Dating on the Net - Lynn Schofield Clark

Recap: Clark talks about the teen dating relationships from the online community. She goes over the history of dating and how it has developed over the last century into the 21st century. She explains how the female to help them gain a better position for themselves and possible family development created the dating issue. Her comparisons to how the female works the use of the internet now is similar in how the females used the situation of “dating” during the mid 20th century. She also explores the use of an avatar in chat rooms and other online experiences for the female. Young female teens will develop an avatar that fits what they think is the preferred visual description that male teens will want to see. However, a large majority of the male teens understand how the females go about “lying” about their physical description. Clark seems to think that over all, teens do what teens do. Their use of the internet chat rooms is not as explicit as adults and they have set peer-to-peer rules they play by. Going against the rules results in some form of punishment and ultimately leads to either moving on or being ignored.

Comments: It seems that teens today are doing just what teens have always done. Although they have adapted the use of the internet with the use of the chat rooms to further the possibility of developing a relationship, however it seems that the female is more interested in creating a long distance friendship. The teen males seem to have a more sexual expression that the females will either ignore or take to a private two-person chat room if they want to explore more. It is interesting to see how the female teens will take the avatar and make it a form of expression to be more accepted by the males, generally hiding their true appearance in the description of the avatar. This leads to a cat and mouse game between the genders to determine just who is what and so on. To me it seems very much like how teens primp and preen their appearance when in public. Definitely different from when I was a teen. The computer and the internet would have made for some interesting situations growing up.