Friends Without Benefits

Friends Without Benefits(vanityfair.com)

25 points by fanboy123 12 years ago | 11 comments

Except, I don't believe a minute of this. I have sisters and cousins.

This is blowing things far out of proportion. It's like watching Mean Girls and then assuming all of high school is like that for every single student.

nickthemagicman 12 years ago | |

Exactly. This article is very sensationalist and is only a cross section of dumb people.

mixmastamyk 12 years ago | |

I certainly hope so... it'd be so unfair if true. Article makes it sound like it's raining blow jobs in high school now.

JackMorgan 12 years ago |

As a former middle school teacher who taught in two very different schools: it depends a lot on the parents and location. One school I was at was nothing like this, the other just like this.

anigbrowl 12 years ago |

One of the best articles on this topic I've seen...pity it sank like a stone as it's pretty much a summary of what's wrong with existing social media.

mixmastamyk 12 years ago | |

Probably flagged by the thought police.

alex_c 12 years ago |

While reading this article, keep just one thing in mind: think back to every "teenagers these days" article you saw back in your teens, and how closely it actually reflected your own experience as a teenager.

Camillo 12 years ago | |

Do you think the average hacker's experience as a teenager is representative of their contemporaries'?

generj 12 years ago | | |

I certainly expect them to have knowledge of what it was like for their peers.

gizmo686 12 years ago | |

This is one of those "teenagers these days" articles from my teens, and it is very far from my experience. Reading it does however invoke a sense a simmilarity to articles I read in history class about the sexual revolution.

I look forward to reading the next generation's history books.

generj 12 years ago | | |

I'm also only a few years out of high school, and it absolutely doesn't reflect my experience.

I know stuff like this wasn't blatantly going on in my (fairly affluent) school - everyone knew when a big party occurred. Weed? Absolutely everywhere. Small parties where some sex might have occurred? Sure. Sex within relationships? Yes. Massive 100 person orgies? Nope.

I will lend some credence to the article, based upon a creepy encounter I had at a supermarket. A girl (and her friends) insisted multiple times that we had "hooked up" at a party, and then never spoken. I suppose I resembled this paramour.

I can't stress how odd it is to be accosted by an under-age girl insisting she had sex with you. It was probably the single most awkward experience in my life.

She then said that I must have been drinking, and as such must have forgotten! (I don't drink as a matter of fact - I like my liver just fine, and it's likely I'd have addictive tendencies).

Thankfully, I was able to convince her without involving security or anyone else. It was eye-opening, because of how upset the girl was, and how she believed that the fact I was in college and she was under-age wouldn't be a deterrent for a fling - like I wouldn't practice due diligence before risking jail-time and the sex-offender list.

Still, I think this behavior is localized to certain subcultures, is exaggerated, and is geographically and socioeconomically centralized (notably, the article only mentions LA and NY).