Elise Pevoar

Amy Rybak

GSW 1120

24 January 2016

Academic Analysis

            Do you know what you want to do for the rest of your life?  If you have no idea, you are not alone.  The world is filled with millions of young adults who are indecisive with what they want to do with the entirety of their lives.  Many people do not want to spend an eight-hour work day staring at a computer screen in a small cubical.  These jobs tend to become tedious and uninteresting after countless years at the same company.  Other people move from one job to another after a few years and go wherever their job takes them.  Today, millennials are forced to pick up minimum wage jobs in the hopes of earning enough to pay college tuition.  In other extreme cases, graduate students move back home because they are not able to find a job. The article What Is It about 20-Somethings? is successful enough to keep in the next edition of the textbook Emerging Contemporary Readings for Writers by Barclay Barrios because the article is reliable, it reaches the intended audience, and the article is recent.      

            The article What Is It about 20-Somethings? by Robin Henig stated that many newly graduated college students, or people, ages eighteen to mid-twenties, move back in with their parents because they were not ready to enter the chaotic real world.  This could be due to unemployment, college or credit card debt, relationships, and other factors.  Becoming an adult requires a person to complete the five milestones of “completing school, leaving home, becoming financially stable, marrying, and having a child” (Henig 199-200).  With so many career paths and life decisions to make, why settle down with one job, one person, in one place?  Our options are limitless and millennials are the generation of experimenting to figure out what fits our preferences the best.  She also spoke about Yellowbrick, which is an institution founded in 2005 by Jesse Viner.  This sanctuary aids people with disabilities or mental illnesses, like anxiety, addiction, and many others that are more commonly seen in the emerging adulthood stage.  Yellowbrick helps them complete everyday processes to get them acclimated to the real world (Henig 210).  This way people with disabilities have a chance to experience success throughout their life, just like the rest of the population.  Some of the best memories are made during this time in people’s lives and will last a lifetime.  The question the author leaves her audience with is should we let people in their twenties wander or is it okay to delay becoming an adult?            

            The first reason What Is It about 20-Somethings? should be kept in the textbook is the author and the information presented in the reading is reliable.  Robin Henig received a master’s degree from Northwestern University in journalism (Barrios 198).  She is a very well-known author and journalist who has written many books and articles that focus on young adults and their journey to adulthood.  Her work has been featured in multiple magazines, like The New York Times, along with other publications.  Robin Henig has been recognized for her accomplishments in writing and has received many high-level awards such as the Guggenheim fellowship and an American Society of Journalists and Authors Career Achievement Award.  She also frequently writes for the New York Times Magazine (Barrios 198).  Robin Henig’s experience with writing, along with her accomplishments, makes the article extremely credible.  The information used in the article was backed by psychologist Jeffery Jensen Arnett, a professor at Clark University.  His research led him to hypothesize the life stage called emerging adulthood (Henig 200).  All these reasons make this article reliable because of the author and it is backed scientific and experimental evidence.  If an article does not include trustworthy information it cannot be described as a good article. Credibility is the first of multiple reasons why the article should be kept for the next edition of the textbook. 

            Another reason it was successful is because it does a fantastic job of reaching its target audience.  At first, the intended audience was for the New York Times Magazine.  Now, the intended audience for this article is mainly college students with ages between eighteen to early or mid-twenties.  Being a first-year college student, this reading really spoke to me because I was able to relate to it in so many ways.  What Is It about 20-Somethings?  really opened my eyes and made me realize how many people feel stuck.  A couple of my friends are currently undecided for their major.  This is not necessarily a bad thing; however, you cannot afford to waste time and money trying out different majors.  I tell them all the time to find a hobby or something else they enjoy doing and make a career out of it.  This way in the future, the job will never become uninteresting.  One of my high school friends has a brother who is a couple years older than I am.  He never went to college after graduating high school because of his grades and financial problems.  He lives at home and has a job as a cook at a local restaurant.  Just like in a study that Karen Fingerman conducted, his parents give him a small amount of money every month to support himself (Henig 207).  I felt motivated after reading this article because I do not want to move back in with my parents.  Hopefully, this article will have the same compelling effect on someone, as it did on me, and will help them get their life into order.      

            The third and final reason What Is It about 20-Somethings? should be kept in the textbook is because it was written in recent times.  By recent times, I mean within the past decade.  Robin Henig’s article was published in 2010, so only seven years ago (Barrios 198).  The publishing date does not create a problem because the changes millennials have gone through are not large enough to document.  Yes, it is understood that there have been major changes in America throughout the past decade.  Most of the changes people go through are slow and the effects do not show for months, depending on what the situation is.  Most often these changes only alter one aspect of a person’s life and not every single part.    

However, not everyone believes this article should be included in the next edition of the textbook because the information is out dated.  Many people believe it could be replaced with a more updated article on the same topic.  The stock market crash and the current presidential election have already changed our lives.  Even though the stock market crashed years ago, Americans still experience the long-lasting devastation it caused.  Another thing that has already had a large impact is the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States.  Yes, these two things are a major part of American history, however; both of them impacted a different part of the population.  For example, the stock market only really affected older men and women and not the millennial generation.  Now onto a more recent note.  Donald Trump has only been in office for a little over a week now, so therefore, not many significant changes have happened up to this point.  For these reasons, the article is recent enough to be included in the fourth edition of the textbook.           

            Barclay Barrios should keep this article for the next edition of the textbook.  The author and information within the article is reliable, the reading reached the target audience, and the article was written in 2010, which is quite recent.  Why should millennials be forced to make important decisions if we are not ready?  This article has taught me that it is okay to delay becoming an adult.  It is now acceptable for people to experiment to see what makes them happy before making critical life decisions.  I know what I want to do in my future and I do not feel, as Robin Henig would describe as “stuck”, like many college students are.  I have a goal planned out and I will not give up until I meet that goal.      

Works Cited

Henig, Robin. “What Is It about 20-Somethings?.” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for

Writers. Barrios, Barclay. Boston, Bedford St. Martin’s. 199-212. Print.