Off the Derech I think means that a kid has left their religious lifestyle to escape something they feel is only happening due to their religious background, or simply to rebel. (When I say religious background, I mean that there are people who had traumas in religious institutions, traumas that can unfortunately happen everywhere, but these poor kids associated the trauma with the fact that the institution or the perpetrator claimed to be religious.)
I know of a handful of kids who went off seemingly to rebel. All teenagers go through a phase where they seek attention, and perhaps they think the only way for them to get the attention they crave is to act out like this. It’s sad. Whatever happened to the good ol’ temper tantrum?
Oh, wait, only four year olds do that. Doing babyish things aren’t cool. I stand corrected. But still. I think it’s far more effective much faster. Spending years destroying your mind and body like a bum doesn’t always effectively convey, “Hey, grown-ups, I’m upset and I’d like your attention.” Sometimes, the grown-ups just never figure it out and take their own pent-up sadness and confusion to the grave.
What’s even sadder, IMHO, is that the younger siblings of OTD kids tend to follow suit because it’s “cool” to emulate their older siblings. Let’s face it, younger siblings – your older siblings are your role models, no matter how annoying they can be sometimes! Bit still, I think a lot of our contemporaries fall to that trap.
It seems to me that the pioneers of OTD-ism may have had some reason to leave our way, but the following generations of OTD kids, like their younger siblings or the little ones who witnessed them goofing off every Shabbos, are just copying them with less to no reason for their behavior.
On the other hand, what truly defines an OTD case? One major problem is that it’s human nature to label people who are different. I proudly wear denim skirts for the sake of their durability. By other peoples’ standards, am I OTD because I don’t follow their “derech” of wearing other skirts?