Ugh, yes, and many Americans naively imagine that all that John Hughes movie nonsense is somehow a normal universal part of teenage growing up! They'll see thei

Ugh, yes, and many Americans naively imagine that all that John Hughes movie nonsense is somehow a normal universal part of teenage growing up! They'll see their kids start doing it and since they did it too they just shrug whist fully about the passage of time! Ignoring that it isn't normal elsewhere and wasn't normal here 100 years ago either when children were too busy for that kind of baby court intrigue. In fact, even in the modern US it's not universal. Both I and my child have gone to school in different areas and in both cases the level of that kind of nonsense was far less in some places than others. Teenagers aren't naturally alienated. You're alienating them and that's why they're alienated. By 13 a normal child is ready for and craves a lot more responsibility and efficacy than much of modern suburban American provides them, and lacking it leads to trying to direct the energy into other less constructive outlets. Idle hands are the devil's hands.