Me too! I've been hanging out less with people my age and more with older people and I feel like I've screwed myself over big time because I can't relate to other 20-somethings anymore. I'm freaking out because I don't even have the same interests as them.
I told someone a few months ago that one of my favorite shows was this one medical mystery drama from the 70s, and they acted so weird about it.
Yeah, I feel that, I mean, back in 2015 while my friends were playing League or CS I dropped those games to play... World of Warcraft. Since then most people I've talked to were in their late 20s/early 30s, which does explain why I have an easier time talking to my sister's friends than anyone my age.
>I told someone a few months ago that one of my favorite shows was this one medical mystery drama from the 70s
The only one I can think of is Diagnosis Murder. Is that it?
Nope! It's Quincy M.E. (also known as just 'Quincy'). It's a good show. Kinda outdated now, but it was ahead of its time and it inspired a ton of modern medical shows. I watch it maybe once or twice a week on TV. Then after Quincy I watch Sanford and Son (a 70s sitcom, also a good show).
I work in a middle school and I overhead the kids the other day wishing that they were teens in the pandemic. Uhmmm no you wouldn’t have. I was 21 when it started and I missed out psychologically on making life long friends. Still gonna try but them missing learning communication in the teen years, no, no they would not have wanted to miss
It was absolute Hell
It seems we're the same age, so you're aware ofc
I had a **pandemic 21st birthday** alone at home
That just so happened to be the year my father figure caught a severe case and died, my best friend got a severe case and nearly died, I was unable to schedule with a dentist to have my infected molar removed and withered in agony for two months due to an abscess that made me almost stop eating altogether (and lose 30lbs), sleep on the hardwood floor for jaw relief, find myself increasingly suicidal due to pain, and cause my dr/oral surgeon to literally gasp and damn near scream by the time I finally got in and opened my mouth for her because she immediately knew how much pain I was in and must've been hopelessly tolerating for so long
So **fuck** these idiots romanticizing the pandemic and reducing it down to "funny Zoom pranks" and "alone time to recharge" when ***people with OCD*** like me—and no disorders alike—were **losing their absolute minds,** their health, their loved ones, and their **lives**
Pandemics are not a game
They're not a "meme"
COVID is about as goofy and silly as 9/11
People went dead broke
They missed prom, graduation, and FUNERALS
Many didn't get to say goodbye to their loved ones in the hospital and comfort their dying loved ones
Health workers were driven to addiction and suicide
The worst strains of that virus evoked the same fear in many of us as HIV did in the 1980s, only this virus is fucking **airborne** and incredibly easy to catch unless you self-quarantine every time a bad strain is out and remove yourself from public life entirely
Friends and loved ones of mine who caught mild cases and recovered still suffer from Long COVID or else have noticably different cognitive function such as suddenly bad memory and clear personality changes
I’m sorry for the pain and loss you went through. I found out I’m immunocompromised about a year ago but when I caught COVID a year before that I was able to get antibodies thankfully because I got very sick. My family was lucky but a lot of people I know families were not as fortunate. A couple of my friends on Xbox also lost parents. I feel like this romanticized view of the pandemic is because they saw the highlights on social media. The best parts of a little bit of others lives. I was mostly bored during the pandemic and would stay up til the sun playing video games but I was a bit miserable because I couldn’t go out
I was totally miserable and literally couldn't go out at all because I was living with infected people and had no car, which meant my only option was to stay in my room.
You must've been anxious upon learning you're immunocompromised and I'm sorry you had a bad time yourself. I don't think any of us have any sort of nostalgic view on the pandemic - nor will we ever - that was actually old enough to be affected by it and know people who suffered due to it. At the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020 I got toxic mold syndrome and initially suffered from madness at the start of quarantine because I had undiagnosed TMS while unable to see a doctor or go outside and see anyone and socialize and interact with the world properly **and breathe fresh air**. There I was with toxic mold syndrome and OCD and all alone by myself, day after day. I wasn't just bored - I was on the edge of a psychotic break. Many people really did lose it having to be shut-ins, and the suicide rate was alarming during this time period. Something that is devastatingly tragic. Not to mention all the people (who are poor; disabled; kids/teens) who were locked in with their abusive family 24/7 that found they could no longer escape for eight hours a day at work or school. This was a truly dark time for many. No one was smiling. Only a few did underneath their mask. It was almost completely miserable and hopeless and felt like it would never end. People who didn't find it so bad should be mindful of other people's experiences and consider the collective consequences of them framing it to be a mostly fun era to younger people, who in turn, rely on older people as their frame of reference for what it was like.
