(Photo: QuickMeme)

Taking to the Internet to express the angst of youth is a long-heralded pasttime that will no doubt be bequeathed to generations to come. Once there were the Xangas and the Livejournals of yore, but these days teens frequently flock to outlets like Tumblr and Twitter to subtumbl and subtweet their little hearts out about how unfair it is that their parents made them help carry in the groceries when they were like, right in the middle of something. 

Tweens have also spread their angst to Reddit, the link-sharing site that can make you feel positively decrepit for being older than 25. The subreddit r/Teenagers has almost 20,000 subscribers, and an untold amount of lurkers. Like all subreddits, r/Teenagers has its own set of rules, enforced by volunteer moderators that have the power to ban users from the subreddit for breaking them. But if there's one thing teens hate more than a Kristen Stewart cheating scandal, it's rules, man. God, why are you always telling me what to do? I'm 15, that's almost an adult!

The Teenagers subreddit doesn't allow NSFW content, links to social networks or the sharing of personal information. And so, not content with the totalitarian regime put in place by the fascists at r/Teenagers, users have created a new community, r/FreeTeens, which probably sounds more porny than they'd hoped? Now the teenagers of Reddit are finally free to listen to their music as loud as they want and maybe even stay up past midnight on a school night because NO RULES MOM, YOLO.

At r/Teenagers, "I would get downvoted for saying a bad word, being angry, or just posting something random and cool I wanted to share," wrote one user. "That won't happen here," promises r/FreeTeens. A popular post in r/Teenagers likens the drama to the Revolutionary War, because a sense of historical perspective does not develop until the mid-to-late-20s.

Teens who feel they can't be held down by arbitrary rules created by people who just don't "get" them may now post Olivia Wilde boob GIFs to r/FreeTeens, though one day they may learn that freedom is rarely free.

Yes, we know that's SoCal.

Decades of movies and television shows set in California high schools have given us certain expectations about what it's like to be a teenager on the West Coast. Without getting too side-tracked in the thickets of stereotype, we're envisioning beaches and bonfires and, at the very least, the occasional joint. (Also a little light vampire-slaying.)

Not Palo Alto, though. In Silicon Valley, high schoolers found startups. Feel bad about your wasted youth yet?

The New York Times stopped by Palo Alto High for a meeting of the Paly Entrepreneurs Club, where a bunch of kids who can barely drive and damn sure can't drink are scheming on bright entrepreneurial futures:

“I want to build something that is tied to what is happening next,” he said.

Just wait until these guys get sucked into Intro to Philosophy. And yes, it's all dudes: The Times notes that no girls were present.

But surely this is just an excuse to order pizza and watch YouTube clips? Nope:

They have met weekly during the school year to discuss their ventures and ideas, explore matters like money-raising strategies and new markets, and host guest speakers. Once, they held a Skype chat with a software engineer in Sweden who described the intricacies of running an online music business.

They are, of course, bouyed by the naivety of the young:

“Someone can always copy your idea, but that will be half-baked,” Mr. Slipper said confidently. “It’s not theirs.”

Better get a move on with that Academy of Software Engineering, Mr. Mayor.

Actually, where can we get those glasses? (flickr.com/julietbanana)

Bad news, guys. The LA Times thinks Facebook might be losing its cool factor among the youth. And once you lose the teenagers, well, you've basically lost the Internet. That's how it works, right?

Reports the Times:

With more than 900 million users, Facebook remains the most popular online hangout. But some young people are turning their attention elsewhere. They are checking out new mobile apps, hanging out on Tumblr and Twitter, and sending plain-old text messages from their phones. Their goal is to hook up with smaller circles of friends and share their thoughts and feelings away from the prying eyes of Mom and Dad.

Except, well, the numbers aren't really there to support such a sweeping conclusion. Says one researcher: "Just because teens are using other services like Twitter and Tumblr more — and they are using these services in huge amounts — doesn't mean they're using Facebook less." Also, 93 percent of teens who use social networking sites have a Facebook account. 

We'd humbly suggest that, rather than assuming that Facebook is ipso facto toast, perhaps the LA Times should consider an alternative explanation for these unimpressed users. Namely: They've found a couple of proto-hipsters. Facebook is just so mainstream now, you know? Listen to this kid: "I guess I haven't been that interested in it," one teen told the paper. She apparently "prefers sharing photos with friends on Instagram via her iPhone or video chatting with them on Google+."

Presumably she punctuated her sentence with an exaggeratedly casual shrug, followed by the studied adjustment of her sunglasses. Oh, youth.