[jacquesm]

> doing anything remotely 'bookish' in your free time has become almost definitively 'uncool'

This is a very serious problem and I can see this every day with my kids. They have so much peer pressure on them that they find it very hard to do those things that they would like to do because it makes them 'uncool'. The result is that they have a part of their life that they keep away from their school mates. Supporting them in their endeavors helps them but it isn't enough to fully compensate for the desire to belong and have approval from their peers.