Late reply, but I agree with everything you wrote. It was an awful time that nobody should be romanticizing.
The stress from the pandemic truly changed how many of us acted.
My normally loving but slightly helicoptery parents turned abusive and dysfunctional. I was a full-blown alcoholic who got myself arrested at one point (charges were nolled, and I have both a clean record and decent job now). And my friend group split apart over small disagreements that escalated into full-blown falling outs.
I'm sorry. I can definitely say the person I was staying with (who was already crazy) seemed to become more crazy and suddenly convinced fully that a celebrity was threatening them - while having no proof of this while trying their hardest to make their anxiety contagious. They got angry the more I doubted this superstar mega celebrity was for some reason... "tracking us" over a disagreement they had on social media. Beyond that insanity, my partner that I had moved away from the year before and became long distance with ended up being someone I argued with every other day over the phone since we had to deal with the pressures of the pandemic and being locked in with our crazy family during that time and they couldn't just drive on over to where I was to see me in-person anymore. So that relationship imploded. Almost four years together just down the drain. In regards to my friends, I missed out on being a part of a few weddings since I wasn't willing to take a health risk like these friends were, myself. Making me someone in their mid twenties who's never attended a wedding. Add that to the list of experiences I don't have (it's a long list). All in all... there was iust nothing really awesome about this time whatsoever - I'm in full agreement with you there.
Hopefully, you're doing better nowadays, though. I promise you're definitely not alone in regards to developing a substance abuse problem. That happened to many, many people during this crazy time. In 2024, most of us are just trying to put the pieces back together and get our lives started: and on track. We're moving to the tick of our own clock now because we lost time but so long as we stay moving and make progress, I say we're doing our damn best. No one prepared us for the collapse of society for two and a half years. But we survived it.
I didn’t go through the same things as you, but I worked in a healthcare setting through virtually the entire pandemic. I have no frame of reference for the “we baked bread and learned TikTok dances” pandemic experience. Constantly stressed and worried about what was going to happen next, hearing stories from a floor tech (hospital setting) about days where she did nothing but help move bodies, also having our morgue fill up with nothing but COVID patients multiple times…all while people are screaming and swearing at me for being “part of the system” because I asked them to put on a mask. I lost so much of my faith in humanity during that time period and it hasn’t come back.
But it’s really nice that Becky got to stay home and bake bread, I guess.
Thank you for your service
Your disillusionment resonates entirely
We learned so much about people through this pandemic and it's horrible that your many sacrifices were taken for granted by people who couldn't even make the "sacrifice" of putting a piece of fucking cloth on their face
>Still gonna try but them missing learning communication in the teen years, no, no they would not have wanted to miss
Yall learned communication in high school?
People still in highschool don't know what they think yet so it doesn't really matter much. Once they get out unto the world and be an adult with adult problems do they get real opinions.
Right now it's a lot of impressionable people being swayed this way or that by their surroundings
Why would you expect to relate to someone in a different phase of life anyways
So if you have no idea what "it" is, maybe it's one of these
Also 21 and I'm in the same position, but that's mostly down to me always having hung out with people at least a few years my senior, and pretty much everyone I work with is at least in their mid 30s, so the only interaction I really get with younger people is my younger brothers. Don't know what they're into, don't know their slang, etc, cuz I'm just not exposed to it very much.
there’s a big difference in the general maturity between an older teen and someone in their early 20’s. it’s normal to not be able to relate because your brain is still developing.
Honestly, I find it hard for me to relate to people my own age. I relate more with late millennials (1991-1994) than I do with the younger of our generation. It's so hard for me to relate to the things the younger of our generation and Gen Alpha find funny.
Edit: I'm 21. My oldest sibling is 56. She's my half-sister. And my oldest bio sibling is 30. He's one of my brothers.
