The “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon” is a more satisfying name for frequency illusion – noticing a concept, word or product more often just after becoming aware of it. And after reading a fascinating article by a professor who insists that when a teenager makes “the stupid choice”, their brain is actually “working exactly as designed”, I’m suddenly seeing teens everywhere. Not just literally, because it’s the school holidays – hanging about in groups, being scarily tall and all dressed identically – but also in news stories, adverts for adolescent skincare, old clips of Harry Enfield’s Kevin and Perry sketches. Not unrelated: my son’s 12th birthday is fast approaching. This is the very last year my little boy will be nice and preteen, and I’m being reminded from all angles, by all algorithms. Soak up every second while there’s still time! Tick tock, tick tock! Thanks, Baader-Meinhof.

Teenage minds function “in a way that has been shaped by evolution for a unique and uniquely challenging time of........

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