2. White courtship norms and practices are less formal
and more varied than they were in the early and mid-
twentieth century, our research on teens' new media
use shows that the rituals are no less elaborate or
important than those of their historical counterparts.
(Hanging Out, 118)
The Evolution of Dating
3. Dating Rituals
With the working class,
“young ladies lacked the
domestic space to
entertain young men in
their homes and thus the
couple would go out
somewhere together, a
practice referred to in
early slang as a "date". -
119
4. Romantic relationships
are fundamental in
early development.
“Contemporary
relationships among
teens tend to be
'causal, intense and
brief. They are also, for
all their emphasis on
privacy and exclusivity,
profoundly social." -120
5. The Public
Eye
While we usually think of
these intimacy practices as
individual and private, teen
romance and dating rituals
take place, in many ways,
publicly and collectively. -121
6. These more private channels of
communication have allowed an elaboration
of teens' intimacy practices, especially in
forming, maintaining, and ending romantic
relationships. -121
7. Moving On & Letting Go
Indirect communication channels mean that
youth can still be in touch with and possibly
monitor each other after an intimate relationship
has ended. These communications can be
caring, respectful, retaliatory, hurtful, or angry, or
they can be ways to send messages to an ex-
significant other without having to interact directly
with him or her. -136
Social Media is allowing people to keep tabs on
their exes in often unhealthy ways.
8. With all these informational resources,
"you become a stalker, and a highly efficient
stalker" -136
9. Technology Tension
Digital communications allow teens a sphere of
privacy, when they don't have their own spaces,
to communicate with their significant others
through a circumvention of geographic and
institutional constraints. -138
Clearly, “these online tools and communication
practices make peer-based interaction and
pressures more consistently available to teens.” -
147
10. Silver Lining…
These sorts of indirect communications can enable teens to
exit relationships in a dignified way and enable them to 'have
their say.' -138
11. Conclusion
While teens stop engaging in continuous contact after
a breakup, they still use new media to communicate
indirectly with each other and their larger mediated
publics. -138
Digital communications allow teens a sphere of
privacy, when they don't have their own spaces, to
communicate with their significant others through a
circumvention of geographic and institutional
constraints.- 138
