Today we look at the concept of "waithood", which refers to generations stuck in adolescent limbo due to lack of opportunities, resources and jobs, and as such unable to flourish and grow up into independent adults. (South Africa, with 2/3 youths unable to find a job fits into this definition).
Waithood, however, despite their similar symptoms, should not be confused with "millennial" Peter Pan syndrome or the more contemporary lying down flat movements. These parallel moments, despite having the same outcome as waithood, that of protracted adolescence, have a different driver : abundance and privilege. What the failure to launch never-never land generation and the "minimum effort Mondays" movements that are disillusioned with capitalism and the rat race have in common that separates them from waithood is CHOICE and options. Privileged youths who know they will be fed, clothed and sheltered (even if not at a glamorous standard of living, they are confident their actual needs will be met, even if they choose not to play the "adulting" game) have chosen to opt out of growing up, while their compatriot waithood peers (found in really poor, not just relatively poor conditions) are trapped in gaining youth without the choice to opt out of their stunted growth.
That said, what the whole old-young-adults phenomenon means for politics and economics young ahead will be profound.
What does a future without independence (by choice or lack thereof) mean for democracy - or populist revolution?
What about the future of work? (or lack thereof!)
How will this influence global "brain drains" and migration tensions?
How can societies support middle-aged dependants sustainably (hint UBI can't fix this one! You cannot fix real problems with nominal bean shifting - you can only postpone or redistribute those same problems through space and time with purely nominal temporary fixes).
Read more:
Waithood, a life in limbo : http://afesis.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transformer-Vol-20-No-1_South-African-Youth-disruptive-politics-and-apathy-toward-voting-by-Miche-Roberts.pdf
The Peter Pan generation : https://en.a.atcepoxy.com/millennials-are-labeled-as-the-peter-pan-generation-give-an-example-to-prove-a-point/#:~:text=American%20sociologist%20Kathleen%20Shaputis%20labeled,than%20most%20generations%20before%20them.
Waithood - the lives in limbo