Middle Schoolers Let Their Fingers Do The Talking

from the such-is-life dept

It used to be that somewhere around middle school, pre-teens discovered the telephone - and their parents never have a chance to reclaim it (unless they end up splurging for a second line). Those days are long gone. Now, pre-teens do all their chatting and gossiping via instant messaging. Many kids come home from school, and immediately get online to chat with the kids they were just hanging out with in school. For some folks, it's a chance to express themselves in ways they couldn't in person or over the phone. Not surprisingly, it's popular with young boys trying to talk to young girls - as instant messaging has become a popular way to ask for dates. 10-year-old boys (when the hell did 10-year-olds start to date?) find that there's less pressure when they ask girls out via IM - though, one kid in the article found his date swiped out from under him by a bold Romeo who got up the courage to actually call the girl he thought had agreed to date him over IM. Parents say that the phone barely rings for their preteens, although some like to talk on the phone while IMing (even if it's the same person they're IMing). And, of course, no kids get extra phone lines any more. If anything, they get their own mobile phone - which they end up using for text messaging more than speaking anyway.