mathematicians’ warnings that more than a decade of so-called reform math — critics call it fuzzy math — has crippled students with its de-emphasizing of basic drills and memorization in favor of allowing children to find their own ways to solve problems. . . .

“When my oldest child, an A-plus stellar student, was in sixth grade, I realized he had no idea, no idea at all, how to do long division,” Ms. Backman said, “so I went to school and talked to the teacher, who said, ‘We don’t teach long division; it stifles their creativity.’” . . . It was a report from this same group in 1989 that influenced a generation of teachers to let children explore their own solutions to problems, write and draw pictures about math, and use tools like the calculator at the same time they learn algorithms.

Normally, as a parent of a young child myself, I tend to support educational policies and curricula that encourages students to be creative and expressive, rather than constraining them to fit into traditional models of learning that overly emphasize achievement scores. However, in this case, I happen to agree with the “back to basics” approach. I’m all for art, physical education, music, etc., but I also think it’s unacceptable that children today aren’t taught long division.

Yes, everybody can get the right answer more easily by using a calculator, but reflecting on my own experiences, techniques such as long division don’t just teach you the right answer, but also teach you that there’s a method by which you use to arrive at the answer -- a method and discipline that can be applied in many other subjects and more generally, areas of life, as well. Sure, this type of methodical technique has its limits but should not be discarded altogether.

Ultimately, I think there’s a time and place for everything -- be sure to include opportunities for creative expression, but also make sure that students have basic, fundamental skills necessary to succeed in our increasingly competitive globalized society. We might wish that this wasn’t the case, but this is the reality in which we live, like it or not.

As virtually all naturalized immigrants can tell you, in order to become a U.S. citizen, you have to pass a test about American history. But as the Christian Science Monitor reports, apparently, some policymakers think such questions are outdated and make it too easy for applicants to memorize. Therefore, many want to revamp the citizenship test so that rather than focusing on history, it would instead test applicants on their knowledge of American values and ideals:

To gain American citizenship, immigrants must be able to answer such questions as: What was the 49th state added to our Union? What color are the stars on our flag? And who wrote the Star Spangled Banner? Sound trivial? The US government thinks so, and plans to roll out a new pilot test this winter.

It will continue to be an oral test, conducted in English, and will have 10 questions. Six correct answers will earn a passing grade. But the content, which is tightly under wraps, is expected to shun simple historical facts about America that can be recounted in a few words for more explanation about the principles of American democracy, such as freedom.

The changes raise the bar - critics say too high - for immigrants to show not only that they care enough to study for a test, but also that they understand and share American values. Behind the shift is rising anxiety among Americans about high levels of immigration and European troubles with large, unassimilated communities, say observers. . . .

Immigrant advocacy groups are wary of the changes, which coincide with a review at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency that is expected to call for a substantial hike in the $400 citizenship application fees. . . . The changes in the US bring the test closer to the notion sweeping Europe that gaining citizenship requires subscribing to a set of shared values.

In summary, the idea behind revamping the citizenship test is the implicit assumption that immigrants who want to become U.S. citizens should have some degree of attachment to predominant American ideals. In theory, I don’t really have a problem with that as long as such ideals emphasize such things as freedom of speech, religion, self-determination, non-discrimination, and equality under the law. In fact, these are principles upon which this country was supposedly founded.

The potential problem with these proposed changes however, would be that first, these ideals are frequently contradicted by practical reality, especially in times of war against foreign powers. Therefore, there’s a danger of possibly highlighting such contradictions in American society, especially for those immigrants who are not White. Second, hopefully such American ideals will not veer too much into nationalistic ideology, such as some proclamation that American society is superior to all others or that we should strive to spread American culture and brand of democracy to the rest of the world.

Ultimately, I have no problems with promoting American ideals -- as long as they are the fundamental ideals upon which this country was founded, rather than “ideals” that have nationalistic or ideological connotations.

For those who need a quick refresher on how the different racial/ethnic groups in American society compare across various socioeconomic measures such as income, education, homeownership, etc., as CBS News reports, the Census Bureau has just released data from 2005 that show how disparities continue to exist among the different races and, in many cases, such disparities are getting larger:

“Race is so associated with class in the United States that it may not be direct discrimination, but it still matters indirectly,” said Dalton Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of “Being Black, Living in the Red.” “It doesn’t mean it’s any less powerful just because it’s indirect,” he said.

Home ownership grew among white middle-class families after World War II when access to credit and government programs made buying houses affordable. Black families were largely left out because of discrimination, and the effects are still being felt today, said Lance Freeman, assistant professor of urban planning at Columbia University and author of “There Goes the ‘Hood.” Home ownership creates wealth, which enables families to live in good neighborhoods with good schools. It also helps families finance college, which leads to better-paying jobs, perpetuating the cycle, Freeman said.

Black families have also been hurt by the decline of manufacturing jobs — the same jobs that helped propel many white families into the middle class after World War II, said Hilary Shelton, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Washington office.

This article and these findings highlight the paramount importance of homeownership as a vehicle for economic mobility and it briefly shows why Blacks have largely been denied those opportunities through past and present segregation and housing discrimination. The cumulative effects of those disadvantages are now making themselves apparent in the lives of Blacks.

