By Christy Barritt

Kindness and Social Networking

Sixty-nine percent of American teens who use social networking sites like Facebook say their peers are mostly kind to one another while online. This is according to a new study by Pew Research Center.

Eighty-eight percent of teens said they have witnessed people being mean and cruel to another person on the sites, and 15 percent reported they’ve been a target of cruelty through social networking.

Adults using social networks are less likely to say they witness or experience this type of behavior, even though 69 percent say they’ve seen people be mean and cruel to others on those sites.

The focus groups were surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project in partnership with the Family Online Safety Institute.

Stay-at-Home Dads on the Rise

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the role of fathers as caregivers is rising.

The Bureau found that the number of stay-at-home dads nearly doubled to 158,000 from 2003 to 2009.

These results were for married fathers with children younger than 15 who have remained out of the labor force for at least one year so they can care for the family while their wives work outside of the home.

These fathers cared for 290,000 children.

Among these stay-at-home dads, 59 percent had two or more children, and 57 percent had an annual family income of $50,000 or more.

This rise occurred, in part, because many men have lost their jobs due to the current state of the economy.

Most Annoying Words 2011

Marist College Institute for Public Opinion released the results of their annual poll as to what words were considered most annoying in casual conversation.

For the third consecutive year, adults across the U.S. declared whatever the most irritating word while conversing.

Nearly four in 10 adults nationally (38 percent) said whatever is the worst offender, followed by like (20 percent), and you know (19 percent). Other words or phrasing receiving top billing were: just sayin’ (11 percent) and seriously (seven percent).

Last year’s list also included you know what I mean, to tell you the truth, and actually.

The poll surveyed 1,026 adults over 18 years old from across the United States, with a margin of error of three percentage points.

FDA’s Decision to Lift Plan B Restrictions Rejected

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rejected a Food and Drug Administration plan to make the “morning after” pill available to girls under 17 without a prescription.

Some lawmakers and women’s rights activists are now demanding an explanation for her decision to override the FDA’s recommendation to lift the restrictions on purchasing Teva’s Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive.

Sebelius wrote that “it is commonly understood that there are significant cognitive and behavioral differences between older adolescent girls and the youngest girls of reproductive age, which I believe are relevant.”

If the restriction had been lifted, anyone would be able to purchase the pill in a drug store without question.

This marks the first time Health and Human Services has reversed an approval by the FDA.

 Christy Barritt is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and speaker living in Chesapeake, Virginia. She and her husband Scott have two sons. www.christybarritt.com