For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’

A greeting is so common, some students complain of peer pressure to hug, and some schools have banned hugging.

Hugging appears to be a grass-roots phenomenon and not an imitation of a character or custom on TV or in movies. The prevalence of boys’ nonromantic hugging (especially of other boys) is most striking to adults. Experts say that over the last generation, boys have become more comfortable expressing emotion, as embodied by the MTV show “Bromance,” which is now a widely used term for affection between straight male friends.

Another generational divide. (Via NYT)