American Voices Research Library

To discover more options in the way you will explore trends in American culture and society today, explore the topics listed below.  Choose three topics that interest you, and then choose one article for each topic to read and write an annotated bibliography. Complete the assignment posted to your Google drive document.

This list is far from complete.  There are many more trends that you might be interested in investigating.  Some of the ones that we mentioned in class are as follows:

• Dating, perhaps especially online dating
• Marriage and people waiting longer to get married (because of careers? lack of economic stability?)
• Sports -- access to sports, extreme fans, families with kids in sports leagues from a young age, families dealing with injuries -- great article here on this topic
• Entertainment and access to entertainment -- how does it change our lives when we have access to media and entertainment 24/7 with Netflix, etc.  How does binge-watching change our media habits?

Feel free to strike out on your own, but your article must come from a reputable source.  I would stay within the following major news organizations if you are not sure if your source is reputable (definitely NO on about.com, yahoo answers, wikipedia)

• National Public Radio
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Time Magazine
• USA Today
• Wall Street Journal

	HEALTH "Trudging Through With Tears, Laughter; Walkers Go the Extra Mile (or 39) For Money to Combat Breast Cancer." The Washington Post. May 7, 2007 "Couch Culture: Only a Quarter of U.S. Youth Get Recommended Exercise." Time. January 8, 2014 "Unfriendly Fire in the Cancer War." The Washington Post. January 8, 2002  "Better Cancer Care Urged; Focus on Cure Hurts Treatment of Symptoms, Study Says." The Washington Post. June 20, 2001 "Secrets of the Heart: Emerging imaging technologies promise to let physicians answer the most important question in heart disease treatment. What shape are your arteries really in?" The Washington Post. Aug 8, 2000. "Autism Rises: More Children than Ever Have Autism, but Is the Increase Real?" Time. March 29, 2012. "Obesity May Stall Trend of Increasing Longevity." The Washington Post. March 17, 2005. "In Grandmother’s Alzheimer’s, Another Lesson in Family." The New York Times. July 11 2013 "Women Still Treated Less for Heart Disease; Studies Show Many Doctors Order Far Fewer Tests, Preventive Measures Than for Men." The Washington Post. February 2, 2005.
	MENTAL HEALTH "Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions: Concerns About A.D.H.D. Practices and Amphetamine Addiction." The New York Times. February 2, 2013 "Grief Could Join List of Disorders." The New York Times. January 24, 2012. "Diagnosis: Human." The New York Times. April 2, 2013. "A High-Profile Executive Job as Defense Against Mental Ills: Executive With Schizoaffective Disorder Uses Job to Cope." The New York Times. October 22, 2011. "How Faith Can Affect Therapy." The New York Times. July 10, 2013. "In Defense of Antidepressants." The New York Times. July 9, 2011. "Redefining Depression as Mere Sadness." The New York Times. September 16, 2008. "The Problem With How We Treat Bipolar Disorder." The New York Times. April 26, 2013.
	RELIGION AND BELIEF "The Moral Animal." The New York Times. December 23, 2012. "A Better Way to Talk About Faith." The New York Times. June 12, 2012. "A LOOK AT . . . Science and Religion; When Great Minds Think Alike." The Washington Post. June 13, 1999. "Alone, Yet Not Alone." The New York Times. January 27, 2014 "One Nation Under God?: American Christianity and Secularism at a Crossroads." The New York Times. December 22, 2012 "At Christian Companies, Religious Principles Complement Business Practices." The New York Times. August 2, 2013. "Being Partly Jewish." The New York Times. October 31, 2013. "Belief Is the Least Part of Faith." The New York Times. May 29, 2013. "Christian Leaders Are Powerhouses on Twitter." The New York Times. June 2, 2012. "Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers." The New York Times. October 6, 2006. "Unions That Divide: Churches Split Over Gay Marriage." The New York Times. May 13, 2012. "Christians and Jews Rediscover Interracial Haven." The New York Times. April 6, 2012. "In Praise of the Clash of Cultures." The New York Times. September 2, 2012. "Rebels With a Cross." The New York Times. March 2, 2006. "Yoga Class Draws a Religious Protest." The New York Times. December 15, 2012.
	THE AMERICAN DREAM "Hispanics often lead the way in their faith in the American Dream, poll finds." The New York Times. January 30, 2014. "What Drives Success?" The New York Times. January 25, 2014. "Lesson to Teach Your Kids." Fox Business. May 7, 2013 "Keeping the [American] Dream Alive." Time. June 12, 2012.
	CLASS AND THE ECONOMY "Class Struggle in the Sky." The New York Times. July 6, 2013  "5 Myths about the middle class." Washington Post. August 5, 2012 "Myths and the Middle Class." Washington Post. December 27, 2006 "The 1% as victims? That’s rich!" Washington Post. January 30
	RACE AND EQUALITY "Has ‘Caucasian’ Lost Its Meaning?" New York Times. July 6, 2013 "A Dream Still Deferred" New York Times. March 26, 2011 "The Mystery of Why More Black Babies Die in Infancy than White Babies." Time. December 19, 2013. "Study: Black Workers Are Happier Than Whites." Time. December 5, 2013. "Biracial, and also black." CNN. February 12, 2014 "10,000 Racial Slurs Are Tweeted Each Day." Time. February 7, 2014 "We need to talk about an injustice." Ted Talks. March 2012.
	TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE "Monsanto Is Going Organic in a Quest for the Perfect Veggie." Wired. January 21, 2014 "Almost Three Times the Risk of Carrying MRSA from Living Near a Mega-Farm." Wired. January 22, 2014 "Supreme Court to Decide if Cops Need a Warrant to Search Your Phone." Wired. January 17, 2014. "Target Got Hacked Hard in 2005. Here’s Why They Let It Happen Again." Wired. January 17, 2014 "The End of Ownership: Why You Need to Fight America’s Copyright Laws." Wired. January 17, 2014 "5 ways Facebook changed us, for better and worse." CNN. January 30, 2014.  "Empowering Our Digital Sixth Sense with Google Glass, Augmented Reality and Wearable Health Gadgets." Time. May 20, 2013. "The Digital Ties That Bind: Love, Loss and Oversharing in the Internet Age." Time. February 11, 2014  "Your phone company is watching." Ted Talks. June 2012.
	GENDER EQUALITY "Scientists Invent a ‘Machine’ That Helps Women Get Promoted." Time. January 20, 2014 "Jobs Are Making Women Wait To Have Kids, But Not For the Reason You Think." Time. November 20, 2013. "GM’s New Boss Is a Woman, but the CEO Gender Gap Is Still Gaping." Time. December 10, 2013 "Ten Things You Didn’t Know About The Gender Gap." Time. November 11, 2013. "Honey, Your Success is Shrinking Me." Time. August 13, 2013.  "Survey: Reluctant breadwinner moms are less happy." CNN. February 12, 2014 "In Defense of Barbie: Why She Might Be the Most Feminist Doll Around." Time. February 5, 2014.
	FAMILY LIFE  "In Defense of Kids and Parenting: They Can Be Amazing (If That’s What You Want)" Time. January 17, 2014. "A Mom’s Work-Life Dilemma: Making the Case for a Messy House." Time. January 6, 2014. "'Affluenza': Is it real?" CNN. December 13, 2013. "Kansas Wants to Make Sure Gay Couples Aren’t Guaranteed Wedding Cake." Time. February 10, 2014.