An article from the Wall Street Journal entitled, "America’s Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind"
(https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/young-american-men-lost-c1d799f7) examines the trend of young men in their 20s and 30s who have failed to launch. Or, as the authors point out, have failed to achieve what in Spanish is called "encaminado."
(https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/young-american-men-lost-c1d799f7) examines the trend of young men in their 20s and 30s who have failed to launch. Or, as the authors point out, have failed to achieve what in Spanish is called "encaminado."
Unfortunately, the article begins with an anecdotal story about parents who somehow permit their adult children to live at home and do next to nothing. These individual stories, of course, prove nothing, for the children would assuredly find something to do with their lives and a place to live on their own if their parents were, for example, suddenly kidnapped by aliens.
But when the article leaves the example of specific children and delves into statistical and societal trends, it finds evidence of a shocking phenomenon, namely, that the percentage of men who are "NEETS" is much higher than it is for women:
Among noncaregivers who aren’t disabled, men are more likely to be neither employed, in school nor in workforce training, what economists refer to as NEET. Around 260,000 more 16- to 29-year-old men than women fell into this category as of the first half of 2024, according to think tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research, representing 8.6% of young men and 7.8% of young women. Rates are up for both groups since 2019, but down from a Covid high.
As the article notes, a few years ago educators began warning us that fewer and fewer boys of high school age were applying for and planning to go to college. The results from this trend are multi-faceted, but here is one result, the number of young men living at home vis a vis women:
Further, young men on average spend an additional one hour a day "alone" than do women:
The article does discuss how the "pandemic" (by which they mean the decision to close society in response to the pandemic) has played a role in delaying the maturation of young men. Your author, however, prefers more prosaic explanations and notes the article fails to discuss the amount of time men, vis a vis women, spend online and, in particular, playing video games.
