At Unter Deck in Munich, Germany with The Wolf

A few weeks ago I was in Munich, Germany.  While I was there, Jason Krieser and I went to a really cool place called Unter Deck - a bar that has a small dance floor and a ton of style.  "Unter Deck" means under deck - like the under deck of a ship.

Our friend Wolfgang Ottl (a.k.a., DJ Johnny O a.k.a., THE WOLF) was acting as the DJ for the night.  He is a long time friend who lives in Munich.  He is a smart business guy with a respected position at a major company during the day -- and a DJ at night.   That's right, a vinyl-record-spinning old-school DJ.  Wrap you mind around that for a minute.

Confident but humble, with good looks and an easy smile, everyone (particularly the ladies) love Wolfgang.  He is always the coolest guy in the room.  

Here are some pictures from the evening.

 Here is Wolfgang in the DJ booth.

One of the coolest parts about Unter Deck is the moving pictures on the wall.  Think Harry Potter.  Pictures frames with moving pictures.  This effect is actually created by a carefully tuned overhead projector that is projecting different images into the frames.  This moving pictures wall was created by a local Munich artist (who Wolfgang knows - of course). It was blowing my mind all night.  Very well done.
 

 Here is the bar.

Team Vertical Wins Winterfest

Noelle's team, Vertical 15s won Winterfest, a local volleyball tournament last weekend.  It was a nice, confidence building win.  Noelle is enjoying this team.  Coach Heather is a nice balance of being encouraging and tough.  They still have some work to do to get to the level that they need to be at but I can see flashes of what they could become - a top 5 team in the North Texas Region.  

Before the tournament, the girls took a few pictures.

Notice on the back of their jersey's how it says "Hanna 4 Hope."  This is in honor of a girl named Hanna Clark, a 15 year old girl who committed suicide a couple of years ago.  Hanna played for Club Vertical.  Hanna 4 Hope is an organization started by her parents that is dedicated to raising awareness for teenage suicide.  

Team Vertical 15s is supported by a strong group of fathers.  

While the girls were winning games the little ones were off in their own world.  This is Skylin paying in a corner with her new American Girl doll.  

 Here is Josh playing on the iPad with a bunch of little boys.  Brittany believes that video games are the bind force between boys.

Here are a couple pictures of the girls after the win.

This is a picture they took later in the week.  Fun stuff.

Teens on Social Media

I was corresponding with a reporter regarding my thoughts on which social media sites are the most popular with teens today.  She published a brief article on the topic on the Scratch Wireless Blog - http://www.scratchwireless.com/pad/vine-snapchat-and-more-where-your-kids-are-on-social-media/.

If you know our family, you know that we have 10 iPhones / iPads in use and everyone is a heavy user of social media. I have seen my 3 oldest migrate from one social media forum to the next over the last 5 years. Really kind of amazing to see the movement.

There is a group think mentality to these movements. It is what I call “network utility” (I think I made up this term long ago but it may have been used elsewhere). "Network utility" is the idea that something has utility (or is useful) simply because others are using it. The preference to use one social media site/forum/app over another is NOT based on the capabilities or features of the site/app but simply because others are using it. It is group think. 

For what it is worth, this is what I told the reporter regarding which social media forums are the biggest with the 19 and under crowd on January 2, 2014: 

• Twitter - This is number one - no doubt. It is what Facebook was years ago - the dominate social media forum for the teenage set. As Facebook stated to become saturated with adults the kids moved to Twitter. There are a number of reasons for this movement. First, everyone “cool” is on Twitter - Katy Perry, LeBron James, Justin Bieber, President Obama and (most importantly) all your teenage friends. The second reason is a little more subtle. On Twitter you can “follow” people without the baggage of being a “friend” with that person. Therefore, maybe there is someone that you are curious about or you find entertaining but you do not really want to be associated with that person. Maybe they are the “bad kid” at school or a celebrity that is continually making a name for themselves for all the wrong reasons (think Charlie Sheen). You can follow that person on Twitter without the sigma of them being your “friend.” It is a small but sometimes important subtlety for kids that are constantly concerned about what others think. Third, 140 characters or a picture forces succinct communication - perfect for the teenage attention span. Finally, most parents have not migrated to Twitter but continue to live on Facebook. That might be the number one reason Twitter continues to be the dominate social media forum for teens. 

