What Is It About 20-Somethings?

Why is it that when children act like adults, it is considered charming and when senior citizens act like children, it’s admirable, but when teenagers and adults act youthful, they are labeled irresponsible and immature? Especially in the difficult and competitive era that we live in, it is getting harder to “act like adults.” We are financially, morally, socially, and emotionally dependent on our parents and other caretakers. In the article, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” Arnett argues that there is a new gap between children and adults, which he calls “emerging adulthood. I argue, what is “childhood,” “emerging adulthood,” and “adulthood” really? What gives us the idea that we can judge who should be classified into the three groups?


Our parents, teachers, media, the American government, and even this article send confusing messages about what they consider an “adult.”Hebig states that young people in this era seem to be aimless and too dependent on their parents, but I think there is no other way we can be. Financially, we need our parents to pay for our education because we do not have a steady career where we make money. Socially, we need our parents to provide emotional support when we go off to a college where we have no one we know. However, after we graduate and find our own jobs, we will be the ones who financially and emotionally support our parents. But, this does not mean that all young people are like this. The article includes an example of the case study of Nicole, who is a 23-year-old independent person. Apparently, she is considered an emerging adult because although she lives in her own apartment, goes to school, has a job, and provides for her siblings and their mentally disabled mother, she is not married or has kids of her own. How can this be an emerging adult, is this not what we just consider an “adult?” The practice of classifying people as “adults” or “emerging adults” strictly based on the definition should be reconsidered. One such case in this article deals with Erikson’s theory of development.

In Erikson’s “Eight Stages of Development,” there are eight age groups, which represent stages. In each age group they have different traits, such as intimacy vs. isolation. Arnett disagrees with Erikson saying that the age group is too broad. However, I believe when Erikson made his theory of development, he was making a general assumption of the different ages he felt defined each group. I think that Erikson’s theory should never be followed to the exact definition, because his theory is just that: a theory.
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The most interesting statement I got from this article was, “So we’re caught in a weird moment, unsure whether to allow young people to keep exploring and questioning or to cut them off and tell them just to find something, anything, to put food on the table and get on with their lives.” I think that rather than grouping all young people together and deciding a right path for us, it would be more beneficial to the world if we are allowed to decide for individual selves. No one knows for sure what adulthood requires. What it may mean to one person might not even matter to another. Therefore, adulthood, I believe is a personal and individual stage that differs for everybody.

-Selena (;