Today Investigates High School Hug Madness

@EleanorRigby: I went to Pascack Valley, but there wasn't much hugging going on there, either.

mystery white girl

The hugs didn't bother me so much as the 8000mhz/90db shriek metronome that was the first day back from summer vacay.

@croush1211:
But how would we have a crisis to report on? TV news needs a faux crisis or it would simply cease to exist.

friendlynerd

Not only is this NOT a new cultural phenomenon, but it seems like just last week when the same investigative journalists were telling us that this generation doesn't interact directly with friends ENOUGH, and that we've become an instant-message/texting crazed society, with no need for personal contact.

You can't have it both ways!

@Muggs Bigglesworth: I found it totally normal to hug people in highschool... I'm wondering if it was a Canadian thing. I'd say as a people, we're huggers.

ms.conniving

@cdmunch: Is your mother Lucille Bluth by any chance?

AuldLangMnemosyne

My HS students used to try to hug ME, which was a REAL ethical dilemma. I had to master quickly and subtly spinning them into the side-hug/shoulder to shoulder hug. Hey, I don't want no lawsuits, yo.

quickqueenof

@clochette: But we didn't go over and save Europe's ass from the NAZIs just so they could go all crazy with the bro-hugs and kisses and the socialism. At least that is what Glenn Beck tells me.

onebadclam

@prestocaro, now in stick figure form on BPT!: Today's youth are just fulfilling the maturation of the orgasm from vaginal to clitoral to uvular.

WretchedGnu

@Muggs Bigglesworth: I think it's also a cultural thing. I've always been a hugger/cheek kisser. As an adult, I realized that parts of my family, and friends from other parts of the country, feel much like you. Now that I'm aware of it, I try and feel out everyone I meet to judge if they're comfortable with a kiss on the cheek. To be honest, I'm hyper awkward about it all.

Anyway, my point is that it's where we come from, and not some shady creepy thing some people like to do.

@Cecil's Wielder: there's the one-arm hug for strangers, and the "don't do that one-armed shit with me" hug with your friends. Generally.

People do hug too much. I'm guilty of it myself. It's so ubiquitous these days. When you've just seen someone the day before, or the hour before, what the hell are you hugging them for? Hugging is for greeting after a long time. Or when someone is sad. Or to cop a feel (high school boys).

I think this is fine. I mean, in Continental Europe everybody kisses each other on the cheek in school. Not just best friends, but, say, if you arrive outside a classroom and the rest of your class is waiting outside for the teacher, you will go and kiss all the people you even vaguely know. And sometimes it's a bit tedious and time-consuming, but I like it. Why? Cos it's a nice acknowledgement of the people you're with. It's more personal and specific than just a bashful wave, a 'hi', and a glance around the room. So.... I mean, physical greeting is a nice thing in my book.

clochette

I'm surprised they didn't go there and say that this is further proof that those Latins are influencing poor red-blooded American teenagers. Next thing, they'll be kissing people on the cheek when they say hello! Then you'll all be speaking spanish!

pleppy

@LotharOfTheHillPeople: What does wearing Speedos in public have to do with anything?

DahlELama

@Mount_Prion: C.U.C.A.R.A.C.H.A.: Yes, please don't hug me. You might knock the ice cube out of my chardonnay.

Wow, you just summed up my family in a single sentence.

cdmunch

@resipsaloquacious: Exqueeze me? We are quite warm thank you very much. Oh, no, that's just the Bean boots I haven't taken off yet.

TroisFilles

@easternsike: For the same reason we're weirded out by Europeans.

LotharOfTheHillPeople

I come from a family of huggers - we literally hug everyone. And I'm very physically affectionate toward all of my friends, male and female, because just seems like a totally normal thing to do. I didn't realize I was on the cutting edge of a trend!

@clipper: Blowjobs started when you were in HS? How old ARE you?!

@Muggs Bigglesworth: This is why I find amusing ways to avoid being hugged by random acquaintances. Knowing my name is not a good enough reason for a half-stranger to get to press against the bosoms. I know what they're up to. (The huggers, not the bosoms. God only knows what those nefarious puppies are up to @ any given moment.)

Treeless

@depardoo: I don't know if my then 40+ year old ass can take that. Can I still opt for a hug?

Hugs? Please. The cool kids are all dabbling in prostitution. Didn't anyone see GMA this morning?

[abcnews.go.com]

knewthewords

@Baroness: Well that explains everything!

I seriously love your quote, though!

