apophenia: teens, dating, friendship, and school dances

Danah Boyd starts out with:

When I read the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of why teens have eschewed dates for school dances, I wanted to scream.

I did too, well maybe not scream, but the conclusions of the article she writes about to me are wrong. There has been a slow movement toward not coupling in high school for  a long time. The only thing that I would add to Danah’s article is that what I notice is that even though there is a movement away from the mating ritual as far as dances are concerned, the pressure to have a significant other in high school is still just as strong as anytime. I see this in the youth at church. I may do security duty, but the main thing with us is to be relational. The kids tell me a lot and most of their dramas is do to trying to find a someone to be boy/girl friend with.

Actually, if there is another reason for the non-couple of school dances it is partly from my previous post about girls self-esteem. However, that is only part of it. The guys have to be more encouraging so that the girls aren’t more prone to have low self esteem.  Anyway, read the whole thing.

HT: Ypulse