Hey Gen Y, Are We Growing Up Too Fast?

Now, I’m going to deviate a bit from my normal topics for this post. I read a post in Thought Catalog the other day called, “When did we all get so old?”  

I know you are probably thinking this is a strange post for a 20-something, like myself, to read. After all, I’m still supposedly young enough where it’s okay to still be finding myself and testing my newly independent wings. I’m not expected to completely settle down, get married and start popping out kids. Thankfully!

But all the while, I keep reflecting back on my own choices and progression. And, that of my friends and acquaintances. I realize while most of us aren’t married with kids, we’re starting to think differently and dare I say grow up. For the most part, that’s a fantastic thing. We need to work. We have to pay bills. Like it or not, we should be paying taxes. We shouldn’t be black-out drunk 4 nights a week. We should be more responsible.

I’m very proud of how much I’ve grown up in the last few years. It’s an amazing feeling to be independent, take on new responsibilities and challenges, and surround myself and learn from dozens of people, who are tens times smarter than me.

But, I also know as a whole that we Gen Y’ers tend to be a pretty competitive bunch. I can speak for myself, and say I’m very competitive and hate to lose. Probably because of this, it makes me want to succeed earlier, grow up faster and be better than my parents were at my age.  Based on conversations I’ve had, I’m assuming this is probably a pretty true statement for  Gen Y as a whole. Being the first generation to grow up with the Internet, it makes it way too easy for all of us to compare ourselves to everyone else.

“We live in a world now where we can see our generation’s successes and failures in real time. We know what every friend and acquaintance is doing, we know where they live, we know how things are working out for them. And though we no longer have the intense societal pressure to marry and spawn, as well as have a good job and own a house all by your late twenties, we have an enormous amount of pressure we put on ourselves.” (Source: Thought Catalog) 

This pressure to one-up each other,  that we are putting in large part on ourselves, may not be healthy. Competition can do different things for each of us. But, it may be robbing some of us of the time where we can take the most risks (albeit carefully), experiment and have some adventures. No matter how few or how many risks you take, every single person fails from time to time, even if you don’t want to admit it. But, it’s a helluva lot easier to rebound from mistakes when you’re 20-something and single than as a 45-year-old with 4 kids, who all need to go to college.

To be clear, I’m not advocating for every GenYer to be irresponsible and make rash decisions. That’s just flat-out dumb. However, playing it safe to the point where you are paralyzed of experimenting and failing isn’t smart either. Experimenting is important. It’s absolutely vital to learning and maturing at any age, whether your 21 or 101.

What’s your take? Is Gen Y trying to grow up too fast? Leave your comments in the comment section below. 

 

 

 

Jessica Malnik works with B2B SaaS and professional service firms to build marketing moat that compound over time using her signature content framework. As both a strategist and executor, she helps clients develop strategic content marketing roadmaps, scale content production, and provide guidance on campaigns and individual pieces.
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