Age of members (poll)

[Dilman]

I'm 13, just turned a little over a month ago.

[The David]

Originally Posted by Dilman

I'm 13, just turned a little over a month ago.

I'm only five years older than you.

That's cool, though, that there are younger people on here. It seems like the kind of forum that would mostly attract 30+, or at least the post-college crowd.

[Fusebox]

wow heaps of young people in their late teens early twenties!!

Im 26.

[HumbleBeginnings]

Originally Posted by Waiman

Well I sure feel young being only 16 (17 in a couple of weeks), I'd love to see more people in this age bracket on these forums (doesn't look like it yet though).

I'm in that bracket, Waiman! 17 going on 18 in April!

[Cron]

Originally Posted by Fusebox

wow heaps of young people in their late teens early twenties!!

Im 26.

It would be interesting to guess why. Some reasons I can think of that might apply:

1. By later ages, people have settled on how they approach life

2. Many older people do not have time for chatting on internet forums
( hight responsibility jobs, long commutes, kids, chores, spouses etc )

3. Internet forums are still a young person's thing for the most part.

[Megan]

Things I remember:

• The ice man bringing ice with tongs to put in our ice box at home
• Running boards on our car
• A streetcar going by our house on tracks
• A tall, "floor model" radio in our house
• The McCarthy hearings on our black and white TV
• Howdy Doody
• Lassie
• Gun Smoke
• Ed Sullivan
• Martin and Lewis
• I Love Lucy
• Jack Benny
• One-eyed, One-horned Flying Purple People Eater
• My mom doing laundry in a wringer washer
• Learning to sew on a treadle machine
• Learning to type on a manual typewriter
• My dad's excitement at his first handheld calculator--I think he paid $200 for it.
• 5-cent Cokes and Hershey Bars
• Being terribly afraid of catching polio; not being able to go swimming because of polio
• "I Like Ike" buttons
• The first Interstate highways
• Being able to wander all over a small town with my cousin without the growups worrying about us
• War pennies that smelled funny
• The wonderful smell of fruits and vegetables as you walked in a mom & pop grocery store
• The wonderful taste of locally grown old varieties of fruits and vegetables
• Wearing hats and gloves to church
• Wearing nylons with seams down the back
• Learning to drive in the original VW Bug
• People wouldn't talk about sex, alcoholism, cancer, mental illness or d..d..death
• Nobody talked back to teachers, ever! Spit balls were a serious matter!

OK, you get the idea.

[Cron]

Yah, yah, yah.....trends are trends, there are exceptions, but exceptions are exceptions and not trends. Hence the poll results. Good for you!

[Lucas]

I am 28. Is that supposed to be old? Some of my friends say they feel old, but I don't get where they are coming from.

[Leandro Leme]

I´m almost 31 and feeling this is my best time ever!

[esn]

I am 53, began questioning 'reality' at 15 (both common and popular in the 60's). So, I still have questions...

[Bender.PUA]

Heh im 26. Not the age its the number of us that matters. At my workplace i tried to talko about Pd, and they looked me like I am from mars. Somone said: "Why would I wanna change myself? I just need more money." So I think there is a realllly small percentage of people willing to change they'r lives, perhaps 0.5%. Thats why I love each and every one of you

[Ati]

Wow Megan, that's pretty neat to pull out all those things. I'm 53 and I find this just a great time to be alive !

There seems sometimes to be a bit of a difference in our generation (but don't most generations feel this way??) in that first of all I think we thought we might not ever have to "grow up". Then I think we thought we were maybe going to be able to save the world. Then we did grow up after all, but there still seems to be a difference. We still chill out in blue jeans for example. Or something.

Anyway, my daughter's 22 and she knows as much or more about the music and culture of our "baby boomer" generation than a lot of us do. I think our generation for the most part welcomes that and I'll go so far as to say that many of us feel as comfortable interacting with 13 to 20++ year olds as we do anyone else. Of course there's always differences between people.

