Why is the Idea of Adults Expecting Others to be Mature so Irritating to Me?

[stargroup100]

I will admit I haven't had much time to think about this but from just cursory scrutination, I think the point of social norms that are not "obvious" is two-fold. They create a standard that can potentially reduce conflict and misunderstanding when two sides of an issue are both valid, and they tell people what is acceptable or unacceptable because someone doesn't believe the majority is capable of coming to that conclusion on their own. But they're still social norms, and not rules or laws. While society does pressure us to conform to these norms, (at least in our US government) no one is forcing us to.

I think you guys covered this already, but I'll summarize from a different point of view. When most people use the word "mature" in this context, they're probably referring to traits that pertain to a person being independent, responsible, and respectful. These are all positive traits. There's nothing wrong with wanting a person to be better. People that fight this are usually more concerned about personality. They don't want to sit there and be boring, inactive, calm, whatever personality traits people associate with maturity. Personality is something you can't and shouldn't change, and this is not what maturity is about. It's a matter of speaking the same language here.