Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer.
Dorothy Day
from Shane Claibourne, Jesus for President, p263.
Young Adults: Change or Conservation?
A couple of different things (books, emails…) have come together over the last few weeks that have caused me to think more about young adults and change. Ages 18-25 is a stage which we so often relate to the concepts of transition and change - leaving home, developing independence, starting work etc.
Recently, though, I’ve been wondering just how true that is - and whether young adults are as up for change as they have been historically.
Is today’s emerging adulthood about change - or is it actually about conserving a sense of stability in a world of change?
That’s the surprising conclusion that Christian Smith and Patricia Snell seem to reach in their book (Souls in Transition) about the spirituality of emerging adults. Their research suggests that, contrary to popular thought, young adults are more interested in maintaining and conserving whatever worldview/spirituality they have rather than in broadening their horizons and adopting new beliefs.
What do you think? Do today’s young adults thrive on change, or are they desperate for stability?
Have young adults lost their revolutionary edge?
The universal ingredient and force which permeates all of life – namely change – is changing for the faster, and this means that it will become more and more necessary for each of us to be more resilient and flexible, more spontaneous in dealing with the new and unforeseen, and it will become less and less easy to find security and stability by just adopting the traditional customs and ideas and attitudes of the past.
