8 Scientific Reasons Why Teenagers Are Completely Insane

3. Why They Obsess Over Things

The teenage bedroom is an unmistakeable sight. Clothes all over the floor, the odd half-eaten sandwich and the walls plastered with pictures of whatever the teen in question is currently obsessing over. But why do teenagers seem to fixate on a particular band/sport/person, almost to the point lunacy? Idolatry in adolescence is a completely normal part of of the process of teenagers distancing themselves from their parents. The thing you need to remember about teenagers is that they were very recently children. Children have rich fantasy lives in which logic, reality and reason do not feature all that heavily. Teenagers mix this with their drive for independence, during which they distance themselves from their parents and require a new guide or authority to follow. The result is basically a fantasy world in which a normal person is elevated to the status of an idol, perhaps even someone who is able to "understand" them on a deep level, despite never having met them, and someone who can guide them through the frankly horrific debacle of being a teenager. And that is why teenagers up and down the country continue to ruin their mum's wallpaper with blu-tacked images of surly bands. Bless 'em.