Is an 18-year-old truly an adult?

[Redway]

Big Brother ain’t going to turn away anyone 18+ if they do make it through the audition but the whole thing with Hallie struggling to fit in just got me thinking about this whole long-standing debate of whether you’re really developed and mature enough at 18 to be rightly considered anything more than a legal teenager or not. So here I am belting out another one of these threads.

[Liam-]

Yes

[Redway]

Yes

Okay, then.

[Crimson Dynamo]

ABSOLUTELY NOT

[Redway]

ABSOLUTELY NOT

Yeah, kinda. Pretty much. 18’s legal and rightly so (if you’re of an age where you can go to uni you should have some rights anyway) but adolescence peaks and rounds off from 21 - 25 and you get more life experience with every passing year. Grow on it. At an age where you’re just starting off you’re too young to really know much of anything about anything that requires you to sort of stand on your own two feet, as smart and intellectually advanced as you might be (there’s a difference between having a high IQ and being street-savvy). It’s an arbitrary age is 18 and it’s in the thick of mid.-late puberty. You’re just old enough to go to uni and buy your own alcohol. You still have the brain of a kid.

Millennial and early Gen.-Z teens seemed to grow up a lot quicker though. I know they say with each passing generation that kids know more and more but the worst thing modern teenagers do is vape. They’re not allowed or encouraged to have the same vices (being able to buy ciggie-smokes at 16, tapping into the still-available opportunity to have a half-pint or snakebite in the pub at 16/17 so long as someone fully legal is there, being able to leave formal education at 16 should they choose to do so) so they’re kept infantilised and baby-ish.

[bots]

yes

[Liam-]

This weird need some people have to infantilise people into their adulthood is getting ridiculous, once you’re 18, you’re an adult, that’s just the basic fact, they’re not semi-adults, they’re not adults on training wheels, they’re adults, fully responsible for themselves by law, free to make all their own decisions, be who they want to be and do whatever they want to do with only the law as restrictions, it’s quite sad to see people willing to hold adults back and try and keep them mentally dependent

[Zizu]

ABSOLUTELY NOT


Agreed 100% today’s 18 year olds are the equivalent of 12 year olds back in the day ..


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[joeysteele]

Yes.
Some 18 year olds, even 16 year olds talk more sense in my view than those many decades older.

[isoveli22211]

It depends on the individual and also on what life experiences they have had.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Agreed 100% today’s 18 year olds are the equivalent of 12 year olds back in the day ..


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Indeed

18 year olds are still kids

[GoldHeart]

Yes legally you are, ok you're still young . But also I don't like how people try to make excuses with " oh they're only 18" ie like with Hallie. But also 18 year olds might still act immature as they're still learning in life .

How many of us thought exactly the same way when we were 18 as we do now ? . I know for a fact as you get older ...you gain more life experiences,and you get wiser , obviously everyone is different though. Some people are already mature for their age .

But overall out brain development changes when we reach our 20's .

[Redway]

This weird need some people have to infantilise people into their adulthood is getting ridiculous, once you’re 18, you’re an adult, that’s just the basic fact, they’re not semi-adults, they’re not adults on training wheels, they’re adults, fully responsible for themselves by law, free to make all their own decisions, be who they want to be and do whatever they want to do with only the law as restrictions, it’s quite sad to see people willing to hold adults back and try and keep them mentally dependent

No-one on this thread’s trying to keep them mentally dependent though. That’s the government’s thing. But the fact is you’re not even remotely close to being fully developed biologically and mentally until 21-25. 18’s just an arbitrary legal age.

[Redway]

Yes legally you are, ok you're still young . But also I don't like how people try to make excuses with " oh they're only 18" ie like with Hallie. But also 18 year olds might still act immature as they're still learning in life .

How many of us thought exactly the same way when we were 18 as we do now ? . I know for a fact as you get older ...you gain more life experiences,and you get wiser , obviously everyone is different though. Some people are already mature for their age .

But overall out brain development changes when we reach our 20's .

A lot of the people saying that 18’s fully developed are the ones who’d turn around to call grooming and advantage being taken if an 18-year-old girl sleeps with a man in his 40s, as if 18-year-olds aren’t really old enough to know who they want to have sex with (and there’s a difference between NSA fun in any case between two consenting legal adults and actually having a relationship, because the latter really would require levelling up in terms of having at least a decent bit of experience).

