luciabwrt195

Final Paper for Unit 3

2007-04-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Lucia Barbieri
WRT 195
April 2, 2007
Madeline Yonker

The Quarterlife Crisis: Examining the Difficulties of Emerging Adulthood

Most people are familiar with the term “Mid-life Crisis.” During the Mid-life Crisis, men and women in their 40s and 50s, after realizing their impending death and certain mortality, set out to change the remainder of their lives. Many do this through drastic career alterations, relationship restructuring, traveling, and/or the purchasing of new “stuff”. What many people are not aware of is something that is only recently being recognized as the Quarterlife Crisis. This crisis describes what not all, but many people in their 20s experience when they are thrown from the structured life of academics and curfews into the chaos of the “real world.” This, for the average twenty-something is a period of job-hunting, soul-searching, and life inquiries. During the period after graduation, twenty-somethings have no choice but to go through major life changes. Some handle the pressures eloquently. Others, to put it simply, freak out.

I intend to look into the lives of twenty-somethings today; specify the various aspects that can initiate and perpetuate the Quarterlife Crisis. Since the Quarterlife Crisis is a fairly recent phenomena, caused much by the increasing pressures and requirements placed upon young people to be considered an adult; the fact that those going through this crisis are also the first generation to have grown up in the Information Age is one not to pass by without consideration. Computers, for present-day emerging adults, have been a necessity, and the internet has been a primary method of communication. I plan to discuss how the Web has impacted emerging adults and how it has become a tool to aid them through this difficult time in their lives.

Erik Erickson, one of Developmental Psychology’s most important scholars, describes adolescence as the period of time in which the average human being must identify who they are. In other words, the adolescent undergoes an “Identity Crisis.” The identity crisis is a time in which the adolescent must explore and analyze the different ways of looking at oneself. (Arnett). This period can be very confusing and frustrating for most. Erickson’s views were prevalent in the 1970's. Today, many psychologists and theorists believe that people go through this important stage in life, not during adolescence, but during the period immediately following adolescence, a period often referred to as “emerging adulthood.” This time occurs between the ages of 18 and 29, when people leave the academic setting and encounter a world of responsibilities and expectations, along with a universal amount of pressure, stress, uncertainty, and confusion. Depression is a major problem for the young people who go out into the “real world.” Twenty-somethings often leap into the major life changes with high hopes and ambitions, only to have them crushed by sudden feelings of unpreparedness and the reality of the difficulty that accompanies job-searching, independence from the family, and exploration of the soul.

The identity crisis that occurs during emerging adulthood has taken on a new name. The term “Quarterlife Crisis” is now recognized by many therapists and professionals in the mental health field. David Weinberger, author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined, might describe the problems that many “twenty-somethings” face as being developed within their own mentality. The tragic and bleak view of life after college may be simply that: a view, a perspective. He states that we possess a default philosophy that says “our mental life consists of inner pictures of the physical world” and that “insanity...happens when our inner picture of the world gets severely out of whack with the way the world is.” (Weinberger 153). Emerging adults do have to take on a lot of life-changes that can be, in the very least, challenging; but the question is: is the Quarterlife Crisis associated more with the great extent of these challenges or does it come about because young people are mentally unprepared for a real world that is sometimes drastically different than anything they ever dreamed about?

I, myself, am a twenty-something. I avoid responsibility to no end. Sometimes I will go days without looking at my school planner because I am horrified of the psychologically anxious state it will put me in when I gaze down upon the numerous pending assignments I have yet to complete.

I didn’t always used to be like this. I used to attack projects head-on and with confidence. However, as I approached the final years of undergraduate school I began to quite literally lose control. I reached a state of academic paralyzation. I suddenly wasn’t ready to progress forward in school or in life. People around me started talking about taking the GREs and applying to Masters programs. Everywhere I turned there was something or someone reminding me of all this stuff I had to complete in order to be successful...in life. Even now, the things that I feel I should be accomplishing creep into my mind at every possible moment. The completion of school (which I have successfully put off at least another year), the building of a professional career, and the initiation of a valuable romantic relationship have become the things that I avoid most.

In their book, Quarterlife Crisis, Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner explain that the Quarterlife Crisis “is a response to overwhelming instability, constant change, too many life choices, and a panicked sense of helplessness.” (Robbins and Wilner 3). They go on to describe the role of procrastination and denial in the lives of many going through the crisis. They say that “a big part of twentysomethings’ attempts to adjust to their new lives involves stalling like they have never stalled before.” (Robbins and Wilner 8).

So here I am. I live at home with my mother. Many people that began college at the same time as me are graduating this spring; I am not. I reject any prospective boyfriends when I feel their interest in me is too strong. I no longer have any idea of what I want to do with my life. I am putting off my entrance into the “real world” in order to avoid acquiring the responsibilities that accompany being an adult. I am having a Quarterlife Crisis.

Although feelings of being alone during this stressful period of life are common to the Quarterlife Crisis, I am aware that I am not alone when it comes to this matter. Weblogs on the World Wide Web have provided a way for emerging adults to express their feelings of solitude, confusion, and frustration with others on the internet. Through weblogs, people have the ability to vent all of their problems with the option of remaining anonymous if desired. In browsing the Web for just a few moments, I was able to find dozens of blogs written by twenty-somethings that embodied the overall feeling of a Quarterlife Crisis, without any of them being at all parallel in actual content. The blogs I came across did, however, share certain similarities. They all dealt with a young person going through life changes that posed challenges and problems for them. Each twenty-something is simply trying to figure him/herself out by writing and contemplating about his/her life and life in general.

