From the NYT Mag:

Is adulthood now so malleable, with marriage and employment options constantly being reassessed, that young people would be better off just getting started on something, or else they’ll never catch up, consigned to remain always a few steps behind the early bloomers? Is emerging adulthood a rich and varied period for self-discovery, as Arnett says it is? Or is it just another term for self-indulgence?

I’d say more self-indulgence. This is not necessarily a bad thing–on the whole, I’d say that things like, say, Teach for America were less harmful than the super-driven, high-achieving folks who came up with mortgage-backed securities.