Now that I'm not constantly surrounded by college students, I've noticed how other people talk about them. It's not positively.
People will call them "college kids" or just plain "kids" -- even when they're no older than the average college student (25 years old) themselves. This trivializes them and their effort to learn and better themselves by consistently talking down on the entire group. It immediately discredits what they have to say before they even open their mouths. And besides from being entirely annoying, there are some obvious reasons to cut it out.
Technically they're mostly all legal adults.
The average age to graduate high school is 18, making the average age to enter college somewhere at or above that number. Anyone younger would be an uncommon exception. The average student in college is 25. Would you call a 25 year old a child? Would you treat them like one? Plus, I remember seeing older people in my classes all the time -- those who worked for a few years before school, those who were senior citizens taking discounted classes, or people midway through careers going back to qualify for a promotion. Generalizing is not a good way to go here.
Calling them kids is creepy.
Pop culture heavily sexualizes the idea of "college girls" everywhere from radio songs to PornHub. Adding the extra sprinkle of "kid" on top does not help this "barely legal" culture we live in. Just don't.
Many students function as adults already.
They are already adulting: living on their own, paying bills, working a job/internship, taking out significant loans for housing and transportation and putting in hard work. Assuming that every student's parents are paying for their education and housing is very insulting. 4 out of 5 students work while going to school, usually at a minimum wage part time job or at completely unpaid internships. College is so expensive now that you literally can't work your way through tuition bills unless your parents have a lot of money, yet only 27 percent of parents chip in to help. Only 35 percent of students live with their parents.
I get why people do it.
It's because all you see in movies or on TV of college students is this irresponsible, party-going, sex-hungry image of people who don't care about an education at all. And those are not the real faces of our higher education system; those are just entertaining characters made up by a screenwriter. So, to apply the characteristics of this image to the entire real population is plainly ignorant.
Give kudos to students.
They are trying to help themselves. They are working hard and deserve at least credit for their effort. Heaven forbid you go out for a drink on a Saturday night after working 20 unpaid hours and "homeworking" for countless others for your five classes all week long. Respect them as adults if you want them to act like adults.
