“Teenagers have adopted this technology very aggressively, in part because it’s inexpensive now, and it’s mobile. Everything a teenager does is about being mobile and untethered….with the complexity of our world and the scheduling kids have compared with twenty-five, thirty years ago, it’s a newer way of connecting socially.” (Philip R, 2007, 75)
Monthly Archives: September 2016
The Reality of Adulthood
The “leftover women”in China
Name: Tianling Zhu
# MVP 3 “The leftover women” in China
According to the article “Long road to adulthood is growing even longer” published in New York Times, a new period of life is emerging, a period that refers to the time between adolescents and adults and lasts longer, meaning that nowadays more and more people become independent later than before. As far as I’m concerned, among the many influential factors of resulting in this phenomenon, further education and late marriage might be the most two contributing ones. It reminded me that in China, this phenomenon is more amplified in women, and those who remained unmarried after 27 are called “leftover women”.
Decades ago, Chinese women got married around 22 because they didn’t need to receive much education so they finished school very early and then got married; however, nowadays, the average age of marriage for women is 26 since independence has become an essential part to define a “successful woman”, and with the increasing number of woman pursuing higher degree of education and career, it takes longer for women to reach adulthood—being married or financially independent. It is not uncommon that most of women who are either attending schools or working at late twenties or early thirties still rely on their parents, financially and emotionally. Just like me, most of my friends are taking a master degree either abroad or in China spending our parents’ money, which to some extent makes us feel frustrated considering the fact that we are already over 22, not 18, but still not independent, taking less responsibility and enjoying being protected by parents.
Obviously, women spend more time getting educated, pursuing better job, and improving social status, in consequence, they marry much later and more or less depend on parents until get married. Being a “leftover woman” is like a double-edged sword, on the one hand, it means women are chasing their own career and making effort to realize their dreams; on the other hand, they require more support from their parents and remain dependent longer.
‘Boomerang kids’
“Sleeping in a twin bed under some old Avril Lavigne posters is not a sign of giving up; it’s an economic plan. ‘Stop dumping on them because they need parental support,’ Arnett cautioned. ‘It doesn’t mean they’re lazy. It’s just harder to make your way now than it was in an older and simpler economy.'” —Adam Davidson
Johnson, Crosnoe and Elder identify what they see as the key intersections of adolescence as “the complex mutual selection of person and context — that which occurs through the interplay of environment and biology and also through the agentic strivings of adolescence.” In using this definition, they outline more than the commonly identified “nature v nurture” debate as critical to the identify formation of a person. The authors go one step farther to give voice to the “agentic strivings of adolescence” namely those features which empower the individual. One might imagine that the use of agency might separate adolescents from their parents. One would be mistaken. As Patricia Cohen points out, the “Long road to adulthood is growing even longer” today. Cohen highlights the trend of delayed adulthood in today’s 20-somethings and connects this upswing to lower economic possibilities, among other factors. The pitiful possibilities for folks graduating college today cripples an individual’s agency and highlights the important crossing of agency and economy as a barrier between adulthood and adolescence. If this barrier continues to grow larger, leaving more 20-somethings financially reliant on their parents, I wonder how the definition of adolescence and adulthood might morph into a more representative one. I also wonder how financial reliance may hold other forms of development in place as well.
Sign Of The Times
“National surveys reveal that an overwhelming majority of Americans, including younger adults, agree that between 20 and 22, people should be finished with school, working and living on their own. But in practice many people in their 20s and early 30s have not yet reached these traditional milestones” (Cohen, 2010)
The findings in Cohen’s article were quite interesting, but I felt that the tone in which the article was written was extremely discouraging. In addition, I felt that Cohen neglected to take into account other highly influential variables – the most prominent one being the current job market, as many of my fellow classmates have touched upon. Continue reading Sign Of The Times