If you’ve recently typed “how to make friends as an adult” or “how to file taxes as an adult,” you’re not alone. In 2025, the phrase “as an adult” has exploded in search queries, memes, and TikTok videos—pointing to a growing emotional and cultural phenomenon: many adults feel lost, unprepared, or unsure of what they’re supposed to be doing.
Google Trends
The Phrase “As an Adult”: What’s Behind the Words?
The phrase “as an adult” isn’t just grammatical. It’s often used to frame something people feel they should already know how to do—whether that’s cooking a meal, dealing with loneliness, or managing money. It’s become a shorthand for feeling unequipped for responsibilities that society assumes come naturally after a certain age.
This links directly to the concept of “adulting”—a popular term among Millennials and Gen Z to describe performing grown-up tasks like budgeting, buying insurance, or scheduling dentist appointments. The viral usage of “as an adult” often overlaps with the feeling that adulthood is a performance, rather than a natural identity.
While older generations often associate adulthood with clear milestones (marriage, mortgage, children), today’s young adults face economic precarity, housing instability, and delayed transitions—which can make even basic life tasks feel overwhelming.
New York Times
A major reason for the spike in “as an adult” searches is the growing life skills gap. Many adults report not learning essential tools like financial literacy, emotional regulation, or cooking in school or at home. In the U.S., only 17 states require a personal finance course to graduate high school.
CNBC
This lack of preparation feeds a sense of shame or inadequacy when young people hit 25 and still feel unsure how to register to vote, find a therapist, or fix a leaking sink.
Social Pressure to “Figure It Out”
Culturally, adulthood still carries a heavy expectation of competence. People feel pressure not only to act mature but also to look like they’re thriving—owning homes, cooking well, having stable relationships, and “doing life right.” The mismatch between expectation and reality often fuels imposter syndrome, leading people to look for guidance in search engines, Reddit threads, or TikTok explainers.
psychologytoday.com
TikTok has become a hub for “as an adult” content. One viral video shows a woman tearfully admitting she doesn’t know how to do taxes “as an adult.” Another features a man excitedly showing off his new broom, captioned: “This is what happiness looks like as an adult.”
These posts blend humor and vulnerability, reflecting a collective sigh of relief: “Oh, it’s not just me.”
People are not just searching for “how-tos”—they’re searching for belonging. Googling “as an adult” often leads to community forums like Reddit’s r/AskMen or r/FemaleDatingStrategy, where users admit they don’t know how to make friends, deal with grief, or build routines.
These forums serve as digital mentorship spaces, offering empathy and answers where institutions have failed.
The Role of Economic Instability
Behind the “as an adult” anxiety is a deeper reality: economic conditions have changed drastically. Gen Z and Millennials face lower job security, higher student debt, and skyrocketing housing costs compared to previous generations. Many feel stuck in limbo—too old to lean on parents, too broke to buy freedom.
This financial fragility makes every “adult” decision feel heavier—because the cost of error is higher, and the safety net is thinner.
The Myth of the Competent Adult
Perhaps the most subversive power of the trend is how it punctures the myth that adulthood is a destination. Instead, it paints adulthood as a series of experiments, failures, and small joys. Saying “as an adult” is often a way to laugh at the illusion of having it all figured out.
This reframing helps individuals embrace a more realistic, flexible definition of adulthood—one that allows room for growth, mistakes, and learning at any age.
Toward a Healthier Adulthood
The popularity of “as an adult” points to a need for systemic changes:
- Life skills education should be more accessible in schools.
- Workplaces should support adults with flexible schedules, mental health care, and financial literacy tools.
- Society should abandon rigid timelines and celebrate diverse paths to maturity.
Adulthood doesn’t need to be lonely or opaque. It can be collaborative, transparent, and shared.
People search “as an adult” not because they are failing—but because the expectations placed on them are often unrealistic, unspoken, and unsupported. The trend is not just about content. It’s a cry for clarity, empathy, and updated roadmaps.
If adulthood once meant power and stability, today it often feels like uncertainty wrapped in a credit card statement. But in sharing that confusion, people are building new forms of community—ones where asking questions is the first real sign of growing up.
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