Talk:Quarter-life crisis

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Contents

[edit] Vote for deletion

Article listed on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion Apr 23 to Apr 29 2004, consensus was to keep. Discussion:

Somebody's personal crisis. RickK 05:02, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

  • Neutral. The term is real: [www.quarterlifecrisis.com]. But the tone of the article makes me worry about copyvio. It's not from the book itself - I ran key phrases on Amazon search inside the book, but something about the article gives me a bad feeling. Snowspinner 05:08, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Gets 16,300 hits on google [1], with one being a NYT article [2]. Seems significant enough, keep. Unless Snowspinner's copyvio suspicions are correct, of course. -- Cyrius|&#9998 05:13, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. If it's a copyvio, it's a copyvio, but a worry that it might be is no reason to can an article. --Stormie 05:43, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC)
    • Hence my vote of neutrality. I think it needs a heavy rewrite even if it's not copyvio, what with its repeated use of the second person, though. Snowspinner 06:23, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep it - sounds fairly significant. Pteron 06:21, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Delete, or at the very least send to cleanup. This reads more like a university medical clinic brochure than an encyclopedia article. Psychonaut 23:30, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep, but clean up - it's somewhat of a neologism, but a fairly well-known term, deserving of encyclopedic treatment. - IMSoP 00:16, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Real subject, perfectly encyclopedic as a topic. Jgm 05:30, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. I re-wrote it, doing my best to clean it up (getting rid of 2nd person, explaining causes in detail). Mike Church 20:04, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. After the rewrite it now sounds reasonable. Sanders muc 20:24, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. "Nobody loves you when you're 23..." jengod 00:24, Apr 26, 2004 (UTC)
  • Why should you delete an article on quarter-life crises? Someone even wrote a book on the phenomenon, I mean. Something that's been talked about in Generation X fora lately and is of interest to Xers. Wiwaxia 04:20, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. this article seems legitimate--ZeLonewolf 22:00, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

End discussion

[edit] Financial and social issues section

The "Financial and social issues" section contains some claims of which I am dubious, particularly the claim that real wages have been falling since the 1970s. Would the author like to add his sources? If not, I will try to corroborate the facts myself.


It's based in macroeconomics and is vs. inflation. Technically it's correct, and as it's adjusted for YOY it would be difficult to find stats for the entire range (it's usually available each year). I've read sources in macro books, but they're not presented in a way that really works for a citation (as they also don't point out their sources, just that the wage data is public knowledge due to being from the government). Similarly, this is based in the United States -- other countries have different financial situations. A quarter life crisis in France would be because of different economic reasons.

[edit] Definition

"The quarter-life crisis is ... the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the ages of 21 - 29." Say what? You mean it's not an emotional crisis that some people go through, but simply a period of life that everyone goes through, regardless of actual emotional state? Methinks a new definition is called for. Nurg 11:21, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Origin of term

Citation needed for Elliot Jaques coining the term in 1965. The earliest citation found by Word Spy is from 1998 and it is aware that Jaques coined "midlife crisis" in 1965 so it seems unlikely it would be unaware if he also coined "quarterlife crisis" around the same time. Nurg 11:59, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, I've heard this term used many, many times in songs as well as just common speech well before 2001. enderu 16:39, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

The article itself is contradicting saying it was first coined in 2001, but then later noted that it was in a 1992 episode of Kids in the Hall. I think the coining of the term definitely needs to be reviewed.

[edit] 80 hrs -> 40 hrs per week

I find the statement that a financial professional spends upwards of 80 hours per week as ludicrous. Changed to "at least 40 hours per week" instead which is more reasonable and likely.

Original statement: "Financial professionals are often expected to spend upwards of 80 hours per week in the office, and people in the legal, medical, educational, and managerial professions may average more than 60."

218.111.51.105 22:06, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree, change this statement. Now it reads: "Financial professionals are often expected to spend at least 80 hours per week in the office, and people in the legal, medical, educational, and managerial professions may average more than 60. " But, which financial professionals are we talking about? Which country? Which time frame? Financial professionals is a very big and generalized group. It is entirely incorrect to state that they work at least 80 hours per week, without adding some specifics. Vince 03:14, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Educational field

People in the educational field working more than 60 hours a week? Let's see some data on that one.

[edit] The word College

This might seem picky to someone in the US etc, but I'm making a minor alteration to the phraze:

"nostalgia for college life"

should be changed to

"nostalgia for university or college life"

In the college article it states:

"In relation to universities, the term college normally refers to a part of the university which does not have degree-awarding powers in itself. Degrees are always awarded by universities, colleges are institutions or organisations which prepare students for the degree."

As a Brit myself, and someone who also identifies with the subject of this article I belive this helps the neutrality.

Edit: forgot to sign, sorry --84.92.62.165 20:29, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The use of 'college' to mean both 'university' and 'college' is similarly confounding to readers of Canadian English, which tends to make this same distinction. This clarifies things, without problematising the American English interpretation (in which 'college' is general) --Yst 04:13, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Implied discrimination against the poor?

The statement "Some measure of financial security – which usually requires occupational security – is necessary for psychological development." really needs to be backed up with something. Because if you think about it, it's saying that poor people never fully develop psychologically... not only is this offensive, I don't think it holds water. Observer31 02:27, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Mental illness affects rich and poor across the board, but the rich can afford treatment while the poor can't. That's not offensive, just a statement of the sad state of social & economic conditions in the world. Wl219 07:41, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Research

This article has awful original research issues. It reads like an "I can't get a job" rant for the most part. --Wafulz 04:51, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

This article is narrowly focused and uninformative. I believe in the modern psychological community quarter life crisis is a bit wider than just a hard time finding a good paying job fresh out of college or dealing with office politics. It would be nice of someone aware of any research or thought in this field would expand it.

Agreed. I'm working to fix the conversational tone. This isn't a deadjournal blog, but an encyclopedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.248.12.142 (talk) 21:22, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Name

Maybe it's a British thing, but I've only ever heard this referred to as a "mid-youth crisis"... Kinitawowi 10:34, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Applies to which cultures?

This is a fascinating article, but it needs to say to whom it applies. Is this just a psychological phenomenon in the USA? Europe? the "western" world? It certainly doesn't apply to people everywhere as described, as social and economic factors vary between cultures and apply pressures at different times in a person's life. I'm not even convinced it applies to all socio-economic groups here in the US where people aren't expected to go to college, have a "career", or make the types of choices that come with a western, middle or upper-class life. Cited clarification is needed on this topic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.238.175 (talk) 03:09, 29 May 2008 (UTC)