age norms?

Question

In what social situatios do you act your age? When are you not acting your age?
Are certain achievements or responsibilities necessary to validate adulthood?
Is there a public ritual that marks attainment for adulthood?
To what extent does "becoming an adult" vary for gender? Is one sex more "adult" than the other?
Can you be "too old to rock and roll"?(metaphor)

Answer 1

You're asking very big questions with no single correct answers. What counts as age-appropriate behavior varies from situation to situation and from culture to culture. Americans and other Westerners have perhaps the longest adolescences of any people in the world, as we spend more time on average getting our educations - and thus not participating fully in society - than any other groups in the world. This may mean that your average 25 year old American is "less mature" than your average 25 year old Indian . . . but by what standard?

In the US, there are a variety of public rites of passage into adulthood. Completing a college degree, getting married, or finishing basic training in the military are probably the three most recognized means. There are also specific rites for people of certain religions.

Maturity in terms of gender differences are, socially speaking, not very relevant in North America. There's a general recognition that girls mature faster than boys, but this may have much to do with the increased pressure on girls to learn how to do domestic tasks, thus preparing them more quickly for the socially-accepted rite of passage that is marriage. Certainly women's bodies reach adult development before men's, but this is a biological thing that helps to keep overall reproduction rates high (the younger a woman is when she's ready to get pregnant, the sooner she can start reproducing), and has really very little to do with being an adult in social situations.

And you're never too old to rock.

Answer 2

what was it Aaliyah said? Age ain't nothin but a number.

Work is tough, gotta be an "adult" there, no more rituals for adulthood unless you count marriage, which in my social circle is the announcement that you want to make babies and be responsible.

Hell no you're never too old to Rock

sorry for the lack of transitions

Answer 3

Good questions and interesting points mentioned there. I think that if you just be yourself and try not to behave for impressing others, then you will, before you realize it, start acting your age and being natural. It's a natural thing but society puts various labels on it.

Answer 4

age norms are age old norms.
hence all norms are age based only.