They’re using the word “bad” as shorthand for deviance, because people often view all deviance as bad. I can’t imagine someone going through adolescence without

They’re using the word “bad” as shorthand for deviance, because people often view all deviance as bad. I can’t imagine someone going through adolescence without deviating from their own or other people’s expectations and learning something from it— be it about life, themselves, their relationships, or even deviance itself. However, I obviously can’t see into other peoples minds, and my experience was far more deviant than most, so it’s not a representative point of comparison. I do think testing boundaries by defying rules and expectations, even in pretty benign ways, is a pretty normal part of adolescence, and I think by labeling that “bad” the author was trying to elicit a similar response: “well if it’s beneficial, is it truly bad?”