Last week, Room for Debate published a discussion on whether J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” resonates with teenagers today. We asked writers and teachers about Holden Caulfield’s kind of alienation in a world of Facebook and Twitter.

Some readers took us to task for not having a teenager on the panel, but many young readers did send in their thoughts. Here are excerpts from their comments.

Crying and Laughing With Holden

Asking a bunch of adults whether or not Catcher in the Rye will really reach teenagers is pretty funny, if you ask me. This only helps prove Salinger’s point — adults were once young and disillusioned themselves, but they’ve grown out of it, and they assume the rest of the world has grown with them.

I’m 18 years old and every bit as confused and wandering as Holden. When I read this book for the first time, I laughed so hard I cried and cried so hard I could barely breathe. Yeah, my generation has Twitter and Facebook and cellphones and what-have-you. The world is always changing in little ways like that. It’s the big things that don’t change — and even in an era of such impossible interconnectedness, there is no way to circumvent the feeling of being utterly alone and misunderstood.

Plenty of teenagers still love Catcher in the Rye. In fact, my Facebook feed was full of tributes to Salinger the day he died. If that doesn’t prove that this book has got appeal that spans generational differences, I don’t know what could.

— C. M. Dougan

Not All Good or All Bad

To look at my generation (as a current junior in high school), there are many factors that can’t be ignored. Our lives are different from those that many of you led twenty, thirty, or more years ago. But that doesn’t mean that we are in any way less complex, confused, “anxiety ridden” and generally lost than you were when you were our age.

Sure, some may argue that the over-saturation of technology has left us completely disconnected from real life — and that we have no idea how to actually interact, face to face, with each other. But, in many ways, it has created even more of a sense of loneliness than connectedness.

“The Catcher in the Rye” is not dated, uninteresting, or irrelevant to my generation as compared to yours. Holden’s rebellious search to understand human nature and himself, is something every human being must go through at some point of his or her life — and will most likely never complete. Those who would be lost in your generation of teenagers, are still lost. One of the largest gaps in your understanding of my generation, is that you — for some reason — believe all kids lie on either the “good” or “bad” end of the spectrum.

— J.Clay

A Greater Connection

As a teenager in the last year of her teens I must say I am a little upset with the assumption by adults that teenagers are so overwhelmingly consumed by technology, etc.

The first time I read ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ I loved it, because I connected with it immediately. It’s naive to say that teenagers are no longer teenagers, or that they don’t have the same teen angst that Holden has, because we do, trust me we do.

If anything the constant need to be connected to all of our former classmates and every single person in our dorm building creates a greater sense of alienation because the connections we make in this digital world are dare I say, phony ones, and our desire for someone to understand who we really are rather than what our “About Me” says on Facebook is ever increasing.

— Chelsea Rego

Holden Was Right

Well, I am sixteen and find it shocking how cynical all of you adults are about our generation. We just read this book a few months ago and each and everyone of us loved it and felt a deep connection between ourselves and Holden. Times have not changed as much as you think. We are not as shallow as you think. Salinger’s novel is as universal as it is timeless. But I’m beginning to think that maybe Holden was right about all of you.

— maliabadi

Great Artists, Great Thinkers

I am sixteen. I am one of those overscheduled teens who goes to a fancy private high school, gets straight As, has a wonderful relationship with her parents, dances five times a week, attends intense writing programs every summer, and is lead attorney in her school’s Mock Trial team.

I am also that rare teen who is texting-challenged and, to the chagrin of her friends, hasn’t checked her Facebook in nearly a semester. (Almost no one whom I know has a Twitter account. I know more about Twitter from my most recent Mock Trial case and articles about “teens these days” than I do through personal experience!) I’ve grown up in the age of psychiatry for everyone; for heaven’s sake, both of my parents are psychiatrists. I’m not a messed-up kid, nor do I have any major mental illness, but I’ve seen therapists all my life: about my brother, about my anxiety. I’ve taken an anti-anxiety drug for over a year. (Anxiety is something that reigns in my generation, at least among the overscheduled what-will-this-look-like-on-my-college-application crowd.)

