Subject: I felt pretty similar in my first year of university.
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Posted on: 2010-09-23 18:23:00 UTC
I took a year off before starting university, and my birthday is at the start of the school year so I was always the oldest in my class at school. When I started uni, I was nearly two years older than most of my classmates.
A couple times now in the PPC chat, people have made references to high school and even middle school, and when I've asked with trepidation how old people are, they've all been younger than 18.
Now, Laburnum mentioned recently that she'd celebrated her 21st birthday. I was terribly relieved by this, and commented to that effect on her LJ, telling the story of how I feel old in PPC Chat. Someone else responded saying that they'd gotten the impression that there were a lot of older folks on the boards. Then I just saw a post about someone having a child, which I assume/hope means adulthood age. ;)
So... What is the average age on the PPC board? I'm twenty-four. Twenty-four is not old. Please reassure me of this?
Since we're joining in . . . I'm twenty-two. I guess at the age I started *reading* the PPC I was high school aged. And then I disappeared for years before returning. Anyway . . .
It would be most unsettling if we were indeed all high schoolers or teen squealers. No offense to high schoolers. I am one.
Oh, by the way... HAPPY BIRTHDAY LABURNUM! Chocolate all around!
So in some ways, I'm an old dame of the Board. In others, I'm a youngster. *dramatic sigh* Ever the middle child . . .
For what it's worth, age is even harder to determine on boards like this; an attention to grammar, spelling, and story construction can create a maturity of communication that doesn't always correspond with the age we associate with said maturity. I remember being a fourteen-year-old roleplayer back on a dinky little Tripod site, having guys assume I was in my twenties. It's amazing what the ability to communicate will do for ya. :D
There used to be a couple more boarders (gundamkiwi, Rez, nscangal and eris86) who were all approximately the same age as me (give or take a year), but alas we haven't heard from any of them for a while.
Elcalion, delurking after his return from holiday in NZ.
I lurked around for a good while when I first found this place at 14. Wow, I feel relatively young now.
My birthday's 3 October. You're not the only one who thought the makeup of the PPC was younger than it apparently is.
Regards,
Lleu
Okay, so I've only just found the PPC - and this board - but I'm 33. Not the oldest, judging by the replies, but apparently well over the median age.
Whereas Meip, my little sister, and partner here, is 20.
To clarify, I rarely ever feel old; PPC chat was one of the first times it's happened! (Well, once in a while at work, too. Working with adolescents will do that.)
It's just /weird/. For the longest time I was the youngest in my social group. Nowadays there's occasionally someone younger than me in any given group! I'm /aging/, it's craziness. :D
I'll be 25 on November 23rd, for the record. (Ooooh, 1/4th century!)
I took a year off before starting university, and my birthday is at the start of the school year so I was always the oldest in my class at school. When I started uni, I was nearly two years older than most of my classmates.
Frankly, I consider myself one of the younger ones.
Twenty-four is notnotnotnotnotnotnotnotnotnotnot old. Not. I may not have stressed that enough, but I can say I tried very hard. However, I think that as someone of average height may be compelled to think themselves short among people who just happen to be taller, someone who is not old may think otherwise when among a younger crowd. Perspective is funny like that.
Am I telling you to spend time with those older than yourself? Your choice. I think I was just catching on to the reassuring thing. Maybe I actually made sense. =D
I'll turn seventeen on November...
I'm turning 19 on the 30th. I could have sworn that there were only a handful of people around here who were younger than me, but it seems like I was mistaken.
Physically, anyway. If we're talking mental self-perception, then it's gonna be a lot harder nailing down a specific number.
Next Friday.
Not!old PPCer is not!old.
In my case, it's because I joined when I was 18 and then never left. I'm either immature, stubborn, or loyal, or maybe some combination. Though mainly I'm just not done writing about my agents yet. *g*
At some point we thought sixteen to eighteen was the average age, so that may have gone up a bit--partly because of hangers-on like me, no doubt. But also, that seems to be the age when many people begin to grow out of Suethorism, so it's a good age for joining up here. That's my theory, anyway.
