Emerging Adulthood
What would happen if “emerging adulthood” was considered an official life stage? People have expressed mixed opinions to this question. Robin Marantz Henig and Thomas King both have very different, but very strong and relevant opinions about “emerging adulthood” becoming an official life stage. Henig thinks “emerging adulthood” needs to be an official life stage, while King thinks it’s irrelevant to most people that age. Even though I think contemplating the idea of “emerging adulthood” becoming an official life stage could potentially be very beneficial, it wouldn’t be easy to do and I think the downfalls of it would be much more significant. This is because in the beginning, considering “emerging adulthood” an official life stage will likely negatively affect society’s economy as a whole. It would change the economy by potentially changing legal ages for certain entertainment, when people become independent from their parents, if and when people go to college, jobs going out of existence, the ages that people start working, and the fact that people will settle to a particular job much later than older generations.
“Emerging Adulthood” becoming an official life stage would potentially change the legal ages of certain activities done for entertainment. Such activities could include gambling, buying and drinking alcohol, buying cigarettes, and buying scratch tickets. In her essay, Henig mentions how confusing this stage of life can be and that it’s shown when you think about when you can legally buy and do many things. For example, you can drive at age 16 in most places, which gives you huge amounts of freedom, but you still are dependant on your parents letting you go places because you’re still legally a child. The various ages that you are legal to do so many things in the United States accurately shows how confusing this part of life can be for so many people, even policy makers, as Henig points out in her essay. Changing the legal ages of all of these kinds of entertainment would affect how these entertainment agencies are supported and it would also change their advertisements target audiences. I believe people will want to change the legal ages of the various activities that I mentioned because if people aren’t thought to be mature enough to be grown adults, then people won’t think that they’re mature enough to do things such as gamble as well as buy and drink alcohol.
Considering “emerging adulthood” an official life stage will also affect when people become independent from their parents. People will stay dependent on their parents for much longer if “emerging adulthood” is an official life stage because they will feel less pressure to go out and get jobs and buy their own houses. If and when this happens, people will feel no purpose in having a steady job or in owning their house, when they could just rely on their parents to support them, since they have never known anything different and they don’t think there’s any purpose to learn something different. Thomas King talks a lot about how people, especially this current generation, need to have a purpose for everything. I think that if “emerging adulthood” becomes an official life stage, people will see less purpose for everything, which will cause dependency among parents for many more years than average. This negatively affects the economy because the more dependent on their parents people become, the less they contribute to the economy. This is because someone depending on their parents means they most likely don’t have a steady job that allows them to support themselves and pay for their own things. If someone’s parent is paying for everything that “they own” then they aren’t contributing to the economy at all, their parents are.
To have a thriving economy, everyone needs to contribute to it, especially throughout their adult life. When contemplating the idea of having “emerging adulthood” as a life stage, policy makers need to take that into consideration. “Emerging Adulthood” will delay, or possibly even stop, people from contributing to the economy. If this happens, the economy could potentially crash.
“Emerging Adulthood” being a life stage also will affect if and when people go to college. Like King talked about in his Ted Talk, this generation wants purpose for doing everything they do. If people can rely on their parents to support them longer because of this new life stage, they won’t see a purpose in going to college to get a job. People not seeing a purpose in going to college to obtain a degree in order to get a job will only increase the rates of people staying at home longer and getting jobs that don’t require college degrees. If people don’t go to college, they won’t be making as much money as they could be. Also, jobs that require college degrees will eventually not exist because there will be no one eligible to perform these jobs. King emphasizes how you shouldn’t ask people what they want to be when they “grow up” because jobs that exist at that time may not exist when the person “ grows up”. People not going to college will affect the economy because universities won’t have the funds to be able to pay for all the expenses that they have, which will cause professors and other employees of the university to lose their jobs and eventually the university will have to shut down.
“Emerging Adulthood” could be a big reason that certain jobs will eventually not exist, which could be a result of people getting stable jobs later in their lifetime. Jobs going out of existence is one of the biggest ways the economy will be affected. If jobs gradually become less and less available, people will never be able to become independent from their parents. If there isn’t jobs for people to have, they will never be able to be financially stable enough to be able to support themselves. Jobs becoming less available will make it harder for people to get them, especially if they don’t go to college. This will affect the economy because of businesses going out of business and people not making enough money to support themselves. Also, most parents expect their kids to get a part time job when they’re sixteen and use the money they earn to pay for things they do with their friends and eventually gas and insurance for their car. Eventually, these expectations will fade away. This means people won’t have so much pressure on them to have a job along with going to school and doing extracurriculars. This is going to affect the economy because when people are of age to get a well-paying job, they won’t have enough experience working, in any ways, which will make it harder for them to get a job that will be able to support them and a family, if they choose to have one.
As a result of all the ways that “emerging adulthood” is going to affect when someone settles into a particular job. King talks a lot about this in his speech. He says how most older generations have an expectation that you settle into a job right after college and that is the job that you’ll have for the rest of your career. King doesn’t believe that it should be that way, and neither do I. He states that he is going to have a “portfolio career”, which to him that means that his career will constantly be evolving. I think that having a “portfolio career” is a part of the unofficial life stage “emerging adulthood”. Self identifying is a part of how Henig defines “emerging adulthood” and I think having a “portfolio career” is a way of finding your “self identity”. Having a “portfolio career” and not settling to one job as early as past generations will affect the economy because people of this generation and future generations will take much longer to contribute to the work force and the economy as a whole, which will take a lot of adjusting for people and policy makers.
Henig believes “emerging adulthood” should be considered an official life stage. She believes that it’s a stage between adolescence and adulthood where people really find their identity- who they are and what they want to be. King’s ideas relate to this because he really emphasizes having a “portfolio career” which I think helps people find their “identity”. I think that when it first starts to be considered “official,” it will be really hard for older generations to accept the stage and what makes it up, just because they aren’t used to it. I also believe that it will negatively affect the economy in the beginning. It will change many things in life that affect the economy, such as legal ages for certain entertainment, when people become independent from their parents, if and when people go to college, jobs going out of existence, the ages that people start working, and the fact that they will settle for a particular job much later than older generations have.
Works Cited
TEDxTalks. “Adults, We Need to Have the Talk | Thomas King | TEDxMelbourne.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Nov. 2015, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8IrpE9G_v4>.
Barrios, Barclay, and Robin Marantz Henig. “What Is It About 20-Something’s?” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 198–213.
