Time - USA (2020-09-21)

10 Time September 21/September 28, 2020

TheBrief News

This year, millions of young adulTs

have retreated to familiar territory: living at

home with Mom and Dad. About 2.6 million

18- to 29-year-old Americans started living

with at least one of their parents since Feb-

ruary, bringing the total to 26.6 million in

July—or about 52% of all young adults in the

country, according to a Pew Research Center

analysis, released Sept. 4, of Census Bureau

data. This number shattered the previous re-

cord of 48%, set during the Great Depression.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the trend is inex-

tricably linked to the COVID-19 pandemic,

but that’s not the whole story.

Among that wave of Americans mov-

ing back home was Mieka Van Scoyoc, a

27-year-old ad copywriter. While she loved

living in New York City, she also had credit-

card debt and limited savings and, once the

pandemic closed offices, she didn’t want to

work from home with a roommate in a small

apartment. Now living with her parents in

the suburbs of North Carolina, she feels lucky

to be close to family, and to have fresh air and

open space. “[My] room is comparable to my

entire apartment in New York,” she says.

But Van Scoyoc is also following a trend

that began well before the novel corona virus

struck. The number of young adults living

with their parents rose from a low of 29% in

1960 to 44% in 2010, as Americans stayed in

DESIGN

More-than-one-hit wonders

Most spacecraft are made for onetime use, but on Sept. 6, China successfully recovered a

reusable one after it spent two days in orbit. Here, more multiuse innovations. —Mélissa Godin

MASK CRUSADE

Amid COVID-

supply shortages,

researchers at MIT

and Brigham and

Women’s Hospital

in Boston designed

a sterilizable mask

for health workers,

made of silicone

rubber that can

stop viral particles.

HAVING A BLAST

Fireworks are

fun, but they also

produce trash and

emit pollutants. An

alternative called

Rammaxx uses

LED lights and

reusable rockets to

create sustainable

light shows more

than 300 ft. high.

WASH AND GO

Yes, reusable cloth

toilet paper exists,

and has for years.

Its proponents see

it as eco-friendly and

cost- effective; health

experts, however,

caution that using it

safely requires taking

special precautions

with your laundry.

NEWS

TICKER

DOJ seeks to

defend Trump

in Carroll suit

The Justice Department

asked on Sept. 8 to

take over President

Trump’s defense i n

a defamation suit by

writer E. Jean Carroll,

who has claimed

he raped her in the

1990s. The DOJ

argues it should be

involved because

Trump was acting as

President when denying

Carroll’s charge.

Tensions rise

at China-India

border

China and India

accused each other’s

troops of firing shots

on Sept. 7 at their

disputed Himalayan

border. Indo-Chinese

relations have

deteriorated in recent

months; the alleged

violations of a bilateral

agreement (which both

sides deny) would mark

the first confirmed

shots fired at the

border since 1975.

Police chief in

Rochester out

after protests

The Rochester, N.Y.,

police chief and

other top department

officials stepped down

on Sept. 8, following

protests over the

treatment of Daniel

Prude, who died in

March after police

covered Prude’s head

and held him down. The

chief, La’Ron Singletary,

accused outside groups

of trying to “destroy my

character.”

school longer and put off milestones like get-

ting married. However, this year’s increase is

notably sharp and tracks with the pandemic’s

timing. While 46% or 47% of Americans in

that age group lived with a parent through

2019, the number jumped to 49% in March

and then to 52% from May through July. In

88% of those situations, the young adult lives

in the parent’s house.

Young adults were also the age group most

likely to move as a result of the outbreak—

with 9% moving because of COVID-19, com-

pared with 3% for the overall population,

according to Pew polling in June—though

people of all ages hit the road for virus- related

reasons. Among all adults who moved be-

cause of the pandemic, 28% said they did so

to avoid its spread, 23% because their college

campus closed and 20% to be closer to family.

Money also seems to have played a big

part in young people’s decisions, as young

Americans have shouldered some of the

worst financial impacts of the pandemic. In

April and May, 40% of workers ages 18 to 29

reported that they’d lost their jobs or taken

pay cuts. According to the June poll, about

18% of all adults who moved because of

COVID-19 said the biggest reason was related

to money or losing their jobs.

Van Scoyoc has been able to keep work-

ing, but given the unpredictability of the pan-

demic, she’s still not sure when she’ll move

out of her parents’ house. “It does seem like

it’s not really worthwhile to try to make plans

in the face of this, just because there’s so

much that’s so uncertain,” she says. “I’m just

kind of taking it as it comes.” —Tara law

GOOD QUESTION

How many young

adults moved home

amid the pandemic?

ADAM WENTWORTH—MIT