Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

thehill.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 33 posts

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#11

Post by boatsie »

BanazirGalbasi wrote: post #4
wilg wrote: post #2

> Adolescents are spending less time gathering in shopping malls, movie theaters and rec rooms, and more time connecting on Instagram, TikTok and Discord. On this point, I’d say the problem lies with the former becoming irrelevant. This is why I’m really interested in creating new types of IRL social spaces and shared experiences. There’s just not a lot of options really, and for The Kids, bars are out.

The whole concept of Third Places[1] is kind of dying out. Like you said, bars don't work for kids, and other common places are either dwindling or just don't allow loitering - which is basically what teens are doing when they go hang out somewhere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

It would be interesting if libraries could be used for this purpose. Most close early so they could be used in the evenings for social gatherings, etc.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#12

Post by actuallyalys »

BanazirGalbasi wrote: post #3

The article mostly seems to blame social media, but I also think that the lack of good social spaces is also key. There's fewer and fewer spaces that a group of teens can just hang out without spending money (due to "no loitering" policies/signs), and that number is even smaller if you count spaces in walking distance of most families. I've also heard/read plenty of anecdotes about malls shrinking or closing down com…

I also wonder if walkable cities and more public spaces would make social media less isolating. Technology has made it easier to meet in person in some ways so perhaps if there were fewer obstacles to teens meeting that facilitation effect would be stronger.

There’s also the fact that social media corporations are incentivized to keep you using their platform as long as possible. I saw a post pointing out that no social media app notifies friends when you happen to be nearby (presumably an opt-in system). They argued this shows where their priorities are. I’m not sure that specific feature would be so easy to implement, but it does seem like there are many ways social media is oriented away from building deep connections or socializing off their platform (including in person).

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#13

Post by rcme »

BanazirGalbasi wrote: post #3

The article mostly seems to blame social media, but I also think that the lack of good social spaces is also key. There's fewer and fewer spaces that a group of teens can just hang out without spending money (due to "no loitering" policies/signs), and that number is even smaller if you count spaces in walking distance of most families. I've also heard/read plenty of anecdotes about malls shrinking or closing down com…

I doubt lack of social space has anything to do with it. As a kid I would hang out at a literal dump with friends; what else were we going to do? It’s just too easy to waste an afternoon on TikTok.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#14

Post by tssva »

School systems have also been moving to starting high school later which has an effect. My high school daughter starts her school day at 9:18am and gets out at 4:08pm. If you participate in any after school activities such as a sport you aren't getting home until 5:30-6pm. She then has 2-3 hours of homework a night. Doesn't leave at lot of time social get togethers during the week.

When I was in high school we got out at 1:50pm and had maybe 1-2 hours of homework, not that I did any of it, per night. There was a lot more free time during the week for social interaction outside of school.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#15

Post by skeaker »

BanazirGalbasi wrote: post #3

The article mostly seems to blame social media, but I also think that the lack of good social spaces is also key. There's fewer and fewer spaces that a group of teens can just hang out without spending money (due to "no loitering" policies/signs), and that number is even smaller if you count spaces in walking distance of most families. I've also heard/read plenty of anecdotes about malls shrinking or closing down com…

More to your second point, I think the space for teens has simply moved from the mall to Discord. If you decide to count voice calls and group chats as hanging out (which I would say a lot of young people do), I would imagine that you would find that teens are hanging out about as much as they always have.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#16

Post by shortcake27 »

tssva wrote: post #14

School systems have also been moving to starting high school later which has an effect. My high school daughter starts her school day at 9:18am and gets out at 4:08pm. If you participate in any after school activities such as a sport you aren't getting home until 5:30-6pm. She then has 2-3 hours of homework a night. Doesn't leave at lot of time social get togethers during the week. When I was in high school we got ou…

Amazing how the west blasts the east for child slave labour yet we subject our own children to 12 hour days and call it “school”. Very sad.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#17

Post by autoexec »

> “Going to the mall has gone down. Driving in the car for fun has gone down. Going to the movies has gone down,” she said. “We’re talking about kids who are spending five, six, seven hours a day on social media.”

The malls are dead, gas is overpriced, helicopter parents don't let kids out of the house, and movies (sitting next to each other in the dark staring silently at something else) is barely social interaction anyway. That all assumes teens can afford to do anything anyway.

Give teens more freedom, give them places to hang out, give them more autonomy and trust when they're younger so they have more confidence, but they'll still be staring at their phones a lot of the time because there is a ton of pressure to respond to everything immediately. Phones are designed to encourage it and to pull our attention back to the screen every few minutes. Teens want the instant validation and some semblance of connection.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#18

Post by tssva »

shortcake27 wrote: post #16
tssva wrote: post #14

School systems have also been moving to starting high school later which has an effect. My high school daughter starts her school day at 9:18am and gets out at 4:08pm. If you participate in any after school activities such as a sport you aren't getting home until 5:30-6pm. She then has 2-3 hours of homework a night. Doesn't leave at lot of time social get togethers during the week. When I was in high school we got ou…

Amazing how the west blasts the east for child slave labour yet we subject our own children to 12 hour days and call it “school”. Very sad.

Although I got out at 1:50, I worked driving a fork lift in a warehouse from 2-6pm after school. A job I couldn't have in most places today as a teen. The 80s were a different time. Even then I still had more free time for friends than my daughter. She is pretty studious and cares about school which makes a difference. I cared more about drinking and getting high with my friends and didn't really do anything for school outside of it.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#19

Post by Pet_Ant »

autoexec wrote: post #17

> “Going to the mall has gone down. Driving in the car for fun has gone down. Going to the movies has gone down,” she said. “We’re talking about kids who are spending five, six, seven hours a day on social media.” The malls are dead, gas is overpriced, helicopter parents don't let kids out of the house, and movies (sitting next to each other in the dark staring silently at something else) is barely social interaction…

> Give teens more freedom, give them places to hang out,

They don't have bunch of disposible income, so what's the economic incentive? I mean can you imagine the shit storm if a tax was levied to fund a space of teens to hang out? I can hear the whinging from parallel universes where it happened already.

Re: Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

#20

Post by adhesive_wombat »

wilg wrote: post #2

> Adolescents are spending less time gathering in shopping malls, movie theaters and rec rooms, and more time connecting on Instagram, TikTok and Discord. On this point, I’d say the problem lies with the former becoming irrelevant. This is why I’m really interested in creating new types of IRL social spaces and shared experiences. There’s just not a lot of options really, and for The Kids, bars are out.

Bars (and cafes) have also learned to absolutely blast music to stop people talking and make them drink up.

So not only can you not afford to drink at many bars as a teen, you can't talk to your friends there either.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2008...

About the only place to hang out that doesn't demand money is a library, assuming you can find one, and that's not exactly the right place for chattering and larking about.

Post reply on HN