CNN is reporting a new trend among high school students: biting is the new hickey. The claim is that since vampire-mania has hit the big-time, with everything from Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and True Blood fueling the feeding frenzy, biting is how teens are showing affection for each other, and bite marks have become a kind of status symbol, showing “ownership” and desirability.

I’ve not seen anyone sporting bite-marks, although I do live in a small town populated by fundamentalists (vampires aren’t high on their list of appropriate entertainment options), and when I’m out and about, I’m usually being harassed by small children (and therefor am oblivious to what teenagers are doing). So what do you think? New, dangerous trend for teens (human saliva can’t be that good for you), or silly gossip posing as news (and probably spread by the same people who thought rock-n-roll was going to turn everyone into sex fiends)?