"Emerging Adulthood"

[MyLB]

<p>Interesting NYT article (sent to me by my emerging adult):</p>

<p>[What</a> Is It About 20-Somethings? - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=all]What”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=all)</p>

[Hugcheck]

<p>Very informative interesting article. Tks for posting!</p>

<p>"Among the salient characteristics of “youth,” Keniston wrote, were “pervasive ambivalence toward self and society,” “the feeling of absolute freedom, of living in a world of pure possibilities” and “the enormous value placed upon change, transformation and movement” — all characteristics that Arnett now ascribes to “emerging adults.”</p>

[Kajon]

<p>I haven’t read the entire article, but found this part interesting:</p>

<p>

As the brain matures, one thing that happens is the pruning of the synapses. Synaptic pruning does not occur willy-nilly; it depends largely on how any one brain pathway is used. By cutting off unused pathways, the brain eventually settles into a structure that’s most efficient for the owner of that brain, creating well-worn grooves for the pathways that person uses most. Synaptic pruning intensifies after rapid brain-cell proliferation during childhood and again in the period that encompasses adolescence and the 20s. It is the mechanism of “use it or lose it”: the brains we have are shaped largely in response to the demands made of them.

</p>

[anon94785555]

<p>I skimmed the article. Early in it there is a comparison of 1960 to more recent times. A mention of the early 1970’s. A major social change began in the 1960’s- women’s lib. I was a HS student in the late 1960’s and a college student in the early 1970’s. Societal norms were shaken up hugely in my youth. I could see the difference in the senior HS yearbook pictures from my freshman to senior years. Life went from HS- college- marriage- children to a whole host of new options. Watershed years where some of us were caught on one side for some things and chose changes for others. I don’t see any difference in today’s 20 somethings than I saw in many of my era. The difference is that we were raised with old school lifestyles- stay at home mothers et al and then opened up our worlds and those standards changed. What was once a choice of a minority- hippies influence- has now become mainstream. </p>

<p>I recall many of the same lifestyle situations then as now. People living together then breaking up. Siblings trying out different jobs, moving home for a time. I don’t think anything has really changed in the maturing of 20 somethings. Now society doesn’t force the majority into an unsatisfying life path as for my mother’s generation- thanks to mine. I also noticed college freshmen were more complacent than my end of the Vietnam war era cohort. HS class of 1971 here, perhaps some of you younger parents saw a different world. Less chaos as the war had ended and opportunities for women and minorities were no longer being fought for like they were in my teens and early twenties.</p>