Are you ever too young to be doing something?

Have you ever noticed how the world’s “success age” is shrinking?

The average age for a person to be called “successful”, financially, socially, skill-wise used to never be below the age of 30 in the previous decade.

Today, people are starting seemingly “adult” lives in their early twenties, late teens, some even before they reach their teens!

You have all these reality shows that are specifically for kids; MasterChef, Dance India Dance, Indian Idol, where kids that are 10-12 years (what?!) are expected to cook and dance and sing as well as professionals do.

It may or may not be appropriate, but is it the right thing to do?

The beauty of growing up is that you get to make mistakes, and learn and grow.

Ignoring the fact that their childhood is destroyed, kids these days are being subjected to the ways of an adult’s life that they are clearly too young to experience. The amount of stress that those kids in the shows may be experiencing must be tremendous. And their life path is being decided even before they have the chance to explore the world around them.

The accepted age for doing something is certainly decreasing, but I see it as a counterproductive trend.

The beauty of growing up is that you get to make mistakes, and learn and grow. You get to experiment and learn. You get to dabble around aimlessly enjoying the world.

There is something that is “too young” to be doing something, according to me. And I’m certain the trend today is eventually going to be a downward spiral.

What do you think? Is there such a thing as being “too young” to be doing something?