Have you ever looked at your teen’s phone and wondered how it is that everyone seems to be doing the same thing at the same time? The matching clothes. The shared slang. The sudden interest in a product or challenge that did not exist last week. What we are seeing is one of the most powerful forces shaping our teens’ behaviour: social norms. Norms are the unspoken rules of a group — the invisible “this is how we do things” that our teens are constantly scanning for. They influence what our teen wears, who they spend time with and which trends they feel compelled to join, online and off. From a developmental perspective, this makes sense. The adolescent brain is built to notice social cues. Belonging is not just emotionally meaningful; it activates reward systems that are still under construction. For our teens, fitting in feels good. Being left out can feel genuinely painful. Social media has amplified this natural sensitivity. Algorithms allow trends to spread at remarkable ...