“Bang*Bang: My Baby Shot Me Down” is the title of a weblog written by a young lady who calls herself “Ms. Murder.” She writes simply about her life and the challenges (as well as mundane events) that present themselves as she lives day to day. She struggles a lot with feelings of depression and she uses her blog as a way to organize her thoughts as well as to get input from her readers. On March 20, 2007 she posted an entry entitled “Quacks Claim Quarterlife Crisis???” In it, she describes her mood (annoyed), her behavior (relating to depression), a reason for this behavior and/or mood (the loss of her job), and the surprising suggestion given to her by her doctor for getting her through her slump, along with an inquiry to whomever happened to be reading the entry about whether or not she should take her doctor’s advice. She says,

I almost want to deny the fact that I dread leaving the house for ANY reason whatsoever, but its become rather a bother to the people around me...Its kind of hard climbing down from a workoholic lifestyle to "woah my gosh, free time!" But I have however rediscovered my life is exactly where I left off last summer. I don’t know if its tragic that I "quit 'living' because I lived for work" or the fact that "I’ve made no further progression in my life/myself". Either way, the finding are terminally devistating....I mourn for no reason and sparatically. My [sic] suggested I see a doctor and Dr. McKenzie suggested I buy this book:
'Get it Together: A Guide to Surviving Your Quarterlife Crisis' by D. Barr.....Im interested but I still don’t really buy-it as a visable 'illness' or excuse for feeling a little run down. Bah.....What do you think I should do? (Ms. Murder “Quacks”)

Ms. Murder helps to describe a component that contributes to the pressures felt by many twenty-somethings today. The idea that one’s job defines who one is becomes an area of great distress to a person who is going through an identity crisis. Many emerging adults feel that they are to figure out exactly what to do with their lives as soon as they graduate college and that the type of employment they choose to go into will ultimately define who they are as people. Thus, like in Ms. Murder’s case, when there is a loss of a job, or in the case of many twenty-somethings, when uncertainty attaches itself to career choices, a problem of unknown identity emerges.

Robbins and Wilner address this topic in Quarterlife Crisis. They provide anecdotes and quotes given by twenty-somethings experiencing identity challenges. One female says,

When I graduated and wasn’t defined anymore by what I was studying and where I went to school, I was really struck by how much I didn’t have my ‘self’ figured out.....I think people, especially in American middle- and upper-class culture, go directly from college to defining themselves by their jobs. This makes me quite uneasy” (Robbins & Wilner 17).

One of the blogs I came across while browsing the Web is entitled (Habitual Spectators) and is written by a twenty-six year old girl. She recently wrote about turning a year older and referred to herself as “only-being-four-years-away-from-thirty old”, instead of 26 (Habitual Spectators “Advancing Age”). She also had some comments about how our identities are attached to our means of putting food on the table. On March 31, 2007 she stated,

I've always wondered why people are defined by their jobs or careers....Just because a person spends x number of hours at his or her job shouldn't mean that that's all the person is about. But inevitably, it somehow has. Occupations seems to have long defined people.... Obituaries list a person's occupation in a very matter-of-fact fashion, 'Michael G. Hoopbottom, 1901-2007, Origami maker', like that's all the person did from birth to death..... This focus on a career seems to be one of the roots of the quarterlife crisis -- how to become unidimensional in the eyes of the world. (Habitual Spectators “Part II”)

It is obvious that young people today are aware of the pressures to make something of oneself through their career choices. This pressure is made worse by the fact that not only do individuals need to land a dream-job that will identify them as people, but they must do so in a timely fashion. A main contributing component to a Quarterlife Crisis is the reality, and sometimes the illusion, of time. Robbins and Wilner explain that twenty-somethings feel pressure to accomplish many of their goals by the time they reach their thirties and that the choices they make in their twenties will undoubtedly influence the rest of their lives. (Robbins and Wilner 9). David Weinberger, in Small Pieces Loosely Joined, devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of the concept of time. In it, he describes how we, as humans, have constructed a method of viewing time as a series of moments, each one following the last, progressing from a past to the present and to a future. He equates moments as being like beads on a necklace, and describes how we base our lives on the sequential passing of moments and hours and days (Weinberger 58). This perception of time adds largely to the idea that there is a certain sequence of events that must be followed in a well-timed manner. The completion of an education, the acquisition of a career, financial independence, marriage, and parenthood are the main components that depict western society’s views of a what typical adult is (“Achieving”). Although a more contemporary definition of adulthood does not necessarily include marriage and parenthood, twenty-somethings still feel an immense pressure to hurry up and figure out how they are to detach themselves from their dependence on their parents and discover a career that will somehow add up to be everything they had been working for throughout college.

In the blog, (Habitual Spectators), the anonymous twenty-six-year-old struggles with how her past academic decisions in college have shaped her current life as an unemployed twenty-something. She contemplates,

What do you do with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and a BA in Anthropology, anyway? Apparently, you settle your arse into grad school (if grad school decides that you're worthy of them), in preparation for a life of research, or learn superb dumpster-diving techniques so that you can survive on a minimum-wage job... (Habitual Spectators “Part II”)

Ms Murder fights a seemingly never-ending battle with time. After losing her job and realizing she has not truly found her “self”, she contemplates the meaning of her life and how time has shown her little mercy. She says,

My life looks pretty fruitless right now....I'm not content to let my time drown in music, movies, television... even the time I spend with friends. How much of that is a waste? How many minutes do I throw away in a single day? If my discontent is any indication, I'm in a bad place right now. I should know better than this. (Ms. Murder “God Made Me a Candle”)

No matter what specific personal situation each twenty-something is going through, there is a similarity in the fact that most are going through many shifts and changes in their lives. In the book Quarterlife Crisis, a girl named Gabriella stated, “It helps that most of us in this age group are going through the same things. We could form a community based around this sort of crisis of the self that we’re all facing” (Robbins and Wilner 18). Going through the Quarterlife Crisis does put twenty-somethings in a particular community. In Small Pieces Loosely Joined, David Weinberger writes about the plethora of groups found both on and off the Web. He explains that Web groups are different from real world groups in that they are purely interest based, free from the restraints of geography, and completely different in time (Weinberger 109). The Web can connect an unlimited amount of people, from anywhere in the world, all at the same time. In the real world, people can get together, if their time-constrained schedules allow them, for limited selected moments at a designated geographical location. There are no search engines in the real world that will allow us to find and communicate with people who share an interest or problem.

