Teen dating, once dominated by sweaty hands, awkward phone calls and date nights with dad at the wheel, has gone online with most turning to Facebook and texting for romance, according to a newly released Pew Research Center survey.
ESSAY: Teens Voices, Dating in the Digital Age. How teens flirt, date & break up online http://t.co/tgd5NJ1oPX pic.twitter.com/XCj6VLnKSr
— Pew Research Internet (@pewinternet) October 7, 2015
In a series of focus groups, Pew found that digital tools have taken over the dating world just as it has nearly everything else with teens.
The good news: Most teens don’t meet their romantic partners online and they don’t like to break up online either.
The bad news: A “relationship” consists of texting online for more than seven of 10 teens.
Highlights from Pew:
— 35 percent of teens are dating.
— 76 percent say they have never dated someone they first met online, but one-in-four have dated or hooked up with someone they initially encountered online.
— 50 percent have let someone know they were interested in them romantically by friending them on Facebook or another social media site, and 47 percent have expressed their attraction by liking, commenting or otherwise interacting with that person on social media.
— When it comes to daily interactions, 72 percent text.
— 85 percent of teen daters expect to hear from their significant other at least once a day, and 11 percent expect to hear from them hourly.
— 27 percent of teens with dating experience have had a partner use social media to track their whereabouts.
— 27 percent have broken up with someone via text message and 31 percent have been broken up with in this way.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
