Not everyone viewed school as a place where information flows easily. Ellen (University) pragmatically saw school, which many tweens acknowledged as a place where socialization occurs. As a highly structured environment where adults discourage social opportunities: "We have almost no time for socializing except for lunch. We get five-minute breaks between hours. You get five minutes to walk from one end of the school, take a detour to the locker, pick up our five pounds of stuff, walk around to the other side of the school, sit down, unpack all by the end of the bell. And go back to the bathroom and Shoes Online get Kleenex. It feels like a lot of work, and I don't see how they expect us to socialize in that time as well." In addition to school, tweens reported other locations that may be considered information grounds. The neighborhood was commonly cited as a place where tweens get together after school and on weekends due to the concentration of kids that permits easy socialization: "Sometimes I go over, and since there's a million kids in that cul-de-sac, if [one] can't play with me, then I go over to somebody else's house." The shopping mall was also cited as a place where tweens could find peers with whom to socialize, shop, and share information. Our informants explained: 'You meet up with your friends, and you go to the mall, and then when you get to the mall, you usually go in shops, and you go, like, 'Oh, this is a nice coat,' you know, stuff like that." And "I hang out with my sister, she's fifteen, and we go to the mall and watch movies and stuff." Athletic fields and sporting events, both organized and casual, provided opportunities for tweens to get together. Tweens also identified these as places where their parents could socialize if they were involved direcdy in a soccer match or other athletic contest. When asked the reasons for choosing these information grounds, tweens reported the following important considerations: Peer interaction: "I like the fact when you meet people around your age group." "Pretty much all the people [are] really nice." Access to older teens: "Sometimes we can ask questions." Opportunities to play: "I like video games." Computer access: "They have computers at the library." There were salient differences among the three study samples with regard to information grounds. The suburban school tweens felt comfortable in their neighborhoods, particularly the cul-de-sac, which afforded both play and socialization. For the urban Ministry group, the neighborhood provided some places to socialize (e.g., ball courts), but mobility was constrained Discount Shoes by concerns for safety. The urban/suburban University tweens often did not socialize in the neighborhood except to the extent those neighbors were also schoolmates. The limited mobility of tweens was made up for in two of our groups (University and School) by access to virtual interactions (e.g., e-mail, Web, chat). In the Ministry group, only one tween had home Internet access.
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