What do you mean we're not all kids here? This is awesome

Yeah its weird to think everybody is old here. I am 17 and yall are about as mature as me.

One of the more disappointing things about growing up was when I realized that "adult" is an illusion and that all the adults I had looked up to as a kid, were pretty much just big babies doing their best in life while often not really knowing what the fuck they were doing. Cobble that with unresolved issues from childhood that has manifested in stunted growth in different areas and there you go.
We are all kids. The only thing that changes except out bodies, is that we gradually learn to deal with the challenges life throws at us so what is insane at 20 is not so insane at 30 and what is difficult at 30 is not that hard at 40 etc etc.
In some ways, it is a relief to know that there is no end stage. You are a kid for life and you learn for life.
- Some other things do change. The brain continues to mature into our 20s, and a lot of people 25+ can start to tell the mental difference between themselves and somebody in their late teens. I personally noticed that I had stronger impulse control after about 25. As well, some of the things that bothered me when younger don't bother me at all now.
  Another change is, as you get older you may start to seek stability over excitement. For some people, they also become more rigid in their thoughts and beliefs, unable to keep up with new ideas, and the idea of changing becomes scary.
  If I could give advice to young folk, I'd say to actively keep your mind open no matter what age you are. Actively seek to learn new concepts and skills throughout your life. Personally, I like to set at least one big goal to learn every year. Last year, I learned to label every country on a map. The year before that, I learned to solve a Rubix cube. One year I taught myself to read the katakana and hiragana scripts.
  Pick something you've always wanted to learn, and keep going at it til you get there. Not only will it help keep your mind flexible, but you'll get to grow in ways that make you into a more interesting person than you were before.
- I don't think there's anything wrong with laughing at the same things you thought were funny at age 10, but at the same time the way we process serious ideas should have more depth and reflect more life experience. More "let me think about that" and less "No U!!!"
A lot of people basically peak in highschool and dont mature much past then. Pretty jarring for people just approaching their 20s who are used to a pretty regular maturity curve in themselves and their peers from ages 0 to 18
Good way to put it. TBH I get the feeling middle schoolers post a hell of a lot more often than older people here.

I figured it was over 30...

I'm pretty sure the average Fediverse user is a 37-year-old male working in tech or IT.
- 37-year-old
  36
  male
  Last time I checked
  working
  Yep
  in tech or IT.
  Ah, driving instructor. Cars are tech, though, right?
  Close enough!
- ... Leave me alone.
- Why yes! This ~~human~~ user here is absolutely right! There is nothing but human males here!
- Darn...I fit all of those except the 37 year old part.
- There are a lot of us non-techies here, but you sure outnumber us
- Oh nice, I'm bringing the average down
  .............just
- Weird thing to think about as a Lemmy instance admin in their mid 20's, and not in tech at all (tech is a hobby)
- Oh man, I'm so seen
I JUST turned 30 last month, does that count?
- Yes
Mostly I wanted to emphasize that we aren't all borderline literal children here, but yes, the average age is probably higher.
- I’m over forty and act like a child constantly

Me approaching 50 in a couple of years…

I, too will be approaching 50 in a couple years...
And a couple years after that.
And a few more years after that.
And maybe several more afterwards, as well.

Y'all are still in your 20s?

Sure, how many twenties we talking though
- 2?

over forty crew, represent

Hang on, give me a second to get up
- I came to lie down
  I came to lie down
  Get on the couch don't make a sound
I got a new knee brace today, took it for a test walk with the dog. Seemed fine. Knee didn't betray me, which was nice.
How you doin'?

Wait, you mean you're all real???

Brb, I need to apologise to my dealer.

upvoting because avatar

Downvoting because Thanos.
- i have no idea what you meant there buddy

Feels like the average age is 15 whenever the discussion topic is political.

No, no, there's definitely an at-least college-age level of idiocy going on in political topics.
- Definite 'never progressed beyond their first year hot takes' mentality in some spaces, but I'd argue an engaged older high-schooler will often end up in similar political boats
- I've ready the wiki for communism. I know what im talking about.
And your instance doesn’t even have hexbear.
I know you are, but what am I?!

We remember what the Internet used to be and naturally gravitate towards that.

I miss the old internet. I feel we lost so much along the way. It was wild, but it didn't feel like everything just existed just to sell you something. Or sell your data.
Eternal September is real.

Almost 50. I'm driving up the numbers here.

In my 40s

I don't believe it, the majority of .ml, -grad, and -bear, have to be about 13yo or my faith in humanity is destroyed.

Yeah look at Lemmy outside of my instance and I really do wonder if these people are adults.
I am convinced that Lemmy tankies are just in it for the sake of belonging in a group, albeit in a toxic way.
Remind your faith that roughly 75 million Americans, all over 18, voted for Donald Trump twice. Might want to have your faith sit down first.
You should really ask us for rent

Let's be honest, Lemmy may not be the most difficult site on the internet, but the fact that it requires more thought than "sign up" is gonna drive away a lot of casual users of social media. Like the young ones.

What is the sign up process like now on something like X or TikTok, phone verification via text message? I might think selfie, but they probably assume you will post those anyway so they don’t even need to ask.
What? I did just "sign up".. What did I miss??
- Choosing an instance
I know for some folks it's a barrier, but this always sounds weird to someone whose registration experience was "haha, funni name" ➡️ types in two fields and presses one button ➡️ fediverse citizen.
Edit: it is somewhat more complicated these days, in that there are now three fields and a captcha.

The few times I've seen a teenager mention their age, they end up with a pack of down voters following them around. I don't know if it's the fact that they are teens or that they tend to post the type of cringe that comes with being young, but it's happened enough times for my inattentive ass to notice

I never had this happen on lemmy. Granted I dont post much at all.

You guys are old. And I say that as someone above 20

The first sign of Reddit going to shit was around 2015 when a bunch of tweens (and then their soccer mom moms) started posting.

The soccer mom moms were first checking to make sure it was a safe site, since Anderson Cooper had recently at the time said it was a site for pedophiles. Then they liked the site more than the kids and started to become mods. And these communities were way bigger than their Facebook groups, and the mods had way more powerful buttons than on their Facebook group. And then sub banning became the preferred method of disagreement rather than downvoting (which was also originally not supposed to be used to express disagreement.) anyway I digress.

The soccer mom moms were first checking to make sure it was a safe site, since Anderson Cooper had recently at the time said it was a site for pedophiles.
I mean, it literally was at one point, considering that r/jailbait was massive.
- There were a ton of creepy subs. At least from what I heard. I didn’t subscribe to those. But the good subs were good. So I felt that blanket statement from AC was kind of a dick move. Especially for someone who considers himself a responsible journalist. Lost a lot of respect for him over that.
AC literally worked for the CIA, and once in always in. Also was a Vanderbilt. Not to be trusted.

That might be average age across the user population, but I would guess the average age across the population of posts and comments is significantly lower.

Where did you come from?

Where did you go?
- (Only old Lemmings will get this reference.)
Reddit, and primarily game forums and Tumblr before that. I was but a sprout myself at the time, though.