We've heard of Mid-Life crises, now introducing...

Young-Life Crisis?

Hats off to J for sending me this Op-Ed piece from today's New York Times. It's titled: The Odyssey Years, I've read similar articles in other publications including one from last year in TIME. The central issue, expressed differently in each, is essentially the same and outlined the same.

From the Times' article piece;

Through their work, you can see the spirit of fluidity that now characterizes this stage. Young people grow up in tightly structured childhoods, Wuthnow observes, but then graduate into a world characterized by uncertainty, diversity, searching and tinkering. Old success recipes don’t apply, new norms have not been established and everything seems to give way to a less permanent version of itself.
Dating gives way to Facebook and hooking up. Marriage gives way to cohabitation. Church attendance gives way to spiritual longing. Newspaper reading gives way to blogging.
(In 1970, 49 percent of adults in their 20s read a daily paper; now it’s at 21
percent.)

I italicized that one line for two reasons. 1) It's the typical analysis of my generation breaking down our lives into three general spheres that overlap
i - pairing
ii - religion/spirituality
iii - information dissemination
and then there's - 2) Boy, that sure hits the nail on the head, it does in fact seem to succinctly describe the trend that has blossomed especially with my generation.

I don't think one statement within the article holds much weight:

But there is every reason to think this phase will grow more pronounced in the coming years. European nations are traveling this route ahead of us, Galston notes. Europeans delay marriage even longer than we do and spend even more years shifting between the job market and higher education.

There's a fundamental difference between Europeans and Americans which tends to be tenacity and drive - if people think the youth of America are apathetic they should look to the French - granted we don't protest like the French do, but then again as much as protesting is built into their culture, not protesting and disrupting the "machine" of life and order is built into ours.

And this - well this is just so cliche: Someday people will look back and wonder at the vast social changes wrought by the emerging social group that saw their situations first captured by “Friends”

Puh-lease, a Friends' comparison is so... 1997.

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