I guess its just a difference in opinion. I haven't ever liked the kind of things that get people into the guiness book of records. Most of it is trash. I feel nothing is acheived, no boundaries are pushed. So a Paraglider can go that high? lovely!. There was no real technological advancement, all what happened was Gilo built one bigger. In the same vein Ive no respect for people who go climb everest, i think they do it not to learn to make themselves more interesting people.
These things are easy to acheive in the general scheme of life, but I don't wan't to get philisophical about it

Maybe teenagers achieve a sense of the same pride and achievement of dodging a train that we assume mountain climbers and bear grylls feel? Perhaps we have just made the world too safe for them to push their own person boundaries and thats why they have an urge to artificially create a situation where they are risking their own life. I think the paragliding and other such record attempts (especially stunts) is just the same root issue but on a bigger, more professional looking scale.
Maybe I shouldnt be dissing that though, you know, I think we can harness kids desire for less cotton wool in their lives and get something good out of it channelled into outdoor activities and bushcraft, which I feel has a beneficial purpose to a persons wellbeing and can be used as a tool of education, before they start doing even more dumb and pointless things as adults.