By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Teens still do this romantic thing their parents did despite tech's influence on their relationships
33b2befe683851e350e6b1a43168185d1eb0710e320673041d593fc7477363ce
Pew interviewed teens ages 13 to 17 on their "digital romantic practices." The most common way for teenage boys to ask girls on a date is in person rather than via text, and Monica Anderson of Pew noted other common conceptions through the decades as true. - photo by Payton Davis
Even if teens can't lift their gazes from their screens, they at least know some romantic traditions prove important in today's relationships, according to new Pew Research Center data.

Pew interviewed teens ages 13 to 17 on their "digital romantic practices." The most common way for teenage boys to ask girls on a date is in person rather than via text, and Monica Anderson of Pew noted other common conceptions through the decades as true.

"[N]early half (47 percent) of teen girls say they usually wait for someone to ask them out first, compared with only 6 percent of boys," Anderson wrote. "Girls are also much less inclined than boys to ask someone out, whether in person (35 percent girls vs. 69 percent boys) or via text message (20 percent vs. 27 percent)."

But that's where teens' similarities to how their parents found romance as youngsters end.

Alicia Marie Tan wrote for Mashable that 24 percent of teens with relationship experience have dated someone they first met online and 63 percent have sent flirtatious messages to a crush.

For those surveyed, a simple text or Facebook like might yield a connection, according to BBC News.

"Fifty percent of all teens surveyed, dating or not, said they had indicated interest by friending someone on Facebook or other social media and 47 percent expressed attraction by likes and comments," BBC News' article read.

Also, 92 percent of dating teens texted a partner expecting the partner would be responsive with "great regularity," BBC News reported.

However, Pew's data shows just as technology bolsters relationships among teens, it's a tool used to end them, too.

Herb Scribner reported on one of the Pew survey's more surprising findings: 27 percent of teens have broken up with someone over text message, with 31 percent of teens having been broken up with the same way.

Although a majority of teens surveyed acknowledged breaking up via text message wasn't "socially acceptable," some cited an inability to handle emotions during a face-to-face breakup, Scribner reported. The teens also worried about hurting others the traditional way.

According to Pew's report, all those tagged Instagram photos and love-infused Facebook statuses add a different element to today's breakups than before. Girls are more likely to block or unfriend an ex on social media than boys by a 44 percent to 31 percent margin.

Why take that measure?

Sometimes "erasing" an ex makes things easier, one teen told Pew.

I guess it depends. Cause like if youre friends with the person still, thats OK," the teen told Pew. "But if youre not, youre like really bitter, its just like Im erasing you from my life.
Sign up for our e-newsletters