--- title: The Power of the Right Teenage Friendship description: How the right friendship can help teens become happy adults, fixing how we board airplanes and more. canonical: https://time.com/4915351/the-power-of-the-right-teenage-friendship/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-25T16:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:32.623Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Power of the Right Teenage Friendship og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4915351/the-power-of-the-right-teenage-friendship/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Power of the Right Teenage Friendship twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Power of the Right Teenage Friendship by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 25, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 25, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Having the right friendships now can make teens into happier, healthier adults.**](https://qz.com/1059666/having-a-stronger-closer-friendship-as-a-teenager-predicts-less-depression-as-a-young-adult/) By Jenny Anderson in _Quartz_ **2\.** [**How we board airplanes spreads disease. There’s a better way.**](https://www.fastcompany.com/40454620/the-way-we-board-planes-spreads-more-disease?curator=MediaREDEF) By Ben Schiller in _Fast Company_ **3\.** [**Can data fix America’s broken bail system?**](https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/bail-reform) By Jon Schuppe at _NBC News_ **4\.** [**Could a centrist party take advantage of America’s polarization in 2020?**](http://www.ozy.com/politics-and-power/in-polarized-america-can-a-centrist-party-rise-from-the-ashes/79456) By Daniel Malloy in _Ozy_ **5\.** [**Should kids use paper or digital textbooks?**](http://hechingerreport.org/textbook-dilemma-digital-paper/) By Claudia Wallis in the _Hechinger Report_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4915351/the-power-of-the-right-teenage-friendship/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4915351/the-power-of-the-right-teenage-friendship/"},"headline":"The Power of the Right Teenage Friendship","datePublished":"2017-08-25T16:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:32.623Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4915351/the-power-of-the-right-teenage-friendship/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","Friendship","airplanes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4915351/the-power-of-the-right-teenage-friendship/","name":"The Power of the Right Teenage Friendship"}}]}] ```