Also i don’t think most teenage girls act like “Mean Girls” in real life. I was once in school and I have a teenage sister. Many girls like to post instagrams and tiktoks to get likes and follows, but they’re not cutthroat about it and the girls are sympathetic to each other.
The places where girls are backstabbing each other, are probably the same places where guys are fighting each other.
We humans are apes and, so, teenaged girls are apes. Apes are obsessed with hierarchy, status and sex. That doesn't change because we communicate using abstract symbols over a ridiculously innovative invention.
Note: I am not arguing one way or the other here. Obviously there is competition for mates among human beings. What I'm suggesting is that we be careful when drawing on evolutionary explanations flippantly and simplistically. Lord knows that e.g. "evolutionary psychology" (which this would fall under) is packed with just-so stories.
I think this has to be admitted, and that any explanation based on evolutionary psychology should be viewed more skeptically than other arguments. However, I think it's absolutely true that genetics do influence our psychology to some degree. And so, there must be some evolutionary psychology claims which can be said to be true. At a very high, and very basic level, some are so self-evident that no one bothers to make them: ie, that sexual attraction exists, is a strong motivator for most people, and must have a basis in evolutionary fitness. Obviously things can get more murky when you want to discuss behaviors with more nuance or complexity. Further, even when a claim is probably true it's quite hard to actually test in a scientific manner. You can isolate the behavior, but not the explanation. How can you truly prove that a behavior is caused by evolution rather than social pressure?
That said, I don't think the whole field can be thrown out, despite your accurate claim that the field can be a bit of a mess.
Raspberry pis are computers and, so, raspberry pi picos are computers. Raspberry pis, and picos especially, are obsessed with computation related to hobby projects. This doesn't change because computers can technically compute anything.
Is what people are "horrified" by the dangerous facts you spill, or the fact that your analysis here completely misses the point when we talk about social media and interventions aimed at curbing their tremendously negative impact.
I appreciate the approach, but I do think it is probably (as you yourself warned) a "just so" story.
Teenaged girls can be mean. Teenaged boys can be mean. Adults can be mean. Members of all of these groups can be nice, sometimes transcendently kind. These behaviors can be explained without reference to ancient drives to fertility and mating, I think.