Ooh, this is a juicy topic. I'm glad that you brought it up, Taro.
I don't really remember my elementary years, so I can't really speak there. But as for middle and high school, I can definitely tell you some stuff.
My middle school was a lovely little hell-hole. You were either a part of the preppy, popular group, or you were an outcast not worthy of other's time. I was obviously the second one. While I hated that basically all of the popular group's members were complete assholes to me and my friends, I still had my outcast friends so everything was good.
In high school though, everything changed. Popularity faded away, and kind of became a false concept. There was still the group of preppy jerks who thought that they were popular, but they were really just a group a jerks. That was the social system there. There were many groups of friends, and very few really cared about the other groups. It was honestly a good system for me, even though I was a small part of many groups rather than a large part of one.