Interdependence however, requires that people can relate to one another. If there are two many roads to choose from, continued diversity will occur and a lack of solidarity will exist. I see this coaching teens everyday, where I help them see that they aren’t so different after all, which is a good thing sometimes and not a bad virtue. After all, what bonds people together, including teens, is joint commonality, not diversity, unless you like to fight. When teens really get honest with one another, they aren’t so different after all, despite the recent social pressures to be something “different” from one another.
So, although choice is a very important part of life, as with all extremes, too much is too much and can cause harm in the extremes. Teenagers have enough on their plates without the additional task of having to be increasingly individualistic. Given the increasing numbers of teenage depression and suicide, maybe, we need to re-consider the idea of too much choice and see if we can help the teenagers relate better with one another as just being teenagers, nothing more. They have plenty to share with one another about all the various physical, psychological, social, educational, and family issues they all deal with everyday. Here, bonding together, the teens in this quest , develop the social and emotional comfort to assist one another through this phase of adolescence if normal development is proceeding accordingly.
