The infantilization of society: the young adult who denies his life stage

Infantilization is treating adults like children. Whoever does this creates a cycle of dependency in which the adult constantly needs to be told what to do and how. The infantilization of society consists of treating adults like children, promoting more and more childish attitudes and ways of life that have never been associated with adulthood.

Being young today is no longer a biological transitory stage, but rather a life choice, well established and brutally promoted by the media system. Today’s unmotivated adult is neither an exploited worker nor an exhausted housewife.

He is a new type of pseudo-adult who is increasingly convinced of what offends him, despising the ignorance of what he does not understand. He is a big boy, who has gone from being protected by his parents to being justified and pampered by the infantilized society.

The infantilization of society

Research by Nathan Winner and Bonnie Nicholson (2018) from the University of Southern Mississippi explored the role of overparenting, popularly known as “helicopter parenting,” and its influences on young people.

In this current society, this overparenting has extended to a series of institutions, advertising, currents of opinion and media. They replace parents who exempt their children from responsibility and discipline, taking over.

If an ideal of maturity persists, it does not find satisfactory compensation in today’s society. The effect of this infantilization of society is noticeable in several spheres.

From the election of leaders with rampant narcissism to the assumption of a victim role. A role that blurs true injustices. Also the establishment of public communication full of sensationalismwhere there is little room for moderation or good sense.

The media takes over from parents and the precariousness of work justifies it

The media, markets and advertising play a fundamental role in this transformation of vital stages. The newscasts give more and more space to broadcast news of morbid crimes.

The language of politics has become dogmatized and has become a mere imposture without foundation. The complexity of a typically adult morality has been lost.

The television is complete with reality shows where there is no depth of reflection. The increasing use of rejuvenating creams, Botox injections and sexual drugs represent further evidence of a conscious and widespread escape from biological age.

This includes the current way of having children. The responsibility seems to pass to grandparents, teachers and institutions. The continuous and commercial exposure of children on the networks reflects the most perverse part of this infantilized parenting.

The infantilization of society produces a rejection of adulthood

The liberal, liquid, individualist, and presentist connotations that shaped postmodernism seem to have gradually led to a true psychological rejection of the condition of adulthood. There is a freedom that authorizes any possibility, but it also entails frustration and anxiety because everyone knows that they will never be able to choose and try everything.

This worries the adult and leads him to a psychological escape from his own condition by taking refuge in the world of young people, where the possibilities are increasingly broader. Youth seems to be the most effective model for living in this society.

Difference with pre-industrial times

In preindustrial societies, at birth, one entered an organizational structure which was not considered the result of cultural evolution, but rather of constant and immutable nature itself. This guaranteed the social affiliation of the individual upon reaching maturity.

Society provided him with a life project and he had to prove to himself that he could carry it out, create a life project and foster lasting ties as much as possible. Later, industrialization changed this scenario. There is no longer a consolidated stratification. The individual was discovering the unprecedented opportunity to draw his own “social self.”

This turned out to be a really fascinating and free context. But as the years passed, He has moved on to a feeling of “exhausting freedom.”

A free, but terrified generation

Everything seems possible, but at the same time too risky. Vagueness, the unknown, and insecurity lurk behind every potential decision. A generation of parents who have given everything to their children has produced a generation of adults who prefer not to fully mature in the face of challenges that they find too sacrificial and risky.

They have chosen to avoid uncertainty and with it, making mistakes. Their decisions always seem to be reversible and temporary. At a work, training and relational level. The work context sometimes does not help, which represents an added difficulty.

As a result, the young adult seeks immediate satisfaction, denies the future and lives in a perennial and indefinite present. This seems like a more compelling proposal and a concrete possibility.

In Freudian terms, it is the pleasure principle that dominates the reality principle. Youth becomes the only real existential proposal today.

Youth, like beauty, success and money, becomes an object that can be possessed, always. In other words: Youth, which is a biological condition, seems to have become a cultural definition. One is young not because one is a certain age, but because one has the right to enjoy certain lifestyles and consumption.

Presentism and pseudo-adulthood

Presenteeism is a forced choice in the individual who does not want to face uncertainty. In a globalized and presentist society, the here and now are maximum values.

However, an excessive or poorly balanced presentist approach cancels out the future, long-term projects and commitments; the same ones that used to be indicators for the social recognition of adults, of maturity. Thus, a vision of an unstable and irresponsible pseudo-adulthood is formed.

The contemporary adult can, therefore, choose to wear a mask and live without a concrete sense of time. He is an individual who is not done, but is in the process. Whether he wants it or not, whether he is aware of it or not, he potentially continues to hold a plurality of existential options, choices, and promises. This scares, confuses and fascinates you because The expectation of a dream has more charm than its realization.

The good and bad of the infantilization of society

Like all advances in society, acquiring new freedoms entails a process of assimilation and stabilization within groups. So, Returning to activities classified as children in adult life (such as video games) is perfectly valid, as long as it is not linked to the avoidance of responsibility towards oneself.

Childhood is not only synonymous with the denial of self-sufficiency, but also a refuge for everything threatening in our lives. The bombardment of consumer obligations, labor exploitation, social pressure, all of this ends when one immerses oneself in activities typical of that time, when everything was simple. The children’s refuge, well managed, is the bastion of tranquility that many people need to guarantee a minimum of emotional health.

You might be interested…