The bottom line is that for these racial disparities to be adequately addressed, eliminating individual-level prejudice is nice, but not sufficient. Along with changing the lifestyle choices of some minorities, the answer lies with eliminating the barriers to affordable homeownership and reducing the effects of the continuing segregation of Blacks from high quality neighborhoods and by implication, mainstream American society.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be even more difficult now, since housing prices continue to put even modest homes out of reach for many working class and even middle class families of all races. Rather than relying on “the market” to make the necessary accommodations, this is where the federal government can lend a helping hand by reducing taxes on the working and middle classes and expanding its first-time homeowners programs.

There will certainly be costs involved, but as the data show, it’s an investment that will definitely pay off in the years to come.

You would think that judging by the recent election results, the Bush administration has gotten the message that their same-old tired policies are starting to wear thin on the American people. Apparently that’s not the case because as the Associated Press writes, the administration has just declared that similar to its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, non-citizen immigrants in the U.S. can also be treated as if they have no rights and detained indefinitely without being charged with anything:

The Justice Department said a new anti-terrorism law being used to hold detainees in Guantanamo Bay also applies to foreigners captured and held in the United States. Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was arrested in 2001 while studying in the United States. He has been labeled an “enemy combatant,” a designation that, under a law signed last month, strips foreigners of the right to challenge their detention in federal courts.

That law is being used to argue the Guantanamo Bay cases, but Al-Marri represents the first detainee inside the United States to come under the new law. Aliens normally have the right to contest their imprisonment, such as when they are arrested on immigration violations or for other crimes. “It’s pretty stunning that any alien living in the United States can be denied this right,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for Al-Marri. “It means any non-citizen, and there are millions of them, can be whisked off at night and be put in detention.”

The new law says that enemy combatants will be tried before military commissions, not a civilian judge or jury, and establishes different rules of evidence in the cases. It also prohibits detainees from challenging their detention in civilian court.

I should be shocked to learn about this particular development but the more I think about it, the more I am not surprised that apparently the Bush administration thinks it’s fine to treat certain Americans with the same kind of disdain and hostility that it treats foreign enemies. Apparently it doesn’t mean anything that such immigrants are here in the U.S. legally and may be conducting their lives and contributing to American society just as any other American would.

On top of that, the administration also wants to keep its torture tactics a secret by asking judges to forbid detainees from discussing how they’ve been treated while imprisoned with their lawyers. As many of have before, “Fascism -- are we there yet?”

As another sign that China is continuing its quest to become a global economic superpower, China has announced that it will pledge billions in aid to African nations and significantly increase its trade with the African continent:

China is launching a sweeping effort to expand its access to Africa’s oil and markets, pledging billions of dollars in aid and loans. Chinese entrepreneurs on Sunday signed deals with African governments and firms worth $1.9 billion, state media reported. Some 16 deals were signed at the conclusion of a conference of Chinese and African entrepreneurs on the sidelines of a two-day forum in Beijing attended by dozens of African leaders.

African leaders at the forum said they welcomed Chinese investment and business ties, but Beijing also faces criticism that it is treating Africa like a colonial territory and supports regimes with poor human rights records. . . . Human rights activists accuse China of supporting governments such as Sudan and Zimbabwe that are accused of chronic abuses. African business groups complain about poor treatment by Chinese companies and competition from a flood of low-cost imports.

But a succession of African leaders who spoke Saturday said they want closer commercial ties with China and hope to learn from its two-decade-old boom as they try to reduce poverty.

I suppose it was inevitable that China would eventually expand its economic presence around the world and in effect, pick up where the U.S. is perhaps leaving off. In fact, I might even say that China is following in the U.S.’s footsteps in more ways than one -- increasing its financial and economic role in a foreign country, then perhaps slowly increases its political clout with that nation’s leaders as well.

If indeed this is China’s strategy, it should know that previous results involving the U.S. have not always turned out well. You might even say that the current global tensions directed at the U.S. from various parts of the world are a direct testament to the U.S.’s “economic imperialism.” With that in mind, let China be warned -- bring it if you want, but don’t make the same mistakes the U.S. made -- and continues to make.

Like virtually all liberals, I am delighted to hear that voters around the country have given back control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to the Democrats. This is on top of Democrats now having the most state governorships as well, particular in my home state of Massachusetts, where Deval Patrick has made history as the first Black governor of the state (and only the second popularly-elected one in American history).

But what gives me just as much pleasure is to read that, as reported by the New York Times, that this year, due to the popularity and emerging power of “social” technologies such as political blogs and video-sharing sites such as YouTube, American citizens were much more diligent about reporting and recording incidents of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement.

In a new twist this year, many bloggers buttressed their accounts of electoral shenanigans with links to videos posted on the video Web site YouTube. . . . Brad Friedman, perhaps the most dogged critic of electronic voting machine technology in the blogosphere, said he saw his site traffic spike at left-leaning Bradblog.com, as reports of machine malfunctions began pouring in from around the country.

That the blog now has a firm place in the choreography of national events — and in elections perhaps more so than in any other cultural exercise — is a boon to the democratic process, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Internet governance at Oxford University and a co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. . . .

Alluding to some of the voter intimidation reports that unfolded on Election Day, he added, “There’s also a real difference between hearing about a call that tells someone they’re not allowed to vote and actually hearing the call as if you are receiving it.” Some bloggers placed what were said to be digital recordings of such calls online for the world to hear.

Elsewhere online, voting machine problems also filled many posts on Talking Points Memo, a liberal site that seemed to take the initiative in tracking complaints, malfunctions and alleged malfeasance by Republicans.

In other words, Democracy has made comeback, in more ways than one!