Driving Young people can learn to drive in the United States around the age of 16. The access to public transporta - tion in the U.S. is less sophisticated than in many other countries. Larger cities such as New York City and Chica - go have more robust public transportation systems, but many Americans need access to a car to get around. This is especially the case in more rural areas, where teens are oftentimes reliant on vehicles to get around to their various extracurricular activities in high school – thus ex - posing themselves and the general public to increased driving danger due to their relative immaturity and lack of experience. Family and Marriage The notion of a family continues to shift and change in the United States. Nearly every other marriage will end in divorce and the amount of single mothers in the U.S. has never been higher. Young people are not as interes - ted in the concept of marriage anymore as well, and are fine with cohabitation with their partner(s) instead of committing their future to someone else. Further, with the legalization of marriage for LGBTQIA+ people, who and what constitutes a set of parents has been perma - nently altered and the idea of a traditional family has no particular definition, as a result. Young people can grow up in a variety of familial household situations that are different from traditional nuclear families.
Pop Culture, Digitalization and Media Youth in the U.S. have a significant influence on popu - lar culture. Everything from TV and music to the latest fashion is often dictated by the trends and experience of young people. Social media has become a very inte - gral part of the lives of young people in the United Sta - tes. 90 % of teens ages thirteen to seventeen have used social media and 75 % have reported that they have at least one active social media profile. YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram were the most popular social media plat - forms as of 2018, though in recent years TikTok has also become extremely popular. As of 2018, 95 % of teens in the United States own their own smartphone and 45 % of teens have said that they are online on a constant ba - sis. As of 2021, 63 % of youth between the ages of twelve and seventeen used TikTok on a weekly basis, compared to 57 % on Instagram. A majority of U.S. youth also have access to a gaming console in their homes, though boys are more likely to play video games than girls (95 % ver - sus 83 %). The use of social media has elevated the consumerism and need for approval among one’s peers that is typi - cal of young people. However, social media has also be - come a tool for young people to engage with and share their concerns about social justice issues. Many trends for young people focus on elevating issues of racial, gen - der, and environmental justice. With the proliferation of the internet, their impact is felt throughout society, from changing the fabric of the country’s economic sys - tem to forcing and influencing political movements, the
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