I have wondered as college becomes more and more universal if it is delaying the onset of adulthood into later age. Before college was more widespread, after high school (and many times before it was completed) was the time to get a job, get married, have kids, and wait to die. Not that time is later and later and I wonder if it's partially due to the effect of continued education without real responsibility. Being an adult means being able to ignore things that bother you when it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. And more over, being an adult is knowing what is and isn't a big deal. If you didn't care about it before Facebook told you it was a big deal, then it might be time to examine for yourself whether or not it is a big deal. As college delays adulthood, you would expect to see similar delays in this development of self and context.
I'm old, but I am not THAT old. Yet when I turned 13 I was told that I was going to get a job and do chores and contribute to the household. College was not at all an option for me. That and people in my part of town didn't go to college anyway, or so I was told repeatedly. I got a paper route (back when those were a thing) and delivered 300 newspapers every morning for five years. On my 18th birthday I was told that I should finish high school then get out. As in "Your 18 now and an adult, you need to get your own place or join the military." By the time I was 19, I had cash in the bank, bought my own car and was living on my own. This from someone who's parents were not rich by anyone's judgement. If my parents tried to raise me like that today I'm sure CPS would get involved. But, the way they raised me worked. It made me strong and independent. It taught me the value of money and that poverty sucks. They taught me ethics, honor and courage. And that is why I think I made it out when so many others in my HS class ended up in jail or dead. If it was not for my mom and dad dragging my ass kicking and screaming into responsibility and adulthood I'd probably have gone the same path.
Is this really a bad thing, though? Our lives are longer now than they used to be, so why shouldn't childhood be longer as well? And we know now that most people's brains aren't finished maturing until their mid-20s, however much we might like to pretend that an 18 year old person can consent to participating in war. So why should we not push back the time when a person has to "get a job, get married, have kids, and wait to die"?Before college was more widespread, after high school (and many times before it was completed) was the time to get a job, get married, have kids, and wait to die. Not that time is later and later and I wonder if it's partially due to the effect of continued education without real responsibility. ... As college delays adulthood, you would expect to see similar delays in this development of self and context.
I don't think it's bad or good, but it does suggest that you'll start to see more childish behavior around college age people than you used to. So we should expect identities which would usually be more firm in the early onset of college to develop later. People would be searching for their own way later and they'd be less likely to have a defined self. I think this also has a lot to do with how quickly social justice fires start and are extinguished.