Excellent news for anyone who hasn’t reached the big 3-0 milestone yet: science says you aren’t yet an adult. And as such, you can continue Googling how to boil an egg or spending hours scrolling through Instagram – because that #adulting hashtag isn’t yet applicable to you.
In a story for BBC, Professor Peter Jones of Cambridge University in England says that new research shows people don’t become an ‘adult’ until around the age of 30.
The BBC reports that scientists who study both brain and nervous system function have found the age at which you become an adult is different for everyone, and although you might be legally allowed to drink, drive, vote and get a credit card at 18, most human brains are still undergoing changes which can affect behaviour and mental health at this age.
“What we’re really saying is that to have a definition of when you move from childhood to adulthood looks increasingly absurd. It’s a much more nuanced transition that takes place over three decades,” says Professor Jones, who is one of several experts taking part in a neuroscience meeting hosted by the Academy of Medical Sciences in Oxford this year. “I guess systems like the education system, the health system and the legal system make it convenient for themselves by having definitions.”
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