This morning I read an interesting article written by Jared Erondu entitled You’re Young. I’m 18. So what?. It was a fascinating read detailing his long history with entrepreneurship and a struggle to be taken seriously in an adult world.

Our society is structured so that we separate children from adults in a way that has never been seen in human history until the industrial revolution. In addition to keeping children isolated from adults, we’ve created an in-between stage called “adolescence”, which again, didn’t exist until very recently.

Jared Erondu’s story about having to hide his age because he feared people would judge him not based on his capabilities, but by the perceived capabilities of his peers, is tragic.

I know people who are more responsible at the age of 16 than most adults would ever be. And I know people who are 50 who act like children. So why has our society institutionalized the concept of judging someone based on their age?

I’m very interested in this topic, especially given the ramifications of the Internet. I would highly recommend the book The Case Against Adolescence if you’d like to learn more about the history of adolescence and the motivations behind those who institutionalized the concept.