Adam R. Holz is a senior associate editor for Plugged In. He also writes for Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse magazine and has been a Boundless contributor. In his free time (which there is sometimes precious little of) Adam enjoys playing guitar and constructing LEGO kits with his son. Adam and his wife, Jennifer, are the proud parents, in fact, of three children, one boy and two girls.
All these decades later, The Beatles are still the measuring stick. When you want to say some new musician is a big deal, do you say, “They’re bigger than the Rolling Stones?” Or, “They’re bigger than the Beach Boys.” No. You say, “They’re bigger than The Beatles!” And when we talk about longstanding music sales […]
Justin Bieber has headlined Culture Clips (and other Plugged In blogs and articles) many times in the last decade. His wildly zigzagging trajectory has often ricocheted between affirmations of faith and reckless behavior. The 24-year-old singer married model and TV presenter Hailey Baldwin last July. And the couple recently sat down for an interview with […]
Here at Plugged In, we do our best to cover the TV shows everyone’s talking about, whether they’re on broadcast TV, cable networks or, increasingly, on streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Typically, we cover one or two new shows each week, as well as two-to-four episode reviews of series we’ve looked at […]
Move over Kylie Jenner. You’ve been egged. On Instagram. No, the social media star isn’t wearing slimy yellow protein on her face. Instead, an image of a lovely brown egg has become Instagram’s most-liked image ever. As of this writing, it has secured a whopping 46,113,472 likes (and counting) since being posted on January 4. […]
Last week, Jake Roberson told us about Tim Tebow’s storybook engagement to Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters. This week, we have another high-profile engagement to make note of: Chris Pratt’s announcement that he’ll be tying the knot with Katherine Schwarzennegger. Now, you might think that we’ve run out of things to blog about since we’re publishing our second […]
It’s that time of year. The time when some of us build our weekend schedules around football games, both college and pro. Bowl games. Championships. Wild Card showdowns and Divisional Rounds. And soon … the Super Bowl. For some of us, we can’t remember a time when we didn’t know what a fist down was, […]
Hardly a week goes by these days without something somewhere in popular culture offending someone, it seems. Several more such stories made the rounds on the internet the last few days. And this week’s list includes a couple of surprising new “offenders.” Starting with VeggieTales. Yeah, that’s right, Bob, Larry and the gang have apparently […]
Every year, I find a handful of music releases to look forward to. (Imagine Dragons and Mumford & Sons, for instance, were on the list this year, even if I wasn’t able to include those two bands’ most recent, more-positive-than-not releases here.) And then, there are surprises. Sometimes big ones. Last year, for example, I […]
If you’ve ever wondered exactly what teens tend to post on social media, well, wonder no more! Pew Research just published an in-depth look at “Teens’ Social Media Habits and Experiences.” And the data mavens at statista.com have broken down those results into this infographic: You will find more infographics at Statista. In addition to […]
Nostalgia is big business. If it’s been a hit in the last century, whether on the big screen or small, someone in Hollywood is figuring out a way to reboot, repackage or relaunch it. That’s because familiar entertainment properties from the past pack built-in marketing muscle, full of yesteryear’s fond memories. Disney, of course, has […]
If you’ve ever wondered whether you check your phone more, less or about the same amount as “normal” people, well, here’s your baseline: 52 times a day. That’s how often a new survey from Deloitte Consulting says the average American adult looks at his or her phone every 24 hours. Deloitte managing director Mic Locker […]
Many celebrities these days adopt political views that tend to align with liberal positions and politicians. But what about those who don’t? What price might a conservative actor, actress or entertainer pay for voicing a right-leaning opinion? The Hollywood Reporter notes that conservative celebrities are “skittish” about being politically vocal in our “toxic” times. “There […]
If you’ve been lying awake at night wondering what we’re going to name the kids born after Generation Z (those who arrived between 1996 and 2009), the solution is simple: Go back to the beginning. Savvy marketers, who always pay more attention to stuff like this that you and I do, are one step ahead […]
We’ve all seen that tag in front of a movie: “Based on a True Story.” And there’s never any shortage of movies like those. This year alone, there are a whopping 18 of ’em, including several in theaters right now: First Man, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and Beautiful Boy, as well as several from […]
For most of us, being genuinely frightened is probably something we try to avoid in the real world. But when it comes to entertainment, the opposite is often true. Many people love being scared. Especially this time of year, the time when horror movies rule the multiplexes and haunted houses pop up in seemingly every […]
Good media discernment is about guarding our eyes and hearts before we watch or listen. And it's also about grappling with the entertainment we do see or hear. That's why the Plugged In Blog is devoted to guarding, discussing and grappling.