Has anyone seen Neil Young's 2005 DVD called Heart of Gold? It's a film he did with Jonathan Demme, an Oscar winning cinema director. They made a movie out of a concert which Neil and his friends did at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The idea was that film was to be a tribute to Nashville played right in that famous hall (the "Carnegie Hall" of Nashville, home of Gran Ole Opry and lots of other wonderful Nashville contributions to American music). The tribute to Nashville was to be in concert form, appropriately so. The concert also opened his new CD called Prairie Wind, a CD of songs about just the things people are facing and going through in mid life. Neil was 60 years old when he did this last year. The concert itself included the songs from Prairie Wind but also a whole bunch of songs about friends, parents, youth, age, country, spirituality, marriage. Awesomely beautiful. The filming itself really told the story just as Neil and his friends did. I'd strongly recommend a viewing of this film.

Of significant interest is the fact that Neil was diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm a couple weeks before the concert was to go on. He was advised to have surgery on this ASAP (a cerebral aneurysm is a malformed blood vessel in your brain that can pop and kill you or cause a massive stroke). He said, no not til after concert since everyone had been working so hard to get it all together. On the second DVD, his wife and a couple other bandmembers talk abt this. You can see in their faces while they are playing, that something is going on there.

So, we are a good generation, me thinks!

If ever a group who wants to focus on I-M and other PD topics from the baby boomer generation's perspective, I'd be so very interested in joining up and participating. I'd be happy to see folks of any age participate as well, so now exclusivity intended in this thought.

I'll check back. If we want to try something like this, I'd suggest a specific thread saying something like "Baby Boomers" or "50 +" or something to identify our interest topic by generation or age, just because perhaps there is something we can both learn and offer based on our generation or age.
I think such a thread would fit on many of the boards here....

Anyone game?

All best,

Ati

[Megan]

...but I'm very concerned for the kids--the social markers are dismal.

That said, many of the young people are very advanced--witness this young forum expressing such deep insights--I'm so impressed with them! Something's afoot, for sure.

I think the Internet blurs the generation gap somewhat, and gives young people a voice they didn't previously have, which is wonderful.

I haven't seen the Neil Young DVD--sounds good--I'll check it out.

Hey, start that thread, Ati--could be interesting.

Remember that song:

I'm an old hippie
and I don't know what to do
Should I hang on to the old
Should I grab on to the new....

[esn]

Megan, Ati -

I am pleased to meet you, and even more pleased that we appear to be in the same age group.

Broad generalizations about age groups...
Isn't there a good book about generation X ?
Amazon.com: Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture: Books: Douglas Coupland

Fascinating stuff - I have found more time for sociological examination as I have grown older.

Stumbling into this forum - on New Year's day - has enriched my days. Whatever the demographic.

Best Wishes,
Eric

[Ati]

Would you like to start a 'baby boomer' thread?

What shall we call it? (Baby Boomers PD/ 50's and Kicking/ The World is Flat/ PD in the 50's/ something else?)

I like The World is Flat but it might not be so readily picked up on.

Where shall we put it? We could actually keep it here under General & Introductions until we get a critical mass, then maybe find a place to move it.

Good things about this board is that the age question showed up here and is still alive and kicking after a good 3 months. Also new folks will find themselves more quickly.

Good things about another board is that many folks who have been on the forum may not ever get back to this board (of course here I am....)

Perhaps once this gets off the ground (and I think it will), we could post a thread in whatever boards we are frequenting, directing others to this one...

so whaddyathink?

If I get 3 yays by morning I'll start a thread right here, call it the best name I can either think of or comes through here and we'll have it off the ground! If someone else wants to just go ahead and do it, count me in as a yay

[Ati]

Would you like to start a 'baby boomer' thread?

What shall we call it? (Baby Boomers PD/ 50's and Kicking/ The World is Flat/ PD in the 50's/ something else?)

I like The World is Flat but it might not be so readily picked up on.

Where shall we put it? We could actually keep it here under General & Introductions until we get a critical mass, then maybe find a place to move it.

Good things about this board is that the age question showed up here and is still alive and kicking after a good 3 months. Also new folks will find themselves more quickly.

Good things about another board is that many folks who have been on the forum may not ever get back to this board (of course here I am....)

