Is the Internet Depressing?
Researchers from Australia and China say that heavy Internet use can actually trigger depression in youth. The nine-month study found that teens who met the criteria for being addicted to the Internet—they were moody or uncomfortable when not online—were 2.5 times more likely also to show signs of depression. In fact, teens who weren’t heavy Internet users at the beginning of the study but were by the end of it were more likely also to be depressed. “This study has a direct implication on the prevention of mental illness among young people,” said Lawrence Lam, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Freemantle, Australia. “The results indicate that people who use the Internet pathologically are most at risk of mental problems and would develop depression when they continue with that behavior.” (Time)

Pac-Man Gobbles Way into Hall of Fame
Turns out, all those ghost-infested mazes led somewhere after all. Pac-Man, that insatiably hungry packet of pixels that tore through arcades in the 1980s, was one of the first inductees to the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, Iowa, this August, leading a class of 29 honorees. Other lauded gamesters include Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto and competitive gamers Billy Mitchell, Steve Wiebe and Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel. Ottumwa’s hall, like the creations it honors, is still only virtual reality: Supporters don’t have a building yet, but they some day hope to have a Smithsonian-style museum that displays and archives samples of the more than 100,000 video games that have been produced in the last 25 years. It’s about time, according to Walter Day, a video game historian. As we begin to acknowledge the ways in which these video games have impacted the culture, “what comes hand in hand with that is the recognition that this is a heritage that is valuable and should be protected so things are not lost.” (USA Today)

Childhood Traits Remain Through Adulthood
Researchers at a number of West Coast universities have discovered that many of the same characteristics we had as children—whether we’re talkative, studious or mellow, for instance—tend to remain with us into and through adulthood. To conduct the study, scientists studied the personality ratings of folks who were children 40 years ago (through written personality ratings made by their teachers) and compared them with video recordings made of the now 40-something adults. (Los Angeles Times)

What Teens Buy Online
Nearly half of teens shop on the Internet now, largely with debit cards, student accounts or their parents’ credit cards. Fashion is by far the most popular category of teen spending, with about 42 percent of the average teen’s online dollar going to clothing, accessories or footwear. Here’s how it all breaks down:

Clothing 22%
Food 14%
Accessories/cosmetics 11%
Car 10%
Shoes 9%
Electronics 7%
Music/movies 7%
Games/systems 6%
Tickets (concerts, movies, etc.) 5%
Books/magazines 2%
Furniture/room accessories 2%
Other 4%
Source: Piper Jaffray, eMarketer.com

Quote: “Unconfirmed reports of the iPhone4 screen cracking due to the Darth Vader death grip.”—@jeff_ratfamily from the Twitter site Wookieleaks, a spoof on the organization Wikileaks, which earned a measure of notoriety this summer when it released 90,000 classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan. (New York Daily News)