Millennial Paradox Research Paper

Rocio Ramirez
Engl-111G-D18
April 22, 2015
The Millennial Paradox
Millennials are a generation of people that were born between the years of the early 1900s and 2000s. This specific generation of people have been known to "delay adulthood" which leads them to get married and have children at a later point in their life. This also causes them to take longer to gain financial independence then previous generations. Millennials are being responsible by "delaying adulthood" because they are being more rational in a sense where they don’t want to have the kinds of things that they can’t afford, times have changed and it’s not really a priority to elope and have a family at a young age and they are focusing on the bigger picture which is getting
I came across an article on the New York Times website about the debate on Adulthood and one of the debaters is W. Keith Campbell, a professor and the head of the department of psychology at the University of Georgia. Campbell (2014) states “Adulthood is increasingly seen as a lifestyle option, young adults can either take up adult responsibilities or put away childish things, or they can just pick up an Xbox and decide not to start a career or have a committed adult relationship” (Campbell,
Although the mark of responsibility is not in the judgement, but the judgement making process. Making the choice to have kids can be just as careless as not having kids. I don 't think any generation can claim to be more or less responsible than any other. Starting a family is a big decision and should take into account a lot more than controlling social pressures and the self-absorbed opinions of strangers. I don 't think that the question to this debate is well phrased. We should not be asking whether millennials are irresponsible, but how we have failed to give them the confidence they need to take risks, be ambitious and be free to make their own mistakes. A newborn baby does not cut its own umbilical cord. Who is really being irresponsible