Quarter life crisis was, until a few years ago, unheard of. What then has led to this new fear affecting young adults? It can probably be blamed upon a number of factors.
Pace of life
With commercialism and consumerism growing at a rapid rate, life has become an activity that tends to be lived in the fast lane, especially amongst the younger professionals. Everything is wanted in a hurry and, unless you can keep up the pace, then your position is under threat, especially at work. The pace of life is such that it does not allow sufficient time for reflection, or to relax and take stock of life. Therefore, acceptable stress levels tend to be breached at a much younger age in the professional field, creating burn out some ten to fifteen years than was the case with earlier generations.
E-commerce
Businesses are increasingly looking for new ways to conduct commerce through the medium of e-commerce. The expectation is that young professionals should not only be able to come up with new and innovative ways of using this resource to attract custom, they are also being set every higher targets as business seek global growth.
The media
Promotional use of the media has seen a subtle change over the past few years. Whereas it use to target the mid-life generation for business advertising, that target age has been reducing, portraying younger successful business people. This puts pressure, real or perceived, upon the young professional to succeed or conversely, not to fail. In addition, with the dotcom boom, the age levels at which you have to have made your mark are being brought down, suggesting that one is past it if one has not achieved in that timescale.
Lifestyle
Again, a combination of the media, peer pressure, subtle targetting by manufacturers and retailers, all suggest that a certain living standard is expected between the mid-twenties to mid-thirties. If not done, then the psychological impact is that one has failed and that there is nothing left to strive for.
Clock change
The affect of global commercialisation has led to a much more flexible working time. The world never sleeps. The biggest difficulty with this is that it has necessitated a much more flexible approach to working, resulting in more hours worked as young profesionals not only have to keep up with targets that require working at customer hours in many different countries, they also find themselves frustrated by the fact that it creates a challenge that few can keep within their office hours.
Communication and mathematical skills. Because the world is smaller there are additional pressures added to the young professionals. They need to be constantly interpreting theirs and foreign customer requirements, and indeed the currency differentials. The reason for this is to ensure that the right levels of profits are achieved for their employers. Misunderstandings in these areas are not acceptable to employers who expect a mutlinational business capability to be second nature.