Perhaps once this gets off the ground (and I think it will), we could post a thread in whatever boards we are frequenting, directing others to this one...

so whaddyathink?

If I get 3 yays by morning I'll start a thread right here, call it the best name I can either think of or comes through here and we'll have it off the ground! If someone else wants to just go ahead and do it, count me in as a yay

[quin]

I'm 20

I can't think of much else to type, but my message was too short.

[esn]

Ati,

I like your idea, and would point out that our goals, the meaning of success, and other personal development priorities change after we reach 50.

Perhaps a new thread is not warranted - with only a few people in our age group it may never reach critical mass (which is the name I would like for the thread, if there were a thread...).

We have reached critical mass (so to speak) at 50.

Best Wishes,
Eric

[Ati]

Hmmmm.....Eric and all

How about "Critical Mass: PD at 50 and Beyond"

A little long perhaps, but we both liked critical mass so why not?

I think it might be real interesting to see just what might happen if we tried this. Maybe something real interesting, maybe not.

I think a separate thread would certainly not exclude anyone but might help us to focus on the particular things you mention, stuff we get into after 50 or so, broadly speaking...it seems it's the content not the age of the poster that would be most interesting to me.

If it doesn't develop a "critical mass" in regards to number of people, it will just s-i-n-k down into the bottom until someone pulls it up again.

I think that a lot of 50 somethings will recognize the number 50 in there and at least take a look.

I got involved in an effort started by another person on the Health and Fitness board. It was about biphasic and polyphasic sleeping. This fellow really wanted to start a thread in which people would post their polyphasic sleep logs as they adjusted their sleeping patterns, just to compare notes. Another person also seemed to like the idea. I joined in because I started biphasic sleeping ('nuther subject and an interesting one at that!). Seemed like quite a long time before we saw other posters. Now there seems to be a real active community chatting up their sleep patterns.

So starting a particular thread can sometimes take some patience.

If you're curious you can check out the two threads which sound something like "Post your Polyphasic Sleep Logs Here' and "Start Biphasic Sleep Here"

Anyway, other thoughts? I'll check back....

Ati

[Megan]

TIC proposed thread title, somewhat borrowed from our Boomer Guru, Ken Wilber.

Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free is a 2002 novel by the philosopher Ken Wilber. Boomeritis, according to Wilber, is the deadly combination of a modern, liberal, egalitarian worldview and a deep unquestioned narcissism.

Boomeritis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I haven't actually read Boomeritis, just excerpts--Ken should probably stick to his day job, according to the critics--but the idea, ouch, has merit.

Just kidding about the title. Yeah--something with '50' in it would draw people in, or 'Boomer' also. As far as where to put it, I vote Character and Contribution, since after 50 most people start thinking about their legacy more:

Character & Contribution
Values, integrity, finding your purpose, living your purpose, serving the greater good, making a difference, changing the world, lightworkers, charity

I think a thread doesn't have to have a lot to traffic to be successful, if it speaks to the people it is directed to, it is effective, even if it's only active for a week. Ideas sometimes take off tangentially, and we don't even quite remember where we got them. Just sow your seeds & let go of the outcome is my 2 cents, FWIW!

Eric, pleased to meet you also!

[esn]

This is getting interesting.
Boomeritis sounds treatable, dreadful, but treatable. But what's in a name...
Where to start ?
Ask me how 30 years of marriage changed my goals - or didn't.
Life is a natural character builder, so Character and Contribution is viable.
Did anyone look into New Passages by Gail Sheehy ? She uses "The Flaming 50s" to describe us. Is 50 the new 30 ? And next is "passage to the age of integrity..."

I'd love to hear more from all who are re-inventing themselves in their 50s.

Thanks,
Eric

[beautyscientist]

I have 46 years of experience to draw on.

[vivling]

heh, I thought I was one of the youngest people. I turned 31 today.

I'm surprised that so many people in their teens and 20s are interested in personal development. I was too at that age, but I thought I was "special"

Every year is getting shorter... I get a feeling I need to hurry. Life is short.