• Instagram - As you may know, Instagram is a photo sharing app that started as a iOS app. Noelle downloaded and was using Instagram in early 2011 because we would not let her get a Facebook account. Little did we know that this was the next big social media forum for teens. (As you may know, Facebook now owns Instagram). Now, Instagram is a social media mainstay for teens. That is particularly the case for the under 16 crowd who (for some reason) had an Instagram account even before it was big. Even though Instagram is an app and therefore limiting its user base to those that have a smartphone. This is not a problem for teenage adoption. Almost all teens have a smartphone and almost everyone has Instagram on that smartphone. Teens are using Instagram to communicate with pictures and short videos. These digestible bits of communication are perfect for the teenage attention span. Another reason that teens like Instagram is that your Instagram account can link to other social media sites that you may not prefer use but want to maintain your follower. For example, Instagram links to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Finally, Instagram recently released a feature called Instagram Direct. This allows users to send photos to a specific person or group instead of all your followers. This feature was viewed as a response to the popularity of Snapchat - the next forum on my list.

• Snapchat - This is the new kid in town - inviting, edgy, and different with exploding popularity.  Like Instagram, Snapchat is an app and is the hottest social media forum for teenagers. Snapchat lets users send pictures, messages, and videos that are deleted seconds after being received. Originally viewed as a "safer" method for “sexting” - the app initially struggled to gain traction because teens did not want to explain to their parents why they had a sexting app on their phones. Now it seems that Snapchat has gone main stream and is just another method to communicate. I am not sure why it is so popular.  Maybe because teens say and do stupid things and are attracted to the fleeting nature of the communication. This helps reduce drama because people are not able to “prove” that someone said something or posted an embarrassing picture. Again, remember this is a crowd that is sometimes oblivious but always concerned about what others think. Maybe this is just the next new thing.  Whatever it is, Snapchat is huge right now. An important footnote on Snapchat is that, just in the last few days hackers were able to get the names and phone numbers of 4.5 million Snapchat users. Not exactly stellar press for a company that is founded on private communication. Note that according to several media reports, Snapchat (along with Vine and Candy Crush) was the most downloaded app of 2013.  

• Vine - Another wildly popular app is Vine (owned by Twitter). Vine allows people to make 6 second repeating videos clips.  Like the other 3 social media forums listed, this short communication is perfect for teens.  However, the real attraction of Vine is the entertainment value. Vine is not about communication but is about entertainment. People make Vines to make others laugh or show an amazing happening.  People do stupid things to be recorded under the pressure to "Do it for the Vine."  I must say, there is some real creativity that comes in the form of Vines - these short interesting or funny videos.  Vine is social media but with a different purpose - entertainment (not communication). Think of Vine as the alternative to YouTube for those with immensely short attention spans.  

So there you have it. The social media du jour for teens. 

Happy New Year 2014

We had a great New Years.  Misty and I were at home.  Brittany was at Mishler's with Reese and other friends.  Shawn Jr. was at Megan's house.   Noelle had 4 friends over to our house (although one had to leave before midnight).  

Below is their picture just after midnight.  

Here is Josh toasting with the girls.  It was so funny - during the last 10 seconds of 2013 the girls were counting down "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . ." Josh was yelling "What are we doing?"  "It is New Years Josh."  He says, "What is a new year?"  Not so easy to explain exactly.  Just another day really.  Kind of funny.

There were our 2014 glasses.

As some of you know, Misty is allergic to certain types of alcohol.  Misty tried Champagne again tonight.  She took one drink, not a glass, a single drink and her face became bright red.

She was sounds asleep at midnight.  Party!  Actually, I took a nap before midnight too.  I just got up when the action started just before midnight.