Young People Ask . . .

What About Hanging Out?

VIDEO arcades, fast-food restaurants, street corners, local convenience stores​—in both rich and poor neighborhoods—​have become the gathering places where young people hang out.

Shopping malls are particularly popular hangouts in the United States. There groups of youths can often be seen roaming about for hours at a time. “Malls will always be the place to go,” claims one teenage girl, “because there’s so much going on, and there’s always something to catch your attention​—like the boys!”

No mall nearby? Then an empty lot or a street corner will suffice. Says 15-year-old Tari: “My friends and I drive out to some big parking lots in a nearby park, sit on the hoods of our cars and talk for hours.”—’Teen magazine, September 1990.

Of course, there’s nothing really new about hanging out. The Bible tells of people in early times who would gather in public places and “spend their leisure time at nothing but telling something or listening to something new.” (Acts 17:21) But why is this pastime so popular among youths today?

According to the book The Adolescent, by F. Philip Rice, adolescents “become increasingly aware of their needs to belong to a group. They want to be liked by their peers.” Thus, hanging out with friends seems to fill a need for companionship and support.

Other youths see it as simply a way to fight boredom. Explains young Michelle: “It’s boring to sit at home at night. You want to go out and have fun because if you don’t you’re going to have a boring evening.” Sixteen-year-old Ed claims that hanging out is “something to do and it kind of keeps you out of trouble.” But does it really do so?

When People Hang Out

The Bible does not condemn having a good time with friends. Nevertheless, it warns: “He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly.” (Proverbs 13:20) Now, how many of the youths idly standing on street corners can be said to be wise persons​—those having a real respect for Bible principles? They may not necessarily be troublemakers, but a large group of bored, unsupervised youths plus a lot of idle time can easily add up to trouble.

For this reason the Bible puts hanging out in a bad light. Consider the time the apostle Paul and Silas visited the city of Thessalonica. Opposers to the Christian message “took into their company certain wicked men of the marketplace idlers [“worthless loafers,” Today’s English Version] and formed a mob and proceeded to throw the city into an uproar.” (Acts 17:5) According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, these marketplace idlers were individuals “frequenting markets, and so sauntering about idly.” Sound familiar? At any rate, these idlers likely had little or no interest in Paul’s message, but having nothing better to do, they could easily be seduced into rioting.

Mischief and Mayhem

Think, now, of the potential for trouble when a group of idle youths get together. Not that anyone plans mayhem. “There’s not much going on,” claims a 16-year-old named Ken who hangs out at a school parking lot. “We sit on our cars and tell stupid jokes or just talk about dates.” Yes, for a while, rambling talk about sports, music, and the opposite sex may keep everyone entertained. All too often, though, youths quickly tire of just talking.

Researchers Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Reed Larson report: “Again and again, [youths] described these occasions [of hanging out] in terms of ‘being rowdy,’ being loud, crazy, and wild. . . . There is something about the group interaction of peers that makes rowdiness happen, even if the individual teenagers involved are not inclined to it. . . . Rowdy activities included driving around yelling, throwing cans on people’s yards, and having fights.” (Italics ours.)​—Being Adolescent.

True, you may not be inclined to do something crazy just because your friends do. But you could put yourself under enormous pressure to do wrong if you were in the midst of wrongdoers. (1 Corinthians 15:33) And even if you refrain from joining in the rowdiness, your presence there could give others the wrong impression about you. This is what occurred with a young girl named Dinah, daughter of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob.

Dinah was raised to be a worshiper of Jehovah God, although her family lived in the land of Canaan​—a land ridden with sexual perversion and idolatry. Her father, Jacob, therefore tried hard to limit contact with the immoral Canaanites by pitching his camp outside the city of Shechem and establishing a separate water supply. (Genesis 33:18; John 4:12) Yet, Dinah “used to go out to see the daughters of the land,” perhaps regularly. (Genesis 34:1) Dinah may have viewed hanging out with the Canaanites as harmless fun. But Canaanite women had a reputation for being promiscuous. So when a Canaanite man named Shechem observed Dinah in company with such women, he “took her and lay down with her and violated her.”​—Genesis 34:2.

In a similar way, hanging out with the wrong crowd can get you in real trouble. A young man named Leonard recalls that in spite of the fact that he was raised as a Christian, he began “hanging around with a rebellious crowd. We’d run around and drink beer together​—even though I was not of legal age. By age 18, I was smoking marijuana.”

The Best Use of Time

One study found that 44 percent of the youths polled spent three to five hours or more each time they visited a shopping mall; 14 percent spent six hours. But rather than waste time in idle behavior, a wise youth ‘buys out the opportune time because the days are wicked.’​—Ephesians 5:15, 16.

Do your schoolwork and household chores suffer because of the time you spend at teen hangouts? How about your spiritual activities​—personal study of the Bible, Christian meetings, the work of witnessing to others? Are you neglecting such responsibilities? When you have “plenty to do in the work of the Lord,” it is not likely that you’ll have much time to be idle.​—1 Corinthians 15:58.

Healthy Alternatives

Recreation is an important part of life. (Ecclesiastes 3:4) But hanging out is not the only way to have a good time. “I enjoy my solitude,” says a young woman named Lucy. “I like reading, and this has helped me develop an interest in foreign history, culture, and language. I visit museums and galleries, sew and cook. I also enjoy drawing and letter writing, and I even try a little poetry once in a while.” No, being alone does not have to be boring.

Your family may be another source of wholesome recreation. Now, before you reject this idea, listen to a young man named Jack. He recalls: “My parents always had something planned for us to do. We went ice-skating and roller-skating; we went to parks, zoos, and museums. Even cleaning the yard or the house was fun when we did it as a family.” Perhaps your family has fallen out of the habit of doing things together. If so, why don’t you come up with some ideas for a family outing? You may enjoy it more than you expected!

This does not mean you cannot enjoy the association of peers​—including times when you simply engage in light conversation or just relax together. But be selective in your choice of friends. Says a young man named Enrique: “I used to hang out with worldly youths, but once I dedicated my life to serve Jehovah, I associated with young ones in the congregation. We went in the preaching work together, played ball together​—I tried to do as much as I could with them.”

Shelleace likewise used to hang out with the wrong crowd. She recalls of her former friends: “Their lives lacked purpose and direction. It took me a while to wean myself from them, but when I did, I surrounded myself with good associates. Only then did I progress spiritually.”

So while hanging out may be fun or even exciting at times, it won’t help you spiritually, and it will more likely harm you. Be smart. Find better ways to use your time.

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Is hanging out the best use of your time?