Teen dating in the 21st Century

I find myself listening to conversations differently now a days. I’m listening for the connection to technologies that almost every conversation has. Especially the ones that deal with students.

While at brunch yesterday with a bunch of other teachers, one of them announced that their 8th grade daughter has her first boyfriend. They were eating dinner Friday night when she received a text message on her phone that simple said:

will u go out with me?

Word has it he broke up with his old girlfriend the same way. 🙂

I was saying how cool this was and everyone else at our table was laughing. Dating in the 21st century sure changes things. I remember dating in Middle School. It meant that you saw each other at school, maybe talked on the phone once in awhile, and held hands during assemblies. Weekends were the worse as you couldn’t see each other…oh the pain.

But in this new world kids are constantly connected. I keep thinking how different it would have been for me if I would have had SMS or IM. How does that change things? How are their relationships different? We talk that these tools change everything, and they do right down to how we interact with our girlfriend or boyfriend in 8th grade.

I just find this stuff so interesting.

Picture from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amoraleda/222687225/