Twenty-somethings experiencing the Quarterlife Crisis may be a certain community in reality, but for the most part, they do not yet exist as a real world group. The reason why so many twenty-somethings feel so unaccompanied in their struggles is because they believe that they are alone. People don’t talk about what they’re going through during this time period because most feel that everyone else has their lives figured out. One will not find “Surviving the Quarterlife Crisis” as a club listed in a student activities handbook at any college or university. There isn’t a What Do I do From Here 101 course being taught on my campus or presumably at most campuses across the country. Robbins and Wilner address the non-existence of a twenty-something group in their book and discuss how, until now, no one had put a title on the extremely difficult life period of emerging adulthood. They state, “This lack of acknowledgment, of course, has simply fueled the quarterlife crisis into an even more difficult experience. Because graduates are not made aware that other graduates are experiencing the same cyclone of doubts, they doubt themselves to an even greater extent” (Robbins and Wilner 11).

Robbins and Wilner feel that a reason why emerging adults today feel as if the they are trapped in solitude is because it is difficult to collectively put them together as a real world group. The feeling that one is going through something unusual puts these twentysomethings in self-contrived isolation (Robbins and Wilner 12). It is through the Web that twenty-somethings experiencing the Quarterlife Crisis are recognized as an entity. It is important that a name has finally been assigned to this difficult shift from student life to young adulthood and that this identity- crisis is being recognized as more than just a stale theory laid across pages of an out-dated psychology textbook. There are, of course, skeptics who doubt the existence of such a Quarterlife Crisis. The idea is fairly new and even twentysomethings, when first discovering that there may be a diagnosis to their madness, can be doubtful of its validity. When Ms. Murder was presented with the idea by her doctor, her response was one of disbelief. An excerpt from her blog tells us that she went on the Web to discover that the Quarterlife Crisis does exist.

What the ... You got to be kidding me. This is the absolute dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Sure, I might be a little depressed but this is over the line. So I go online to see if such a thing exist and the results weren't huge but Wikipedia had a link! (Ms Murder “Quacks”)

With computers being such an enormous part of today’s twenty-somethings’ lives, the World Wide Web has created a way for emerging adults to come together as a group. Aside from the Weblogs, which are a tool for most anyone with any interest to express and communicate with others, there are now websites that are dedicated to the amelioration of the difficulties experienced by this age-group. Quarterlifecrisis.com is a site that provides information and support for those going through the Quarterlife Crisis. By visiting this site, described as “the one-stop info-shop for recent grads and beyond,” one can participate or simply browse through any of several message boards set up for twenty-somethings to discuss their experiences in the “real world.” There are also book recommendations and articles posted pertaining to issues that emerging adults face. Links are provided to other sites that can be of help in various areas of life including finances, education, living situations, health and fitness, and dating.
Quarterlifecrisis.com also provides job-search resources along with options to set up presentations and workshops at a school to help spread the word of the Quarterlife Crisis (Stocker and Wilner).

When I told my professor that I wanted to write a paper about the Quarterlife Crisis, she informed me that she had never heard of such a thing. I realized that the only reason I knew of it was not because anyone ever told me about it, but because I had my own situation that drove my interest to discover it. David Weinberger states again and again throughout his entire book, that it is interest that shapes our behaviors on the Web (Weinberger). It is through this collective interest amongst emerging adults that contributes to the creation of their group on the Web. This conception in turn leads to increasing support for their age-specific needs. Because the Quarterlife Crisis is becoming more and more established on the Web, emerging adults, with today’s dependence on the internet, will become increasingly more aware that they are not alone in their struggles. Perhaps this community will soon emerge as a real world group, and the feelings of solitude, which are characteristic of the difficult time period, can be eased or even eliminated.

Unit #3 Works Cited

2007-04-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Works Cited

“Achieving ‘Adulthood’ is More Elusive; Transition to Adulthood Occurring at a Later Age.” EurekAlert! 02 August 2004. 18 March 2007 .

Arnett, Jeffrey. “Suffering, Selfish, Slackers? Myths and Reality About Emerging Adults.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 16 Dec. 2006. 28 Feb. 2007 .

Carbonatedsass. “Advancing Age.” (Habitual Spectators). 25 March 2007. 29 March 2007 .

Carbonatedsass. “Part II of this Quarterlife Crisis.” (Habitual Spectators). 31 March 2007. 31 March 2007 .

Ms. Murder. “God Made Me a Candle...” Bang*Bang: My Baby Shot Me Down. 23 March 2007. 26 March 2007 .

Ms. Murder. “Quacks Claim Quarterlife Crisis???” Bang*Bang: My Baby Shot Me Down. 20 March 2007. 26 March 2007 .

Quarterlife Crisis: A One-Stop Info-Shop For Recent Grads and Beyond. 2000-2007. Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. .

Robbins, Alexandra, and Abby Wilner. Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2001.

Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2002.

UNIT 3 beginning draft

2007-03-30T03:38:00.000-07:00

Most people are familiar with the term “Mid-life Crisis.” During the Mid-life Crisis, men and women in their 40s and 50s, after realizing their impending death and certain mortality, set out to change the remainder of their lives. Many do this through drastic career alterations, relationship restructuring, traveling, and/or the purchasing of new “stuff”. What many people are not aware of is something that is only recently being recognized as the Quarterlife Crisis. This crisis describes what not all, but many people in their 20s experience when they are thrown from the structured life of academics and curfews into the “real world.” A world of job-searching, soul-searching, and life inquiries. During the period after graduation, twenty-somethings have no choice but to go through major life changes. Some handle the pressures eloquently. Others, to put it simply, freak out.

