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There are many different "gaps" in society at the moment, especially if looking at the global population, where resource distribution, opportunity availability and probably the biggest problem that affects most, *wealth inequality* being amongst them. However, I believe there is also a growing *maturity gap,* except it isn't between groups of people, but an individual gap, where physical maturity is outpacing psychological and emotional maturity. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23viLsAcmCMW1gqn12J5NZmMgM5oYdCYCakxHKm7h3RxWxixYcdyuJT8vo9qn6VCYsCVr.png)

> Back in the day...

For instance, kids used to have far more responsibility at younger ages than they do now, at least in what is considered the western world. Kids had to work on the farms, take care of vegetable gardens, and help with the various chores, that would today be paid labour. Essentially, they had to have jobs in the home, from as soon as they were able. This meant that from a young age, they got direct experience and an understanding of their role in a community, and that in order to benefit, they also had to contribute what they could. They might not have been able to add what their parents were, but they could add something.

And over the last few decades, I think we have also been speeding up the "physical" maturation of kids through food and culture. Children are even born larger, with the mean average weight increasing by 7 grams *a year* since 1950, to add about an extra half a kilo (one pound) in total. That is a very, very fast increase, and it comes down to a number of factors, one of the main ones being the amount of sugar in our diets these days. 

But it is more than the physical size, it is also the availability of information. For example, when I was a kid there was a "naughty book" I read when I was about five years of age called ["Where did I come from?",](https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9780818402531/where-did-i-come-from/) a book about how babies were made, with cartoons of a loving couple in bed. These days, by ten years of age, kids are watching hardcore porn and already have developed a choking or foot fetish. You might think that I am exaggerating - but I am *only slightly.* 

Yet, at the same time that kids are "maturing" into adult topics through the content they *are encouraged* to consume, they are also more protected from the realities of life, with safe zones to protect their feelings and ensure their comfort, and psychobabble to give them a label for everything that "doesn't feel good" in their lives. They are constant victims, with confidence that they are always correct. 

I believe that these factors (and more) mean kids are less emotionally mature than earlier, but they *appear* more mature than they actually are, as they are larger, dressing in adult style clothes, watching adult programming, and exposed to topics in ways previously reserved for adults, at ever decreasing ages. However, being larger doesn't change the way the brain works, and being exposed at young ages doesn't necessarily mean it is healthy, because the brain and experience might not be able to onboard the information well. 

I think that in trying to improve the lives of children in an environment that is driven by corporate profit at any cost, we have created a culture and information flow that has created imbalances in individual children, where they are out of alignment physically, mentally, and emotionally. At times they seem older than their years in some respects, but younger than their years in others, meaning that there is a *conflict* in the individual that even the most experienced and wise person might struggle to close - let alone the abilities of a child with low experience in *reality.* 

It is no wonder that children and the subsequent young are struggling with various forms of addiction, from screens to drugs, to depression and the desire to stay youthful forever, partying like teenagers into their thirties, instead of maturing into a family, career, or a value-adding member of a community. It is all about "pleasing the self", which is a *childish trait* at the core, because a child has not yet connected who they are, to their place in the world, and the interrelationships that both bring responsibility, *and reward* to being human. 

As generations change, the people struggling in life are getting older and older, with people in their forties still looking to find a place that their parents had occupied in their twenties. Many are stressed, emotionally drained, and suffering, and they blame *others.* And "others" are to blame, because we have created a world of coddled children, but exposed those same children to ideas that they weren't emotionally developed enough to comprehend, to understand, to engage with. It is a lot like this scene in [A Clockwork Orange](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbeji0Rqz5Y) with the eyes held open to watch images of violence and sex to cure Alex of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

> A disorder with many symptoms on the rise in society today.

Maturity is more than just getting older. There are three parts to us that need to mature within ourselves, and that is the physical, the mental, and the emotional self. Each requires different inputs and experiences and a different nutritional makeup depending on stage. It is like breast milk for a baby, is not suitable for an adult to live off. The food needs to change across each of the components and if we disrupt the timeline, gaps are going to form that can be *very difficult* to consolidate later in life. 

The gaps of the child, become the suffering for the adult.   

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]


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