The afternoon after the 31st of October, after everyone had gotten over the pumpkins and dress ups, my brother and I were walking back home after playing a great game of tennis.
It all started when a large group of teens were walking towards us on the footpath.
There were tens of them! They were filling up the entire walk way! I had to squeeze in between the group of adolescents and the wall of the road! And they were carrying bags! With what looked like towels!
Oh no!
But then the scariest part came...
ANOTHER group of teenagers, also walking down the street, in a large group, with bags of what looked like towels..oh no! One of them recognized me!
"Hey Eva!"
"Oscar! Hey! Where are you cats going?"
"Jake my cousin had a Halloween party last night - it was mean! We're just going down to the pool - you should come chill later."
"Cool bananas! Might see you later!"
As we walked off, my brother turns to me and says:
"Since when are there copious amounts of teenagers flooding our streets?"
A good questions indeed.
I must say, in our parts, it is very rare that you would see a large group of more than 4 teenagers doing anything. My theory for this is the age of technology. I remember when we used to go to the pool almost every weekend in groups of 10-20 teens, and we had SO MUCH FUN! These days, I find it just as exciting and fine to TXT the same friends I used to enjoy seeing face-to-face, or sneak in a Facebook comment along the lines of 'whats up' if
we're both online. And I can speak for many younger and older teens - it's uncommon to see big groups of teens together doing something fun (i.e. NOT getting into trouble!).
But let's face it.
Face-to-face is SO much better.
It's just teens have no reason to see each other face-to-face.
This is the only problem: there's no REASON!
Today's Tip is about giving teens the reason to see their friends and peers face-to-face.
A perfect way to give that reason, is when festivities such as Halloween come up. All you have to do is plant the little seed of thought in their brain for them to have some friends around - they might really get into the spirit, decorate the place, and all that jazz. And after a successful party, or friend get-together, they may aswell all go and hang out at the local
pool, mall, wherever - because they're already together, aren't they! Woo hoo - bonus points for getting them to hang out for longer!
You see, we can TXT and chat all day - we don't really have a need to see our friends in big groups, since we can communicate without having to meet up! But let's face it - us teens really do need a push in the right direction sometimes. And nothing beats good old hanging out with heaps of your mates without the cell phones and internet!
If you're a youth worker - get some teens to organize a fun evening/night for the community!
A teacher could get the class in the festive spirit (you teachers hold ALOT of power, you know!) Parents can get their teen/children to invite friends around (also good to make sure they're all having a fab time at your place, rather than out getting off-their-face drunk and egging cars!)
Give them a reason to have some good old fashioned face-to-face communication!
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