Big News: Teens Still Go Outside
Do these stories drive you crazy, or is it just me? Here's the headline: "Study: Teens value non-online meetings"
Really? You mean students who have Facebook and cell phones still like to talk to real human beings in person? But we keep reporting to people that teens spend all their free time in a hole in the ground staring into a computer monitor or texting friends while listening to their iPods and playing video games while video chatting on MySpace and listening to pirated music while watching downloaded movies.
Are you seriously telling us they also enjoy hanging out with friends in person? That's news! Stop the web presses! We must tell the world students like normal things!
It's almost like people in the media think of "teens" as some kind of tribe or cult group or alien civilization. You've heard them: some guy in a suit with a microphone looking into the camera and saying, "WE talked to some TEENS about how they feel about blah, blah, blah." Cut to a shot of "actual teens" talking like normal human beings. Cut back to news guys with condescending smile, "Well, Anne, that's what the TEENS think. Now back to you."
Okay, I'll stop ranting. But if I were you I'd look forward to the day you turn 20 and become more than just one of that herd of demographically desirable and socially identical TEENS. Until then, I hope you don't let them sucker you into thinking you should be thinking what every other TEEN is thinking or playing or hearing or saying to be a legitimate TEEN. We hope you chase wisdom like an actual person, and let the demographic sort itself out.
Did I say I'd stop ranting? Okay.
Really? You mean students who have Facebook and cell phones still like to talk to real human beings in person? But we keep reporting to people that teens spend all their free time in a hole in the ground staring into a computer monitor or texting friends while listening to their iPods and playing video games while video chatting on MySpace and listening to pirated music while watching downloaded movies.
Are you seriously telling us they also enjoy hanging out with friends in person? That's news! Stop the web presses! We must tell the world students like normal things!
It's almost like people in the media think of "teens" as some kind of tribe or cult group or alien civilization. You've heard them: some guy in a suit with a microphone looking into the camera and saying, "WE talked to some TEENS about how they feel about blah, blah, blah." Cut to a shot of "actual teens" talking like normal human beings. Cut back to news guys with condescending smile, "Well, Anne, that's what the TEENS think. Now back to you."
Okay, I'll stop ranting. But if I were you I'd look forward to the day you turn 20 and become more than just one of that herd of demographically desirable and socially identical TEENS. Until then, I hope you don't let them sucker you into thinking you should be thinking what every other TEEN is thinking or playing or hearing or saying to be a legitimate TEEN. We hope you chase wisdom like an actual person, and let the demographic sort itself out.
Did I say I'd stop ranting? Okay.
Posted by Christopher Lyon on at
12:02 PM
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