As a 19 year old, I have to say yes. We are. I had one past relationship, lost my virginity to her, but I’m clean all around and plan on maintaining that straight edge life style despite the peer pressure around me. I miss being 7 when my only care in the world was what Transformer toy I wanted to buy.
Their is nobody to blame for the bf/gf thing. Love is love. I’m sure everyone has had some sort of high school love or at least a crush. This generation seems to be bolder, and they don’t settle for the crush. They take action. 90% of the time they get their heart broken. And despite this we still ask that girl out in our math class. It’s a stage, and I think it’s a healthy stage. Through it we get badly hurt yes, but we gain experience, toughen up a bit, and sometimes re-evaluate our lives. Personal experience speaking here. Sex is where it gets complicated. Love ends with broken hearts. Sex is a tough one. It’s a natural urge. When you got all these urges built up in you and a guy or gal who trusted you enough to do you, it’s hard to abstain. The best thing to do is support safe sex. My and ex loved and trusted one another. We got tested before hand, we used a condom every time, and we had fun. “But their not ready for sex.” We’re born ready for sex. We’re born wanting to reproduce. It’s just suppressed until puberty. What their not ready for is the consequences. A rash on their vagoo, a stinging sensation when they pee, or someone who calls them mommy and daddy. I’m sure there are a bunch of teens who were like me and ex and aware of the consequences. Thus preforming safe sex to avoid any issues. But then there’s that one couple who has an accident and makes us all look bad.
In terms of drugs and alcohol, I think everyone is to blame. The relation between drugs and alcohol and teens sort of fuels it’s own fire. We put age limits on these things, and being the rebellious jackasses we are, we try to break these rules. We just see “sticking it to the man” as cool.
Overall, I think we just want to grow up. We want to have all this power we see adults wielding over us. All these things we can’t do, but want to because adults can. Because the cool kids do. Not until we grow up do we realize how good we had it.
But this is all just my opinion. Don’t take it too seriously.