Wow, groundbreaking. How much did that study cost?
U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
271–280 of 294 posts
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, sense of community is actually stronger than ever I think. But those communities are less geographic and much more ideological. The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity. Social media made it so, and this shifted sense of community has given rise to increasingly radical and extreme ideologies — but also much stronger bonds in my opinion.
> But those communities are less geographic and much more ideological. The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity. If your sense of "community" is so warped that you honestly believe this then I feel sorry for you. What you're describing isn't a community at all, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to have something in common.
>What you're describing isn't a community at all, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to have something in common.
If your sense of "community" is so warped that you honestly believe this then I feel sorry for you. A community absolutely does not need to be geographically close in order to qualify as a community. Here's one of the definitions of community:
"a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals."
There are countless support groups, academic groups, professional and hobbyist networks, and other virtual communication platforms and meeting places that host communities of people that have never met in person.
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
I graduated HS in 2007. I think I had 2 friends with iPhones, in an affluent town in Connecticut. My first smartphone was an iPhone 4 in 2010. It was still probably another year before smartphones were ubiquitous amongst my friend group.
The 3GS came out in 2009 and that's more or less the model that made it clear the iPhone mold of smartphone was the future. (I got a Treo in 2006 but that was still very much in the carrier walled garden on phones.) However, as others have said, feature phone texting was pretty widespread in the second half of the 2000s, IM was widespread, and social media was really starting to take off. You can quibble about exact…
I would agree that online communications hit AN inflection point around that time, and I don't think I said anything to refute that. I do think there was a more important one soon thereafter, because IM isn't what made me feel like my social life had moved primarily into the virtual space. It was several years after this, more like when Instagram took off. It was not until then that it became common for someone, or a couple, to be looking at their phone throughout dinner (I worked in food service throughout college), or for an entire group of people sitting around in the same room all interacting through their phones. Facebook, and other social platforms around 2008 set the stage for this but I think it's not until the smartphone got great cameras, fast internet, etc. that it became more convenient for us to interact through them. I think it's an important distinction. I was not quibbling, just providing an anecdote. I used AIM/MSN from a feature phone in 2007 and used SMS heavily prior to that.
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah bikes and longboards were really popular until we could drive
Depends on the neighborhood/city. In the south it's not uncommon to get people throwing trash at you and/or forcing you off the road.
damn forcing kids off the road/throwing trash at kids?? thats crazy
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I did it about 15 years ago we got dumped in a fenced in bit of eucalypt forest with our pockets stuffed with "normal" items like knives/shoelaces/mueslibars/1.25L bottles of water/first aid kits and told to survive for 24 hours. Granted it's almost impossible to actually get yourself killed in 24 hours, we had quick access to leaders if we needed them, and we were all relatively trustworthy kids who'd trained f…
Wow, sounds like an Order of the Arrow ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Arrow ) Ordeal. My large-city suburban US troop did this (I moved away before I was eligible to do it)!
I definitely remember doing this at OA.
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 3GS came out in 2009 and that's more or less the model that made it clear the iPhone mold of smartphone was the future. (I got a Treo in 2006 but that was still very much in the carrier walled garden on phones.) However, as others have said, feature phone texting was pretty widespread in the second half of the 2000s, IM was widespread, and social media was really starting to take off. You can quibble about exact…
I would agree that online communications hit AN inflection point around that time, and I don't think I said anything to refute that. I do think there was a more important one soon thereafter, because IM isn't what made me feel like my social life had moved primarily into the virtual space. It was several years after this, more like when Instagram took off. It was not until then that it became common for someone, or a…
Oh I don't disagree with any of that. For doubtless a variety of reasons (if only that habits don't change overnight), it took a few years after at least many of the pieces were arguably in place, before widespread behavioral change took place.
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want my kids to either grow up in a huge city like NYC where I live or a rural area. I spent a year in a small town in rural NC and your kids can grow up wild. I think the suburbs are the stifling force here. They're too safe.
I agree, it kills me to see a bus stop filled with idling cars of parents too scared to let their kids walk. Suburbs are incredibly stifling. Most of the recently built ones I've seen don't have sidewalks at all, it's very car-centric and closed off.
I grew up in the suburbs in Northern Virginia, Everything is in biking distance, including shopping malls, the Potomac River, all sorts of parks, etc.
Schools in my district require at least 1 parent to be present at the bus stop in the morning and at drop-off time for elementary school kids. Whether or not that's the right way to go about it I don't know, but past that age everyone walks to school/bus stop alone.
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like the leatherman I had as a teenager would be illegal then; that's pretty nuts. The most dangerous thing I ever did with it was take apart a microwave oven, and that didn't even involve the blade.
I have a leatherman in London with a locking blade. It was a Christmas present from my dad and I emailed the local police about the legality of it. Ultimately, if you're walking round with it in the bottom of your bag and you have a use for it, you'll be fine. They're looking to stop people from having it in their pocket as they're walking round town. Same with the kitchen knives, got it down the back of your trouser…
That doesn't sound very reasonable to me. Is my pocket not a perfectly reasonable place to put my leatherman? It takes many seconds to unfold it and then unfold the blade, it's not exactly a switchblade. I'm not doing dance battles in the streets against the Sharks and Jets with it (is that really what London is like?)
Carrying around a bag when I'm out and about town is a bad habit I broke myself from a few years ago, but supposing it were in my backpack instead of my pocket, what's the difference? Probably three or four seconds to retrieve it, on top of probably about 10 or so to unfold it and then unfold the blade as well.
For this to even be a shade of gray is ridiculous.
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I'm not quite sure where he got this. I'm an introvert, and I still really enjoy spending time in-person with close friends. In fact, I don't do that well relating to people over the internet (at least not emotionally speaking).
I know many people who are very happy to talk to me online but are not willing to hang out with me in real life. In my case it's because I'm inherently unlikeable, but I suspect if I were unaware of this, I would assume it's because people like to be online.
I'm curious why you're inherently unlikable. Are you are rude to people in real life? Does talking to people online allow you to filter what you say (therefore you can catch yourself before you say or do something off-putting)?
Re: U.S. teens are spending less time with their friends in person
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd probably have them on a feature phone ... Everyone thinks that, and then caves under the pressure.
Grow a spine. If you are too weak to withhold a luxury electronic device from a child in your care, you are probably too weak to raise a child in general... I think. I mean, I don't have kids, but I can't imagine being plied into spending hundreds of dollars on something which I don't want even for myself, and which I think is bad for the recipient.
> I don't have kids
It's easy to say you'll do this and that with kids, but things change when you have them.