"It works like a web."

At a meeting yesterday for the local version of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, I got to listen in on the teen members' planning of a social event for members of the GSAs (Gay Straight Alliances) from various high schools in East Central Illinois (and those students from schools without GSAs who would be in GSA if they could).

When it came to advertisement, one of the teachers there wanted to know, if the plan was to blanket the coffee shops and other teen hangouts in Champaign-Urbana with flyers, how would they get the word to students who aren't in our area?

One of the teens from a Champaign high school explained, "Oh, we'll use Facebook. It kinda works as a web. So if I invite one person from Paxton, they'll invite others..."

Kids these days, huh? I'm crazy about moments like that when I get to see a kid explain to an adult, especially if the "adult" is me. I also think that the tone, pace and words that the explainer uses are sometimes funny. The talk slows down and becomes sort of gentle as the explainer thinks of "old" things to use for comparison: "Well, there are these things called blogs, y'see, and they're like journals, only on the World Wide Web for all to see!"