The modern consumer society creates and uses a new type of people - kidals.
The end of adult humanity
Children grow up, become adults, and more and more responsibilities fall on their shoulders - they need to work, have a family, pay taxes and take part in social life. After reaching a certain age threshold, it was completely natural to take on new social roles and make certain commitments.
This scheme has been in effect for many years, but in the late XX - early XXI century, a lot has changed. Now you can observe how many seemingly mature people actually live the life of children, perhaps on a broader foot - they go to the movies to watch cartoons, buy expensive toys, collect a collection of smartphones and play on a computer.
For the first time, psychologist Dan Kylie spoke about the problem of mass infantilism when he published the book ≪Peter Pan Syndrome in 1983. Men who never became adults≫. In this work, Kylie has characterized some men as “chronically irresponsible” Peter Pans who don't want to work, get married, or have children. All desires of infantile adults are limited to all sorts of entertainment - from computer games to collecting tin soldiers. These ideas fell on fertile soil, and after a few years experts began to talk about the formation of a new type of personality - kidalt (from the English kid - child and adult - adult).
Perhaps such assessments, raising moral immaturity almost to the level of a nervous breakdown, are somewhat incorrect, but it would be meaningless to deny that in recent decades, residents of developed countries are much more likely to encounter social infantilism.
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Fathers and grown children
Manifestations of moral immaturity can be observed in a variety of areas, but psychologists primarily focus on the unwillingness of kidals to create their own family. Some young people, in principle, are ready to live in an unofficial civil marriage, but only on the condition that they can leave their partner at any time. New adults no longer want to share joys and sorrows with each other, to take responsibility for the well-being of another person. As we already wrote in the article “Society of Mutual Irresponsibility” (see “However,” No. 18 (34), the classical value system that puts the family first is losing its relevance, and in developed countries one can observe a radical change in attitude to the institution of marriage People no longer want to sacrifice their personal freedom and their interests for the sake of others. This is associated with the reluctance of infantile adults to have children, which is gradually turning into a demographic catastrophe in developed countries.
But it would be premature to believe that kidalts living in a civil marriage are the height of irresponsibility. At the end of last September, the agency's feed was revived by the news that elderly Italians turned to lawyers with a request to evict their 41-year-old son from home. "He loves to have his things washed and ironed, and the food was on the table," complained the father of the overage Bambino. At first glance, this situation may seem unique, but according to statistics for 2010, almost half of adult Italians (18 to 39 years old) prefer to live with their parents. The Germans are in no hurry to leave their father's house. According to the federal statistics office in Wiesbaden, 63% of young men in Germany live with their parents. The situation is similar in other European countries, as well as in Japan and even the United States. Traditionally, in the States, children left the family nest early, but today the phrase "boomerang children" is increasingly heard - this is the name given to those who, after studying at college or university, return to their parental home, and do not start an independent adult life.
At the same time, the need to live with elderly parents is dictated not so much by the need to take care of loved ones, as by the desire to facilitate their own existence, and not only from the household, but also from the financial side. Some under-adults, even at a very advanced age, continue to exist as a dependent. Scottish Widows researchers note that in the UK there are about 10 million citizens (almost 17% of the country's population) who require material support from their parents, while the "total fund" of such "subsidies" amounts to 55 billion pounds per year.
Work or "fun"?
You should not, of course, assume that absolutely all scammers are not able to make a normal living and fully provide for themselves. Despite the carelessness and unwillingness to take responsibility, infantile adults often confidently move up the career ladder and occupy a high social position. Children who have not yet matured are much more creative and creative in solving work issues. They are ready to take risks and set up bold experiments. These qualities can indeed be key to success in professional fields such as design and advertising. By itself, the career growth of kidals can also be quite peculiar. New adults are much less enthusiastic about linear promotions. They like to 'jump' from one place of work to another,going downshifting, alternating positions, starting a second career after 35, and so on. Restless adult children strive to try everything and go everywhere, but in the end they don't know something really well, they don't become real masters of their craft. In the most popular post “We are children”, claiming the right to be called the “kidalt manifesto”, LiveJournal user fi reba clearly answered the question of what infantile adults want from work: “For us, work is only a means of obtaining funds to get fun out of life.”claiming the right to be called the "kidalt manifesto", the user of LiveJournal fi reba clearly answered the question of what infantile adults want from work: "Work for us is only a means of obtaining funds to get fun out of life."claiming the right to be called the "kidalt manifesto", the user of LiveJournal fi reba clearly answered the question of what infantile adults want from work: "Work for us is only a means of obtaining funds to get fun out of life."
In this case, a natural question is posed: is it good if a "lover to take risks and have fun" becomes a bridge designer, policeman, firefighter or doctor? The series "Doctor House" breaks popularity records, but it is unlikely that real patients would want to be treated under the guidance of such an extravagant physician, who is an example of a real kidult. Many professions today still require responsibility, a sense of duty, obligation, and sometimes self-sacrifice, and infantile new adults do not meet the requirements.
The cure for the fear of growing up
It is obvious that it is still quite difficult to draw up a clear portrait of a kidult, to list his life priorities, goals and values, but it is quite feasible to characterize their level of consumption. Infantile adults are a very promising consumer audience, according to Marketing Research, their purchasing power reaches a trillion dollars! At the same time, scammers, like any children, are ready to spend a large share of their funds on entertainment and games that bring pleasure, and on items that emphasize the charm of their carefree lifestyle.
Ordinary toys are a good example. According to a study by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), 6% of adult respondents bought toys for themselves, while 14% of respondents had such a desire, but they still did not follow the lead of emotions and denied themselves a valuable purchase. It is indicative that the attitude towards adults who are fond of such purchases is quite calm in society. More than half of FOM respondents (58%) are sure that people should not be judged for such behavior.
