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'Kidult' Culture Hides Isolation, Misery

By Kate Rockwood,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 31, 2008 7:38 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Today’s twentysomething men are a bunch of “kidults” and “thresholders,” writes Tony Dokoupil in Newsweek, content to stretch the transition from adolescence to adulthood into a decade of dude-centric activities like drinking, skirt-chasing, and mastering fire (“I’ll grill that potato salad,” one buddy boasts). But underneath the beers and jeers lie one of the most isolated—and, for the first time, downwardly mobile—demographics.

Despite being fawned over by marketers and fed an endless stream of Entourage and Judd Apatow flicks, these protracted adolescents have the highest suicide rate for any group except men over 70. They’re less likely to read a newspaper, attend church, vote, or think people are trustworthy —and the rate at which they’re moving back in with mom and dad has almost doubled since 1970.

HBO Presents The Fourth Season Premiere Of Entourage.
HBO Presents The Fourth Season Premiere Of "Entourage."   (Getty Images)
Twentysomething men are twice as likely to live at home with their parents as they were in 1970, a recent study found.
Twentysomething men are twice as likely to live at home with their parents as they were in 1970, a recent study found.   (IndexStock)
More young men are using their twenties as a booze- and buddy-filled decade of bacchanalia to postpone adulthood.
More young men are using their twenties as a booze- and buddy-filled decade of bacchanalia to postpone adulthood.   ((c) kingnixon)
The transition between adolescence and adulthood is now a decade-long dude-fest, writes Tony Dokoupil in Newsweek.
The transition between adolescence and adulthood is now a decade-long dude-fest, writes Tony Dokoupil in Newsweek.   (Getty Images)
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Beta males rule big screen
Newsweek

Married men the happiest and healthiest bunch
Washington Post

 
men • Entourage • demographics • Judd Apatow • adolescents • adulthood

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