I intend to look into the lives of twenty-somethings today and specify the various aspects that can initiate and perpetuate the Quarterlife Crisis. Since the Quarterlife Crisis is a fairly recent phenomena, caused much by the increasing pressures and requirements placed upon young people to be considered an adult; the fact that those going through this crisis are also the first generation to have grown up in the Information Age is one not to pass by without consideration. Computers, for twenty-somethings today, have been a necessity, and the internet has been a primary method of communication. I plan to discuss how the Web has impacted emerging adults and how it has become a tool to aid them through this difficult time in their lives.

Erik Erickson, one of Developmental Psychology’s foundation layers, describes adolescence as the period of time in which the average human being must identify who they are. In other words, the adolescent undergoes an “Identity Crisis.” The identity crisis is a time in which the adolescent must explore and analyze the different ways of looking at oneself. (Arnett). This period can be very confusing and frustrating for most. Erickson’s views were prevalent in the 1970's. Today, many psychologists and theorists believe that people go through this important stage in life, not during adolescence, but during the period immediately following adolescence, a period often referred to as “emerging adulthood.” This time occurs between the ages of 18 and 29, when people leave the academic setting and encounter a world of responsibilities and expectations, along with a universal amount of pressure, stress, uncertainty, and confusion. Depression is a major problem for the young people who go out into the “real world” with high hopes and ambitions, only to have them crushed by sudden feelings of unpreparedness and the reality of the difficulty that accompanies job-searching, independence from the family, and exploration of the soul.

The identity crisis that occurs during emerging adulthood has taken on a new name. The term “Quarterlife Crisis” is now recognized by many therapists and professionals in the mental health field. David Weinberger, author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined, might describe the problems that many “twenty-somethings” face as being developed within their own mentality. The tragic and bleak view of life after college may be simply that: a view, a perspective. He states that we possess a default philosophy that says “our mental life consists of inner pictures of the physical world” and that “insanity...happens when our inner picture of the world gets severely out of whack with the way the world is.” (Weinberger 153). Emerging adults do have to take on a lot of life-changes that can be, in the very least, challenging; but the question is: is the quarterlife crisis associated more with the great extent of these challenges or does it come about because young people are mentally unprepared for a real world that is sometimes drastically different than anything they ever dreamed about?

I, myself, am a twenty-something. I avoid responsibility to no end. Sometimes I will go days without looking at my school planner because I am horrified of the psychologically anxious state it will put me in when I gaze down upon the numerous pending assignments I have yet to complete. I’ll go weeks without opening mail that I know will require me to fill out forms, use my brain, or simply “get stuff done.” I’ll make up any excuse to get out of my house so that I will not have to look at the growing piles of mail and school work.

I didn’t always used to be like this. I used to attack projects head on and with confidence. I began making plans for college during my freshman year of highschool and I started collecting information about Graduate school as soon as I began working on my undergraduate degree. However, as I approached the final years of undergraduate school I began to quite literally lose control. I reached a state of academic paralyzation. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. People around me started talking about taking the GREs and applying to Masters programs. Everywhere I turned there was something or someone reminding me of all this stuff I had to complete in order to be successful...in life. Even now, the things that I feel I should be accomplishing creep into my mind at every possible moment. The completion of school (which I have successfully put off at least another year), the building of a professional career, and the initiation of a valuable romantic relationship have become the things that I avoid most. In their book, Quarterlife Crisis, Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner explain that the quarterlife crisis “is a response to overwhelming instability, constant change, too many life choices, and a panicked sense of helplessness.” (Robbins, Wilner 3). They go on to describe the role of procrastination and denial in the lives of many going through the crisis. They say that “a big part of twentysomethings’ attempts to adjust to their new lives involves stalling like they have never stalled before.” (Robbins, Wilner 8).

So here I am. I live at home with my mother. All of the people I know that began college at the same time as me are graduating this spring, while I remain stuck and unmotivated. I reject any prospective boyfriends when I feel their interest in me is too strong, and instead focus my energies on going after those whom I know I can’t have. I no longer have any idea of what I want to do with my life. I am putting off my entrance into the “real world” in order to avoid acquiring the responsibilities that accompany being an adult. I am having a Quarterlife Crisis.

Although feelings of being alone during this stressful period of life are common to the Quarterlife Crisis, I am aware that I am not alone when it comes to this matter. Weblogs on the World Wide Web have provided a way for emerging adults to express their feelings of solitude, confusion, and frustration with others on the internet. Through weblogs, people have the ability to vent all of their problems with the option of remaining anonymous if desired. In browsing the Web for just a few moments, I was able to find dozens of blogs written by twenty-somethings that embodied the overall feeling of a quarterlife crisis, without any of them being at all similar in actual content. The blogs I came across did, however, share certain similarities. They all dealt with a young person going through life changes that posed challenges and problems for them. Each twenty-something is simply trying to figure him/herself out by writing and contemplating about his/her life and life in general.

Ms. Murder is the title of a weblog written by a young lady who writes simply about her life and the challenges (as well as mundane events) that present themselves as she lives day to day. She struggles a lot with feelings of depression and she uses her blog as a way to organize her thoughts as well as to get input from her readers. On March 20, 2007 she posted an entry entitled “Quacks Claim Quarterlife Crisis???” In it, she describes her mood (annoyed), her behavior (relating to depression), a reason for this behavior and/or mood (the loss of her job), and the surprising suggestion given to her by her doctor for getting her through her slump, along with an inquiry to whomever happened to be reading the entry about whether or not she should take her doctor’s advice. She says,

“I almost want to deny the fact that I dread leaving the house for ANY reason whatsoever, but its become rather a bother to the people around me.....I don’t like the malls, stores, eateries, coffee shops, the movies, my neighbors or roads. I don’t want people to come over or even see them, I don’t want to talk on the phone....., sign on messenger or even check my pod-thingy's like this......Its kind of hard climbing down from a workoholic lifestyle to "woah my gosh, free time!" But I have however rediscovered my life is exactly where I left off last summer. I don’t know if its tragic that I "quit 'living' because I lived for work" or the fact that "I’ve made no further progression in my life/myself". Either way, the finding are terminally devistating......I mourn for no reason and sparatically. My suggested I see a doctor and Dr. McKenzie suggested I buy this book:
'Get it Together: A Guide to Surviving Your Quarterlife Crisis' by D. Barr.....Im interested but I still don’t really buy-it as a visable 'illness' or excuse for feeling a little run down. Bah.....What do you think I should do?”