~Neshomeh
I feel old having a two in the tens column...
Seems to be a popular age.
ANd I'm quite surprised too. I thought I was one of the youngest here. (Well, somehow I still am. But not so much as I believed.)
I don't feel twenty-seven... weird...
I, too, am twenty-four. That means if you were old, I would be old too. That would not be an acceptable situation. Last time I checked, I still had a good seventy-five years or so of reading left!
I'm just glad we've got this cleared up.
Not counting my brief stay in '05-ish, I came to the Board at sixteen or so, since it was Spring '08 when I came back. Wouldn't say 24's old, no, but who'm I to talk? At eighteen I feel like I'm pushing eighty, heh.
Happy birthday!
Agents Miah and Cali bring you a seventeen foot long, multicolored, wool, knit scarf, and a bag of jelly babies.
Agents Kelok and Unger bring you a small bag of Victorian money, an era appropriate pair of handcuffs, and a fresh bucket of ale (drink or refrigerate quickly--the pub they stole acquired it from, didn't practice pasteurization.)
I'll be twenty-one next month. (Old enough to drink, if only I hadn't left the US for a country where drinking age is eighteen! And if only I drank! Alas.) I was thirteen when I joined the Board, and it was mostly late-teenagers then. But I think the average age has gone up somewhat.
As for twenty-four, no, twenty-four's definitely not old. You're just fine.
. . . twenty-five on the other hand is practically ancient. It's half of fifty. It's a quarter of a century. It's basically just old.
Incidentally, Huinesoron will be twenty-five in January. :P
I'm 14, and you're not old. I thought most PPCers were a lot older than me. Now I don't know.
I'm fifteen. Is that a lot?
Not really. Still makes me the youngest, though. *pouts*
We do have a higher density of younger people in the chat, that's true. When I joined, it was mostly twenty-somethings, with the occasional Real Life Adult of thirties or, in one case, fifties. As for me, I'm twenty.
I happen to be 19 years old, but that doesn't stop me from acting like a stupid kid.
._.
You're not old. I'm about the same as you are, and Pads - who just left - is older. So's Trojie, who's technically still here. The average age is under twenty, I think, or just at. I can't remember where July's survey results are, but at the time it was taken, our oldest member was thirty-two, I think, and nineteen different people were aged twenty or above. So don't worry :)
I turned 22 last month, and I still feel young... then again, I joined the PPC when I was 19, and this place keeps you young. :D
I turn 21 on Jan 15th. *offers chocolate* You're not old at all.
I'm actually more excited about getting a new picture on my driver's license than being able to drink. *shrugs*
You, PoorCynic, and I can be birthday buddies. We should have a combined b-day bash on the Board when the time comes.
I frequently feel old in chat, but then I think I may be the second oldest current/active member. I just turned thirty-one, but I think my actual age has less to do with feeling old there than the fact that I have a lot less internet experience than a lot of the younger users. Sometimes in chat I get flashes of how my Granny must feel when confronted with such hi-tech objects as universal remotes and programmable DVRs. Plus, I started kids rather early (I have three boys ranging in age from 10 1/2 to 2), so I am at a lot different stage of life than most here seem to be, which also makes me feel old.
I'm kind of glad that I'm not the only one that feels like that sometimes. All that said, I believe the survey July did earlier this year put the average age at almost twenty-one. I don't remember if it mentioned the mode age.
Being second oldest. At least, I'm older than you. There were some people older than me, but I haven't seen them in ages.
Old is relative. A few years ago, my two office roommates who are both four years younger than me, were having a kid or buying a house and getting married, and I thought they were doing these I associate with people much older (read mature) than me. Perhaps this is because, as my mother says: I still live like a student. Though that might have been because I still had all the same furniture I had when I was a student. (If it ain't broken why replace it.)
On the other hand, I have to think about how old I am, if anyone asks, because the age that I say spontaneously lies a few years below that. Then again, people who try to guess my age always guess five years younger, and I don't think they are trying to be polite.
Come on now, twenty-four, old? Honey, your life's hardly even begun yet.