Graffiti culture

Why in the heck do teenagers love to 'tag'
I don't know about you but here in my city we have this culture of teens who have a tag and they love to put it up on walls with spray cans.
thing is it looks real crap!!!
You cant go down any street without seeing something sprawled across a wall or fence in black or silver paint.
As far as I know it is teenage boys who are the main players in this hobby. But why??

Is it the rush of doing something illegal, but not necessarily dangerous. Or is it deeper?
Is it a longing for an indentity. To have your tag in as many places as possible mark your territory. To have a place, that even though it is public property you claim it as your space.

Maybe its a product of the culture we live in. Fame is what is worshiped in the Western world these days it seems. Maybe its the knowing that if you can tag as many wall as possible that there is going to be more people who know your tag. In your little corner of the world you could be famous!! Just go and tag walls. The famous are the ones who seem to get all the attention, all the roaring crowds. All the photos published in the latest magazines...

The Famous are definatley our modern day gods, or idols.

Sad thing is that nobody really cares. After a while a wall gets so covered in tags that it just looks like a local gathering place anyway. Nobody really takes much notice of the person who wrote that tag, who is just looking for an identity, who is just looking for his space in the world. Who would just like a little attention for his existence on planet earth.

Graffiti is messy, it messes up our tidy streets that we pay our rates to keep clean. The local businesses get annoyed cause it makes their building look bad, sending out the wrong message about their indentity. Nobody wants to look messy.

but life is messy...Tagging is a reflection of what is really going on in society. Its just youth searching for identity. For purpose of existence. Eventually they'll move on an become the local business people who complain about the youth running riot in the streets. They'll buy their big houses, etc, etc...

Soon they be like us adults. Still looking for an identity, purpose, or at least some darn explanations...Just in different ways.