As an eighteen-year-old I feel secure in pointing out that expectations of my level of maturity are far lower than they were for my father, let alone my grandfather. I believe that people generally rise to meet social expectations. Whether the drop in maturity level is due to the drop in expectations or the other way around, I don't know.
I think one of the significant reasons in emancipation. Due to the strong coupling between man and woman this affects both genders. Young females today (20-30) are fairly confused about what they want to do in life, and when to do it. Get married? Have children? Cook? Be pretty? Screw around? Do a Phd? Go to work? Have a career? This also confuses guys: what can you expect from your girlfriend, and when? And what do women expect from us?
Have you looked at what income you'd get today if you had only the educational attainment of the average man of the last generation at 18 or 20? Or the one before it?<p>You can't live the same level of life without more schooling now.<p>It's an educational arms race. Graduate degrees and unpaid internships and long stint in "entry level" jobs that last for much of a decade, etc.
Unfortunately I have to agree with this article.<p>I am in this targeted demographic, and I would have to say - categorically - that most of my friends have failed to grow up.<p>Why would I use such a harsh word like <i>failed</i>? Its not the world, economic, and social differences from the age of our parents that causes them to "fail" in my book for growing up - it is purely based on the fact that they think they have. It is the generational arrogance.<p>Almost every single one of my friends that I know from high school or college still live with their parents, have been working in the same job since they were 18, spend their money on <i>depreciating assets</i>, and think they have somehow made it just because they have a 4 year degree that their parents paid for.<p>Getting a steady paycheck and blowing it on crap, not paying your own rent, health insurance, or groceries does not mean you are an adult. Throw in a healthy dose of entitlement vaporware accomplishment and you get a lot of strong-headed 20-somethings that couldn't recognize good advice if it was painted on their heads with neon lights.<p>There is nothing about getting a degree and holding down a job where you manage not to get fired for 18 months means that you are an adult. Try "thinking outside of yourself," "thinking about the future," "managing your time, money, and emotions wisely," and almost invariably "stop thinking you have everything figured out when you're 23." Blink 182 was right - no one likes you.<p>I was lucky enough to have my mom pay for all of my college, but I have since moved across the country, have been completely supporting myself financially for 2 years, and I'm closing on a house next month. I concentrate to realize I don't know everything (in fact I train myself to say I know almost nothing considering my age and life experience). If I can do it - I think the rest of my generation can. But they are privileged, lazy, entitled, and enabled by their parents. Its America's attitude that has caused this, not what has "happened" to America or our socio-political situation as a whole.<p>I refuse to accept external attribution as a reason for immaturity and a failure to grow up.
If we're living longer, so much so that they're considering pushing back social security eligibility; then doesn't it make sense to prolong what most people consider the better part of their lives?<p>What about all the aging boomers in their 50-60's who still think they're 29. Even the term "cougar" has become popular enough to make mainstream culture.
First, respect for the submitter for putting quotes in the headline, as neither marriage nor children is a good sign of maturity. A teenage mother who wed her babyfather isn't mature, but she would count as a an adult in this case, whereas an atheistic phd student wouldn't.<p>Does anybody have an actual and useful meassure of maturity?
When I read articles like this I always think about the concept of neoteny.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny</a>
I read about this in The Naked Ape years ago. The idea is that neoteny can be a mechanism by which physical evolution takes place. I have wondered if it could also apply to societies and cultures.
The only other place I head of neoteny was in a talk I downloaded where Bruce Eckel and another programmer were bashing the concept saying that it led managers to treat experienced developers like junior coders and demand more and more work for fixed pay.
I would also have to agree with this article. I am 22 and will be getting married in 6 months, however none of my friends from college or high school are making similar choices. While our family and friends have been supportive our decision to "marry early" as it were, others have been confused. Particularly late 20's and early 30's co-workers are put off by the idea, recommending not getting married until much later. I will note most of these individuals have never married, and seem to avoid long term relationships. So yes, this generation does seem to be avoiding/delaying marriage.
It's true, with the job market in the toilet for the last decade, a public school system that encourages all its students to go to college, and a student loan industry that has allied with the federal government to drive up tuition and milk students and their families for all they're worth (to say nothing of predatory credit card lending), and with the resulting massive debt young people take on in starting their lives these days unparalleled in US history, yes people are tending to put off things like marriage, children, etc. Don't let that stop you from publishing a ridiculous and haughty article about 'kids these days' though, New York Times. I'd expect nothing less.<p>I was lucky enough to avoid the worst of most of this stuff, but I'm not about to use that luck as a rhetorical device against my peers, some of whom made decisions that certainly would have seemed correct to anyone at the time, or who were simply misled by overzealous school counselors, or whatever. Just sayin'.
I think hidden biological mechanisms related to overpopulation have kicked in. Perhaps, subconsciously, when we see a lot more really old people living around, something switches on suggesting that reproduction can wait. Maybe informational explosion make us wait longer to acquire necessary amount of knowledge, necessary for decent life.<p>Also, stupid TV and internet entertainment, combined with lack of opportunity in USA contributes to this problem. ...
Every time I switch on American TV, I want to throw up.