When are you actually an adult? - Shannon Odell

Explore how scientists define adulthood, and find out if there’s a specific age at which we reach maturity.

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Most countries recognize 18 as the start of adulthood by granting various freedoms and privileges. Yet there’s no exact age or moment in development that we can point to as having reached full maturity. If there’s no consensus on exactly when we reach maturity, when do we actually become adults? Shannon Odell shares how scientists define adulthood using stages of brain development.

Lesson by Shannon Odell, directed by Biljana Labović.

This video made possible in collaboration with Bezos Family Foundation

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[charlieclark]

When your back starts to ache after doing yard work

[theeth]

As someone who just turned 30, I definitely feel that adulthood isn't something that can be easily marked down by a single number. I certainly feel more confident and sure of who I am now that I did when I was 20, but I still feel like I'm continuing to learn and grow (and make mistakes) even now. Crazy to think what I might feel about my own "adultness" when I turn 40.

[Inkyminkyzizwoz]

Whatever the voting age is, there will always be people that will be just short of it at the time of a vote

[DodoRebirth]

I literally just had the thought about how much of a child I was just 3 years earlier. I'm 25.

[sevegarza]

For me the age was 25. I was always embarrassed of who I was the previous year until age 26 (meaning I was fine with age 25 me). I still had more maturing to do, but I'm 31 now and I still wouldn't mind hanging with 25 year old me. I could give 25 year old me advice and he would listen. 24 and prior I was hopeless lol.

[PramkLuna]

Maybe it isn't about age, but intelligence, experiences, and exposure to the world. Since we all experience life differently, is it really fair to judge two people on age alone?

[thespecialone]

When you realise that going to sleep is a reward not a punishment

[smilesmcgee]

Not kidding here, Ted-Ed should make a TV show one day. One that can be streamed or watched on television because of how educational it is. And with the different art styles and different hosts. It sounds like a great idea!

[TheWolfie]

Im 22 and I can definitely say I am not the same person I was when I was 18. I bet I Won't be the same when I turn 26... Hope I am better too!

[shadoww]

A large part also depends on circumstances of ones life, and how much agency they take in it. There's a lot of people who are forced to grow up quickly after traumatic events or because they didn't have adults to rely on. On the opposite end there's people like me who were socially and financially pressured into letting my parents make decisions about my grad school experience even after graduating college.

[ximenabenitez]

I turn 18 tomorrow... In a way it's comforting to think that I still have more growing to do and that my brain hasn't fully developed yet...

[kmdash]

I'm surprised there wasn't more of a talk about sociology and society's expectations on children because "adulthood" is a social thing more than a physical thing.

There are a lot of societal markers that influence biological development, most notably when girls starts taking birth control. Cognition and physical development are heavily influenced by environmental factors. Given that teenagers are often sleep deprived, we don't know if the lack of impulse control is due to a lack of sleep, their stage in development, or both. We also don't know how much of it is a construct of our current educational system, such in middle school begins to place heavy emphasis on conformity, position in social hierarchy, and obedience to authority.
There may also be a problem with how parents communicate their emotions to children at different stages of development. Concern and anger tend to go together when expressed to teenagers because parents tend to be angry at teenagers for putting themselves in danger, but also concerned for their wellbeing.

[Roldo]

It’s quite easy for humans to become adults, but to always have a child-like heart that makes everything joyful isn’t such an easy task.

[Migui_blu]

When you realise there are no adults, just people looking for one.

[MrGelly]

I am in my early 50’s but I feel like a teenager 😅

[ivl_rider_of_the_storm]

Well, we all can grow up in 13-25.
But someone can be still a child in 30+ years old.

[maxnawas]

For me it was 19. By then I’d fallen into a deep state of depression, and dropped out of my studies and got myself a job. Whereas a year or two before I still felt young and happy. Then when I was 21 I started studying again and got over my depression. Because I started my studies again at 21, most of my classmates were 18 and I felt really old when I compared my maturity to theirs. All of them had never even gone out, because of the pandemic and that really made me feel old

[WoWbloodcrazy]

I’m about to turn 27 and I still feel like a child. I have even been in a Management position for a few years, so my responsibility is quite high, and somehow I still feel/see myself as a kid.

[halogenzawgi]

When you start taking responsibility for your actions

[terrafirma]

At 31 (current age), I feel awkward dating anyone younger than 23 and sometimes even 23-25. There seems to be a huge developmental gap more often than not.