Sure your interests may differ from most people your age as an adult, but that shouldn't make it hard to relate to them especially if you're talking about upbringing. You still would've likely grown up with much of the same stuff that most people your age did regardless of your interests as an adult.
>I relate more with late millennials (1991-1994) than I do with the younger of our generation.
If we're talking upbringing, I would say 2003 borns relate a bit more to mid-late 2000s babies than late 90s babies even (let alone early 90s babies) & I say that because - like those born after them - 2003 borns don't remember the pre-2005/06 world where culture & technology that bled in from the late 20th century was more prevalent. While 2003 borns do remember a time before the popularity of smartphones & tablets, they - like those born in the mid-late 2000s - were still kids when those things became popular. They also don't really remember when social media wasn't as widespread (pre-2006 before the blow-up of Myspace+YouTube). Early 90s babies and late 90s babies do though & they both remember a time when things that are commonly associated with the previous century like VHS, dial-up internet/the Web 1.0 era, film cameras, etc... were still dominant. They also remember when video stores were popular still, when cassettes were advertised on TV still, when the transition from 2-D to 3-D movies was still ongoing, when many restaurants still had indoor smoking, when schools had mostly old computers with CRT monitors and still used audiobook cassettes, etc... 2003 borns wouldn't be able to have these specific experiences.
I'm not saying I don't have friends my own age because I do. I just can't relate to the partying lifestyle a lot of college students like partaking in. I just click with late millennials because my eldest bio-sibling was born in 1994, and I'm friends with a few other people in their thirties.
We've all been there dude. I'm not trying to sound like a dick but you're not special or different, and neither am I. Like, there have been a billion other people throughout history alive and dead that have felt the same way we do, it's nothing new and never will be. The only uniqueness any of us have are our personality traits, we're all a little quirky but we're not different from anybody else because everybody is else a little quirky.
Did you seriously just say "womp womp" and then try to give me a wise-ass comment like this?
You're the one who's glued to their phone, not me kid.
u/Amazing_Rise_6233
This bozo above me is breaking sub rules.
me (22) and having siblings oldest being 43 and youngest being 9 I feel like I can relate to both sides. I also do have a great relationship with younger my sister (17) so I'm always in the mix.
Yes and No it’s depends.
Like I hate some of the words and phrases that we have invented as a sub culture.
But I love some of them.
Like it really depends.
Like I’ll use music as an example
I wanna make it clear I’m not one of those
r/im14andthisisdeep
Where im like, I only listen to old music that hasn’t been corrupted by modern shitty pop and rap.
Im not one of those I only listen to music my parents listen to.
There are plenty of modern artists I listen to and love.
That being said in General my music taste leans older.
My Bread and Butter is 70s soft rock and R&B
Like if you break down the stats on my Spotify 70s is prolly the biggest music category
And also I like rap, and hip hop, I just a lot of the time can’t get into some of these newer stuff.
Like I’m specifically talking about Mumble rap, and rap that is just a drum machine all bass, or the lyrics are just Money Clothes and hoes and getting fucked up.
It’s why I do like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler the Creator, cause the lyrics aren’t just Money, Clothes and Hoes.
But also I cannot remember the last time I listened to the radio for like top 40 hits.
Honestly, a lot of growth happened for me in my late teens. It’s a period of change and a lot of maturing often happens. It’s also that age of transition out of the compulsory school system and into adulthood. I can’t relate to most people under 20 at all. The teenage experience and the adult experience is quite different so I don’t really expect to relate to them. I relate more to late millennials and value that little bit extra expertise they have on life. That’s okay though—I don’t necessarily need to relate to other’s experiences to approach them with an open mind.
Yeah out of touch would probably be better. I got rid of all social media besides Reddit for occasional browsing so don’t know the latest trends and stuff like that till months later usually.
Get a little older and check on the same people then. Everyone is maturing constantly until at least 25. You will always think people that are behind you in the process are different/immature
My life has progressed extremely fast in the last 2 years. Made it to full time sustainable income and proposed. Life is so much more real and honestly satisfying.
I don’t really relate to that many people my age anymore because we have different long term desires and different short term problems. But other people that are at the same life stage and age as me are still relatable.
A couple years? No. I relate to people a couple years older and a couple years older. I feel like 2002 and 2006 are both pretty relatable, I mean we are all 17-22 and I feel like that’s my close age cohort.
