I was in a public setting today when I overheard a teenaged girl talking to her parents. I wasn’t snooping. They were loud.

It was just a normal, regular, every-day encounter and conversation this family was having. Then the girl said something that made my ears perk up a bit.

She was talking about her “icon”. I think she meant an avatar or some other jpeg graphic that she was using. Apparently one of her Christian teenaged girlfriends thought the “icon” was too revealing. Her defense to her parents was, “It’s not revealing. It’s just a mini-skirt. It’s a cartoon! I don’t want to take it off MySpace.com”.

Okay, maybe not word for word, but pretty close.

I know social websites like MySpace.com is really huge (which BTW is the top gaining search term on Google for 2005). But to be honest, this was the first time I’ve heard about the offline community quarrels from an online community at this level. I’m not around teens a lot so maybe that’s why. I know I’ve experienced off-line consequences based on online experiences, but, well, I guess I’m saying I’ve never eavesdropped on one!