22 Aug 2010

WHY DON'T THEY GROW UP?

Getting to adulthood is happening later than ever. The New York Times has published an interesting article on this topic. It can be read here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1282395630-wV7x29FxxAmVZAILVWjcrw&pagewanted=all

The phenomenon is taking place in developed countries: kids live with their parents longer and longer, they sometimes leave home and come back later, get financially independent much later than they did twenty years ago, have kids later...
The reasons are multiple and some of those that the NYT enumerates make good sense. Interestingly, if you'll read the article you'll find that once upon a time adolescence was not considered a period of life. The notion seems to be quite recent (XX century).
Times change. For me, however, the most striking issue is not that our children seem never to grow up. I believe The process is part of a much wider one: the infantilization of our societies. We are becoming less and less responsible and accountable as persons. And most worrying, this process seems to come with more depressions and very little motivation for the things of life in general.

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