Age of Members (poll)

[Brutha]

After we asked over a year ago after your age it would be interesting to know how much the average forum member has aged in that time.
Did new member join and made the forum a bit younger or did older members join and increased the average age?

For the record, I am 21.

[Erki]

Whew, this half a year has gone pretty slow then if it feels like a year.

I'm now 20 - no longer a stupid teenager, just an immature adolescent.

[Zaulche]

I was not expecting the results that I found upon voting. I was expecting more people towards the 30 to 40 age range, since that is when I read about a lot of people realizing the things that lead to a more fulfilling life of personal growth.

Instead a majority of the people are actually around my age. I am glad to see my peers sincerely interested in self-improvement.

[MsQ]

I like the fact that the question is, "How Young Are you?" (instead of how old!)

I was surprised at the predominance of 18-23 year olds. I would think people in my age range - early 40s (or late 30s) what I think of as the "mid-life crisis" age range would be the heavy-weights!

Or maybe we don't vote? I admit that I am not a "joiner" type and it took me a while to join the forum itself so I wonder if that plays a part? I've always been interested in personal development but never in joining so maybe not...

[Zaulche]

Greetings MsQ,

I thought the same thing you did. I was definitely surprised at the results, but maybe you are on the right track.

Maybe the group that predominately visits this site for the personal growth material is not the same as the group that predominately posts in the forums. I know my mother (early forties) reads articles online, but she does not post in forums. She still prefers talking to people in person or on the phone. My step-father (same age) however does post in the forums, but on less topics than I would (early twenties).

Unfortunately, I will never know if that is the reason or not, since i am younger than the audience in question (and even if I was the same age, everyone thinks and acts differently, so I might not actually have any more insight).

Do more of your friends spend time online, or do they spend more time offline with other people?

Regardless, it is still nice to know that I was not the only one that was surprised by the results.

Hope you have a great learning experience,
John

[Gene]

I am 60 years old now but on September 2nd I will be celebrating the 22nd anniversary of my 39th birthday.

[Zukin]

According to the transhumanists and Ray Kurzweil, within a couple of decades we'll have the technology to stop aging and then reverse the aging process a little bit later than that. When aging is no longer an issue, I wonder if people will be more immature or less immature

[MsQ]

Originally Posted by Zaulche

Do more of your friends spend time online, or do they spend more time offline with other people?

Most of my friend are like me - they work in tech so they have to be online most of the time. Then they come home and don't turn on the computer! They try to spend time with family and friends during the little offline time they have. Most are around my age and really aren't 'joiners' either and fairly private, too. I can't say they are exactly representative of the general population of people in their 40s!

[trustyruss]

i am 47 and 2/12ths but they say you only as old as the woman you love...............so i am actually 31 and 10/12ths !!!! cool eh?

[Sam988]

Wow no one aged 65+ interesting..

The only reason i can think of is that people aged 65+ on average don't use the internet as much as the younger people.

[Livgivare]

I am 25 years old, a bit immature too...

[JCP]

Geeze alota young things here! haha

[Andypants]

Woah snap! Hi five! to all you others youngens out there.
Deffinatly a suprise i was expected a similar crowd to what you'de see at a chess compitition.
But then again i know if i spoke to my parents about spiritual advancement they'de tell me to snap back to realitly. This sorta shizzle is for whackjobs according to them. It seems like the world is finaly awakening to the bigger picture. With each generation the spectrum of spiritual growth grows, with more appearing at each end of the scale.
Amen to that! Im all for diversity.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Sam988

Wow no one aged 65+ interesting..

The only reason i can think of is that people aged 65+ on average don't use the internet as much as the younger people.

That's probably a big reason. But I can think of other reasons: Those who are 65+ have lived 45+ years as adults. So they've either figured their problems out and live the life the way the want and have no need for this, or they've already giving up on changing themselves in any way. Not to mention, when the sunset appears in your life, I'd imagine you have less of an incentive to go through the effort and trials of starting to change and grow vs when you have many "guaranteed" decades ahead of you.

At least, that's the way I've seen it in my family - those who were into self help in their younger years aren't into it anymore, and those who've never read explored self help aren't about to start.

[pixartist]

I too was surprised by the age range. Typically, my experiences working with people is that the 40-60 year olds are the one's who finally start to grasp the concepts of spirituality. Perhaps the older age group are grasping this from the heart, instead of the mind? For example, I personally studied spirituality in college, learned from one of the pre-eminant parapsychologist in the country, yet I didn't really fully understand all of this until it reached my heart.

Perhaps, the poll just simply signifies that younger people embrace internet forum technology more than older people?

[haydenlaw]

I'm one of the old crowd - late '60's. As someone pointed out, a lot of the people in my age range have either already resolved these issues, or have given up trying. For me, the situation is that I'm coming off a pretty bad start in life, and so, even at this age have a lot left to do. However, I've done enough already to know that growth is always possible. I'm still looking for better ways to do what I know I want to do, and also better tools to do it with.

As for how I look at my age - I don't think of myself as x years young. That makes it sound as though youth is entirely better than age. In fact, I've always appreciated what the years have brought me, even though I wish now that I had made some better decisions in my youth such that my health now were better.

Haydenlaw

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by haydenlaw

I'm one of the old crowd - late '60's. As someone pointed out, a lot of the people in my age range have either already resolved these issues, or have given up trying. For me, the situation is that I'm coming off a pretty bad start in life, and so, even at this age have a lot left to do. However, I've done enough already to know that growth is always possible. I'm still looking for better ways to do what I know I want to do, and also better tools to do it with.

Congrats on keeping on growing. When I'm your age, I still want to be growing and exploring new and better way of experiencing the world.

As for how I look at my age - I don't think of myself as x years young. That makes it sound as though youth is entirely better than age.

Good way to look at it.

[Ahora esta claro]

I'm a 42 years old guy feeling a little bit old in this forum but very, very happy to have found Steve Pavlina's web site. Personal growth, in my opinion, is the only choice we should follow.
Thanks