Is 30 the new 20?

In some ways culture today has pushed "adolescence" well into the 20s. Many kids going off to college, don't have any sense of responsibility or respect towards others. College is treated like a giant party with a little bit of school on the side.

So in some ways, more people in their 20s are less responsible than they should be by now. That's only in general though.

Each person's life is different. Some people are forced to grow up faster than others. Some people already have families in their 20s, and some don't. Doesn't make one better than the other, they're just in different stages of life.

Most of my 20s have been pretty rough, fighting depression, but they've also had some good times. And I've learned a lot from it and also grown closer to God in many ways. But now I believe I've gotten more of a handle on it, and when you go through something like that, it gives you a lot of compassion, patience, and grace for things other people are going through.

So I'm content to be where I am now, I may not be married or in the same place as many people my age, but that's okay. Because of what I've experienced, I feel my relationship with God is that much stronger.

Quite honestly, I feel like I've lived my 20's acting like I'm in my 30's but looking like I'm in my teens. Its all very confusing

I think we are a "delayed generation" in the fact that so many kids in their 20's see it as their infinite college years. They want to goof off, experiment, not be tied down, dream instead of focus and not work hard for their future for an entire decade. As a result, you enter your 30's feeling like you are just entering what was the older generations version of their 20's.

This obviously doesn't apply to everyone but its what I am seeing in general.

Amber.ly said:

Quite honestly, I feel like I've lived my 20's acting like I'm in my 30's but looking like I'm in my teens. Its all very confusing

I think we are a "delayed generation" in the fact that so many kids in their 20's see it as their infinite college years. They want to goof off, experiment, not be tied down, dream instead of focus and not work hard for their future for an entire decade. As a result, you enter your 30's feeling like you are just entering what was the older generations version of their 20's.

This obviously doesn't apply to everyone but its what I am seeing in general.

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This reminded me of something:
At the Christian university that I graduated from, the school has several bands and singing groups that they send out to various churches in the Nazarene denomination in the Midwest. They call them PR groups. One group in particular is actually named after the school, and from a student's perspective, they are disgustingly fake when they perform. They literally just sing along with a CD track in front of a bunch of old people who tell them how great they are. And when you are told how great you are for so long, you begin to believe it. They just turn into self-absorbed snobs. So anyways, I'm not generally a fan of these people to begin with.

But what really gets me with these students is that, for being in this particular PR group, their tuition is completely paid for, and so they will ease back and take a couple of extra years to graduate. I can understand the attraction in doing that, but it's so stupid. I really don't want to even know if my tuition bill was somehow contributing for paying for them to stay in school because if I found out that it did, I would be fuming.

I didn't notice much of a difference in myself between twenty and thirty, and I know folks in their forties who basically look and act like they did in their twenties. Would I say that thirty is the new twenty? No, but I think some people have wildly inaccurate notions of age. We live in a culture where teenaged movie characters might be portrayed by actors in their late twenties or even thirties, and professional athletes start to retire by then. Not necessarily because of something inherent about being in one's thirties, but through overuse, stress, etc. It can be misleading.

I was going to say basically what Spunk and Amberly said. A lot of people in their twenties these days try to resist growing up. That didn't happen in previous generations.

Strider1002 said:

I was going to say basically what Spunk and Amberly said. A lot of people in their twenties these days try to resist growing up. That didn't happen in previous generations.

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I feel like I need to say that I'm getting really tired of Spunkn beating me to the punch by like 2 minutes.

The next one is mine Donkey Boy

Amber.ly said:

I feel like I need to say that I'm getting really tired of Spunkn beating me to the punch by like 2 minutes.

The next one is mine Donkey Boy

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Jupiter Drops said:

What does it mean when people say that thirty is the new twenty?

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To answer this question, I think it's another way of saying you're not as "old" as you may think. Things like this are said at other ages too. For instance, I've heard seniors refer to seventy as the new sixty.