@Baroness: No I'm pretty sure the geeks hug each other too. It's the only way they get to rub their genitals on someone.

Silverbackne

The NYT broke this story! And this is precisely why we need that paper.

Nesbiteme

I'm from an Irish Catholic family. I would literally rather you burn me with your Bic Lighter than hug me. It'll function as a greeting AND to assuage the crushing guilt, a win-win.

I wish my high school were like this. To have been surrounded by all those mens in hugs and kisses.

But alas, all-male high schools rely on punching and farts to communicate affection.

Don't get me wrong. There were some guys who always had their cocks out and would weigh them on scales in physics class, but for the most part, affection was hard to come by.

I suffered so.

I hug people I'm close to. But now you're hugging people you don't even know. Hugging used to mean something.

My absolute favorite part of the article.

Cecil's Wielder

Just a thought.. I wonder if all this hugging isn't a status thing as well. I'm sure there are still planty of geeks and outcasts in high school who pointedly don't get the hugz. Is part of it an ostentatious display of being accepted, in-group, "friended"? Hm.

Ummm... everyone touches and hugs a lot in high school, right? We used to give each other back rubs in class. When you put a bunch of hormonal young people together, they're gonna touch each other.

@The Lone Scout: "Hugging.. it's so ethnic."

Did I miss something? I don't think she was condemning it. Maybe mocking a little, the logic and background off, and the hug naming hilarious (triple-hug? what about group hug). Anyway, nothing that new, just in the wasp class.

Let's guess which "sociologist" was homeschooled? Anyone?

NightElfMohawk

@AndIAmTellingYou: Haha - we ALWAYS got that!

Birthday Girl

As a friend who used to teach high school has been known to observe (in a different context), "anyone who ever actually smelled a roomful of teenagers would have no interest in touching any of them."

City_Dater

@lawyergay: Ha! Good one! I went to mine last year, and my husband kept going up to people with a big hug and a "Heeeyyyy!!! How ya been! What you been up to?" Poor suckers were so polite and so confused.

Wow, next thing you know, they'll say students often lie to their parents about being ill so they don't have to go to school, or that people yell the names of fellow students down the hall when they're trying to get their attention between classes!!

Way to pick up on something that's been going on in schools since I could remember (meaning, at least the 1980s). Caring is sharing, you know.

NightElfMohawk

What the heck is wrong with hugging?? I'm a hugger, always have been, and believe you me I didn't graduate from high school yesterday. And now I'm raising very affectionate kids, 8 & 6, who hold hands and yes ~ hug! ~ each other and their friends, all the time. Until the Today Show told me that was weird, I always thought it was pretty awesome!

LucyPevensie

@Richard Lawson: Yes. Every American life should be just like a John Cheever story.

Awesome X

Hugs are awesome and have been popular since...forever.

shorty63136

@Richard Lawson: My 20th high school reunion is coming up this weekend, and I plan to address my hugless boarding school experience by hugging every member of the boys soccer and lacrosse teams. Oh, and Mr. Greene. And Mr. Buxton.

lawyergay

@Richard Lawson: Didn't this movie have Sly Stallone and Wesley Snipes in it, or am I confusing this with the one with Ethan Hawke and Jude Law? See, Hollywood has already created this future. Those prophets.

Spirit Fingers

@Richard Lawson:

I think you just described most of New England.

resipsaloquacious

why is this news? this is not new, i was in highschool ten years ago and people we hugging then....next they should do a report of girls going to the bathroom in groups, or boys telling dirty jokes....Shocking!

N.Bells

Apparently its a trend. Even MSNBC did something similar last month. [is.gd]
But why would such a stupid story be on the NY Times front page? I thought they banished Jennifer (ate) Lee to the basement.

Edward_Barrera

@depardoo: THREAD OVER. You win.

aedude01

@AndIAmTellingYou: They were telling us that in high school!

@The Lone Scout: Not to mention the cooties.

@The Lone Scout: Yes, please don't hug me. You might knock the ice cube out of my chardonnay.

@Richard Lawson: As Bristol Palin would say, "The proof is in my mistakeblessing!"

In my elementary school, no one of the opposite sex hugged or kissed. Then I got to high school, and everyone did it every five minutes.* I remember being so incredibly weirded out by it. By the end of the first month of freshman year, I was totally converted. What a happy thing to do!

*Both schools were religious institutions, but my elementary school was more of a prude yeshiva while my high school was the Yeshiva equivalent of Constance Billiard.

