Purpose confidence taboo

If you are 18-30 you should be looking 

for your self somewhere out there. 

Exactly. Your brain & soul would burn to find that work, those values, that mental state on which your unique life would build herself purpose & meaning. 

Answering that you are 'not really into that research at the moment' is similarly taboo to replying that you 'already got it'. You can't be that ignorant, you can't be that deluded, you gotta be searching.

Strangely, after a certain age, maybe when with children and a decent car, nobody would care to ask. You've done what you've done, they would think.