I never ever dreamed that I would utter the phrase I love Twitter. Actually I’m still having trouble looking myself in the mirror and saying the words “I love twitter.” But I’m working through it, and it’s getting easier every day. I was on KCUR last week on Valentines Day in fact, and read some of my favorite tweets from teenagers all over the world. In fact, if you follow me @wescrenshawphd, I’m compiling a list of teens I think have something good to say, in amongst their commentary on what they’re eating and how horrible their AP Euro test is this week. And teenagers seem to have quite a love affair with their beds these days. Funny given the chronic sleep problems we see among this generation. I will warn you that these kids are uncensored so their language tends to resemble something between a stand-up comedian and a pirate.
In fact, I love Twitter the most because it is so uncensored. Where else can you plug straight into a teenagers brain and see what they’re thinking, as they’re thinking it. Well…my office is one place. But that’s private. Twitter is decidedly not private and it may be the best ethnographic study of teens available today. Here’s a few of my faves that I shared on KCUR the other day, by category.
FUNNY
Reasons to date a British boy: His accent, having someone call you “love”, his accent, they dress better, his accent, they’re cuter.
STRAIGHT UP
Don’t tell a girl you love her, because she might just make the stupidest mistake in her life and believe it.
“friends with benefits” in reality is telling you that you’re good enough to have sex with, but not good enough to invest feelings in.
Dear guys: Touch her heart, not her body. Steal her attention, not her happiness. Make her smile, don’t waste her tears..
Good looks, attracts eyes. Good personality attracts hearts..
ive startd to notice tht its dudes who usually start to get emotionally attachd to a female andstop messin wit her for tht reason..
Every boy wants a good girl to be bad just for him. Every girl wants a bad boy to be good just for her.
GOOD ADVICE
Be the girl you want your daughter to be. Be the girl you want your son to date. Be classy, anything but trashy.
Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it’s better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together.
POETRY
By far my favorite is this series of tweets by one teenager that I turned into a little poem. I used the hashtag once and then deleted it on each line and rearranged the lines. Othwerise the tweets are exactly as they came down. This young person is a very prolific tweeter and very often smart. I’m not even sure she knows how good this work is. You can follow her via my Young-Strong-Voices list
#IWantSomeOneWhoWill
run through sprinklers with me and have water gun fights.
take me to new places and teach me new things.
never judge me on my past mistakes.
hold a damn conversation and keep it going for more than a lousy 10 minutes.
kiss me on the lips when I’m talking too much to shut me up.
disregard how shitty I look some days
and think I’m beautiful in every single way.
take me out on dinner dates instead of the cliche movie date.
buy me McDonald’s whenever I want.
chase me when I walk away
give me piggyback rides.
snort like a pig with me.
put his arms around me to show everyone else that I’m his.
help me overcome my fears.
never give up on me.
