THEa definition “adolescent” He is twelve, but the invasion of neologism in research, analysis, studies, conversations, and above all in our daily reality, given about twenty seasons. In 2013 he coined her, a sociologist, Serge Guérin, Making a crasis between two French terms that, translated, mean “fifty -year -olds” and “adolescence”. Guérin thought of photographing in one word the many adults of the third millennium, playful, epicurean, allergic to responsibilities, often dressed like their children and in full denial of the registry.
Since then, Aduleti has been debuting, even incorporating over the age of -nominated and forty. This adolescent behavioral regression epidemic was accompanied by a certain social stigma, especially by women, of girls and women tired of meeting “bamboccioni” who think of paddle, soccer, gym, aperitifs, holidays and fantasy football.
A phenomenon not only Italian, both in its spreading and in judging with severity the army of the adunts. «What is not good is to read today’s conditions with the categories of the past. The world has changed as never. There is no period of the story in which in a few years there have been such rapid and profound transformations ». Alessandro Rosina knows what he is talking about, he is demographer, professor at the Catholic University of Milan and coordinator of the Toniolo Observatory.
Adolescence is a period of passage that also requires challenges for parents (Getty Images)
His is a ruthless analysis for lucidity: «In the 1950s, sixties and most of the seventies, the stages of adult life were clear: the end of the study, search for work, left the parents’ house, marriage, children. Above all, they were stages considered irreversible: the family would not have changed, the family would have been held up. Today all these stages are postponed and broken down. And they have become reversible. Precariousness applies, also because of the low wages, flexible works, with movement, changes. And the complexity of reality needs non -rigid, adaptive forms. In addition, there is the theme longevity, which is questioning the blocks of life ».
Aduitents: the fifty are the new thirty
We age better and above all more, with the catchphrases of the case type “The fifty are the new thirty/forty”, an exaggeration perhaps of sociologists and titles. According to a research by the communication agency Hearts & Science But, Eight million Italians aim to “remain young forever”, taking care of nutrition, doing sports, cultivating hobby and getting dressed in an informal way.
Lidia Ravera on the theme wrote two books, one after the other, Age pride. To get rid of age prejudices And I wanted to be a man, who came out recently (both Einaudi). He tells a gash of lived life: «Last summer in Stromboli a group of friends of my forty -year -old son invited me to the house of one of them. At one point I closed my eyes to understand well … they joked, they made fun of, fake aggression, laughter … there was no substance speech, but there was not even any formality. They looked like high school students. The codes of the past were not, skipped ».
Wrong to throw the cross on the Adulets, too easy to disdain in the face of behaviors as kids. Ravera continues: «They need a plan B to face their lives, more difficult than ours: just think of the technological revolution, precariousness, now wars. For this they want to laugh and joke. And then there is the theme of elongated life, which for women is a problem, always chasing the gaze of approval of men. For us to age it is dramatic, for them it is a fact. Sortpesso, we refuse to accept the passage of time, because our male peers refuse us».
Goal: Don’t get old (never)
According to the latest Eurispes report, 74.5 percent of women believe they have to take care of their appearance, 55.7 percent do not leave the house if he did not first put his hand on their look; And one in four women allocates over 100 euros per month to beauty, proof is that the beauty sector is one of the few in full expansion: more 6.5 percent. Being or seeming younger than certifying the registry is a conquest or a condemnation? And above all, being adulette can have costs for those around, starting with the children.
The discomfort of children
This is what Stefano Vicari, psychotherapist of the evolutionary age who, to make his parents and teachers has just written Interrupted teenagers. Intercept the discomfort before it is late (Feltrinelli). He also works in the emergency room of the Bambin Gesù hospital in Rome, a privileged position to understand what is going on. He says: «In the first place for the reason for access there is a fever. Then dehydration and, on the third, psychiatric motifs. A datum unthinkable ten years ago. In 2012-13 we made 230 consultations a year; With the pandemic and its effects, in 2022 we reached 1800 requests for intervention. Now we are around 1500: the cases fall but increase those of self -harm. The boys are bad».
“Why?”, Stefano Vicari wonders, responding without discounts: “Mental disorders are complex, various factors, genetic, lifestyle, environmental factors intervene: the context in which the school, the school, the family. And if you have parents who have behaviors from teenagers, who have difficulty welcoming the years that passwhich are full of tattoos, bring piercing and dress as high school students, can be a problem. We have today parents who are very controlling on timetables and exits but then leave the boys attached for hours to devices. Responsibility for the role also means responsibility for one’s age. Dangerous to make friends instead of impersonating the role of mom or dad, perhaps even getting to flaunt their transgressions: if we adults do them, what remains to the boys? The main mandate of teenagers is to transgress ».
On Netflix the phenomenon series Teenagence He is a psychological thriller who uncovered the existential magma of a thirteen year old, accused of killing a partner. A raw photography on today’s adolescence, similar to that lived in the past as in excesses, silences, dreams, cravings, even violence, yet very different because it is marked by social, medium and cold solitude.
The precariousness of the present on teenagers
However, today’s thirty-cyssnens have a card to play. It is Alessandro Rosina who says it: «They are more free to generate value in these labile, spinning boundaries. We must be careful not to take refuge in forms of selfishness e Don’t think that as soon as you get out of work, you go to enjoy life. The only choice remained irreversible is to have children. It is done later, but in full consciousness ».
Looking at them up close these adulescent are not that bad. They survive the fluidity and precariousness of the present and the absence of a certain future, performing in improbable goliardies and lightness. They are fake high school students with the brizzed temples, imaginary students ready to spend in a botulinum and anti-aging creams.
Lidia Ravera: «Women are very bad. Nobody healthy would like to be born a woman, forced to be 23 years old for a lifetime. What is positive about today is that men are infinitely better than their fathers in care of their children. They do it naturally. They are not legalfeitors. Older brothers are adorable. To tell the truth, there are a bit of normativity, too few rules, but … ».
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