Into the Great Wide Open

A simple declaration to start: in the US, many young people embark for higher education after graduating high school (about 62%, as of 2022). Typically, the college student is somewhere around 18-22 years old. Earth-shaking facts from John today.

It goes without saying that an opportunity to attend college is an immense privilege, especially if the lofty bills are footed by parents and/or scholarships. This is well-known, and often a topic of debate when discussing income inequality.

My topic today is on another, less-discussed benefit of college. And, to clarify, I’m speaking predominantly about colleges in the US, as that is my familiarity.

You’ve heard the stories from your crazy uncle; you’ve seen the movies, too. The stereotypical college experience is one of a robust social life, heightened freedom, and few responsibilities. Many students are out of their parents’ home for the first time, and most are not yet working full-time. On top of that, it’s one of the great frontiers of life. The future is wide open. These ingredients combine for the perfect fusion you’re about to read up on (assuming I don’t lose you).

It often feels like college is as much a social endeavor as it is an academic one. For the sake of clarity, allow me to simplify: an institution is established, one which attracts young people from all over the area to meet up together, like a networking event… for two to four years. In many cases, these young people, upon arriving, encounter the ecstatic reality that they have a campus, area of town, or even the town in its entirety, to themselves. It’s no coincidence that college towns exist. Even colleges that sit within much larger cities often strive to have a “campus feel” to them. How peculiar… it’s as if they want to separate themselves from their broader surroundings. Why might that be? In my view, this seems to give these budding adults the opportunity to be away from the influences of an established society. It allows them to question, to grow, to mix among social groups, and to test the limits of their evolving individuality, all in an environment that seems uniquely curated for this purpose. Out from the confines of their family structure, they now have a flourishing social pool to swim in… developing, learning, loving, failing, and working together, separated from the broader influence of the world in which they find themselves. I suppose I should address the question: why is this necessary? Doesn’t this just insulate them from reality? Given its temporary nature, I argue it usually doesn’t. The benefit is this: any given generation will one day run much of the country, and as we’ve found out, a nation can hardly be run by people who know nothing of each other, who can’t empathize with each other. Ironically, I imagine it’s for this reason that we allow this sort of temporary isolation tank to exist. Away from outside pressure, it gives young people the chance to form a collective identity. It continues because we seem to love the idea of young people developing alongside their contemporaries, separated from the standards and the norms. One might remark that colleges exist across the country, and that even after forming identities in one region, this doesn’t guarantee, or even hint at the likelihood of students from Berkeley finding commonality with students from Auburn. But, such is the nature of a large country. There will be differences, disagreements, and frankly, people can be wrong about this thing and right about that one. I don’t think this fact sways the idea that college is a helpful broadening period for young adults, regardless of region or disposition. Moreover, cross-country travel is more accessible than ever before, and the ubiquity of social media makes for a higher-than-ever amount of interaction between said regions.

One final issue pertinent to this discussion is the rise of remote schooling seen during Covid. Doubtless, remote schooling increases accessibility, so I argue it’s important to keep. But, I think it would be a disservice to make this the norm. I don’t have the numbers. I haven’t conducted the decades-long studies, so I can’t say definitively just how advantageous the experience is on generational development, but it seems to me that young adults are better for having the opportunity to live, laugh, love among their peers!

Now, the grand question is: how can we ensure that this opportunity becomes accessible to all young people, regardless of financial status? I would argue it’s in our best interest as a society that we increase cohesion among socioeconomic classes. In a world of complexity, scarcity, injustice, and nuance, there’s no greater starting point than to first understand each other.

That’ll do for now. War Eagle.

-John

Note: this is not an endorsement of a perpetual separation of generations. I only mean to discuss the benefits of a short-term separation. On the whole, it seems especially valuable that people of all ages should be familiar with each other, to the point of living together, as I mentioned in an earlier article, The Fear of the Future Self.