Teens in the Mall

An Inside Look at the Stereotypes of Teens Being associated with malls


Gabrielle Lewis

The Shadow Lake mall in Omaha, Nebraska is a hit for many people all year round.

Murray, Neb.-Whenever there is a movie involving teens, there is usually a scene that involves the teens being in a mall or going shopping somewhere. However, many of these movies are becoming a little dated. Teens in the 80s and 90s seemed to always spend their free time at the mall, but as a teen that goes shopping every now and then, I have noticed that the stereotype of teens hanging out at the mall or at a store does not seem to be true anymore.

Whenever I am at the mall, I rarely see any large groups of teens like I did when I was younger. This makes me wonder if teens have actually stopped hanging out at malls, or if I am just at the mall at the wrong time to see these large groups.

I asked a few students at Conestoga how much they go to the mall. I got four responses and here were their answers: three students said that they only go a few times a year or don’t go at all and only one student said that they go a few times a month. “I rarely go to the mall. Maybe only once a year, twice at most,” says Emory Trofholz, a sophomore at Conestoga High School. From these responses, I can infer that a large percentage of teens no longer go to the mall for fun. However, according to pymnts.com, about 24 percent of teens work at malls, and only 35 percent have jobs.

Going to the mall usually isn’t a huge priority compared to school and work for many teens. If teens aren’t focusing on these things, they are more likely to hang out with friends at some place other than the mall. As you can see, malls are turning into more of a place for adults to shop than for teens to hang out.

The idea of malls not being huge places to hang out for teens like they used to be is somewhat upsetting to me. When I was younger, I would long to be a teenager hanging out with her friends at the mall, blowing money on silly things and just living life to the fullest. Now that I am actually a teen, I can see that life is nowhere near to sunshine and rainbows. Yes, the mall can be a very fun place to spend time with friends at, but it is becoming sort of outdated. Now that the stereotype of teens going to the mall is no longer true, don’t be expecting to see a bunch of teens lingering around malls.