Ms. Murder helps to describe a component that contributes to the pressures felt by many twenty-somethings today. The idea that one’s job defines who one is becomes an area of great distress to a person who is going through an identity crisis. Many emerging adults feel that they are to figure out exactly what to do with their lives as soon as they graduate college and that the type of employment they choose to go into, will ultimately define who they are as people. Thus, like in Ms Murder’s case, when there is a loss of a job, or in the case of many twenty-somethings, when uncertainty attaches itself to career choices, a problem of unknown identity emerges.

Robbins and Wilner address this topic in Quarterlife Crisis. They provide anecdotes and quotes given by twenty-somethings experiencing identity challenges. One female says,

“When I graduated and wasn’t defined anymore by what I was studying and where I went to school, I was really struck by how much I didn’t have my ‘self’ figured out.....I think people, especially in American middle- and upper-class culture, go directly from college to defining themselves by their jobs. This makes me quite uneasy.” (Robbins & Wilner 17).

A main contributing component to a Quarterlife Crisis is the reality, and sometimes the illusion, of time. Robbins and Wilner explain that twenty-somethings feel pressure to accomplish many of their goals by the time they reach their thirties and that the choices they make in their twenties will undoubtedly influence the rest of their lives. (Robbins & Wilner 9). David Weinberger, in Small Pieces Loosely Joined, devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of the concept of time.

Unit 3 Abstract

2007-03-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Lucia Barbieri
March 5, 2007
Madeline Yonker
Unit 3 Abstract

An evaluation of emerging young adults as they exit college life and enter the so-called “real world.” More specifically, a look into what has been termed “The Quarter Life Crisis,” the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the ages of 21 - 29 in which many emerging adults experience great anxiety over the instability and identity challenges of their lives.

The Quarter Life Crisis is now recognized by many therapists and professionals in the mental health field. It is a serious phenomena that effects not all, but many young college graduates as they move on, sometimes with little guidance, into the uncertainty of adulthood. Trying to figure out what one wants and has the ability to do in terms of employment, the construction of one’s own family, and other decisions pertaining to how one will live the bulk of one’s adult life, can be a very stressful experience. Many have recognized the implications of such stressors and have noted the significant problems that this discourse group must endure, along with some chosen coping methods that have made this group of people often emerge as “suffering,” “selfish,” and “lazy.” It is taking longer to become an adult today based on traditional markers such as financial independence and starting a family.

The World Wide Web has its influences on this group of confused and uncertain young people. Everything ranging from weblogs, many with the chosen title “Quarter Life Crisis”, that allow them to rant about their disorganized lives, to self-help sites which guide the flustered reader through the difficult time by providing tips about job-hunting and discussion boards where questions can be answered, have be created. The Web perhaps is making the period of The Quarter-Life Crisis easier to go through, since emerging adults can discover that they are not alone in their struggles.

It is important not to dismiss The Quarter Life Crisis as an excuse for kids to prolong their status as adolescents with few responsibilities, but rather look at it as a time where people are simply trying to figure out who they are and what they are going to be. Expectations for “twenty somethings” as they exit into the world of 5 to 9 jobs is great nowadays, and the pressure to be successful in the workplace and to develop meaningful life-long relationships can be nerve-wracking. The recognition that this period of time is getting, both on the internet and outside in the mental health field, comes to show that it is a crisis worth looking into.

works cited

2007-02-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

Caverly, Doug. “NSA Eyes Social Networking Sites.” BloggerTips.com 11 June 2006. 07 Feb. 2007 .

Dictionary.com. 2007. Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. 15 Feb. 2007 .

“Men in Black (film).” Wikipedia. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Feb. 2007 .

Marks, Paul. “Pentagon Sets its Sights on Social Networking Websites.” NewScientist.com 09 June 2006. 28 Jan. 2007 .

“NSA looking at Social-Networking Spaces.” PhysOrg.com 15 June 2006. 07 Feb. 2007 .

“US Government Funds Social Network Snooping.” The Register 03 July 2006. 07 Feb 2007 .

Final Content Analyses Essay

2007-02-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

Lucia Barbieri
February 16, 2006
WRT 195
Professor Madeline Yonker

Snooping Made Easier: The U.S. Government is using Social Networking Sites to Spy on its Citizens

My first year of college was very difficult. I had decided to go to school a good distance from home and I embarked on my academic journey with high hopes and strong ambitions. I was going to plunge ahead, start a career, and most importantly, I was going to meet new people. It wasn’t until I arrived at my new life location that I realized it was going to be a lot more difficult to convert my fantasies into realities. My biggest problem was that I felt as if I didn’t have any social support. I didn’t know anyone, and the people that I did meet could not compare to the friends that I had in highschool. I felt lost and alone for my entire freshman year and most of my sophomore year. It wasn’t until I was introduced to Facebook.com, an online social networking site, that I was able to reconnect with my friends from home. I never thought that Facebook.com could change my life the way that it did. If it weren’t for Facebook, I probably would have never kept in touch with many of my friends and I most definitely would not have met some of the best people I now know today.

