Fundamentally, I think we should start a discussion with our kid on why the need or desire to be popular.Difficult question. As social beings, I think we all like to be popular.But we should not be popular for the sake of being popular.Perspectives to this questions will likely hinge on your religious beliefs. Also, doing the right thing may not be the popular thing. The worst is if your kid compromises on core values just to be popular, or to be accepted into a group. E.g. kid takes up smoking just to be part of a smoking group; kid starts to curse, swear & speak in singlish just to be part of the ‘cool’ group etc.