单项选择题

In high school, we all get a label: sometimes, it’s one we spend decades trying to live up to; sometimes it’s one we desperately want to leave behind. But are they accurate And how do those labels shape who we become in an age when, thanks to social networks, we don’t really ever leave our adolescent friends behind.
Judging and being judged have always been an unofficial part of the high-school curriculum. Most teens are trying to find out who they are and labels help make distinctions about who they could be, who they’re not, and who they should aspire to be. And those labels have power. "They’re very sensitive to what their peers think of them, in part they’re trying to understand who they are and becoming adults," says Judy Baer, professor of sociology at Rutgers University. "To fit in is important biologically--we live in groups and we all want to fit in."
After high school, whether or not kids are defined by the labels that branded them very much depends on how rigidly that kid adheres to the same systems of structure and hierarchy found in high school.
One important change for this generation is that kids are taking longer to grow up and establish themselves in society as adults. And, while this extended adolescence has been lamented as "failure to launch," some experts say this long period of "emerging adulthood," which can last into the late 20s, could make high-school labels less potent. "The kind of exploration and identity-defining that used to really predominate in adolescence and in the high-school years has largely kind of shifted up the spectrum (范围)now into this emerging adulthood," says Tim Clydesdale, a professor of sociology at the College of New Jersey. "Emerging adulthood," then, gives kids a larger window to figure out who they are and how they define themselves, making the high-school labels just the first step in a longer process of self-discovery.
That might not make high school itself any easier--in fact, some experts think that high school now is harder than ever, since expectations have never been higher for middle-class students, with so few options available to them. "The stakes have gotten higher for middle-class kids. It’s much more difficult to get into the good colleges. And supposed you graduate from those places, it’s much harder to get good jobs," says Annette Hemmings, a sociology professor from the University of Cincinnati. That pressure, is evident to high-school students, who are feeling more and more compelled to perform well m every class and outperform other students--another factor that may diminish the need to fit in. It’s now less about conspiracy than competition.

What do we know about "emerging adulthood" according to some experts（）

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