Page 14 - My FlipBook

body language. These nonverbal cues are another level of

communication. They help people connect with each other.
They can communicate a person’s mood or feelings as well

as or better than what the person says. With the exception

of video chat, people cannot observe nonverbal cues in

online conversations.

Twenge studies teens as part of her research. One of
these teens was a thirteen-year-old girl named Athena

who lived in Texas. Twenge talked to Athena in 2016.

Twenge remembered how she used to shop at a mall with

her friends during her middle school years in the 1980s.

Twenge asked Athena whether she and her friends went to
shopping malls in their free time. Athena said that she and

her friends did not go to the mall very often. Instead, they

spent much of their free time communicating through their
phones. Twenge observed,

Unlike the teens of my generation, who might

have spent an evening tying up the family landline
with gossip, [today’s teens] talk on Snapchat, the

smartphone app that allows users to send pictures

and videos that quickly disappear. They make sure
to keep up their Snapstreaks, which show how many

days in a row they have Snapchatted with each

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other.

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