[Gusto Brunt]

I was still watching kids TV at 18, so I'd say no. :p :D

[Redway]

I was still watching kids TV at 18, so I'd say no. :p :D

Lots of people have tap into memory lane and revisit childhood TV shows to be fair (lockdown was a lot of people’s cue to do that) so that’s actually neither here nor there. But when you’re 18 (whether you’re in college, doing your A-Levels, a uni. noob or just an 18-year-old trying to navigate through life) you’re just not grown and that’s as much of a fact as it is that 18’s legal. You can’t even buy booze in America until you’re 21.

[Gusto Brunt]

Lots of people have tap into memory lane and revisit childhood TV shows to be fair (lockdown was a lot of people’s cue to do that) so that’s actually neither here nor there. But when you’re 18 (whether you’re in college, doing your A-Levels, a uni. noob or just an 18-year-old trying to navigate through life) you’re just not grown and that’s as much of a fact as it is that 18’s legal. You can’t even buy booze in America until you’re 21.

I understand that. But I kept on watching at 18. I wasn't going back down memory lane. :p

I didn't feel as if I had truly grew up until I was 40 which was last year. :p

[Redway]

I understand that. But I kept on watching at 18. I wasn't going back down memory lane. :p

I didn't feel as if I had truly grew up until I was 40 which was last year. :p

Gotcha.

I’d dash you at least young adult at 21 anyway. These days 18-20-year-olds are essentially legal young-uns. Very young.

[Gusto Brunt]

Gotcha.

I’d dash you at least young adult at 21 anyway. These days 18-20-year-olds are essentially legal young-uns. Very young.

And young guys like Tom should never have a bumfluff 'tach. :laugh::hehe:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F78XWU6WsAAHLTO.jpg

[Redway]

And young guys like Tom should never have a bumfluff 'tach. :laugh::hehe:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F78XWU6WsAAHLTO.jpg

Lol. I haven’t been “clean-shaven” since I was about 17 and a half (a ’tache started growing above my lips from 15 anyway) but that was partly because I had sensitive skin (still do) and all shaving was doing was giving me huge razor-bumps, so it wasn’t worth it. It helped that the facial hair helped make me pass for a bit older but that wasn’t the primary reason for me growing it out, just a bonus. People like me aren’t supposed to shave extensively. I just shave my throat and leave the rest to the barber when I go in for a trim/shape-up. I got one or two looks from some disapproving aunties who thought I was just some teenager trying to make a rebellious fashion-statement but it wasn’t even like that. It was just better for my health that I didn’t shave too much. I didn’t fancy looking young either, true, but it wasn’t just about that. The goatee had no reason to be cut out.

[Redway]

Agreed 100% today’s 18 year olds are the equivalent of 12 year olds back in the day ..


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Doesn’t mean I agree with actively infantilising teenagers in a patronising way (not trusting a 17-year-old who’s doing their A-Levels, going to parties and sending off UCAS applications to stay home alone for two hours in the evening because the law says they’re still at least a partial child). Teenagers below 18 are yet to reach full legal adulthood and you’re still developing for years after but 17 isn’t 7, either. Some people take it too far and treat underage teenagers like actual little kids.

At 16 to 18 you’re far from fully developed but you’re not actually a child. I say kid but I say that colloquially, not literally. A lot of people see it literally and expect people to still almost believe in the tooth fairy until the day they turn 18, as if they’ve never experienced what it’s like to actually be a teenager.

[Zizu]

Doesn’t mean I agree with actively infantilising teenagers in a patronising way (not trusting a 17-year-old who’s doing their A-Levels, going to parties and sending off UCAS applications to stay home alone for two hours in the evening because the law says they’re still at least a partial child). Teenagers below 18 are yet to reach full legal adulthood and you’re still developing for years after but 17 isn’t 7, either. Some people take it too far and treat underage teenagers like actual little kids.

At 16 to 18 you’re far from fully developed but you’re not actually a child.


