Scholars Mind

Adulthood Becomes a Verb

Millennials—people born between about 1981 and 1995—gave us side parts, skinny jeans, and “adulting”. This term transformed adulthood into a verb, something you do (often with great effort) rather than something you simply are. Whether going to bed early, scheduling a dentist appointment, or buying a vacuum cleaner, describing your actions as “adulting” implies you are just role-playing as a grown-up. Consider with your team: is being an adult a specific feeling or just a collection of habits and responsibilities? When do you think you will feel like an adult?

Key concepts

Verbing
Turning a noun into something you do, the way 'google' and 'friend' became verbs. Every verbing smuggles in a claim — that the thing is an activity you perform, not a state you are in.

+ 1 more concept inside

Every work — at a glance

  • 'Adulting' (the Term) — — (term)

    A millennial-era verb, widespread by the mid-2010s, that turns 'adult' from something you are into something you do. Calling a chore 'adulting' quietly confesses you are performing the role rather than holding it.

What to know

  1. 01
    The joke has a real mechanism under it. The word spread in the mid-2010s, exactly as the old proofs of adulthood — a career for life, a mortgage, an early marriage — became slower and less certain, so a generation was handed the tasks of adult life without the evidence that would once have come with them.

Across subjects

The novel promised the opposite. A Bildungsroman — Pip in *Great Expectations*, Jane Eyre — runs a young person through the world and hands them a finished self

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Is being an adult a feeling, or just a collection of habits and responsibilities? One side says feeling: there is a moment when you stop waiting for a grown-up to handle it. The other says there is no feeling to wait for — the habits are all adulthood ever was, and 'adulting' is a generation admitting it.

Practice — a sample

SOCBy turning 'adult' into a verb, 'adulting' is MOST like —

  • A Aging naturally
  • B Playing a role
  • C Earning a degree
  • D Signing a contract
  • E Joining a club

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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