Sunday, July 11, 2010

Twilight Books and Middle School Neck-Biters

Here's something from the "Just When You Think You've Seen It All" news category.

It seems that the vampire craze sweeping the middle schools of America has spawned a new way for those students to show their "affection" for one another.

The Washington Post has this little blurb about the new craziness:
So, here’s the latest vampire-related trend apparently sweeping through middle schools: Some teens are biting each other, usually on the neck, as a way to declare love or friendship.

And, of course, they are documenting the act and slapping it up on Facebook for their parents to see. CBS' Early Show reported Wednesday that the “troubling new trend among teens” is likely the result of the booming popularity of the Twilight book and movie series and HBO's True Blood.






Good, bad, or silly? I'll leave that to you to decide, but who said books were no longer relevant to young people?

3 comments:

  1. Good, bad or silly? How about a fourth choice: Mainstream Media Fail. I don't believe it's a widespread think at all. I've never seen a middle schooler do this.

    By the time real trends make it on the nightly news they are over. So over.

    I suspect Ms. Meyer is on minute 12 or 13 of her fame at this point anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd have to agree with C.B. James on this one. The media likes trying to drum up panic about things, and this has a feel similar to "oh my God, Harry Potter is turning our kids into satanists!" Their "experts" are getting TV time, which I'm sure they enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I suspect both of you are correct. I can't imagine this would go unnoticed if it were all that widespread. And the Washington Post "article" is extremely short on detail.

    As for Meyers, C.B., I think she's definitely on the downhill side of a hill that never had much of a literary upside to start with. Her target audience of middle school kids is one thing...adults getting hooked on her work is something I just never could figure.

    ReplyDelete

I always love hearing from you guys...that's what keeps me book-blogging. Thanks for stopping by.