— Allison

Holden’s Voice

As a 19 year-old college freshman who first fell in love with Holden Caufield in the sixth grade, I can say that while “The Catcher in the Rye” doesn’t resonate with all of my peers, it does with some of us. Yes, his voice isn’t quite current, but neither are those in “Romeo and Juliet,” but teenage readers still like it. What matters is that Holden is real, teenage angst still exists and if the “stupid” adults of today can’t recognize that, maybe they should spend more time with teenagers.

As a straight-A student who was kicked out of prep school, I found a friend in Holden, someone I could actually relate to in a time when not even my parents knew what to do with me.

— Chelsea

More Phonies Now

I’m a teenager who loved Catcher in the Rye. So what if we’re more scheduled, more drugged, more “connected” than the prior generations? I think we still have the same anxieties as Holden. While many in my English class made fun of his slang, most of us still loved the book, and personally it spoke to me. I would argue if anything, we teens now, growing up in a global financial crisis see more “phonies” than did the prior generations who grew up in prosperity.

— whenhen

Bitter Old People

To the person who said teenagers can’t pay attention to anything longer than a twitter post: I’m a teenager who frequently reads the classics on my own time, so yes, I’d say we can. But thank you for that shining example of how bitter old people can be towards those of us who can still pick up a heavy box without throwing out our back.

I read Catcher in the Rye a few years ago, and I would have really liked it if it wasn’t for Holden’s incessant whining. There’s nothing interesting about an upper class white kid complaining about how awful his life is and how phony everybody else in the world is. By the end of it my friends and I spent a lot of time discussing exactly how we’d like to give Holden Caulfield a reality check. I liked all the other characters and would have found the plot (or lack thereof) interesting, but Holden just ruined it for me.

— Amanda

Raw Honesty

I am 17, so I will tell you what my generation thinks. I have read this book about two years ago in my English class, and I tell you, Catcher in the Rye had greatly affected me. Of course, there will be kids who read sparknotes instead of the actual book but many of my friends have liked the book. And do you really think that text-messaging and writing comments on Facebook can fill the voids of loneliness and sadness? Then why do teens drink, have sex, and do drugs if they find no need to be consoled? Teenagers today are still rebelling against our society.

Teenagers don’t say the word “phony” anymore and instead say things like “superficial” or “fake” but the same meaning applies. When Holden was tired of just getting around with girls and talked about how if you really liked someone, you shouldn’t just engage in sexual activities, I completely understood him. When he felt like a failure, I knew what he was talking about. I felt his pain the day his brother died and how irrational but vulnerable he must have felt when he punched the glass with his fist and his hand bled.

— Grace

The Way Holden Saw the World

As a 19 year old who falls in a distinctly different category of life choices from Holden (studying hard, respecting authority, etc.), I can still say that Catcher in the Rye was one of my favorite books ever. I read it two more times after I had to my sophomore year of high school and wrote 3 papers about it.

The reason I love this book so much and the reason it will always always have value is not because of some amazing quality of Holden that readers can relate to, but because his observations of society are timeless, unique, and incredibly perceptive.

As a sophomore at Stanford, I still see the world through the lens of Holden all the time. Some of the kids in student government here are the phoniest bastards I have ever met. The pre-business students are definitely playing “the game” Holden’s teacher tells him about. And I have definitely felt like I wanted the world to remain the same like the Eskimos at the museum or wanted to wipe figurative f-words out of the lives of kids surrounded by bad influences.

— Ishan

Stereotypes and Icons

I am sixteen years old and a junior in high school.

Just as it is a universally acknowledged truth that teenagers are obsessed with technology and instant communication, it is an equally unacknowledged truth that adults look upon this instant communication with disdain and stereotype teenagers as dramatic, self-obsessed, and careless. I can assure you that neither of these stereotypes are true. Yes, our lives are significantly affected by the newest technology, but are we any more obsessed than any workaholic-adult you see in a $900 suit and no idea when his children’s birthdays are?

I mention the common (and equally inaccurate) stereotype of my generation to assure you that, yes, this book does indeed reach us. Here is a character to whom we can relate, no matter on what level. Adults should not be so quick to condemn this generation — we live in a different world, yes, but it strikes me as ironic that those who criticize this generation forget who raised it, and they should not be so quick to assume that texting automatically depletes the genuine nature of any of our “teenage drama.” We are raised in different worlds but Holden Caulfield remains an icon in each.

— GraceJC