My generation is experiencing an extended childhood. Exorbitant rents are preventing us from leaving the nest, once a vital milestone in the maturation process. The pressure to pursue a degree at third level has created a bumper period between childhood and adulthood. A consensus seems to have emerged that adulthood cannot be achieved without the perceived security of a third-level education.
However, rather than choosing to preserve our childish status and avoiding adult responsibility, my generation has been infantilised by both social and economic conditions beyond our control. These conditions arose through the reckless actions of certain members of the previous generation. Gráinne Loughran, in her article “Stop millennial bashing, it’s not our fault” includes the vital statistic that our generation will be the first to be comparatively poorer than our parents. My generation faces a bleak situation.
However, the true marker of an infantilised people is not being able to accept responsibility for themselves. While certainly my generation has inherited a broken system, where it has become increasingly difficult to realise the adult independence afforded to previous generations, it is our responsibility now to ensure that we don’t become mere pawns, or victims, of this broken system.
Poor preparation
Due to the simple natural process of ageing, my generation will eventually inherit the world. It is in everyone’s interest that my generation matures correctly and steps up to the mantle, in order to run the world. If my generation continues to accept its infantilisation, and older generations actively prevent our maturing, thus ensuring poor preparation for the task, well then we as a species are in trouble. This is the simple economic, social, and basic reality of the situation.
Though we have been infantilised, we must now work harder to secure our adulthood. We are a highly educated, entrepreneurial, progressive generation with an inherent understanding of technology and its capabilities. As a generation we are primed to achieve truly magnificent things for humankind, but this can only happen if we break from the shackles of our infantilisation.
Spending any time on social media you will soon realise that there is a collective wariness of adulthood. Social media is awash with memes speaking to the fear of adulthood, or even assuming our inability to act as an adult.
“I’m done adult-ing for the rest of the day.” “I tried being an adult once, it was terrible.”
Trawling through the Snapchat channels of Buzzfeed, Vice, Cosmopolitan you can’t help but feel patronised. However, clearly there is a huge market for this message. Why act like an adult when we can think about brunch, avocados, and pore over pictures of baby animals in hats instead?
Inane anxieties
I know there is more to our generation than such inane anxieties. I know we are more capable than our social media consumption would suggest. I know that members of my generation are achieving truly magnificent things, and I also believe that we are all capable of doing the same.
I appreciate that my generation has been dealt a tough hand, but the onus is on us to reject our infantilisation and realise our potential.
We do this through rejecting and protesting at the barriers placed between us and achieving adult independence. We assume responsibility for ourselves, and ensure our voice and our concerns are heard at every level. We push to fix the system that has failed us.
We are the generation that drove marriage equality over the line in 2015. We’re the generation that will repeal the Eighth Amendment. We are the generation that will achieve the social change our country so desperately needs. We are not useless. We are not incapable. We are the best chance this country has for the future. There is simply too much at stake for us to lie down and continue to permit ourselves to be infantilised by a broken system.
Our voice is considerably louder than we have been led to believe.
Reject the toxic idea that we are not capable of being adults. Trust that we are capable of being the next best generation to run this world.
Fionn Rogan is a 23-year-old graduate from Trinity College Dublin, who studied English literature and history