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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3064 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 26, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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While you’re definitely in a bubble, I don’t think it’s an uncommon one. I’m going to guess—and please correct me if I’m wrong—that the group members are (almost) all secular, college-educated urbanites, who spent their childhoods in age-segregated classrooms and extracurriculars, left home at 18, spent the next 4–6 years in the exclusive company of fellow 18–24 year olds, and continued to spend time exclusively with friends and coworkers their own age over the next decade. If I’m right about that, I think your discomfort with age-gap social groups is understandable, but only because you all have spent your lives in artificially constrained social circles.

In contrast, rural people, churchgoers, and those with thick multi-generational communities are pretty used to enjoying the company of people of all ages. It’s inevitable and expected for teenagers to spend time with people who are significantly older than them, and as you get older, it’s unremarkable for teenagers to want to spend time with you. Consider too that most churches’ young adult groups go from 18 to 30 or 35, since people those ages are usually in more or less the same stage of life. But again, if your life has always kept you in pretty narrowly age-segregated spaces, your discomfort shouldn’t be surprising.

In contrast, rural people, churchgoers, and those with thick multi-generational communities are pretty used to enjoying the company of people of all ages.

You don't even need to live in any sort of "conservative" environment. Just have some interests that aren't strictly age segregated or a part time job and you'll end up meeting and socially interacting with a bunch of people of different ages. Back in the 90s I attended a couple of BBS meetups when I was 16 and had no problem whatsoever having discussions with people ranging from my age to those in their 40s (all of who I only knew from online). By the age of 18 I had a summer and then part time job and ended up getting drunk with people ranging from 20s to their 40s. It really isn't awkward if you have enough social intelligence to find some commonality with people who aren't exactly like you.

Sure, teens don't usually want to hang out much with adults but that's because they think adults are "boring" or "out of touch", not because people are being weird about it.

Teens don’t want to hang out with their parents most of the time, but they’re usually pretty happy to hang out with 30 year olds and talk sports or whatever. There’s lots of thirty year old conversations they have no part in, obviously.

that the group members are (almost) all secular, college-educated urbanites, who spent their childhoods in age-segregated classrooms and extracurriculars, left home at 18, spent the next 4–6 years in the exclusive company of fellow 18–24 year olds, and continued to spend time exclusively with friends and coworkers their own age over the next decade.

90% correct, I think once you hit 26-30+ it starts being more common to interact and hangout with 40 and 50 year olds in your extended friend groups if they are at all based around hobbies. It notably never goes the other way as it has in this case.

The flipside also tracks with me as an understanding of the other bubble, one that might be more common among the conservative leaning folks here and why they find my bubble so weird.

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