***Round-Up***

Some stuff for you to sip on with your champagne this week:

Internet: "I'm kind of a big deal." I know it's hard to tell (sarcasm), but the Internet has taken over newspapers as a source of news for Americans, according to Pew Research. Television is still in the lead. For those age 18 to 29, Internet and television news are neck and neck. I expect the Internet to take over very soon. Television is increasingly becoming background noise to Generation Y.

Girl gamers: Step aside male geek stereotype: Most hard-core gamers are female, according to study cited by the BBC. While more men play video games than women, women are more "dedicated," devoting more hours to the game.

Inked up: I know I'm addicted to Pew, but I've got another one: More than one in three 18- to 25-year-olds (which Pew refers to as "Gen Nexters," so basically Gen Y) have tattoos. However, Gen Xers beat us: 40% of them (age 26 to 40) have tattoos. It looks like they broke the skin and we continued the trend.

As I've kind of said before, tattoos have become more mainstream. It might not be mainstream to have the designs of some people I know (things I admire but would never have the courage to do), but, the little clover on my foot doesn't seem to faze people. So I wonder if culture has evolved to be more self-expressive in general, or if it is always self-expressive and manifests itself in different ways (for women in the 1930s it was ... wearing pants!). In my opinion, Gen X and Y are part of an obvious American trend of ushering in more individual self expression. Yet on the other hand, if everyone is getting a clover on their foot, it's not as individualistic as you might think...