Younger posters

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This is probably the safest forum to post this, but it's a question I've been grappling with on WrongPlanet for a while.

This is in theory an age related subforum, but other subforums on WrongPlanet bring together all ages, from the very oldest to the very youngest. This means that at any time you will run into younger posters, and sometimes ones who are so called "under age". A poster of that age could respond to you at any time. My personal experience on WrongPlanet tends to be that if someone I know is that age does respond to me, it is necessarily negative. This makes me feel vulnerable on WrongPlanet. Although there's never any evidence of any sexual slur being intended, I feel vulnerable because of the way people sometimes judge bachelors, which I am and which I have been traumatically judged for. In real life I will steer well clear of younger people for my own protection from societal BS, and similarly I will most likely back off from communicating with the younger person on WrongPlanet i.e. by not responding to a post.

A recent example of this I have had on WrongPlanet is when I felt the need to defend a WP member who started a thread, and a younger member attacked the thread topic as being stupid. The thread topic had been my idea and so I felt a need to stand up for the thread starter and take personal responsibility. But I did not do so because the member was 15 and so I backed off from any communication with them. As a tl;dr version, because younger users are around and if they respond to me it's always negative, I feel vulnerable.

I'm not sure it's the same issue, but what I've noticed is that on nearly every forum I like to visit, there's now a much larger population of people under 25, and it makes me feel OLD. But I have noticed that there are very young posters here, and I try to be aware of the audience age in my posts - and it's not even that I ever talk about adult-only issues. In fact I don't like the Adult Autism Issues subforum that much because it seems to always be about sex, and frankly sort of repulses me in that regard. (Why do we call that the Adult Autism Issues forum? Why not the Sex forum?) Most adults I know think about other things too, but oh well.

But I'm quite often aware that what I'm talking about isn't something younger people may have ever experienced, so we're not really on the same wavelength.

I make it a policy on a forum like this not to use private messages very much, if at all.

I hope I'm not too young or something

Well, the younger we are the less etiquette we know, and being an aspie forum that can get even more pronunciated. I'm the kind of guy who enjoys civilized debate, no matter the age of the other participants, but whenever somebody is being plain rude instead of just disagreeing, which is normal and actually stimulating, I'll just ignore him.

So I'd say, sure, some young people may be rude, but not all of them. I know young people here in WP who are quite nice.

I've posted in some of the same threads as you, Shatbat, and no problems at all.

It's not so much that I even mind so many younger people being on the forum, it's more that I wonder where all those who are my age went. I think they're probably on Facebook now instead. I don't like Facebook, tried it for a while and quit. There's not the same depth of communication and discussion there. Hopefully they'll all get tired of it eventually and start posting on forums again.

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nevermind, my post doesn't make sense now...


Also just a general question maybe someone who happens upon this thread may know the answer to....how are you supposed to know how old people are on this site anyways? it doesn't seem to say on peoples profiles usually so aside from asking I don't know though I can guess an age range depending on what sort of life experiences they describe like if they are talking about being in highschool I will assume they are somewhere around 15 to 18.

I have been impressed at the maturity of most of the posters I've seen on this site who are very young. But then again, I have the sense of humor of a 14 year old and at the same time the sense of decorum of an 80 year old.

The few posters I've seen who seemed rude or abrupt I think are probably just being blunt.

Well, I am a young adult, but I enjoy hearing the opinions of more mature aspies, though I don't usually respond to the messages that mature aspies post, out of respect. So I would be pretty disappointed if mature aspies stopped posting in threads where younger aspies post. Hope the few aren't ruining it for you.

I wouldn't worry about being an older bachelor on here. We're aspies and tend to have social difficulties that mean a large percentage of us are in the same boat. It may be unusual to find others your age who are single in the general population, but on WP it is far more normal.

As for age, I wouldn't let it bother me if I were you. Most people here are respectful enough not to look down on others whose issues may differ from their own. Again, this is an autism community. We are all a little odd and have almost universally been bullied. Most people here are not eager to visit that kind of pain on another human being. If they are, I don't think they will last long as either the mods will take care of it or the other members will shout them down and come to your defense.

Age makes no difference to me. You can still correct a minor on here defending another user but you can be soft about it than harsh.

Keeno, a lot of people around your age or older might not be Internet savvy, or they may not have heard of or use Wrong Planet. Maybe they do not like forums, or like to talk on different forums. Not as many older people are diagnosed. Much of the time, younger and older people are on different wavelengths. Nothing good or bad about that, it just is.