I have since then opened a MySpace.com account and a Livejournal.com account as well. These social networking sites have, for me, been a way to communicate with people and feel close to friends that are physically far away. Through researching topics about social networking sites, I discovered the various ways in which others are utilizing them. There are people that use social networking sites for file sharing, there are bands that use the sites to promote their music, there are companies that use them to advertize their products, and there are sexual predators that use them to lure young users to their doorstep. It has also come to my attention that the United States government may very well be beginning to employ the very sites on which we post pictures of our families and friends to aide in building detailed profiles of many of its citizens.

Many newspapers, journals, and online blogs are addressing the topic of the government’s data-mining initiatives and are, in essence, warning their readers about the new implications of logging on to their dot coms. Technically, data mining is described as data processing using sophisticated data search capabilities and statistical algorithms to discover patterns and correlations in large preexisting databases; a way to discover new meaning in data. (Dictionary.com) Basically what this means is that the desired data is very difficult to acquire and it is potentially very valuable, just as gemstones and diamonds are valuable to miners digging deep into the earth to find them. The government is going to great lengths to dig into the massive harvesting of information that people post on the web.

NewScientist.com is one online news service that has made public the government’s plans for prying further into our personal lives. Ever since the attacks of September 11th the Pentagon has been taking record of telephone logs for citizens across the U.S. Their general plan was intended to reveal connections between people in dangerous terrorist organizations. They’ve found that the phone logs have a limited scope, and that it is now necessary to dig deeper. Social networking sites have provided them with a grand opportunity to do so. Paul Marks, a journalist for NewScientist.com stated in his June 2006 article, “Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites”, that ‘the fast-growing social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster are a snoop’s dream.’ Who is the snoop in this case? None other than the Pentagon’s National Security Agency. The NSA specializes in eavesdropping and code-breaking. They plan to take information from social networking sites and combine it with other sources such as peoples’ banking, retail, and property records in order to create extensive personal profiles. (PhysOrg.com)

A “snoop” is identified as a spy who makes uninvited inquiries into the private affairs of others. The verb “to snoop” is described as to make secretive investigations into things that do not concern oneself. (Dictionary.com) When I think of a snoop I think of my little sister prying into my diary or an unwanted neighbor peering into my window. These things are clearly morally unacceptable actions to take in our everyday lives, yet the NSA has taken it upon their duties to now “snoop” on us.

Many people are fully supportive of the NSA’s extensive efforts to sniff out any suspicious individuals. U.S. citizen, Doug Caverly posted a blog in June of 2006 entitled “NSA Eyes Social Networking Sites.” In it, he states an indirect quote by Amit Sheth, a researcher at the University of Maryland that has been studying the technology the NSA may use in it’s “tapping of the web”. Sheth says that digging into social networking sites ‘might help the NSA sniff out groups of terrorists, money launderers, or blacklisted groups.’ (Caverly) To “sniff out” refers to recognizing or detecting by or as if by smelling. (Dictionary.com) What Sheth was alluding to was perhaps the idea that the NSA has the capabilities of discovering valuable hidden information just as a police dog would be able to find explosives by simply using it’s sense of smell. The NSA, of course, would not literally be smelling, but many would say they’d be sticking their noses in other peoples’ business. Privacy groups are worried that people’s reputations may be put at stake and that many may be misjudged as being potentially dangerous, especially since a lot of information found in social networking sites is inaccurate or incomplete. (Marks) These anxieties have ceased the government from prying in the past, but it doesn’t look like it s going to stop them now. It was in 2003 that congress ended certain projects to mine public and private information on individuals suspected of terrorist activities. These programs were being operated by the Pentagon, and were ended because of concerns that they might be putting innocent Americans under suspicion. (The Register)

Caverly made an interesting analogy that connects somewhat to the idea of the NSA being a snoop who sniffs out personal information. He states, “there’s something a tad creepy about the idea of the men in black looking at your pictures of Fluffy.” (Caverly) Nowadays, most people will recognize Caverly’s reference to “the men in black” as the hit 1997 movie starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. In the movie, Smith and Jones play two agents who keep an eye on aliens in New York City and must try to save the world after the aliens threaten to blow it up. The movie’s tagline? “Protecting the earth form the scum of the universe.” (Wikipedia) The NSA has taken on the role of men in black, using their code-breaking and eavesdropping skills in order to prevent the “aliens” (aka terrorists) from basically blowing things up.

It seems as if the United States government has made its decision to use the fast-growing success of social networking sites to its advantage, but what does this implicate for millions of Americans who are simply using them to post pictures of Fluffy and connect with friends? It means that we must be more careful about monitoring ourselves and what we decide to post on the internet. Even without the threat of being targeted as a potential terrorist by the U.S. government, it is important to be aware of the potential consequences one’s posts may have. Employers and deans of colleges have already been using social networking sites to research applicants. A quote by Jon Callas, chief security officer at a maker of encryption software, puts this issue into perspective. He says, “You should always assume anything you write online is stapled to your resume. People don’t realize you get Googled just to get a job interview these days.” (Marks) When Callas says that everything one posts on the internet is “stapled to your resume” he means that no matter where you put information about yourself, as long as its online, it is there for anyone to see, including potential interviewers and employers. To “get Googled” is a term most people who use the internet know about. Literally it refers to a specific search engine, namely Google.com. In essence, all one has to do to find any information about another individual on the web is to enter their name into a search engine. Any articles or websites that include the name of that individual will pop up for the curious viewer to peruse.

