Beware the Child-Man?

First of all, I'm not exactly sure where I should be posting this. We have a thread in I:SB about the existence of aliens, while in General Discussion we're talking about 2012 being earth's final year. So if need be, feel free to move this topic.

I recently read an editorial that I found interesting which basically states how men in their 20s and 30s are delaying adulthood.

Link

Here's a snippet. I won't post all... it's really long.

Recently NPR (National Public Radio) featured a segment during its Talk of the Nation program with Kay Hymowitz, a writer and lecturer regarding her recent Op Ed piece from City Journal that was cut down and run in a recent Dallas Morning News Sunday Editorial space. Hymowitz espoused her view that something had changed in our society with young men. Something had allowed them to become less driven to fulfill the traditionally defined role of a male adult - namely marriage and procreation - instead she claimed young men in the 20s and 30s were delaying true adulthood and commitment favoring instead the proliferation of media like Maxim magazine, 24 hour cartoon channels and video games.

Hymowitz dubbed this new generation of young men with the derogatory title “Child-men”, saying that because of their attraction to these entertainment forms and their seeming lack of strong commitment skills that we had a maturity gap emerging within society. Young men were no longer rushing to the altar or marrying childhood sweethearts and she seems to place the cause of this on games for one. These “Child-men” came to light because she had spoken with a number of young women and these ladies had decried the lack of good candidates for marriage on the traditional timescale.

Now I won’t refute that there has been a change in our society. I won’t argue that people (male and female) seem to be entering into traditional adulthood later with the average of married men aged 30 dropping 27% in the last 30 years, but I think she is examining the results not the causes and placing blame in the wrong place.

Do young men spend 2-3 hours an evening playing video games? Statistically yes, the rise in game play has said as much. Are they doing this in addition to the other “traditional” activities like watching sports or network television? The numbers say they are not. So instead of being the great catalyst of the man-slacker as she infers, I think we’re seeing a transition in the leisure activities and their content.

Hymmowitz writes:

Not so long ago, the average mid-twentysomething had achieved most of adulthood’s milestones—high school degree, financial independence, marriage, and children. These days, he lingers—happily—in a new hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. Decades in unfolding, this limbo may not seem like news to many, but in fact it is to the early twenty-first century what adolescence was to the early twentieth: a momentous sociological development of profound economic and cultural import.

So what do you think ? For all of you in your 20s - 30s, does this article apply to your life ? Is there a time when we need to grow up ?

Discuss.

Well, Buzz and I got married a year ago. I was 20 and he was 22. So... I guess this doesn't apply to us.

I can see in the world though, people want to go around in playful, non-committed lifestyles until their youth runs out, and then settle down. Not sure why, but whatev.

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

Well, Buzz and I got married a year ago. I was 20 and he was 22. So... I guess this doesn't apply to us.

I can see in the world though, people want to go around in playful, non-committed lifestyles until their youth runs out, and then settle down. Not sure why, but whatev.

More like most people want to utilize their youth as much as possible and do all they can with it before they tie themselves down.