H
Halo
Guest
Original poster
That's pretty normal, as everyone here has testified. It's tradition for us all to attach meaning to age, particularly at points we consider milestones - becoming a teenager, or an adult, or whatever. It's also become a running and tired joke to point out how you don't suddenly wake up on the day you turn 18 and suddenly feel different or more mature, and don't know any more about politics, the economy, and responsible drinking than you did before. People very rarely change in any dramatic way - the changes are small and subtle and take a long time. I don't think most people are fundamentally different when they're 30 than when they're 20, or when they're 40 than from being 30, and so on. Life lessons may be learned, but deep down people are who they are.
So why would you be able to tell their age online? At a certain point, people sort of settle into who they're going to be on a core level for most of their lives. They won't seem that different from year to year. Talking to people online is actually probably the best way to exemplify that fact - in this community there are people spanning two or three decades of age, and they all get along just fine. And as your experiences in the real world broaden as you get older, you'll tend to notice the same thing - you'll go to work and find people there of all ages, and there's often no age-caused barrier between coworkers getting along. Because in the end, people are just people. Your birthday teaches you nothing, regardless of how many of them you've had.
So why would you be able to tell their age online? At a certain point, people sort of settle into who they're going to be on a core level for most of their lives. They won't seem that different from year to year. Talking to people online is actually probably the best way to exemplify that fact - in this community there are people spanning two or three decades of age, and they all get along just fine. And as your experiences in the real world broaden as you get older, you'll tend to notice the same thing - you'll go to work and find people there of all ages, and there's often no age-caused barrier between coworkers getting along. Because in the end, people are just people. Your birthday teaches you nothing, regardless of how many of them you've had.