New York Times Baffled By Teenagers Hugging

It happens to all of us, at one time or another. You're out there, just living your life. And then you suddenly catch a glimpse of the New York Times, and you remember: "My God! The Thursday Styles section truly is a monument to vapidity!" To wit: children. They are hugging. A lot. And NOBODY REALLY KNOWS WHY! It's the movie that M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening should have been! NAIL THIS STORY, TIMES!

Girls embracing girls, girls embracing boys, boys embracing each other -- the hug has become the favorite social greeting when teenagers meet or part these days. Teachers joke about "one hour" and "six hour" hugs, saying that students hug one another all day as if they were separated for the entire summer.

A measure of how rapidly the ritual is spreading is that some students complain of peer pressure to hug to fit in. And schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., wary in a litigious era about sexual harassment or improper touching -- or citing hallway clogging and late arrivals to class -- have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule.

Parents, who grew up in a generation more likely to use the handshake, the low-five or the high-five, are often baffled by the close physical contact. "It's a wordless custom, from what I've observed," wrote Beth J. Harpaz, the mother of two boys, 11 and 16, and a parenting columnist for The Associated Press, in a new book, "13 Is the New 18."

"And there doesn't seem to be any other overt way in which they acknowledge knowing each other," she continued, describing the scene at her older son's school in Manhattan. "No hi, no smile, no wave, no high-five -- just the hug. Witnessing this interaction always makes me feel like I am a tourist in a country where I do not know the customs and cannot speak the language."

I've long thought the idea that paying the New York Times for online content was absurd. Naturally, this changes everything.

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Comments

[sushi27]

Hugging is a good thing, what is wrong with our society!? They keep saying "how did this start" - Michelle Obama - duh. She hugs everyone when she visits schools - it is a good thing!! Pretty hard to shoot someone if your hugging.

[Magnesia]

ooops..

[Magnesia]

These are simply Indigo/Crystal people waking up. We can all do it, we need to do it now!. By the way, I posted this and 20 minutes later it was removed .. what does that tell you?

[Magnesia]

These are simply Indigos/Crystals waking up. We can all do it and change our reality, we just need to do it NOW!

[jayburd]

Next thing you know, teenagers will be having sex...

[muirwood]

another attempt by young people to try to distinguish themselves as "cool, connected man, we're all brothers and sisters in this FUBAR world". For now, it's great for those with needy personalities.

[WindySailor]

The New York Times is baffled by anything human.

[bingvangorden]

Everyone knows hugging is a gateway greeting.

[lizr]

LOL

[redsongia]

That's a good one. Here's a hug!
>

[cwestx]

Ok, mental image time: Bill Murray....Ground Hog Day....insurance salesman...

[JLRoberson]

Hugging is just the beginning. It can lead to terrible, terrible things.
http://glycon.livejournal.com/6586.html

[OliverTwist]

Somehow I caught this hugging thing and now I find myself doing it all the time - mostly with my family and close friends. A long long time ago when I was younger it would have seemed weird. But that was then. It seems natural and good now.

[kylennblack]

We didn't hug a lot in high school but my nightclub buddies were all huggers. We'd be introduced to a new person and then there were hugs all around. Nice to see this custom go overground.

[totalliberal]

To paraphrase Col. 'Bat' Guano in Dr. Strangelove. They are a bunch of preverted preverts doin preverted things with their preverted friends.

[zukervati]

LoL - you stole my line!

[NoSillyName]

My creepy cousin always wanted tight, long hugs from all of his female relatives. *shudder*.

[markybear]

Sure a lot people are touch-averse. Sure seeing others act intimate can be somewhat unsettling. Of course youngsters doing anything even slightly out of the norm comes off as jejune and socially iconoclastic. But, JesusChrist, given that hugging has been represented and acted out during our entire sentient presence on this muck ball, how can anyone, anyone stop long enough to seriously contend that teen-hugging is actually, in fact weird.
So you don't get it. Do you get particle physics? Do you get war? When might you get over it?
Comear, lemme give you a hug.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

I like you markybear. When I was little I wanted to grow up to be a bear. Some say I have succeeded.

[TomFox]

good points....next thing you know the school administrators will ban hugging and give em handguns instead...sheesh.

I'm so glad I'm not an adolescent anymore. Let's just hope this hugging thing carries over a few generations.