So what’s the difference between your future employer and say the NSA? When it comes to browsing through your personal information on the web, practically nothing. The information is there for anyone to see. The only difference is, the NSA may have capabilities to get behind fire walls and discover where any information came from. This may be an invasion of privacy, but it’s nothing far removed from what they’ve already been doing with our phone calls, instant message conversations, and library book reservations. What is important is to be aware that it is going on. Most people know that the admissions council at their graduate school of choice may be riffling through their Facebook sites, and they act accordingly. Pictures of drunken episodes with college buddies is an example of something someone might want to leave out of their MySpace profiles. Similarly, my personal suggestion to those who are concerned about our government peering into the intimate details of their LiveJournal blogs is to give the men in black nothing to be suspicious about. This means perhaps not using the word “anthrax” as part of your user ID or maybe not commenting about your friend’s sarcastic claims to own a bomb recipe.

Most internet users have nothing to worry about as long as they use a little common sense when posting information. I, for one, plan to continue use of social networking sites to my full advantage, without much worry about the government indulging in its power to see pictures of me and my friends. I haven’t anything to hide from anyone and if I did, I simply wouldn’t post it. Social networking sites, to me, are a way to stay connected with people I know. If terrorists are using them to connect with their terrorist buddies, then by all means, I hope the NSA sniffs them out.

yes, ANOTHER paragraph

2007-02-15T15:35:00.001-08:00

Our blogger, Doug Caverly made an interesting analogy that connects somewhat to the idea of the NSA being a snoop who sniffs out personal information. He states, “there’s something a tad creepy about the idea of the men in black looking at your pictures of Fluffy.” (CITE) Now, most people will recognize Caverly’s reference to “the men in black” as the hit 1997 movie starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. In the movie, Smith and Jones play two agents who keep an eye on aliens in New York City and must try to save the world after the aliens threaten to blow it up. The movie’s tagline? “Protecting the earth form the scum of the universe.” (CITE) The NSA has taken on the role of men in black, using their code-breaking and eavesdropping skills in order to prevent the “aliens” (aka terrorists) from basically blowing things up.

another rough paragraph

2007-02-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Many people are fully supportive of the NSA’s extensive efforts to sniff out any suspicious individuals. U.S. citizen, Doug Caverly posted a blog in June of 2006 entitled “NSA Eyes Social Networking Sites.” In it, he states an indirect quote by Amit Sheth, a researcher at the University of Maryland that has been studying the technology the NSA may use in it’s “tapping of the web”. Sheth says that digging into social networking sites ‘might help the NSA sniff out groups of terrorists, money launderers, or blacklisted groups.’ (CITE) To “sniff out” refers to recognizing or detecting by or as if by smelling. (CITE) What Sheth was alluding to was perhaps the idea that the NSA has the capabilities of discovering valuable hidden information just as a police dog would be able to find explosives by simply using it’s sense of smell. The NSA, of course, would not literally be smelling, but many would say they’d be sticking their noses in other peoples’ business. Privacy groups are worried that people’s reputations may be put at stake and that many may be misjudged as being potentially dangerous, especially since a lot of information found in social networking sites is inaccurate or incomplete. (CITE)

Content Analyses Intro and 1st body paragraph

2007-02-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

My first year of college was very difficult. I had decided to go to school a good distance from home and I had embarked on my academic journey with high hopes and strong ambitions. I was going to plunge ahead, start a career, and most importantly, I was going to meet new people. I wanted to leave my past behind, and start something new; something better. Highschool wasn’t even going to compare to what my new life was going to be. It wasn’t until I arrived at my new life location that I realized it was going to be a lot more difficult to convert my fantasies into realities. My biggest problem was that I felt as if I hadn’t any social support. I didn’t know anyone, and the people that I did meet could not compare to the friends that I had in highschool. I felt lost and alone for my entire freshman year and most of my sophomore year. It wasn’t until I was introduced to Facebook, an online social networking site, that I was able to reconnect with my friends from home. I never thought that Facebook could change me life the way that it did. I probably would have never kept in touch with many of my friends, hadn’t it been for Facebook, and I most definitely wouldn’t have met some of the best people I now know today.

I have since then opened a MySpace account and a Livejournal account as well. These social networking sites have, for me, been a way to communicate with people and feel close to friends that are physically far away. Through researching topics about social networking sites, I have been intrigued to find out about the various uses that many other people are getting out of them. There are people that use social networking sites for file sharing, there are bands that use the sites to promote their music, there are companies that use them to advertize their products, and there are sexual predators that use them to lure young users to their doorstep. It has also come to my attention that the United States government may very well be beginning to utilize the very sites on which we post pictures of our families and friends to aide in building detailed profiles of many of its citizens.

Intertexual Analyses of article

2007-02-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

Direct Quote:

“I am continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves.”

–>Beginning of the article
–>Stated by a chief security officer at a maker of encryption software
–>Used by the author to describe a common sentiment shared by many about SNS

“You should always assume anything you write online is stapled to your resume. People don’t realize you get Googled just to get a job interview these days.”

–>quoted by the same guy
–>used by the author to enforce the relevance of his story to just about everybody who uses the internet
–>metaphorically information on the web is “stapled to your resume”, meanign it gets considered by employers
–>to “get Google” :someone types your name into a search engine and sees what pops up. We do it for just about everyone we meet nowadays

Recognizable phrasing associated with specific people:

Myspace and Friendster are a snoop’s dream.

–>author describes SNS as being a dream come true for a “snoop”
–>SNOOP: someone who sneaks or prys into something (other peoples’ lives) without others’ awareness.
Government=Snoop

NSA is funding research into the mass harvesting of information...

–>harvest information about people, just as one would harvest a crop
–>People are planting seeds (little pieces of themselves) and the yare growing into fields of information for the government to go about picking and collecting at their will

Plans to tap the web

–>as if the web = telephone line that can be secretly “tapped into” so as to receive a message or signal being transmitted

[phone logs] can only be used to build a very basic picture of someone’s contact network, a process sometimes called “connecting the dots.”

–>comparing phone taps to something very basic and simple such as a child’s game of connecting the dots
–>the “picture” after connecting the dots is not very complete–only provides limited information

...how many links or “degrees” separate people from, say, a member of a blacklisted organization.

