When somebody says 'I love you' to anybody, it could mean a variety of things. Either, 'I love you as a brother/sister', 'I really like you as a person', or even 'You just did something really funny, so I'll praise you by telling you I love you'

But for the most part, somebody will tell someone else 'I love you' because you have feelings for them. Not just butterfly-in-my-tummy feelings, or whenever-you-say-hello-to-me,-my-face-turns-bright-red-feelings.

When you tell someone you love them (as in, I have feelings for you), it means that you'd be willing to have a family with them. Be willing to have children with them. Get married someday. You're telling that person you'd be willing to die for them. Be willing to give up almost anything for them.

Unfortunetly, teenagers these days are constantly confusing love with lust/infatuation. Girls meet these guys,usually through friends, and they exchange phone numbers. They do nothing but text. They never go out together, they never actually talk on the phone, and never talk face-to-face. Of course you can flirt over text and such, but you just cannot fall in love over text. There is no emotional attachment. The only attachment that will be happening is you to your phone, texting your "boyfriend"

This causes teenagers to throw around the word 'I love you' just like a greeting. They don't understand the in-depth of these three words, and what they are actually saying. They need to learn what it actually does mean, and if they did, I doubt they'd be saying it as much as they do.

Take me for example, I had liked a guy for a good 2 or 3 years. We were pretty close, and although we texted quite often, we still saw each other about 4 times a week because we had swimming practice together. I had pretty strong feelings for him. But would have I been ready to tell him 'I love you'? Absolutely not.

I Love You means "I just want you to be happy, despite what happens to me" not "I want you to be happy as long as I am happy too."