Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising

18 til I die - gonna be 18 til I die
Ya it sure feels good to be alive
Someday Ill be 18 goin on 55! - 18 til I die

Anyway - I just wanna say
Why bother with what happened yesterday
Its not my style - I live for the minute
If ya wanna stay young - get both feet in it - 18 til I die
A lil bit of this - a lil bit of that
lil bit of everything - gotta get on track
Its not how ya look, its what ya feel inside
I dont care when - I dont need ta know why
18 til I die - gonna be 18 til I die
Ya it sure feels good to be alive
Someday Ill be 18 goin on 55! - 18 til I die
Ya theres one thing for sure - Im sure gonna try

Dont worry bout the future
Forget about the past
Gonna have a ball - ya were gonna have a blast
Gonna make it last

That's the Dancing Cop of Providence, Rhode Island

Not a psychological neoteny.

A “child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge” is probably adaptive to the increased instability of the modern world, Charlton believes.

Make that, a flexibility of attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge is the whole reason our brains are the size they are, and essential to human evolution, and you might be on to something.

bingo. what exactly characterizes "psychological maturity"? the article seems to imply that it means not overreacting, and being able to prioritize. but it seems to me that both of those things would also be necessary characteristics of the kind of flexibility it associates with "immaturity." the whole thing seems deeply suspect.

i think society used to view a productive (and mature) adult as someone who worked and got married and had kids and took an interest in their community (volunteerism, boosterism, local politics) and who looked after their family. and now i think people just wanna know how much money you make. hahaha, okay, maybe not, but maybe a little. nobody CARES if you are married and all the rest of it anymore because nobody knows if you are gonna even stick around long enough for them to care. or even know who you are.

and a lot of this has come about because of the women's movement/feminism/the pill/etc and those are all great things. i think freedom and the ability to move around without being harshly judged by society is a good thing. but there are pros and cons to everything. and one con of the wandering dabbler who goes wherever and works wherever is a lack of stability that can be a detriment to actual towns and cities. if you don't have a stake in the place you live and when you get bored you are gone...well, you get the idea. i am sort of a supporter of hyper-localism, but most people find it really boring.

i used to think i would just hide out in the city alone in my room with my records and books forever until the smell made the neighbors call the police. that was my vision! and it was a very economical ecologically-sound vision. i didn't take up that much space. didn't drive a car. only fed myself. but believe it or not, there is actually a point to home and hearth and all that nonsense. especially the way things are going these days. rallying the troops and sticking in one spot (with suitable fall-out supplies) is looking like the thing to do.

-- scott seward (skotro...), June 26th, 2006.

*coughs, whistles idly*

I direct an armpit fart in the general direction of David Brooks.

I also get frustrated with the defition of family being so narrow.

SRC OTM (bwahahaha that nearly spells something).

Additionally, I'm always interested when mediocre academics at middle-weight British universities weigh in about ANYTHING to do with life skills. It would be more newsworthy if they discovered they HAD some. As to the kids thing - I probably can't have them and therefore have to leave my mark on the world in some other way. As to living like a student until your 30s, I've no problem with individuals who live this way - often the choice is not solely made by them, so to be told you're not a grownup on this basis is APPALLING.

I hate to use the term but so fucking on the money.

I dunno. I agree with Sara: this seems as though the old days were better. But were they? I think it's great I waited till I was *older* to have a kid. I cldnt like my parents: they were 19 and 21 ffs!

ha.

But seriously (because this was a 'serious study' after all), the thing that bothers me most about this study is that it relies too heavily on the 'old ways is better,' pro-retrogressive view of things. Additionally, how old is this guy? Because if he's a baby boomer type, then isn't a lot of this neotenous dawdling a result of his generation's example?

I like to think that makes me mature, doesn't it?

http://www.rhitard.com/daily/scotrun.gif

(suzy and aimee - LOL on my initials plus OTM.)

i'm watching this tv appearance by a guy representing segs4vets and they keep saying "segs for vets" over and over, and there is really not much of a difference between segs and sex. sometimes the words come out a bit differently and the 'g' is a little harder in segs, but generally they sound about the same. how did no one at the organization consider this

The oxygen machines used in the hospital I work at are all named after Disney characters. Like dopey. Strikes me as a little immature as well

I was leading training w/ someone (a fairly conservative, polite, professional Christian lady) and since we were in other states and using WebEx, you have to "pass the ball" icon to let them present/share their screen.

so at one point it was getting to be her turn and she msgs me "Wanna ball me?", and 12 year old Neanderthal had to be subdued by office Neanderthal.

wait there's an oxygen machine called "Sleepy"?!