This next generation is the most connected (electronically) but the most disconnected (in the real, wet, physical world) and therefore the most lonely, and therefore in the most desperation and left to their own devices in that desperation.
My high school socialization was often dysfunctional by my parents' standards, because it involved binge drinking, cigarettes, etc. And yet, when I was doing that, I was still making connections to real friends in real life. I was getting out of the family home, and learning to interact with friends (and become closer to them, and gaining more to live for), and how to interact with assholes (and know when to fight and when fighting wasn't worth it). I was forced to get a date if I wanted to go to a dance, so I was forced by society to learn how to interact with the opposite sex before I was 25, so I was much more likely to have kissed one, and done more with one. This generation? They are much more likely to be "friends" with someone in Calgary through Fortnight...if they did go to a school dance, they are much more likely to have gone by themselves (a girl in a group of girls...a guy as a solo guy in a group of girls...fewer and fewer as an actual date). They are lonely. They retreat into electronics. Would not be surprised to find out these shooters have very few real life friends, if indeed they have any.