However, the talk of the town was not the attachment of the kidals to teddy bears, but their obsession with electronic gadgets. High-tech toys, sometimes not worth children's money at all, attract the attention of infantile adults like a magnet. Advanced players, cell phones and tablets, the price of which sometimes exceeds a thousand dollars, are becoming constant companions of infantile adults.
According to the domestic researcher of "new adults" Linor Goralik, kidalts are constantly accompanied by the fear of falling behind and later growing up, while newfangled gadgets turn out to be a cure for this phobia.
In the land of eternal childhood
The topic of growing up in popular culture is almost completely superseded by motives of falling into childhood. Hollywood produces fantasy sagas and adventure novels every year not out of pure love of art. It is naive to assume that the films "The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" received billions at the box office (table) exclusively for the children's audience - many viewers of these films have long crossed the 30-year mark.
Feature-length animated films such as "Shrek", "Kung Fu Panda", "Megamind", "Rango" and others attract special attention of kidalts.
Film critic Andrew O'Hare, in his article "Rango and the Rise of Kidalt-Oriented Animation," notes that movie audiences who come to see such films are "85% 30-40-year-old adults" who are willing to liked pictures over and over again. While children, on whom, as it might seem at first glance, the film is designed, rarely ask their parents to take them to the same movie twice. After all, today's cartoons contain a lot of jokes and witticisms on socio-political and economic topics, ironic ridicule of famous people and quotes from serious works of art, which is still unfamiliar and not at all interesting to young children. At the same time, O'Hare even notes that today, despite the exorbitant number of high-quality animated 3D-pictures,the cinema has an acute shortage of truly beautiful children's cartoons that do not contain any adult overtones. But as long as producers can get fabulous box-office grossing cartoons for kiddies, we probably shouldn't expect a resurgence of children's movies.
However, if full-length animation still somehow tries to identify itself with family films, and not just "pictures for kidals", then a great many animated series ("The Simpsons", "Futurama", "South Park", etc.) positioned as cartoons for adults. These series are saturated with unhealthy cynicism, and along with jokes on economic and socio-political topics, they often raise issues related to family problems, sex, violence, alcoholism and unhealthy lifestyles.
Along with the movie sagas, contemporary literary masterpieces aimed at children are becoming bestsellers among kidals and “works for all ages”. In this regard, researchers of infantile adults often recall a curious example associated with J. K. Rowling's books about the wizard-boy Harry Potter. In 2003, publishers released "Harry Potter" in a special "serious" cover with no pictures so that adults would not hesitate to read these books on the subway. At that time, this event became a real sensation, and many media outlets were surprised: is it possible that children's literature really has so many adult readers. Today everyone can read books about Potter. The total circulation of all seven books about the wizard boy was more than 450 million copies, sales revenues were $ 1.2 billion. Rowling's novel is recognized as a crossover productcrossing age lines and targeting both adults and children.
At the end of the last century, when mankind was just getting acquainted with virtual reality and computer games, many people developed a certain stereotype according to which a gamer is a young man, presumably a schoolboy or student (under 20), spending his time at the computer mediocre. Perhaps 10-15 years ago this description was relevant, but over the years everything has changed. Studies show that the average age of a computer game lover in 2010 was 35 years - children who were once addicted to games have grown up, but have not stopped playing. According to the company Gartner, interest in computer games is growing, and in 2015 the volume of the corresponding market will reach $ 112 billion. And there is no doubt that a fair amount of these funds are provided by scammers.
Pseudostability zone
In the book Why Do We Buy? Motivation and sales strategy "sociology professor Jim Pooler singles out a group of" young adult buyers "(which just include kidals) and notes how irrationally manufacturers act by not analyzing this consumer sector. (Pooler's book was published in 2003, when discussions of kidals and their lifestyles were not yet so popular and widespread.) Marketers need to rethink their position on young shoppers, he said. “Advertising makers should emphasize that this demographic has grown out of teenage desires and fantasies and can spend money on solid things,” writes Pooler. Unbeknownst to the author at the time, adolescent desires would go hand in hand with "young adults"and then always with not very young buyers.
In the last decade, we can observe a gradual erosion of the concept of "maturity" and the emergence of the phenomenon of kidalts, which cannot but cause concern. An independent life ceases to be a value, adults strive to create an atmosphere of a cheerful and carefree childhood, so that later they can live secludedly in an escapist world.
It is possible that the high pace of life, stress at work and a hectic state of affairs are pushing people to somehow adapt to the pace of change. The famous futurist Alvin Toffler in his book "Shock of the Future" noted that it is possible to "survive tomorrow" just by leaving "zones of personal stability." That is, creating "a certain long-term relationship that is carefully maintained, despite all kinds of other changes." With today's lightning-fast pace of life, people have to “choose to change quickly in certain sectors of life and consciously create zones of stability in other places”. One of the palliative options is the rejection of moral maturation and prolongation of childhood and adolescence.
At the same time, the escape from the adult world more and more often turns out not to be a departure to the magical land of childhood, but an escape to a “style supermarket”, where at a quite adult price a big child can buy toys for himself, allowing him to forget about the hardships of real life. In a way, the very emergence of kidals and the widespread occurrence of such a lifestyle can be considered a real victory for marketers. They managed to form a certain type of personality capable of expressing their attitude to life precisely through consumption. However, the challenges of our time require not faceless buyers, who, in principle, do not want to, and in fact are not able to make fateful decisions, take on obligations. Society needs creators and creators who are ready to take responsibility for the future.
Author: Sofia Dokuka
