American Morning

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April 20th, 2010
10:00 AM ET

Can teen texting become an addiction?

Editor's Note: For most teenagers, cell phone texting has become a lifeline, but is it an addiction? Ask many parents and they'll say yes. Today in our original series, "Texting 2 Much?" our Deb Feyerick talks to teens with excessive texting habits. Tomorrow on American Morning, we talk to teachers to find out what some schools are doing to keep kids' fingers off their phones.

By CNN Correspondent Deborah Feyerick with producer Dana Garrett

(CNN) – Get a group of teenage girls together anywhere in America and chances are they'll talk about other girls, boys and what to do for the weekend. Oh, they'll also text. A lot. Even if they're sitting right next to each other, the cell phone is out, the fingers moving quickly over the tiny keyboard.

"I don't think it's being addicted to my cell phone," says sophomore Sara Marshall. "It's the need to be talking with my friends and the cell phone is just the way I do that."

Marshall, who lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, says she sends a few hundred texts a day, the same amount as her friends. On average, teens send upwards of 3,200 texts a month, according to the Neilson Company.

Three teens discuss their extreme texting habits Video

A new study by the Pew Research Center finds, when it comes to teens, texting beats all other means of communication hands down, including face-to-face, e-mail, instant messaging and talking on the phone.

FULL POST


Filed under: Living • Texting 2 Much?
April 16th, 2010
11:00 AM ET
April 14th, 2010
10:00 AM ET

A movement to bring back the 'man's man'

By Bob Ruff and Carol Costello

(CNN) – Where have all the real men gone? You know, confident, take charge guys like Rough Rider and former President Teddy Roosevelt, or the manly character Jack Bauer from “24”?

Brett McKay, who has made a career out of teaching men to act like men, has a Web site that teaches a new generation of men how to do things that their fathers and grandfathers took for granted.

FULL POST


Filed under: Living
April 9th, 2010
10:00 AM ET

An instrument of change for one Harmonica player

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/04/09/harrison.harmonica.art.jpg caption="Bradley Harrison risked everything to make his dream of owning a harmonica factory come true."]

By Katherine Wojtecki, CNN

ROCKFORD, IL (CNN) – “It's the coolest instrument in the world. You can put it in your pocket you can carry it around... it’s a real musical instrument.”

For Bradley Harrison, that musical instrument – the harmonica – became an instrument of change in his own life.

After picking one up at a house party 14 years ago, Harrison decided to leave his job as a restaurant manager to pursue his new passion. With no formal business training and only a high school education he risked everything to make his dream a reality.

“I think they thought I was a pipe dreamer. And that can either destroy you or make you even more determined and it made me more determined to prove everyone wrong.”

Risking it all for a perfect harmonica Video

With that determination, Harrison commuted 90 miles each way, maxed out five credit cards and even slept on the floor in his office.

“I'd work until 2 a.m. and I went to the local store and I bought a sleeping bag and I'd sleep here. I know it sounds sad its not but at the time I was living the high life, so it's all how you look at it.”

Then the economy took a turn for the worse.

FULL POST


Filed under: Living
April 8th, 2010
11:00 AM ET

NY high school drives immigrant students to success

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/04/08/soledad.newcomers.art.jpg caption="Alfredo Duque, 17, arrived to the U.S. three years ago from Mexico. After his graduation from Newcomers High School, he will move to Wisconsin to attend Lawrence University."]

By Elizabeth Nunez, CNN

(CNN) – They say the miracle can be witnessed in the hallways: Teenagers who struggle to pronounce words like “toothbrush” in their Level 1 language classes are heard a few months later chatting in fluent English in the winding corridors of Newcomers Public High School in Long Island City, Queens.

Alfredo Duque, 17, was one of them. When he arrived to the United States three years ago from Guerrero, Mexico to live with his aunt and uncle in Queens, he enrolled at the school. After his graduation this coming June, he will move to Wisconsin to attend Lawrence University with a Posse Scholarship to cover all of his tuition.

Stories like his are not uncommon at the school. Newcomers is devoted exclusively to teaching immigrant students who have arrived to the United States within a year or less of enrolling. Half of them come from Latin American countries, one quarter from China and the rest from over 40 countries, mostly in Southeast Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.

An 'A' in any language Video

The students speak little or no English and yet Newcomers sends 90 percent of its graduating seniors to college, and at least a third of them win some kind of scholarship.

Senior Susandi Htut, from Burma, is being considered for a Torch Scholarship at Northeastern University in Boston. Susandi, 19, arrived to the United States with her mom and two younger brothers in 2006 to join her father, who works as a nurse technician at Rikers Island prison health care service.

While she waits to hear from Northeastern, Bard College has already given her a partial scholarship. If selected, Susandi, who is torn between majoring in biology or political science, says she will be first in her family to attend university.

FULL POST


Filed under: Living
April 2nd, 2010
12:00 PM ET

Church expands flock on Facebook

(CNN) – The church has never be an organization accused of keeping up with the trends, but now places of worship are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to expand their flock.

Church 2.0: where followers are believers. Our Carol Costello looks at how one church is expanding its flock – on Facebook.


Filed under: Living
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