The Napz

About a week ago I was on twitter and I saw a local person mention that she had lost power.  It was -20 out, so it was a scary situation to be in.  I decided to search my city name on twitter to see what area was affected and came across a tweet obviously from a high school kid.

“Scoolz gonna be out tomrow, thatz ballz right there”

I then clicked on his feed, because how could I not after that gem up there?? That led me to this whole twitter world of local high school kids.  I don’t personally follow any (known) people’s under 18 so to see this glimpse was fascinating.

I decided to list them on a private list and caught up with them today.   I’m mostly fascinated with how this range of years plays out on social media.  How they are portrayed.  What someone looking at their stream takes away.  I won’t be giving their actual twitter names since they are in high school but I can assure you anything I write about them has come from their own public stream.

Environment:  Affluent area, good schools where it is expected you go to college, Chicago suburb.  

The Characters:

GMan- Boy. Senior. I think he uses his 1st initial and his last name as handle. This was the first kid that I came across. If I had to group him, he’s avg to below avg. in school, acts cooler than he is and comes off as sort of a jerk.

Followers- 97

Tweet Examples:

“I hate senior year because I just realized I had the potential to do well in school and get into a great college #fuckme

“Ms. (name removed) English class is another way of saying fuck you right to your face”

“Beer Is Gold”

“You live and you learn. If you don’t try it your a pussy”

“If you don’t get out of my way in the hallway I’ll get you out of the way”

 

Brian- Boy.  Senior.  Uses first name_ last name as twitter handle.  Athlete going to college on scholarship. Well liked by others. Clean cut but not so much that he isn’t popular. Good manners, respected, probably a good student as well.

Folowers- 400

Tweet Examples:

“A very busy, but very great 18th birthday #blessed”   (He recently had a birthday and had a lot of tweets wishing him happy birthday AKA motherlode of high schoolers with twitter accounts. He thanked every one for their wishes)

“HUGE game tonight! 810 at (removed)  vs (removed)  for first place in the league! No school tomorrow so everyone be there!”

“Blessed to be able to say I made the Illinois High School All-State xxx team”

“Animal crackers will forever be the greatest snack of all time”

 

Nancy- Girl.  Not sure what year in school. Uses first name_ last name as twitter name. Typical “moody” teenage girl. Writes a lot of emotional tweets.  Swears, writes about drugs and sexual stuff sometimes. Not unpopular but probably not in “the group” in highs chool. Hard to say what kind of student but I would guess average, maybe above. She RT’s a lot.

Followers- 1,063

Tweet Examples:

“i feel like you don’t have to be all over everyone when you’re already in a relationship… that’s what the person you’re dating is for :-)”

“i’m tired of being a burden to everyone”

“i’ll never ever be anyone’s priority”

“just stayed up much past my bed time to make puppy chow for da basketball team to congratulate them for their win on friday”

 

Sophia- Girl.  Senior. Uses first name last initial as twitter name.  Funny, snarky,  smart.  Going to a really good college. Pretty. Probably popular.

Followers- 300 

Tweet Examples:

“Yes yes I’m sure Michael Phelps enjoys a Fritos chicken enchilada from Subway on the daily”

“When in doubt, respond with an emoji that does not relate to the conversation at all”

“Ladies going through the neighborhood on cross country skis #whitepeople

“Would it be weird if I started packing for spring break now jw”

 

Intrigued?  Me too.  Come along.

 

 

 

11 thoughts on “The Napz

  1. Thank god my kid isn’t of the high school age, yet. I’m not ready to do that kind of policing yet. That said, I decided to do the same with my town and found a High School Confession acct for the local high schools. Holy moly! The 1st acct was deactivated so the person made another. The idea is that you DM the acct owner and then he will post the confession. But some kids, not being so bright, tweet them instead. WOW.
    Teens are amusing.

    • I think one really doesn\’t do anything really out there. One totes the line. The other 2 are obviously free from any sort of restrictions.

  2. This is good timing because I felt you were on a blog roll there and I would shout inappropriately loudly in the office “hooray” when I saw you in my inbox. I was getting really worried I would have to dust off my twitter account to come find you. Good to see you are going deep cuts with the twitter and now creating anthropological studies of youth demographics using twitter. I think you should continue because you will either come up with a kick-ass dissertation or at the very least, get the plot lines for the next blockbuster teen-angst movie. “Critics but more importantly, the youth who are flocking to see ‘Napz in Clazz’ say that Jen aka ‘The Next Martha’ captures the essence of their lives in a way they’ve never seen before. “Yo, it was like, she was in my twitter-feed, it was nutz.” said one young fan.

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