Editor #10:
Teenagers are often perceived as creatures of rebellion, but this is nothing new. Every generation is marked by teen rebellion, from the Baby Boomers to the Generation Xers, and our generation is no different. Usually, teen rebellion is a form of rejecting the commonly held values and norms of the past. If you compare the rigid family values of the 1950s and the hippie, drug-prevalent 1960s, you can see this rejection.
Teen rebellion and rejection of past values is a natural process done as a means of asserting independence from parental figures. Teenagers want to show that they can make their own decisions, even if those decisions are bad ones. Peer pressure to rebel and external forces are usually only a secondary factor adding on to natural inclination, and even then it does not seem particularly prevalent. If the past generations are any indicator, our generation will turn out just fine, no matter how messed up we seem now with our twerking and texting. I mean, if the teens coming out of the sixties turned out okay, we should have a fighting chance!