Today, I saw a young guy on the train reading a book called, "My Quarter-Life Crisis." Disturbing! Apparently, this is some kind of new marketing phenomenon. A quick search revealed quite a number of young people trying to escape from their personal quarter-life crisis by capitilizing on this idea. See: this, and this, and this.
Sure, there is some truth that a lot of people in their 20s and 30s feel less than stellar all the time. But the packaging of this concept? Ick.
Any thoughts, readers?
I think the mid-lfe crisis is bunk, so I guess that makes the concept of the quarter-life crisis double bunk. I think humans are preprogrammed to address things that are bothering them, like "I'm cold so I'll start a fire" or "I'm hungry so we need to go hunt a wooly mammoth". Now that modern technology has stopped us from worrying about where to get food and water or how to stay warm and dry we, and by we I mean the entire developed world, have to satisfy the urge to address problems the same way that we address everything else, by being selfish. The selfishness then manifests itself into things like quarter- and mid-life crises, eating disorders, ADD, plastic surgery, depression, etc. I guess in that respect being afforded the opportunity to even consider having a silly quarter-life crisis is one of the benefits of residing in a modern technologically advanced society. So all of the Debby Downers out there need to take note of the fact that they won the cosmic lottery when they were born in America instead of the Sudan, or Somalia, or a slum outside of Bogota, etc.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I overheard a conversation between a mom and her brother. Mom was talking about her daughter, and how, if she had to pay for her own stuff - her cell phone, her car, her car insurance - maybe she'd be more motivated to pick a college major. Um? Yanking the daughter's when she's 18 years old isn't going to help her find a major (which is what the brother said), but maybe mom and dad should start their daughter on a fiscially responsible lesson in adulthood. That would probably be more helpful than picking a major anyway! And avoid future a quarter-life crisis of "my mom doesn't pay my cell bill anymore!"
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