Adolescence Now Lasts from 10-24

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-42732442 

And in 19th century young men at 14 would join the army and see all of Europe during the Napoleonic wars and come back a man. My dad said school was over at 16. He became a lumberjack in Quebec for 6 months and had strong nerves, muscles whereas before he was a nervous city kid. I sat in an office or college till mid 40s realtively passive but my cleaning job the last ten years put my body, mind and social skills under heavy stress making me mature enormously in comparison. I think this is what we mean when we discuss decadence, decline of Rome and lack of purpose in modern life, alienation and similar. Significant stress, responsibility accelerates maturation and development of meaning. Maybe I needed academics earlier in life and a desk job to fulfill those life goals I presumed as a given for my personality but at 45 I had come to a dead end and needed to break the mold formed in my head by my upbringing. At any rate I feel I am constantly growing now. It seems odd that puberty begins earlier but lasts longer now, both due to a forced inactivity. Girls working on the farm had lower fat percent in body which delayed onset of menstruation. Their physical development and experience in many areas of life( farming as a general integrated production unit). was broader than a modern person with screenitis, couchpotatoism. Esentially I can compare my parents. Father went logging as a teen and then to WWII and afterwards wandered westwards in Canada to Alaska jobbing. My academic mother studied, left to Canada as a teacher for a year or two, met my father searching for a wife to take back from home to Alaska, went there got married  and raised three kids. She was nowhere near as robust emotionally and physically as he was. His upbringing was a dirt poor large family, while she was only child middle class background( father newspaper subeditor). Nowadays of course many have caught on to fitness as critical despite doing desk jobs so they exercise and eat very consciously. However a passive, low stress development can lead to purposelessness, lethargy throughout life. No pain, no gain. In the end we all look for happiness, defined usually materially. This definition changes for each generation. More social or nature time maybe is the focus. Why grow up at all if it just means workaholism, social competition. This is all so meaningless. In Japan millions of young men have barred themselves in their rooms. Union -govt cosiness allows unlimited forced overtime leading to death by work OTOH. In the West life is not so extreme but these two extremes of " lying down" vs. useless paper pushing is a clear dystopian reality of today. Instead of being and feeling adult at 18 and getting easily integrated into society as an independent unit, we drift through our twenties, maybe thirties with various training, odd jobs, friendships, relationships.