Amanda Lenhart Teens Quotations

We're seeing things that have always happened before, with teens saying and doing inappropriate things. They just didn't happen in such a public way.

Our sense from talking with these teens is that the Internet expands their network of friends. They keep in touch with people they normally would not because instant messaging can be a more casual way of talking with someone you met at summer camp or someone you have not seen in awhile.

What's going on with these technologies that are relatively complex is that teens have a bit more spare time than adults do, and they have more opportunities to play with technology. That's what they're doing: They're playing with it. It's a toy. When you play with something, you take it apart, you look inside it, you turn it around. ... I think adults are less likely to do that. They just want it to work.

Teens feel more comfortable online because it is not a physical world to them. While they may be exposed to advances or images they don't like, they don't feel that they will be physically harmed because they know how to block offensive users in chat and they believe it would be hard for predators to track them down.

Teens are very selective -- they're smart about their technology use. They use it for the kinds of things they need to do.