Miles said:

To answer this question, I think it's another way of saying you're not as "old" as you may think. Things like this are said at other ages too. For instance, I've heard seniors refer to seventy as the new sixty.

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Yes, this is always been my view of it whenever someone has said this about a certain age.


Besides the fact that I feel considerably younger than my actual age (not in a maturity sense), and suspect I will always feel 5 to 10 years younger than my actual age all throughout my life... I've honestly never given this subject much thought. I'm not afraid nor dismayed about growing older, I simply welcome each year of my life as they come.

EazyMack said:

Mentality has a lot to do with it, too. When I was younger, I "thought" and acted older. By my mid 20's, I realized, I'm young! And it started showing outwardly. And now I plan to cling to that mentality for a while lol.

Also, thinking I probably don't want to have kids. Or at least not until I'm 50.

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The last part of your post reminded me of something someone said to me a few weeks ago. Age popped up in a convo and someone told me I looked 25 when I told them my age. Then they said that their friends, who are our age, look older and he attributed it to the fact that they were married with kids. So, being single does have its perks...

It's funny because, although I'm 21, I connect more with people older than me! I think it's largely because of having an older church family. I've grown up in a church of 30ish members where everyone (besides my parents, brother, and I) was over the age of 60.

So, while some of my friends spend their college weekends partying hard Friday night and sleeping in until 2pm on Saturday, I'm playing cards with my family on Friday nights, checking out Farmers Markets and playing sports on Saturday, and going to church on Sunday!

Does that mean my personal 21 is the new 30? haha

Only if you start yelling at people to get off your lawn.

Otherwise you're just more mature than other people your age.

Spunkn said:

Only if you start yelling at people to get off your lawn.

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I'll make sure to keep my lips zipped then! haha I wouldn't want to earn a reputation as the crazy lady down the street!

Besides, I already do enough yelling during football season to scare them off!

I think it's just a simple fact of people being less mature than before. I mean, there are so many 30 something people mingling around single, and when you don't get married and have kids your maturity level kind of stops because you only have yourself to worry about. That's my case at least; plus the fact that I look a lot younger than my age (I need to upload a picture one of these days). Well, that's my thought.

Holygeneral79 said:

I think it's just a simple fact of people being less mature than before. I mean, there are so many 30 something people mingling around single, and when you don't get married and have kids your maturity level kind of stops because you only have yourself to worry about. That's my case at least; plus the fact that I look a lot younger than my age (I need to upload a picture one of these days). Well, that's my thought.

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I agree with a lot of this .

Ethnog said:

I don't know what it means but I can say I've grow more towards Christ the older I have gotten! And the closer I get to Him the easier I understand and accept things in my life and others.

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I really like this! When you gain more knowledge and truth, life just becomes better! You don't look at the past, you look at Christ.

Ermmm... I gotta say, I know plenty of 30+ who are married and/or have kids, who are definitely not what we might consider "mature."

I don't think you can make generalizations for all 20-somethings and all 30-somethings, but considering that we are living much longer these days, you could say the 30's are the new 20's. Way back when people only lived to be 40-ish, they would marry at like 12 and have kids shortly thereafter. Today, that would be frowned upon. Times change, people change.

Jupiter Drops said:

What does it mean when people say that thirty is the new twenty?

What's your opinion on this; Is thirty the new twenty? Does age matter, and why does it matter?

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It means they couldn't think of any other way to console a person looking at the past and feeling some regret?

I turn 40 very soon. It does not bother me. I have a few vices but for the most part keep on top of my diet and exercise. Still get women around half my age that show interest, so I must be doing something right lol.

Yes, I would say that 30 is the new 20, partly because no one (except maybe some mothers) cares anymore if you aren't married by 30, as long as you're happy. We've stopped measuring people's success by looking at how quickly they do everything that they could possibly do with their lives.

Also, the amount of education that you need in order to have a stable career keeps rising. My grandparents might have been well into their careers and family lives at the age of 23, but most everyone who goes to grad school surpasses that age before even finishing school.