DahlELama

@Muggs Bigglesworth: Absolutely. It's that simple.

The Lone Scout

Suddenly, I'm back in elementary school with Sister John Louise... Leave room for the Holy Spirit!

@Richard Lawson: Indeed. We're WASPs. No hugging, please.

The Lone Scout

As I mentioned earlier, waayyy too much BO exposure in this teen hug phenomenon, you know, when things are like congealing and sprouting. Yep. See there, that dude now has overexcited armpit sludge from an unformed-adult on his shoulder. Messy.

Spirit Fingers

Personally, I prefer the hand-job hug. It takes much longer than a traditional hug, but it's far more exciting and intimate.

El_Gato

In 2032, this will be replaced by fisting.

depardoo

I vote for America has officially reached the retarded saturation point.

From now on, in this new America, we will only annonymously post comments on websites, text message our conversations, and twitter our inner most feelings.

Friends are only appropriate on facebook or MySpace.

This has been a serious and painful issue in the gay world for a long time now. That, along with insincere, scruffy cheek kisses.

cdmunch

It is retarded. Why are we so weirded out by affection? Europeans kiss each other on each cheek and have been for a long time. This is just our version of greeting a friend. I always thought that kissing was awkward. Then I had a Dutch friend tell me that air kissing each cheek was cold compared to our hugging, which she felt was much more genuine. She wished they would hug more in NL.

I wish media careers were still available. I have all of this unreasonable condemnation for other people and their habits.

(Of course, we all wish our social opinions could become mainstrem. The only difference between the Today show and us is that people care what Today thinks. But still!)

I wonder how many of those kids Today made hug for the camera because those don't count, NY Times!

@Richard Lawson: If it was good enough for me, it's good enough for them.

Pascack Hills! That's my high school! The hugging wasn't quite as rampant in school when I was there, though. Or maybe that was just me, not exactly eager to touch anyone at 8 am.

The real story here is what utter shit morning broadcast network programming is.

Seriously, GMA, Today, etc. are finishing schools for morons.

When I was in high school, I found it so awkward to hug people when you met up with them. And the kiss on the cheek? It just always seemed so forced and unnecessary. I think it is, and has always been, and excuse for boys to touch girls.

Muggs Bigglesworth

So the ideal America would be a place where no one ever touches or looks at each other or likes people of the same sex and then when they are 25 or so everyone gets married, having never touched anyone ever, and maybe having sublimated some other desires, and then everyone lives happily ever after forever, because good thing they never touched each other?

What a lonely, miserable place some people want this country to be.

Ooo, hugging as therapy, so rad!!! Like it hasn't been around for a thousand years. Anyway, you want hugging? Try this on for size, kids, this is the real deal:

[www.amma.org]

This stupid shit started when I was in high school. But then again, so did blowjobs. So who am I to complain? I guess girls have become very amorous in the past decade.

clipper

there is way more BPA seeping into our water supply than initially suspected

Starting to see a pattern here > NY Times > Main Stream Broadcast Media > Oprah

I'm allergic to hugs.

@kevipants!: Oh, they weighed them? I think you meant to say that they massed them -- am I right?

i'm a bottle

Really?

Snarkastic

BTW----what exactly do you call those half-assed conehead mohawks the kids are sporting these days?

DoctorEcks

I was sure all the increased hugging had to do with more people joining Alcoholics Anonymous. Are you telling me this is a separate trend? So...regarding role models for the 21st century -Leo Buscaglia 1, Humphrey Bogart 0.

DoctorEcks

@Muggs Bigglesworth: I like hugging.

@woobie: I like feeling out people from other places.

"A phenomenon studied by BULLSHIT PSEUDO-SCIENTISTS and written up as a trend in the Times?"

Thank you, thank you SO MUCH!!! I've been fearing that I was the only one to think that Sociology was a retarded field of study, and that that may indicate something wrong with me. It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks they're full of shit.

user_21938

I'm not going to lie, I don't want a news report on it, but I'm a HS teacher, and kids are hugging to greet one another after spending 50 minutes apart CONSTANTLY, and it's a pain in my ass. Just sit the f down and lets get started with class already! But no, it's a 5 minute long greeting ceremony before every class period.

Breaking news: Friendly, bodily contact between hormone-driven teenagers does not result in sexual assault charges, bastard babies, or the tsk-tsk-tsks of adults. Scientists (and Andy Dick) baffled.

CamelToe

The extent of what the Today Show considers "newsworthy" today makes my brain want to explode.