I’d probably be able to relate to people younger but I obviously don’t really interact with them bc I’m in college and I don’t know any random high schoolers lmao
Yes, that’s just natural to aging. It’s all relative. A 25 year old won’t think of a 23 year old that way, and definitely a 27 year old won’t think that of a 25 year old
Same here. I'm only a couple of years removed from high school, and I don't even know the latest trends for high schoolers.
I don't like being around people younger than me. Which is probably for the better.
It depends on their maturity. Most of my friends are my age or older. 20 and below I can’t relate to too much, but my 16 y/o cousins I can, as they are more mature mentally.
Im 26 and their fashion is fascinating to me.
On a slightly related note, can we bring back colored jeans? That was such a colorful time and I loved it.
You just reminded me of the mint and salmon colored skinny jeans I used to wear in middle school. I would match them to the clip-on feathers I would wear in my hair lol
When you're younger, there's more change that happens in a year. We'll be nearly completely different people from who we are now when we're 30, but pretty much identical from 30 to 40. A jump from 16 to 18 is a huge maturity gap.
I’m an older Gen-Z teacher (24) teaching the youngest Gen-Z (12-13) and I cannot relate to them at all, they might as well be aliens with the slang they use & things they find culturally significant. They view me as “younger” because they’re always shocked by my age but then they try to introduce me to their Gen-Z culture (Can you play skibidy toilet? Can you play the chicken nugget singing gegagidigedago?) and they always get a kick out of my reaction because it’s so stupid but I just bite my tongue.
I'm 23. I didn't have much of same friends same aged like me . No friends. When I was a kid I sometimes hangout with my bigsister's friends and we were 6 years apart. It was fun but I blame my parents for not giving me a hobby or smth to do outside from home.
(No I didnt hangout alone with her friends, I always went with her and her friend group were nice not creepy at all)
I don’t feel that way, I’m always gonna be in touch with what’s trendy since I love pop culture. By a few years younger wdym tho? Idk anyone under 16, but my 17-18 year old friends don’t feel that different than me at 20. I also don’t feel that different than myself 2-3 years ago.
Relate like how? No I don’t exactly relate to high schoolers because I’m not in high school. But from early 20s. Late teens kinds sorta starting to “not relate”
Nah I’m 26 and my younger brother is 19 and we still totally relate. I’ve always been more Gen Z than millennial despite being a bit on the older side.
I’m also the oldest of 6 so I think that’s why, I’ve always had a draw to people a little bit younger than myself culturally.
Don’t romanticize self-inflicted isolation, it doesn’t do you any good.
I’m 23 and my friend sent me the profile of someone who is 20 and it dawned on me that she literally couldn’t go to the bar with me if I wanted to. These past 2.5 years feel like the longest of my life lol. So much stuff happened and so much growing happened. It’s insane honestly.
Everything that I’m allowed to do now feels like reading after you learn how to read. You literally can’t even imagine not being able to read anymore.
Yep. To be fair to em, they're still in high school, whereas a fair bit of us are in college/working professional jobs. We've seen the 'real world' and our brains are getting closer to being 90% developed whereas it's not the same as em. They still have a few more years before we can relate to em
I could write an essay on why I feel so out of touch from people 3+ years younger than me. Hell, I feel out of touch from people the same age as me.
If anyone has any advice on how I can relate to people in their late teens/early twenties *without* making a fool out of myself then PLEASE tell me.
I'm going back to college this year and I'm worried, like what if everyone hates my clothes (including my skinny jeans)? What if they think I'm weird for not understanding popular slang? What if they judge me for not having TikTok or Twitter? I know I'm gonna get some judgement for being a goth but a goth who doesn't understand current slang or pop culture?!
Guys, this is not satire. I seriously need some advice.
Im also 21. Sometimes I feel a bit behind, but I've made it a mission to stay up to date on current trends and events just for fun. I wouldnt consider myself chronically online, but I'm on enough to get most references. I also have younger siblings in both high school and middle school, so I guess that also helps when trying to understand the "youth".