I see your side of things although I don’t think my old mum would

She was working long hours , 6 days a week in a cotton factory at 12 years of age


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[hijaxers]

It depends on the individual and also on what life experiences they have had.

Yes totally agree.

[user104658]

I literal terms yes however I think 21 is a more sensible age to consider someone an actual adult - whilse still treating them like an adult from 18. I think that second part is vital TBH, because part of the reason I'd say 21 for measuring someone by the standards of a "full adult" is that they have been, for want of a better term, then been "living as an adult" for 3 years so they are an adult with ... experience of adulting.

Expecting someone to suddenly at 18 have the adult life experience to make reasonable adult decisions is insane. How? With what knowledge base?

BUT you have to keep 18 as the legal adult age, so they people DO get that experience of "somewhere between teen and adult" before they get into their early 20's... at which point it's then reasonable to expect people to stop acting like teenagers.

Otherwise you just end up with 20 year old teenagers, and "proper adulting" beginning at 24, and so on and so on.

FWIW if we're talking about in the context of Big Brother and other similar reality shows (Love Island et al) - I do think it should be 21 to apply.

[Beso]

Yes SB.

Make them wear L Plates as well.

[Redway]

I literal terms yes however I think 21 is a more sensible age to consider someone an actual adult - whilse still treating them like an adult from 18. I think that second part is vital TBH, because part of the reason I'd say 21 for measuring someone by the standards of a "full adult" is that they have been, for want of a better term, then been "living as an adult" for 3 years so they are an adult with ... experience of adulting.

Expecting someone to suddenly at 18 have the adult life experience to make reasonable adult decisions is insane. How? With what knowledge base?

BUT you have to keep 18 as the legal adult age, so they people DO get that experience of "somewhere between teen and adult" before they get into their early 20's... at which point it's then reasonable to expect people to stop acting like teenagers.

Otherwise you just end up with 20 year old teenagers, and "proper adulting" beginning at 24, and so on and so on.

FWIW if we're talking about in the context of Big Brother and other similar reality shows (Love Island et al) - I do think it should be 21 to apply.

Yeah, there’s a lot in your post that I agree with. I know experience is key but that’s something that builds over time (which is why I mentioned that in the poll when I talked about age being relatively). An 18-year-old won’t have as much experience as a 30-year-old and a 30-year-old won’t have as much as someone in their 50s (for better or worse) but to push out the barometer for ‘not being a kid’ to pushing 30 is a bit ridiculous. You’re definitely at least a young adult by the age of 21. By then you’ve had enough experience to be considered not just legal, and assuming you went to uni straight after sixth form/college and just did a standard 3-year course (no foundation/gap/placement years/added on Master’s/whatever), you would’ve graduated. You’re no kid at 21. Maybe not as experienced as you would be at 29 or 35 (again, that’s something that just increases throughout the life span) but what’s more bizarre than what some people at the top of this thread were saying about infantilising ‘teenage adults’ is infantilising people who are actually in their 20s and referring to them as kids for as long as possible. That just doesn’t make sense.

I’d say 19 for Big Brother. 18’s too fresh and naive but by 19 you’ve had at least a year’s experience of being legal and you’re a bit more mature. Plus that was the age a lot of valuable BB housemates back in the day (Vanessa from BB6 for example) were so I think that’s enough. So it’s not just to be 18 but over it, even if only by a year. 19’s still young but it’s reasonable enough and that one year does make all the difference. Many people only resit years at sixth form with hesitance because being surrounded by school-kids and maybe even having to wear the uniform still when you’re almost pushing 20 is just a bit weird, right?
Ditto for a 17-year-old having to redo Year 11 (luckily that’s not something that generally happens outside America). Too much changes between the ages of 16 and 19 to get held back even by a year unless you really need to, and 19’s a mature mature outlier in all that. Definitely still very young but you won’t be the same as you were even 10 months ago at that point.

[Livia]

Like most teenagers, I thought I was terribly well-informed and sophisticated at 18. It's only when you get older and look back that you realise how green you really were.

[bots]

you treat 18 year olds like children at your peril

[Redway]

you treat 18 year olds like children at your peril

Of course they’re not actual children but they’re not full adults either. Legally, yes. Biologically and experientially, not even close. You have 0 real-world experience at 18.