Today's Youth Advisory Board feature is from Bruna Bonguardo, who reminds us that the Urban Dictionary isn't just a place to look up various slang — it's also a glimpse into teen life illustrated by language. Remember you can contact our board directly via email at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com.
The Best In Youth Media: UrbanDictionary.com
UrbanDictionary.com is one of the top 250 sites on the web. It was even nominated by the Time Magazine as one of the 50 best websites of 2008. So what is Urban Dictionary? It's a web-based dictionary of definitions of slang words, phrases, and even emoticons (like o_O, for example, which according to the Urban Dictionary means “confused, stunned or weirded outâ€).
It’s amazing how much teenagers like this successful website, and how helpful it can be for adults trying to understand and reach teens. Anyone can contribute to Urban Dictionary, even anonymous users.
On this website you can find definitions of a word like "cool," or even more complicated words to define, like "love." But the thing is that you don't necessarily have to agree with the definitions, you can simply vote them "up" or "down." There are some words with just one or two definitions, while other words have hundreds.
In October 2005 some Urban Dictionary's definitions were turned into a book called Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Slang Defined. In October 2007, the second book was made available, the Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined.
Some of the highest-rated definitions on Urban Dictionary are about the Urban Dictionary itself. They claim that it "is a place formerly used to find out about slang, and now a place that teens with no life use as a burn book," and the "coolest semi-fake dictionary ever made," or even "the result of millions of teenagers who have too much free time."
However its users define it, Urban Dictionary is definitely a very helpful website for offering a peek inside the teenage mind.
About Bruna Bonguardo
Bruna is a 16-year-old Brazilian teenager who moved to Israel in 2004. She can speak, read and write in four languages, and she loves learning about new cultures. Bruna always loved computers, and she wants to study computer science in college. She also loves webdesign and writing, and she had a blog for about two years. Now she's planning to start a new one again. Even though she loves writing, her passion is reading. She loves reading fiction books, but now she's starting to read autobiographies and non-fiction books. She is a senior in High School, where she successfully studies Software Engineering.
Full disclosure: myYearbook is a sponsor of Ypulse.com and our Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup events.
Our friends at myYearbook gave us an early heads up on a new feature they just launched called Causes (the release is scheduled to hit the wires tomorrow). We linked to a story in Essentials the other day about how in tight times, teens may spend more time and money in virtual worlds where they can buy virtual goods for a fraction of what it costs to buy these same products in real life (IRL). myYearbook may be capitalizing on this trend in a different way - by allowing its members to donate with virtual money.
With Causes, myYearbook users can choose from a number of causes like ending world hunger, fighting climate change, saving the rainforests or curing cancer. They donate with virtual money, i.e. $40 buys one grain of rice (expensive grain!), and then get a badge on their profile (status). As part of the process of getting the badge, users also get to choose which advertiser they want to show up on their profile (similar to what Conde Nast's Flip.com before it became a web app). The advertiser is linked to the donation/cause (looks good for them). And at the end of the month the company translates virtual donations into real cash for each of the chosen organizations. The money comes from the advertising dollars.
According to Geoff Cook, myYearbook's CEO:
We are on pace right now to donate $20,000 USD per month but that is increasing as the application gains in popularity with its addition to the toolbar.
Users on average have $50,000 in total Lunch Money balance to give. You can click here to see the Top Givers (be sure to change the filter from Friends to Everyone) to see that many users have given over 10M in Lunch Money.
In terms of donation sizes to date, here are a few:
46,626,931 grains of rice
1,775,100 ounces of CO2
1,775,100 ounces of CO2
Organizations receiving money from myYearbook are:
World Food Programme
CarbonFund.org
Conservation International (rainforest preservation)
The North Shore Animal League
Action Against Hunger (clean drinking water)
Alex's Lemonade Stand (cancer research)
Books for Africa
The Global Fund (HIV/AIDS prevention)
Save Darfur
Beyond Shelter's "Housing First" Program for Homeless Families
Child Help (child abuse prevention)
By combining a gaming model (you have to spend time and play games to earn virtual money, can only donate so much per day and receive badges to reflect your new status) with teens' desire to "do good" and advertisers' desire to reach teens while being associated with pro-social causes, you have to admit this is pretty smart cause marketing. It's a pretty nifty way for myYearbook to sell advertising as well. One pitfall to watch out for - when choosing an advertiser to go along with your cause, myYearbook will have to be careful the advertiser isn't somehow working against the cause (like a cosmetics company that tests on animals linked to animal welfare or a clothing brand that has violated child labor laws linked to child abuse)….
In today's Ypulse Books we have an excellent Guest Post from author Paula Chase Hyman challenging the "urban" genre of YA fiction and how it confines novels that include African American characters living in the "burbs." And in Ypulse Book Essentials, follow the links to read more about cartoonist Lynda Barry's latest book What It Is, a dissenting view of the study claiming Beacon Street Girls books help girls lose weight and how Cheerios plans to get kids reading.
