Emerging Adults

Emerging Adulthood (but I don’t want to grow up) Generation Y is a term that is used to describe people born between 1982 and 2002. This generation is also known as the millenials, echo boomers, or Generation Me. They have been depicted as “entitled whiners who have been spoiled by parents who over stroked their self-esteem” (Warner 11). These twenty-something individuals have a very laid back attitude towards work and responsibility; in many ways, they expect things just to be handed to them. Many members of Generation Y are lazy, self-indulgent young adults who refuse to grow up; they primarily want to postpone, for as long as they can, the responsibilities and difficult choices of true adulthood, and they use today’s poor economy as their excuse to delay growing up. Generation Y is emerging into today’s workforce with a sense of entitlement that was unprecedented in previous generations. Twenty-somethings are taking much longer than their parents to grow up and become financially stable. Many, in fact, are choosing to live at home and stay dependent on their parents (even after graduating from college) instead of facing the real world and living on their own. In prior generations, hard work was valued above all else, but the new “emerging adults” believe that they are entitled to the best jobs without doing any work. Many of these young adults “are very sure that someday [they] will get to where [they] want to be in life” (Henig 4). This generation is making assumptions that are not based on any factual information; they seem to believe that if they wait long enough and gather enough experiences to truly ‘find themselves,’ then they will have ‘it’ all figured out, landing a lucrative and fulfilling career that they will enjoy for the rest of their lives. As Sharon Jayson observes, Generation Y is taking plenty of ‘me’ time to decide what they want their futures to be” (84). They idealistically believe that everything is just going to work out for them. This attitude, which for the most part comes from their parents who have over-indulged their self-esteem, is very dangerous. With this approach to life, these Millenials will probably not work as hard as they actually need to in order to achieve their life goals.
One aspect of the economy that Generation Y uses as a reason to postpone growing up is all the debt they acquire while in college. According to the Project on Student Debt (a Berkeley, Calif., nonprofit), “The average student graduates with about $22,000 in debt.” Generation Y uses their debt as a reason to delay working because they only want extremely high paying jobs. They believe that only the perfect job is good enough for them and are not willing to settle for anything less. Ironically, they also use their indebtedness as a reason to stay in school longer—in order to prepare themselves for higher paying jobs:
In the 1970s, a bachelor’s degree could launch a career and support a family. Not anymore. Now, graduate school is almost a necessity, and that means greater expenses, often when students are already saddled with college loans. …Financial independence is but a dream for many. (Jayson 85)
In reality, this approach to life just postpones entering the workforce and growing up. The longer they stay in school, the longer they have to figure out what to do with their life. This gives them more time to just meander through life without making any difficult decisions. With the large amount of debt and the unwillingness to move on, these young adults choose to take their time when it comes making life decisions. Their attitudes are completely unrealistic. They are actually harming themselves by building up more debt and delaying entrance into the workforce. They think that whatever they want to accomplish can be done, even without hard work and effort. Another aspect of the economy that members of Generation Y use to prevent them from having to grow up is the struggling job market. The monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “reports…that among all 20-24 year-olds the unemployment rate was 17.2 percent in April” (Zappe). These “emerging adults” use this as a reason to just hang out and wait for the right job to come to them, instead of actually going out and finding work. These twenty-somethings are lazy and refuse to work hard in order to succeed. For example, “Many are increasingly declaring themselves unwilling to work more than 40 hours a week” (Warner 12). They only want jobs that fit into their schedules and ones that do not require hard work and long hours. They think that everything is just going to be handed to them. Jeff Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University in Worcester says, “that young men and women are more self-focused than at any other time of life, less certain about the future, and yet also more optimistic, no matter what their economic background.” This optimism is a false sense of security. Because their parents have led them to believe that they are the centers of the universe, members of Generation Y focus only on themselves and, and the idea that eventually the universe will provide them with what they want; they will eventually find the perfect job, so there is no need to find one any time soon. This sense of idealism is reflected in the statistic that “over 90 percent think they have the perfect resume” (Warner 12). This overconfidence and sense of entitlement is how they rationalize not growing up. They believe that they are too good for most jobs—so much so that “41 percent of job seekers this year turned down offers” (Warner 12).
The long path to adulthood that Generation Y is taking has significant negative effects on Generation X, their parents. Generation Y is still very dependent on their parents, even as 20 year olds. For one, “American parents give an average of 10 percent of their income to their 18- to 21-year-old children” (Henig 8). This means that the parents of Generation Y must work later into their lives to support their unemployed children. As Sharon Jayson points out, the term “boomerang kids” refers to those members of Generation Y that “return home after college.
According to Twentysomething Inc., a market researcher that tracks youth trends, 65% of this year’s grads expect to live with their parents after earning degrees” (86). These parents have worked their entire life to finally be able to retire and relax, but instead they “are helping pay bills they never counted on paying” and expenses that these twenty-somethings should be paying for themselves (Henig 10). The expectations that parents will take care of Generation Y because they do not want go out and find work or because they want to live at home “places a terrible burden on the parents who might be worrying about their own job security, trying to care for their aging parents or grieving as their retirement plans become more and more of a pipe dream” (Henig 11). 20 somethings parents have their own troubles to worry about and because Generation Y refuses to grow up, their own problems become even harder for them. Generation Y should be more considerate of their parents and understand that it is time to support themselves. 20 year-olds are taking advantage of their parents because they know how much their parents loved and worshipped them as children. Most parents will always be there for their children, but the “emerging adults” should realize that it is time to give their parents a break, and finally become responsible for their own lives.
Generation Y is now “emerging” into adulthood. Many of them, however, still refuse to grow up, rationalizing that they must take their time to examine all their options in order to find their perfect niche in this imperfect world. These young adults are lazy, overconfident, and self-indulgent. They believe that everything is just going to work out in the end for them, so hard work is not necessary. Not surprisingly, then, it is taking longer and longer for these twenty-somethings to finally figure it out. It is time for them to stop relying on their parents and to stop using today’s poor economic conditions as an excuse to delay becoming independent. It is time for the “emerging adults” to realize that their life is in their own hands and that in order to succeed they need to grow up and start taking responsibility for their own lives.

