“Marriage and parenthood – once seen as prerequisites for adulthood – are now viewed more as lifestyle choices, according to a new report released by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution.”

This passage summarizes the whole article in one sentence. If you were to look at statistics 50 years ago, almost everyone would have been married and have had children. Nowadays, these two so-called requirements for entering adulthood are now no longer necessary for someone to be considered an adult. It seems that adolescents and young adults of today value education more than they value marriage or having children. They know that if they finish school and receive a good education, maybe even graduate level, they will have time for other things later on.

These are now choices that a person is free to make in his or her life without feeling pressured into it. It interests me to learn about how these cultural norms and values evolve with time, just like a language evolves or fashion evolves. We think of culture as something stagnant that does not change over time. However, certain aspects of it do change.