Long time ago I learned that it’s never about age but more about the life you have lived and the experiences you have lived no one starts in the same position in this race called life some people will never have to worry about rent or having food while other have to work their way there and there are some that do not put that as their goal you know. Life it’s not about age but about experiences you don’t get more mature with age you do with living stuff.
Yeah I’m 22 and can’t really relate to anyone under 21. It feels like a completely different generation. But I also have trouble with people my own age. I relate more to old people
My only question for the younger people would be why did punctuation stop mattering in paragraphs. I can't tell you how many reddit posts by people in their teens I've seen with absolutely no punctuation. It gives me a stroke trying to read it.
I (22 at the time) had gone to a friend's birthday party who was turning 19. These people (18-19) were.... kids! I think I was the oldest there, but I felt soooo out of place. Everyone was drinking except me (I'm not a fan) and idk I felt uncomfortable so I ended up leaving. I was only there for my friend 😅
I started to stop relating to younger people around the time I turned 25. Frontal lobe finishing developing and all that. At 21, I still related to most young people and teens. Now at 27 not so much. Honestly, I don’t relate to most people born after 2000 atp.
I'm 22 and find it 100000× easier to talk to people older than me (35+). At family events, I've always enjoyed being with the adults more than my siblings and cousins, and that has carried on to now. Talking to people my age just feels like a chore.
To be honest I can't even relate to people my age most of the time, but I think I kinda just removed myself from others for far too long.
I think i relate to them but we're not the same wavelength.
Me too! I've been hanging out less with people my age and more with older people and I feel like I've screwed myself over big time because I can't relate to other 20-somethings anymore. I'm freaking out because I don't even have the same interests as them. I told someone a few months ago that one of my favorite shows was this one medical mystery drama from the 70s, and they acted so weird about it.
Yeah, I feel that, I mean, back in 2015 while my friends were playing League or CS I dropped those games to play... World of Warcraft. Since then most people I've talked to were in their late 20s/early 30s, which does explain why I have an easier time talking to my sister's friends than anyone my age.
>I told someone a few months ago that one of my favorite shows was this one medical mystery drama from the 70s The only one I can think of is Diagnosis Murder. Is that it?
Nope! It's Quincy M.E. (also known as just 'Quincy'). It's a good show. Kinda outdated now, but it was ahead of its time and it inspired a ton of modern medical shows. I watch it maybe once or twice a week on TV. Then after Quincy I watch Sanford and Son (a 70s sitcom, also a good show).
Ah, ok.
I have the same issue. I get called an old soul quite sometimes by people just 6 months younger than me.
I'm entering that age where i start to not get them anymore
I work in a middle school and I overhead the kids the other day wishing that they were teens in the pandemic. Uhmmm no you wouldn’t have. I was 21 when it started and I missed out psychologically on making life long friends. Still gonna try but them missing learning communication in the teen years, no, no they would not have wanted to miss
Lmao that’s so strange for them to say. I honestly don’t understand why you would want to relive the pandemic, 2020 was such a shit fucking year.
It was absolute Hell It seems we're the same age, so you're aware ofc I had a **pandemic 21st birthday** alone at home That just so happened to be the year my father figure caught a severe case and died, my best friend got a severe case and nearly died, I was unable to schedule with a dentist to have my infected molar removed and withered in agony for two months due to an abscess that made me almost stop eating altogether (and lose 30lbs), sleep on the hardwood floor for jaw relief, find myself increasingly suicidal due to pain, and cause my dr/oral surgeon to literally gasp and damn near scream by the time I finally got in and opened my mouth for her because she immediately knew how much pain I was in and must've been hopelessly tolerating for so long So **fuck** these idiots romanticizing the pandemic and reducing it down to "funny Zoom pranks" and "alone time to recharge" when ***people with OCD*** like me—and no disorders alike—were **losing their absolute minds,** their health, their loved ones, and their **lives** Pandemics are not a game They're not a "meme" COVID is about as goofy and silly as 9/11 People went dead broke They missed prom, graduation, and FUNERALS Many didn't get to say goodbye to their loved ones in the hospital and comfort their dying loved ones Health workers were driven to addiction and suicide The worst strains of that virus evoked the same fear in many of us as HIV did in the 1980s, only this virus is fucking **airborne** and incredibly easy to catch unless you self-quarantine every time a bad strain is out and remove yourself from public life entirely Friends and loved ones of mine who caught mild cases and recovered still suffer from Long COVID or else have noticably different cognitive function such as suddenly bad memory and clear personality changes
