Dating is irrational, so why do teenagers do it?

Even as a pessimist myself, I must opinionate that you do have very pessimistic views about such a topic. There are a few negative thoughts about your theory you must widen your perspectives to, such as your first thought; yes some people will be jerks to those without a boyfriend/girlfriend. However, put yourself in that perspective, if you had a boyfriend/girlfriend, would YOU bully others about it? Not everyone does, its just a natural instinct and the beginning of the hormones to experiment around and become familiar with. For your second point, its not like people WANT to have things as a battlefield as much as they realistically can be sometimes. People's intentions are always good, just like the purposes of having a boyfriend/girlfriend in the first place. And for your third point, it is BECAUSE of the fact that dating has emotional benefits that people experiment with it in the first place. People only intend the positives out of such experiments, and, unlike heroin, there is no byproducts that can ruin you except for maybe the memory of the heartbreak. However, when you look back at those days when you and the person you were dating were happy, some people find that it was indeed worth it. It is perfectly healthy to experience these heartbreaks, and to see them as "practices" for when things become serious beyond teenage realities such as marriage etc. I've known a few friends that have been boyfriend/girlfriend ever since the 9th grade and still remain together today as seniors, they got lucky and found someone they love and care about, which is the point of dating in the first place, to experiment with it for the first time, given the fact that this is teenage dating. Perhaps the reason you may think of teenage dating so negatively is because of the fact that you base it upon logic, you must open your emotional side and perspectives and put them into view to fully enjoy the world of teenage dating. I say this because love is in fact not logical, there is no reason, nor will there ever be a set-in-stone reason, why we love people.