Students would rather sit at home and text than go to their high school dances

Tumblr

Students would rather sit at home and text than go to their high school dances
(Image credit: Tumblr)

The high school dance has gone way of the Tamagotchi. In what is perhaps a sign of the times, a New York high school has drastically scaled back the number of dances it throws from several seasonal ones to just prom. In 2001, more than 800 students attended the gatherings, compared to just 26 kids who showed up to them a few years ago. The reason? Students would rather sit at home and text, chat on Facebook, Snapchat or FaceTime with each other rather than mingle in real life.

Business Insider spoke to the school's principal, who blames the internet:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More

Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.