14 year old boys and communication

[Nix32]

Has anyone else got one like mine? Communicates happily with friends but trying to engage him in a conversation is like pulling teeth. He's always been shy/quiet. School report is mixed - he's either so quiet he's invisible or he's the life and soul of the class.

Gatherings with wider family - he'll say the minimum and escape as soon as possible. 1:1 conversations he's fine with as long as it's something he's interested in (normally FIFA!).

Should I be worrying?

Mine's nearly 16 and thinks he's doing me a massive favour if he volunteers any info about his life.

He happily chats on gaming head sets for hours.

DS is almost 14 and is quite a chatty kid. I get a fair bit of info about what's going on with his friends and in his class (considerably less than one sister, but considerably more than the other!) He loves company (the flip side of this is he's not brilliant at doing things on his own).

I'd say your DS sounds well within the range of normal based on the teenage boys I know though (I have three kids aged 13-16 so I know quite a lot of teenagers!). I was not at all a fan of wider family gatherings as a teen, and can remember the feeling of being desperate to escape well!

Mine were like that but reached their late teens and there was no shutting them up. But they prefer to tell me stuff rather than me ask.
I was probably the same at that age, couldn't bear to be interrogated about anything.