Being twenty-something is not like it used to be. Everything from the ways we communicate to dating has changed. It’s amazing how much things have changed in just a little over half a century and compare what it’s like to be in your twenties now and then.
Then: Get married at 21
Now: Bar crawls at 21
Could you imagine that girl wearing a “21st Birthday Bitch” crown at the bar being someone’s wife? In the 1960’s, girls got married around the age of 20, not wasted. Now more both men and women attend college, birth control is more common, and there is no stigma against cohabitation before tying the knot…aka weddings can wait. The average age of people getting married is now around 27.
Then: Having your first baby by 24
Now: Still living with parents at 24
I don’t consider most of the 24 year olds I know responsible enough to have a baby. Most are still living either in their childhood bedroom or with four roommates in a crappy apartment. Modern medicine allows us to not be constricted by fertility. At 24, we’re still figuring a lot of things out. The first baby is now coming around age 28-29.
Then: You worked at the same company for many years
Now: You can’t even get a job
After sending out 100 resumes to email addresses that will probably never actually be seen by human eyes and we finally get a job we’re over qualified for, we don’t even stay. According to Forbes, the average worker today stays at each of his or her jobs for 4.4 years. 91% of Millennials expect to stay in a job for less than three years, meaning they will have 15-20 jobs over the course of their working lives.
Then: You married your high school sweetheart
Now: You meet your match online
It was a lot harder to get “catfished” in the 1960’s. Back then, if you wanted to talk to your crush, you had to get up the courage to spend time with them in person or actually talk on the phone (including the risk of one of their parents picking up the phone first). Now you can browse hundreds of profiles and decide who you may want to get to know. This has pros and cons. While you can find people with whom you may have never come across otherwise, online people present a version of themselves that may not be entirely accurate and it may take some time to find that out.
Then: You find out about people by spending time with them
Now: You can look up everything about a person online
The idea of going on a blind date completely blind is gone. Whether you found a person online or a friend is setting you up, more often than not you’ll try to find their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account before you’ve even met. All of a sudden you know all their hobbies, their dog’s name, and how pretty their ex-girlfriend is.
