Robyn Lee, a 15-year-old teenage girl who studies at York Community High School, US says she has four friends. But she also has 15 to 20 other friends she considers part of her regular social circle.
“It's like a bad thing to have only one, friend ,”explained Robyn. “If you have one friend, it means only one person likes you. That’s not cool,” she said.
For many years, experts studying teen friendships have known that teenagers prefer to travel in groups. In studies conducted in 1963 and in 1995, researchers found teen friendship groups averaged six people. In 2005, when teens were asked about how many friends they kept in touch with regularly, the average answer was 20.
The change to bigger -group friendships has advantages, such as increasing more connections and improving teens' self-pride by giving them a place to belong.
However, the change also has some disadvantages,say psychologists. “The meaning of friendship is becoming much more complicated,” said Bernardo Carducci, a professor of psychology at Indiana University Southeast.
MaryRose Moss, a 17-year-old in Chicago, knows how she could get more friends. She created a Facebook page when she was 14 and within months , she had her group of 500 friends.
Text messaging has opened the door to many new connections, she says. “I'm friends with some people that I wouldn't be as close to if it weren't for technology,” said Moss. “It's so easy to send a text to somebody even if you don't know him very well. ”
Some psychologists wonder whether social-networking technology is affecting some skills children once got from making friends in the old-fashioned way.
“In the past, you argued, discussed and reached an agreement, but if somebody disagrees with you now, you can ‘defriend’ him with the click of keys,” said Carducci.
Marianne Boe, a social studies teacher in Chicago , sees signs of changing friendships in the hallways. Ten years ago, she could easily know groups of girls who stayed friends through all four years of high school. “Today, it's harder,” Boe said.
【小题1】Robyn is introduced at the beginning _____________ .A.to show how today's teenagers make friends |
B.to give an example of modern teen friendship patterns |
C.to show that today's teenagers are afraid of loneliness |
D.to give an example of teen addiction to social networks |
A.Text messaging. |
B.Changes in teen taste. |
C.Modern technology. |
D.Social-networking culture. |
A.Teenagers don't know how to develop really close friendships. |
B.Teenagers change their friends more often than before. |
C.True friends no longer appear in the school hallways. |
D.Teenagers respect others' privacy more than before. |