Sir, – Fionn Rogan's "Why my generation must fight to secure our adulthood" (Opinion & Analysis, August 16th) is an offensive generalisation to those whole swathes of a generation who have never had the luxury of "infantilisation".
There is no acknowledgement of those of us who held jobs through our Leaving Cert to afford the increased student contribution, who have worked 20-hour weeks and longer throughout our undergraduate degrees to afford third-level education, who have watched our parents struggle through redundancy. Fionn Rogan ignores the fact that, for many of us, the entire notion which we had previously held of both our teenage years and adulthood became warped beyond recognition by recession and austerity.
The social media activity that is decried in the article is often perpetrated by the same people who are pioneering the advocacy of social and economic equality. Progressive attitudes which have become more widespread than ever before in this nation are undeniably a product of this same social media. What Fionn Rogan misunderstands about terms such as “adult-ing” is that, forced to come to terms with the systemic flaws of government and economic machinery as well as the surreal collapse of our aspirations, our generation now also finds itself struck by the sheer banality of adulthood. As recovery entrenches and society begins to recrystallise around notions of life salvaged from a time before the economic crisis, those of us most affected by it protest with the fervent desire for something better.
Fionn Rogan wants us all to grow up, buy property and enjoy paying our taxes. He should know that there are those of us who reject the implications of succeeding our parents and strive for our own identity. Before long, it will be my generation that defines what it means to be an adult. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT KEENAN,
Glasnevin, Dublin 11.