The Millennial “Adulthood” Delusion

By: American Decency Staff

Yesterday, I was in the elevator and I saw an article from The Huffington Post called“34 Ways You Change As You Become an Adult” by Lexi Herrick. Listicles are my favorite, and I wanted to be sure to read that one.

Later in afternoon, I finally had a second to read the piece by Lexi, and at first, I was tracking with her. Here’s an excerpt of the beginning:

Look at you, you’re starting to look like a grown-up or something. Here are 34 ways you change as you become an adult:

1. You don’t feel the need to gossip anymore.

2. Jealously is futile and starts to fade away as a controlling force of your mind.

3. You handle conflict directly, maturely and respectfully.

4. You know how to apologize and admit fault.

“Sure,” I thought to myself, “These sound like characteristics of adults, ideally at least.”

But then I continued to think, “No, not really. Adults gossip all the time and are jealous a lot. A lot of adults don’t know how to apologize or control themselves, either.”

But I know how it is as a writer, a lot of times people can read past what you’re trying to say, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and kept reading. The general gist of the 34 marks of becoming an adult is this: you’re growing up and becoming more mature.

Nearly all of the 34 ways she listed are good things we should be pursuing as we age and become more mature, self-sufficient adults. There were only a few problem points, like point #15, “You start to eliminate people who have become parasites to your happiness and success in life.”

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