In short, the time is ripe for quarter-life crises as college graduates find themselves without promising job offers, which leads to struggles with identity and future goals. In the coming weeks, I will be researching and blogging about the origin and evolution of the quarter-life crisis.
The idea of the quarter-life crisis began to interest me as it became more prevalent this past year. From popular movies like Post-Grad to my sister's endeavors at finding a job in New York after graduating from college, it seems like every twenty-something is struggling, particularly because of the current state of the economy. I think this is an issue of significance because while there are valid reasons behind the quarter-life crisis, it seems almost like an excuse for postponing adulthood. I'm wondering what effect the quarter-life crisis will have on generations to come as well and if there are ways to combat the quarter-life crisis. Will the family structure change because young adults will wait to settle down until their mid-thirties or forties? What is the effect of the quarter-life crisis on popular culture? Are there any solutions? These are some of the questions I will be exploring in the weeks to come.
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cool idea! you might check out some of the many quarter-life crisis blogs I've found using the Google Machine. Here's one:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/chronicles-a-quarter-life-crisis
I guess if you're not working, you might as well start a blog. How fittingly self-indulgent!
This is a great topic, and it's cool that we will have two class experts on the quarter-life crisis. I like your specific questions about changes in family structure, and you emphasis on the contemporary economic woes, which, interesting, post-date the rise of the quarter-life crisis as a cultural point of discussion. It's interesting that the phenomenon emerged even when the economy was strong! What does this say about the sources of the quarter-life crisis and the role the economy plays in it. The economic woes seem to accentuate it, but it certainly didn't start it.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting angle is the pop-cultural angle. How have media portrayals of this age group changed over the past few decades, from, say, Dustin Hoffman's "The Graduate" to the movie you mention--post-grad. Are there generational continuities here that we have just decided to properly name, or are we experiencing something different altogether? Searching quickly on the news database Phyllis showed us, I came up with references starting in the early 90s, but really picking up in the 2000s. How could people NOT have had quarter-life crises before?