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I have a bone to pick with teenage America.

I have sat idly by and watched as our "lingo" has become increasingly strange. I find myself saying things like "btdubbs" in everyday conversation and it shocks me, but I find it harmless and let it slide. However, am I the only person who is confused and a little distressed by the term "talking?" It would seem that "talking" is the stage before dating. It's what in the old days could have been called courting.

But, what defines talking? I know that if a guy is talking to a girl and then, say, asks another girl to prom, then all of the former girl's friends will probably start to hate him. I know that a girl in a relationship should never be talking to someone who isn't her boyfriend. So, is talking just flirting? But it also seems that a girl can think that she is talking to a boy that she fancies but the object of her affection can have no idea that the talking is taking place.

Sigh, I guess talking is just the high school version of "like." So, "Do you like like him, or do you just like him?" is now, "Are you guys talking talking, or just talking?"

The things we teenagers come up with.