The Great Regression and the "kidification" of adulthood

[Benjamin Frank]

I've noticed behavior like this as well, though not so much with my students!

However, I think it's always important to keep in mind that with, for instance, 330 million people in the U.S (though obviously only a subset of that is between 20-30 years of age) you can find examples of pretty much everything, which I think is an permanent criticism of sociological research.

This is from the write-up:
Many commentators bemoan the adolescent nature of modern society. Adults, they suggest, are acting like juveniles and thereby eroding our culture and destroying our politics.

We hear two arguments to the contrary.

The 'arguments to the contrary' don't dispute that this is happening, they dispute the causes and that it's a bad thing. Both note the seeming contradiction in many young people with their unwillingness to sacrifice during Covid (which is still not over) by even wearing a mask, but their genuine concern for not only their rights, but the rights of discriminated against people especially in the LGBTQ+ community.

This is from the Australian Broadcasting Company radio program Future Tense. It's about 20 minutes.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/the-great-regression-and-the-kidification-of-adulthood/14079642

[Benjamin Frank]

Not exactly the same as this, but related, is a CBC Ideas program that aired a few days ago regarding the meaning of 'freedom.'  It argued that the concept of 'freedom' was hijacked by the genuine elites shortly after the 'age of revolutions' in Europe to mean only 'freedom from government imposition' or rights solely as 'individual rights.'

Even in the United States, I think this notion of 'freedom' was greatly extended with the 14th Amendment post Civil War (even if it has largely been used by the most downtrodden and not the elites.)

"Today, the concept of freedom is often associated with limited government and freedom from state inference. But historian Annelien de Dijn argues that’s actually a relatively new idea in the longer history of thinking about freedom ⁠— one that emerged from an anti-democratic backlash to the Age of Revolutions."

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/15901324-freedom-part-two-annelien-de-dijn

[vitoNova]

Y'all need a Great Depression, a draft, and world war 3 to bitchslap adulthood into you.   

Just sayin'

[Cokeland Saxton]

Y'all need a Great Depression, a draft, and world war 3 to bitchslap adulthood into you.  

Just sayin'

I'd be ineligible to serve if there was a draft, thank God. I'd fail the medical exam for three reasons.

[Ferguson97]

Isn't this the kind of thing we hear about every few decades? The generation before us was too hard. The generation after us is too soft. But our generation was perfect.

[vitoNova]

Y'all need a Great Depression, a draft, and world war 3 to bitchslap adulthood into you.  

Just sayin'

I'd be ineligible to serve if there was a draft, thank God. I'd fail the medical exam for three reasons.

I'd burn my draft card, bro. 

In case I wasn't clear, I was being facetious, and mocking toxic masculinity (of the alt-right persuasion) who constantly bray about today's generation being "soft" or whatever.  I do not hold those beliefs.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Isn't this the kind of thing we hear about every few decades? The generation before us was too hard. The generation after us is too soft. But our generation was perfect.

As long as we can all agree that Gen X is counter-revolutionary.

[bagelman]

Isn't this the kind of thing we hear about every few decades? The generation before us was too hard. The generation after us is too soft. But our generation was perfect.

Gen Alpha in 2070: The generation before us was too soft. The generation after us is too hard. But our generation was perfect.

[Benjamin Frank]

The radio program wasn't about young people being too 'soft' per se.  It was more an issue of not putting 'childish' things away.

Verse 11. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. — 1 Corinthians 13:11, King James Version.

It mentions 10s of millions of 20-30 year olds still into super hero movies and comic books, playing video games for hours a day and not settling down or getting married.

When I go to video chat rooms and the like (I'm not necessarily all that mature myself) I see people almost 30 who spend seemingly hours a day mugging the camera, making strange noises and doing other childish things, which leads me to think 'is this person an adult or 10 years old?' but most of the other younger people there, even those who don't engage in similar behavior, think I'm the odd one for shaking my head at their behavior.

The radio program posits a couple different hypothesis to explain this sort of behavior, and both guests, though one much more so than the other, argues this behavior is much more positive than negative.

[LabourJersey]

Like a lot of talk about generations, I think you can chalk this phenomenon up to affluence and class.

Most of the discussion about Baby Boomers misses the obvious: that in the U.S., the Baby Boomers were a mostly affluent generation, the most affluent of their families up to that point, and were typically surrounded by other Boomers in similar life experiences. They were the generational "rich kids" in school, so to speak.

The modern generation is more stratified (in the U.S) than it once was, but it's still pretty affluent and feels more affluent than previous ones in certain ways (an IPhone feels like a luxury even though it isn't necessary one, for instance)

Affluent people have always had a longer adolescent period. Working class people began work young, married young and had families young. Rich people (rich men, at least) had the freedom to wait some time before doing that.

But as income inequality increases and issues like housing equity and cost of living continue, we have a weird situation where lots of young people can afford to live "affluent" lifestyles (again most a perception than reality sometimes) but can't actually afford "the next steps" in adulthood like owning homes and having children. It's a weird nebulous zone that's unique in recent history. 

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

But as income inequality increases and issues like housing equity and cost of living continue, we have a weird situation where lots of young people can afford to live "affluent" lifestyles (again most a perception than reality sometimes) but can't actually afford "the next steps" in adulthood like owning homes and having children. It's a weird nebulous zone that's unique in recent history. 

Precarity/downward mobility also plays a part in this; people whose families have been working poor for generations already have a store of cultural knowledge about securing housing and raising families on much less money than people raised comfortably middle-class tend to have any reason to assume is possible.

[LabourJersey]

But as income inequality increases and issues like housing equity and cost of living continue, we have a weird situation where lots of young people can afford to live "affluent" lifestyles (again most a perception than reality sometimes) but can't actually afford "the next steps" in adulthood like owning homes and having children. It's a weird nebulous zone that's unique in recent history. 

Precarity/downward mobility also plays a part in this; people whose families have been working poor for generations already have a store of cultural knowledge about securing housing and raising families on much less money than people raised comfortably middle-class tend to have any reason to assume is possible.

Excellent point!

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

Once the boomers stop ruining the world, we'll consider it. Until then, best we can do is not unalive ourselves.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Thanks for the links!