Shofie

Even the fact that teens use all kinds of social networks at higher rates than twenty-somethings doesn’t necessarily mean that they prefer to hang out online. Studies consistently show that most teens would rather hang out with their friends in person. The reasons are telling: teens prefer offline interaction because it’s “more fun” and you “can understand what people mean better.” But suburban isolation, the hostility of malls and other public places to groups of loitering teenagers, and schedules packed with extracurriculars make these in-person hangouts difficult, so instead teens turn to whatever social site or app contains their friends (and not their parents). As danah boyd puts it, “Most teens aren’t addicted to social media; if anything, they’re addicted to each other.”

Just like the teens who whiled away hours in mall food courts or on landline telephones became adults who spent entirely reasonable amounts of time in malls and on phone calls, the amount of time that current teens spend on social media or their phones is not necessarily a harbinger of what they or we are all going to be doing in a decade. After all, adults have much better social options. They can go out, sans curfew, to bars, pubs, concerts, restaurants, clubs, and parties, or choose to stay in with friends, roommates, or romantic partners. Why, adults can even invite people over without parental permission and keep the bedroom door closed! (page 102-103) 

The source I’d really recommend for lots more on this topic is It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by danah boyd, a highly readable ethnography spanning a decade of observation of how teens use social media. Here are a couple relevant excerpts: 

I often heard parents complain that their children preferred computers to “real” people. Meanwhile, the teens I met repeatedly indicated that they would much rather get together with friends in person. A gap in perspective exists because teens and parents have different ideas of what sociality should look like. Whereas parents often highlighted the classroom, after-school activities, and prearranged in-home visits as opportunities for teens to gather with friends, teens were more interested in informal gatherings with broader groups of peers, free from adult surveillance. Many parents felt as though teens had plenty of social opportunities whereas the teens I met felt the opposite.

Today’s teenagers have less freedom to wander than any previous generation. Many middle-class teenagers once grew up with the option to “do whatever you please, but be home by dark.” While race, socioeconomic class, and urban and suburban localities shaped particular dynamics of childhood, walking or bicycling to school was ordinary, and gathering with friends in public or commercial places—parks, malls, diners, parking lots, and so on—was commonplace. Until fears about “latchkey kids” emerged in the 1980s, it was normal for children, tweens, and teenagers to be alone. It was also common for youth in their preteen and early teenage years to take care of younger siblings and to earn their own money through paper routes, babysitting, and odd jobs before they could find work in more formal settings. Sneaking out of the house at night was not sanctioned, but it wasn’t rare either. (page 85-86)

From wealthy suburbs to small towns, teenagers reported that parental fear, lack of transportation options, and heavily structured lives restricted their ability to meet and hang out with their friends face to face. Even in urban environments, where public transportation presumably affords more freedom, teens talked about how their parents often forbade them from riding subways and buses out of fear. At home, teens grappled with lurking parents. The formal activities teens described were often so highly structured that they allowed little room for casual sociality. And even when parents gave teens some freedom, they found that their friends’ mobility was stifled by their parents. While parental restrictions and pressures are often well intended, they obliterate unstructured time and unintentionally position teen sociality as abnormal. This prompts teens to desperately—and, in some cases, sneakily—seek it out. As a result, many teens turn to what they see as the least common denominator: asynchronous social media, texting, and other mediated interactions. (page 90)

Additionally my grandmother married one of her guy friends because her job offered dental insurance to employees and spouses and he needed some dental work done. They got married, processed the paperwork, got his dental problems fixed, made sure all the insurance payments went through, and divorced.

Art of an animate dog skeleton, with fire elements. The first image is a black skeleton, the pose standing, but hunched over, head down, tail tucked. A reddish orange glow emanates from its rib cage, right behind the breastbone, and skull, dully from the eye sockets and roof of the mouth. The glow is only just lighting the interior of those skeleton parts. A small spray of sparks dribble from the breastbone and between the teeth. Wisps of gray smoke swirl around it.

In the second image, you first see a stream of tags and notes from people responding to the first image, descending down the page in white boxes against the gray background : “#is this a pupper? #questionable pupper #bone pupper #good boi regardless” “#aww poor bone puppy #come right in #*pats spot by fireplace*” “#seems so scared #I just want to take care of it” “Oh no baby! Why you a sad boy!? Pets?! You want pets?” “[Who’s] a good girl huuuuh who’s a good girl” “they look so sad they need a hug and a good petting” “Who’s a Good Boy?” “#pubby x2” “#tail all the way down [frowning face] pls op can I pet him” “poor pup, looks cold and alone, I want to treat her well [frowning face]” “#Awww a puppy” “#he’s COLD bring him inside!” “#doggy [smiling face]” “#a friend [heart] [heart] [heart]” “#puppy” “it looks sad! I want to pet it!” “#oh!!!? a friend??!?” “#precious friend” “#puppy!” “good pup! doing its job” “#a good puppy” “Good Pupper (?)” “#pubby” “#pubby” “#dogy” “#puppy!!!!!!!” “<3 [a heart]” “#doggy” “a friend!” “#a baby”.

Little bright red-orange embers like simplified hearts float up from a sitting, revitalized fire-and-bone dog. Orange and yellow swoops shape its upright ears and ghost out to indicate a nose. Its eyes are bright white, happily crinkled crescents with orange and red flames arching up from the sockets. A yellow, fading to translucent, orangey red tongue lolls from its grinning jaw. More swoops of red, orange, and bright yellow flow over the spine, arc out to outline shoulders, (maybe?) a chest ruff, and fur on its legs. Its chest glows bright yellow between all of the ribs. Its tail glows orange-red at the vertebrae and bright yellow between the bones as it whips madly, streaking orange motion blurs indicating happy wagging.

COSTUME EMPHASIZING BREADTH OF SHOULDERS

THEM THIGHS

WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS IS ABOUT HOLY SHIT

JAWLINE

EVERYTHING. ALL OF IT. I DON’T KNOW I’M JUST FEELING EXCEPTIONALLY WARM RIGHT NOW.

What y'all heathens on this site think it means: Pedo ships, incest ships(this includes pseudo-incest), abuse ships

How to see whether a Chinese handmade teapot is well done or not - quality of the spout is an important standard. 

Camouflage crew!