Anonymous wrote:Some version of this question has been discussed multiple times recently here. In my experience, the very social, popular kids still hang out in person plenty. No surprise there. It’s the quieter, more introverted, perhaps a bit awkward kids, who can get sucked into the ease and low risk of online interactions and don’t bother to get together much in person anymore. I have a kid like this and while she has school friends, they never, ever just “hang out.” When they do occasionally do stuff together, it’s almost always an occasion—someone’s birthday or something. In my day, my friends and I would spend hours together, just doing nothing, being together for the sake of being together. Now it seems they just want to stay comfortable—in their rooms or just at home, and if they want to chat with someone, they’ll do it digitally.
I agree with this and don't think it's really much different than pre-technology. Social kids still hang out in person all the time. Less social ones stay home. In our day, we hung out with our parents and stayed up too late watching Cinemax. Now they might be on their phone.
IME, girls are a bit more proactive about organizing than boys. My teen son is in a co-ed friend group and they hang out in person all the time. Friends with sons who don't have any girls in the group, it seems there is less in person hanging out. If my son is going to hang out with just boys, it's more often not planned and just comes up organically or somehow orchestrated by adults. Dinner after a game or they see each other at a sibling event and ask to do something after.