These days, many university students lack responsibility. University students are undoubtedly adults. However, it is certain that they are unfamiliar with the thought that they are adults because of their status as students. If someone becomes an adult, he or she can have a wide choice of their actions and much more freedom. If someone only cares about freedom and doesn¡¯t care about responsibility, that is not the behavior of a mature adult. When we pass a certain age, we can be adults, but that doesn¡¯t mean time makes us mature people naturally. It is important that we should be conscious of the idea that we are adults and have adult responsibilities.
University students¡¯ lack of responsibility can often be seen when they are doing group assignments, which is a task where team members should cooperate with each other. However, there are those who are going to jump on their team members¡¯ efforts and never participate in the task at all, or their contribution is conspicuously low. Many people express this situation metaphorically as, ¡°They get a free ride.¡± There are a lot of people who cause harm to other people in group activities because they think, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s only me.¡± However, there are also many cases that cause harm to others in long-term group activities where an individual¡¯s role is more important than in the short term. Those who quit their activities during the assignment even though their duty is important not only lack responsibility but are also selfish.
Even though many people act without responsibility, they don¡¯t expose themselves to other people as being irresponsible. When applying at a company, irresponsible people will try to package themselves as being a person full of responsibility, as they did when applying for group activities or clubs. Companies now require interviewees to do group tasks to filter these people out because no company needs people who have no responsibility.
If someone quits his or her task just because he or she doesn¡¯t like the task or the task is tough, there is high possibility of giving up any task that will be given to them. They may think, ¡°I¡¯m still a student. I won¡¯t do like that later when I get a job,¡± but what I want to ask them is, ¡°The thing that you can¡¯t do right now, can you do that even when you get a job?¡± An old saying has it that old habits die hard. If the behavior is repeated, they will finally give up the things that they think are important when getting a job. University life is also a social life and a process that we should go through before we meet the wild sea of society. I hope university students will become real adults who have responsibilities, not only physically older people.