""Sounds pretty feckless to me, and a singularly useless and pointless waste of their time.""

If you had troubled to read my comments Eliza, you might have noticed that I mentioned evenings.

Some of these teenagers are in school and some have jobs. Maybe a few are out of work, but I don't enquire as to their efforts to find work (because it really isn't my business).

Given that you probably relax in the evenings, I can't see why they should be made to do otherwise.

Hanging out and socialising with friends is no more a waste of time than the activities you describe, after all half the population does the self same thing in pubs, drinking alcohol.

My point is that stereotypes are more a description of those who use them than those they purport to describe.

Don T.