[mason240]

Actually, this third stage of life between childhood and adulthood is new phenomenon.

(Broad generalization incoming) Before the industrial revolution, teens would have spent most of their time around adults (like their parents), and very little time exclusively around people their own age.

[Outdoorsman]

Good point...

Populations were distributed more broadly...kids were expected to work at a younger age...no phone or Internet...apprenticeships at a young age were common...

I guess they still had a few other opportunities...school, picnics, sports, swimming down at the creek, church, civic youth groups, summer camp, etc...

[carlob]

> I guess they still had a few other opportunities...school, picnics, sports, swimming down at the creek, church, civic youth groups, summer camp, etc...

Most of these are also pretty modern things. Long education and leisure time did not exist for most people until somewhere around ons hundred years ago, depending on where you lived. Stuff like boy scouts was not invented until the beginning of the 20th century and it took time for them to become popular across social classes.

Some historian argue that even childhood is a modern invention.

[sdegutis]

I'm pretty sure this "babying" is a relatively new thing. I've read a few books written by and/or about people growing up in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and once you were a teenager, you were treated like an adult by all other adults. Sure, a "young adult", but an adult nonetheless. You matured pretty quickly, because you had to in order to survive. But a college degree wasn't necessary back then to make a living on your own income; you could get a job and support yourself through manual labor, and live pretty comfortably. Today you have to go through at least 4 years of college if you want to do that, so you don't really have to grow up until you're in your mid twenties. Plus it's easy to get a high-interest credit card to buy your adult-starter-kit expenses. The result is that you end up with a lot of 30 year old adults who are just starting to grow up, who've only been working for a few years, and who now have massive debt, because they didn't really have to work hard to earn anything until now, and now they're just starting to learn how to work hard in order to pay off all that debt. Source: just making stuff up off the top of my head, ignore me.

[BookmarkSaver]

While it might be less pronounced, and maybe it requires some level of urbanization or a critical mass of population within a society, you can definitely see distinct cultural struggles between generations at various points going way, way back in history. For example, there are Roman accounts of elder Senators bemoaning the diminished values of the upcoming generations and distinct youthful cultures forming.

[Outdoorsman]

Not being flippant here, at all...I think what you're referencing has been with humans forever...

Older generations doubt the ability of the young to "get things right"...to keep the society they are familiar with on track...

Younger generations, with fresh eyes, wonder how older generations let things "go so wrong"...with an eye toward improving the society they've inherited...

An excellent book, Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, by Robert Pirsig, explores this and other phenomena in great depth...

It's a semi-sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...

I recommend it...

[arclyte]

cf, Jeffrey Arnett "Emerging Adulthood"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_adulthood_and_early_a...