"As I've gotten older, I've realized that such attempts to segment a life are arbitrary, even if they satisfy some need for order. When my son turned ten, earlier this year, I suddenly became worried about adolescence. This was partly because of the hit Netflix show by that name, about a troubled thirteen-year-old, which came out a few months prior to his birthday, bringing with it countless think pieces about the glum interiority of tween boys."
"In fact, my kid was no different than he'd been as a nine-year-old: sweet, loving, oblivious. I learned that the length and character of adolescence is fuzzy, with some experts saying it ends as late as one's thirties. In other words, it's most useful as a kind of narrative device-a socially sanctioned time for difficulty and sullenness and parental worrying, akin to that span when a baby's grouchiness is automatically attributed to teething."
A childhood expectation framed life as a sequence of clear stages: puberty, voting age, and a sudden arrival at adulthood. That linear model gives way to a recognition that life is fluid and attempts to segment it are arbitrary. Parental anxiety about adolescence can be amplified by media portrayals, such as a popular Netflix series about a troubled thirteen-year-old, prompting numerous think pieces and heightened vigilance. Actual adolescent development proves variable and prolonged, with some experts extending adolescence into the thirties. Adolescence functions culturally as a sanctioned period for difficulty and parental worry, similar to attributing infant distress to teething. California's contemporary art scene stages work on adolescence.
Read at The New Yorker
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