New ways of being a teen rebel?

This is the issue examined in this piece by Mark Easton on the BBC News magazine – and generating plenty of reader comments.

The article assesses recent statistical trends that seem to indicate falling levels of ‘rebellious’ behaviour stereotypically associated with teenagers. Mark Easton asks if it could ‘be that teenage rebellion needs to look different to what your mum and dad did? Smoking, boozing, dropping pills and hooliganism – that’s so Generation X’ and that now perhaps ‘adolescent identity is defined more by the use of social media rather than the use of illicit drugs’.

He also mentions seeing the recent Beach Boys concert at the Wembley Arena and being disconcerted by the line-up of pensioners (once the original teenage boy band). Just as he wonders whether the word “teenager” is being redefined, perhaps also the word ‘pensioner’ needs to be too.