When I went into AOL's Teen Chat a few days ago and typed "Hi," I got the following responses:
SIR FEST: MY BROW KNOWS THIS CHICK NAMED ANGIE
MoSmurfz: pshco where are you
PIWinner43: RAP SUCKS RAP SUCKS
SIR FEST: AMEN
MoSmurfz: true
Ben Klinger: whats up suzzie?
Icetoner: big time
Janie52: nothin, u?
LaFcandio: WHY YOU SNAPPING LIKE THAT, YOU SHOULD HAVE RESPECT FOR EVERYBODY, AGREE OR DISAGREE?
Icetoner: Fuck you.
Conversations - if you can call them that - always go like this, sometimes even less coherently. (The above screen names have been changed.) This puzzles me. Being a teenager myself, I have conversations with teenagers every day. Admittedly, these conversations are not always deep, but they are intelligible. Yet when teenagers gather on AOL, the result is, shall we say, less than intellectual.
One reason is the crowds. With 23 people together in a room, a single conversation is unlikely. Still, in other topic-specific forums, discussion works. Maybe that's the problem. Teen Chat has no assigned subject. Plus, AOL allows you to write only two lines of dialog at a time.
Or maybe intelligent teens go to other rooms and don't give out their age. I do that a lot, but when people in their 20s, 30s, or 40s ask how old I am, it's embarrassing to say I'm 14. Then people talk to me like a little kid - which is far worse than the chaos of Teen Chat.
Teen Chat is also overpopulated with teenage males - life forms basically equal to slugs. Recently I got an instant message that said, "I'm a 14/m, want to go private?" "F"s get this kind of "me man, you woman" note frequently. My first reaction is to laugh - but it's irritating when people assume you'll go into a room with the first "M" who comes along.
Teen Chat may be mindless, incoherent, and occasionally offensive, but parts could be neat. The ability to go somewhere and say mindless, incoherent, and offensive things is an important freedom. But only when teenagers feel equally free to share their views, not worrying about what other kids will think, will there be a true conversation on Teen Chat.
Teen Chat: Check the People Connection area of AOL. America Online: +1 (703) 448 8700.
STREET CRED
Tales of TinseltownBig Brother Calling
A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief
A Day in the Life of Teen Chat
