Teens think calling people on the phone is 'awkward' and 'weird'

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published 17 August 2015

Teens have expressed what we've all been thinking but were too afraid to say: Phone conversations are "awkward" and "weird." In a Pew survey on teens, technology, and friendship, researchers found that kids these days primarily think of their phone numbers as being for texting. When it comes to actually vocalizing sentences, however, teens may as well be saying, "LOL, bye."

In fact, teenagers only really want to pick up the phone if it means talking to their closest friends — talking to a kind-of acquaintance on the line is just uncomfortable, they say. Or, as one teen put it, "If it's your best friend, you'd be on the phone with them. It's because you have a lot to talk about. But like if it's just a regular friend, or you guys just associate from time to time, you typically text them because you don't really have anything to talk about."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.