I would say that those are assumptions for millenials, that is people who are currently between the age of 18 and their early thirties. I certainly wouldn’t expect all of those things of people over 40, for example. Not sure if you’re saying that most people would.
As a person who is well over 40, half of them are inaccurate for me (and another if by cell phone you mean something other than a dumb flip phone).
Since I have been semi-retired, I am often busier than when I was employed as everyone assumes that I can drop everything to help them out or volunteer.
Unfortunately, being semi-retired is not that great on the finances.
A surprising number of over 40 people have tablets. I prefer a laptop (I am 49) but my mother who is 74 loves her tablet as she can see what her grandchildren are up to.
I’m gonna question #3 as being US-centric and a bit rural/suburban in scope. Lots of adults live in cities - particularly European cities where cars (and thus driving ability, and less often even the possession of a license) are an unnecessary expense and bother. When you live within walking distance or have reliable public transport, it serves the same purpose.
Assumptions for ‘adults’
You are either in a long-term relationship or looking to establish one, with the intent to ‘settle down’ for whatever value that has in your region.
You have some means of paying for the occasional leisure activity: going out to restaurants, movies, attending concerts or sporting events, etc.
You are in debt of some sort: college loans, car payments, credit card debt, alimony or child support.
However, I did live in the Netherlands for a year and yes I got by with a bike and used public transit for that year (and occasionally borrowing a car)
However, the freedom of having a car is quite liberating but as you mentioned, very expensive.
Something many people in Europe doesn’t truly understand is the size of the USA and how (outside of the NE corridor) is the literal necessity of a vehicle
Interestingly enough, between most of Western Europe and significant parts of the USA, the differences are not quite as much as commonly thought but that would be the subject of another thread.
My source for that is the students that I taught in that there was not a huge gap between students from Western Europe or the USA.
3.) Kids not deciding not to bother getting a license or learning to drive is a growing phenomenon in U.S. culture.
5.) This one is absolutely not true. It’s a topic of much controversy as to whether immigrants should be required to learn English or not. There is a large segment of the U.S. population that does not know English.
Japan as Western society? How does that work? Kinda turns that whole “west” thing on its head, does it not ;)? And if you include Japan, why not for example South Korea?
When I made the post, I originally considered Western society to be USA, Canada and Western Europe including the UK.
After thinking about it, I expanded the definition to include most of South America, Australia and New Zealand and then decided to include Japan and segments of China as well. Sorry about missing South Korea:mad:
Realistically, I should also include Indonesia as well.
You probably have more experience with that than me but I have found that most young people Worldwide have some basic knowledge of English. (Blame the Internet and Hollywood for that)
I wouldn’t doubt that there are sections of the USA where Spanish is common but even among most Spanish people, U have encountered they usually know some English