Works Cited
"College Grads Face IOUs, Worst Job Market in Years - Washington Times." Washington Times
- Politics, Breaking News, US and World News. Web. 5 Nov. 2010. .
Henig, Robin Marantz. "The Post-Adolescent, Pre-Adult, Not-Quite-Decided Life Stage." The
New York Times Magazine 22 Aug. 2010: 28(L). Custom Newspapers. Web. 24 Aug. 2010.
Jayson, Sharon. "It 's Time to Grow Up—Later." Reading Culture. Eds. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 84-87. Print.
Warner, Judith. "The Why-Worry Generation." New York Times 30 May 2010: 11-12. Web.
Zappe, John. "Facing Tough Job Market, New Grads Accepting More Offers, Lower Salaries –
ERE.net."ERE.net - Recruiting News, Recruiting Events, Recruiting Community, Social Recruiting. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.

Cited: "College Grads Face IOUs, Worst Job Market in Years - Washington Times." Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News. Web. 5 Nov. 2010. . Henig, Robin Marantz. "The Post-Adolescent, Pre-Adult, Not-Quite-Decided Life Stage." The New York Times Magazine 22 Aug. 2010: 28(L). Custom Newspapers. Web. 24 Aug. 2010. Jayson, Sharon. "It 's Time to Grow Up—Later." Reading Culture. Eds. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 84-87. Print. Warner, Judith. "The Why-Worry Generation." New York Times 30 May 2010: 11-12. Web. Zappe, John. "Facing Tough Job Market, New Grads Accepting More Offers, Lower Salaries – ERE.net."ERE.net - Recruiting News, Recruiting Events, Recruiting Community, Social Recruiting. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.