More search engine bait.
Live hot sweaty teens are ready to get it on just for you! Assuming that you happen to be a sociologist working for Ericsson, anyway. The Sony-affiliated cell phone manufacturer has released the results of a study focusing on the dating habits of American teenagers and how their romantic entanglements intersect with technology.
It turns out that the kids these days like the virtual poking — both the Facebook kind and on their phones — but that’s no substitute for some real life face time. Also, as much as TV news likes to scare mom and dad with stories of rampant random teenage sex, there’s a fairly structured, if partially digital, mating ritual that has developed around social media and wireless devices.
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As you can see from the sexy graph detailing the teenage dating timeline, teenagers don’t head straight to underground sex parties, nor have the kids all become digital hermits. If anything, the digital components have been absorbed into the more traditional teenage mating ritual.
“Behaviors are dynamic and shift as people enter different life stages,” said Ann-Charlotte Kornblad, senior advisor at Ericsson ConsumerLab. “As they get older, teenagers start to use communication tools in the same way as adults. They will continue to use ‘their’ tools such as texting, Facebook and video chat but at the same time, they understand the need to use voice and email as they move into the next stage of their lives.”
There are a few elements of the study that do fit the stereotype. By the time they hit 17, virtually all kids have a cellphone, be it smart or dumb. And teenagers communicate primarily through texts, voice calls apparently being something you do when your Logan’s Run gem turns black. Which, having referenced Logan’s Run, I’m assuming mine just did.
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