–>links (like on a chain)
–>comparing people to a chain. The closer their “link” is to a bad link, the more likely they are to be a “bad link”

today’s internet is stuffed with data in incompatible formats.

–>you picture a computer with loads of unorganized documents bursting out of it
–>the data is difficult to sift through

“The semantic web”

–>the term the NSA is using to describe what the web will become once they’re through with it
–>Semantic: of or related to meaning, especially meaning of language.
–>the semantic web will “iron out” present incapabilities via a common data structure.
–>its going to get all the wrinkles out
Wrinkles=Barriers to snooping

...the ease of use will make prying into people’s live a breeze.

–>prying=snooping=sneaking
–>a breeze: easy (as simple/ as sure as the wind blows)

SNS are part of the flood of internet information that could be mined.

–>the flood: there’s a lot of information, enough to rush into your basement
–>to mine: draw useful or valuable material from (info. about people is like jewels for the government)

Mentioning of a document:

Paper: “Semantic Analytics on Social Networks”

–>used by the author to show ties between the NSA and how data from SNS and other databases can be combined to uncover facts about people.

Hyper link:

www.foaf-project.org

–>link used by the author to provide a visual of what he describes in the article

Indirect Quote:

The technology will work in exactly the same way for intelligence and national security agencies and for financial dealings...

–>used by the author to explain how the new technology will work

Privacy groups worry that “automated intelligence profiling” could sully people’s reputations or even lead to miscarriages of justice....

–>used to describe concerns about the “semantic web”
–>miscarriage of justice: justice is suddenly aborted

Mentioning of Acts:

-post 9/11 Total Information Awareness (TIA) initiative

-Defense Appropriations Act

–>Shows the legality of the “prying”

Question about blog

2007-01-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or are you not able to indent on these blogs?

Annotated Bibliography

2007-01-30T12:49:00.000-08:00

Lucia Barbieri
WRT 195
January 31, 2007
Prof. Madeline Yonker

Annotated Bibliography

Cohn, David. “Bands Embrace Social Networking.” Wired News 18 May 2005. 28 Jan. 2007 .

Many music artists are taking advantage of social networking sites, namely MySpace, in order to market themselves and build a fan base. Through MySpace, bands can share demos of their songs, announce upcoming shows, post lyrics, and connect with fans in a way never before possible. Social Networking is a new way for bands to market their music that is both faster and easier than touring cities and playing at bars.

Marks, Paul. “Pentagon Sets its Sights on Social Networking Websites.” NewScientist.com 09 June 2006. 28 Jan. 2007 .

Pentagon’s National Security Agency is funding research into the information that people post about themselves on social networking sites. Tapping into the Web will make it easier for the government to establish links between people and blacklisted organizations. In order for people to maintain their privacy, they must be cautious of revealing sensitive information about themselves because anything they post can be looked into by government intelligence.

McCullagh, Declan. “Lawmakers Take Aim at Social-Networking Sites.” News.com 19 Dec. 2006. 28 Jan. 2005 .

A federal law has been proposed that would require most schools and libraries to make social networking sites inaccessible to minors. Many believe that the law is necessary to protect children from dangerous sexual predators. Others who are against the proposal, argue that it is a threat to basic rights of speech.

“MySpace, Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites: Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow?” Knowledge@Worton 03 My 2006. 25 Jan. 2007 .

Social Networking Sites’ successes and possible failures are discussed. In addition, how the sites lure new users, keep existing users interested, and what may be in the future for the sites is addressed. The article also discusses safety and privacy concerns that people have about social networking sites.

Roush, Wade. “Social Networking 3.0" Technology Review 18 Nov. 2005. 28 Jan. 2007 .

Wade discusses how social networking sites have evolved since they were first presented to the public. At first, users were unsure about what they could do on the sites. Today, the sites have introduced new technology, such as music sharing, and as a result they are experiencing record growth. Wade speaks of specific sites, such as LinkedIn and Friendster, and what particular features have helped them improve.

Links to articles

2007-01-30T12:34:00.000-08:00

Bands Embrace Social Networking

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

Lawmakers take aim at social-networking sites

MySpace, Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites: Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow?:

Social Networking 3.0

Eubanks Question #5

2007-01-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

“Bipolar”

In Psychology, Bipolar Disorder refers to a major affective disorder that is characterized by episodes of mania and depression.

The term “bipolar” has also become somewhat of a slang term in everyday language. Someone may refer to somebody else as “bipolar” when said person experiences mood swings.

1)

::PICTURE::

2)The word “bipolar” implies that there are two different sides or ends to whatever it is describing. When speaking of the Earth, one thinks of the North Pole and the South Pole. When thinking of electronics, one imagines a device that uses both positive and negative charges. Biologists may imagine neurons, and psychologists would envision a mentally ill person who switches back and forth from periods of deep depression to periods of elating mania. The main point that the word “bipolar” gets across is that whatever it is describing has two extreme opposite ends. A good and a bad, a positive and a negative, a north and a south.

3)In Psychology, labeling a person as having Bipolar Disorder may give others the
impression that an “in-between” or “normal” state of being does not exist for him or her. He/she is either extremely depressed or completely manic.

People with Bipolar Disorder are expected not to live as “normal” human beings do. If they are sad, it is assumed that the sadness is brought on by their depression. If they become angry or excited about something, it is presumed that the emotions must be part of a manic episode. Everything that happens in their life and every emotion they experience, is attributed to their illness.

luciabwrt195

Final Paper for Unit 3

Unit #3 Works Cited

UNIT 3 beginning draft

Unit 3 Abstract

works cited

Final Content Analyses Essay

yes, ANOTHER paragraph

another rough paragraph

more content analyses

Content Analyses Intro and 1st body paragraph

Intertexual Analyses of article

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

Question about blog

Annotated Bibliography

Links to articles

Eubanks Question #5