Sunday, January 26, 2014

First Reader Response-

After reading this week's material, I have found that "When I Was Your Age" followed the same thinking as I do. For example, I believe as humans we either step up to the plate or, well, fail. However, I believe the majority of the population handles responsibility and growing up rather well when faced with challenges. I also found myself agreeing with the author when she states, "if we have to grow up, we do it. If we don't, it's far nicer to linger". As a senior, I find it a little intimidating knowing that I am supposed to be a full-fledged adult in a few months, and of course I would love to "linger" in my college phase. However, this is not the case, and I have to embrace the next step of my life.

At times, I have often pondered overall human development as it relates to the physical and mental states. Although I haven't taken an anthropology course or had any lessons on evolution, I was always curious as to how humans have developed that "sense of responsibility" and the transition into adulthood. I also have wondered when an individual is considered an adult; more so, what makes an individual an adult? For example, is a human considered an adult when he or she turns a certain age, or when they achieve success, or rather when they take on an "adult" role such as parenthood? I hope these questions can be answered through discussions and readings as I would like to know other's thoughts on the matter. I suppose this will become a question of biology and culture, as we have previously discussed in class.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post, Jackie! I cannot help but agree with your respectful yet still opinionated response to the "When I Was Your Age" article. I can still recall the first time I looked down (literally) on some younger children in middle school when I was in 8th grade. I felt like I had aged over night and would next find myself yelling at them to get off my lawn! My friends and I were astonished by some of the fifth graders who had cell phones. What had the world come to?! None of us received cell phones until 8th grade of high school and and felt we were better in some way because of it. "When I Was Your Age" put everything into perspective. There will always be generations thinking that about one another, but in the end of the day, when the challenge arises, man has the capacity to turn and face it if he so chooses (whether he grew up with a cell phone or not). Konnikova is correct, who are we to blame or judge them for taking advantage of their situations as young adults.

    I often find myself pondering some of the same questions you mentioned above, and the MA reading certainly fostered my thoughts on their answers. How do we define adulthood? In some ways, I believe the definition is influenced by society and culture. For example, in many of my anthropology classes we examine child rearing practices in non-Western cultures in which older children, instead of parents, take care of infants. In other cultures, girls as young as thirteen are forced to have children at their young ages as a result of cultural expectations surrounding arranged marriages. My great-grandfather left his family at age fourteen, came across the ocean, and began to work to make a living in America on his own. In these cases, is age just a number? I have always heard that experiences define children from adults. After the MA reading and our class discussions I would be inclined to further agree with this statement. I am excited to discuss the biological and cultural influences of the questions here and in class during the remainder of the semester.

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  2. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jackie. I am also unsure of what actual age is actually considered adulthood. I am terrified of being an adult. I do not think that I will fully consider myself an adult until I am married with children. But however in some situations I consider myself as an adult, for example when I am working, or purchasing something with my own hard earned money, or taking care of my younger siblings. These are the few times I look upon myself as an adult, but when I go back home to my parents house then I am a child again.
    Considering the reading I also agreed with the statement of the author when “if we have to grow up, we do it , if we don’t, its far nicer to linger”. I think that everyone will agree to the fact that they would like to linger, because me personally I am not ready for the real world out there. I know a lot of my peers have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders such as paying bills and so on. I do not have that responsibility and I thank God, because I do not think I can handle that aspect of life yet. Some people may call me spoiled but I do not see it that way, I am just trying to linger as much as my parents will allw me to do so.

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