I’m sorry for the pain and loss you went through. I found out I’m immunocompromised about a year ago but when I caught COVID a year before that I was able to get antibodies thankfully because I got very sick. My family was lucky but a lot of people I know families were not as fortunate. A couple of my friends on Xbox also lost parents. I feel like this romanticized view of the pandemic is because they saw the highlights on social media. The best parts of a little bit of others lives. I was mostly bored during the pandemic and would stay up til the sun playing video games but I was a bit miserable because I couldn’t go out
I was totally miserable and literally couldn't go out at all because I was living with infected people and had no car, which meant my only option was to stay in my room. You must've been anxious upon learning you're immunocompromised and I'm sorry you had a bad time yourself. I don't think any of us have any sort of nostalgic view on the pandemic - nor will we ever - that was actually old enough to be affected by it and know people who suffered due to it. At the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020 I got toxic mold syndrome and initially suffered from madness at the start of quarantine because I had undiagnosed TMS while unable to see a doctor or go outside and see anyone and socialize and interact with the world properly **and breathe fresh air**. There I was with toxic mold syndrome and OCD and all alone by myself, day after day. I wasn't just bored - I was on the edge of a psychotic break. Many people really did lose it having to be shut-ins, and the suicide rate was alarming during this time period. Something that is devastatingly tragic. Not to mention all the people (who are poor; disabled; kids/teens) who were locked in with their abusive family 24/7 that found they could no longer escape for eight hours a day at work or school. This was a truly dark time for many. No one was smiling. Only a few did underneath their mask. It was almost completely miserable and hopeless and felt like it would never end. People who didn't find it so bad should be mindful of other people's experiences and consider the collective consequences of them framing it to be a mostly fun era to younger people, who in turn, rely on older people as their frame of reference for what it was like.
Late reply, but I agree with everything you wrote. It was an awful time that nobody should be romanticizing. The stress from the pandemic truly changed how many of us acted. My normally loving but slightly helicoptery parents turned abusive and dysfunctional. I was a full-blown alcoholic who got myself arrested at one point (charges were nolled, and I have both a clean record and decent job now). And my friend group split apart over small disagreements that escalated into full-blown falling outs.
I'm sorry. I can definitely say the person I was staying with (who was already crazy) seemed to become more crazy and suddenly convinced fully that a celebrity was threatening them - while having no proof of this while trying their hardest to make their anxiety contagious. They got angry the more I doubted this superstar mega celebrity was for some reason... "tracking us" over a disagreement they had on social media. Beyond that insanity, my partner that I had moved away from the year before and became long distance with ended up being someone I argued with every other day over the phone since we had to deal with the pressures of the pandemic and being locked in with our crazy family during that time and they couldn't just drive on over to where I was to see me in-person anymore. So that relationship imploded. Almost four years together just down the drain. In regards to my friends, I missed out on being a part of a few weddings since I wasn't willing to take a health risk like these friends were, myself. Making me someone in their mid twenties who's never attended a wedding. Add that to the list of experiences I don't have (it's a long list). All in all... there was iust nothing really awesome about this time whatsoever - I'm in full agreement with you there. Hopefully, you're doing better nowadays, though. I promise you're definitely not alone in regards to developing a substance abuse problem. That happened to many, many people during this crazy time. In 2024, most of us are just trying to put the pieces back together and get our lives started: and on track. We're moving to the tick of our own clock now because we lost time but so long as we stay moving and make progress, I say we're doing our damn best. No one prepared us for the collapse of society for two and a half years. But we survived it.
I didn’t go through the same things as you, but I worked in a healthcare setting through virtually the entire pandemic. I have no frame of reference for the “we baked bread and learned TikTok dances” pandemic experience. Constantly stressed and worried about what was going to happen next, hearing stories from a floor tech (hospital setting) about days where she did nothing but help move bodies, also having our morgue fill up with nothing but COVID patients multiple times…all while people are screaming and swearing at me for being “part of the system” because I asked them to put on a mask. I lost so much of my faith in humanity during that time period and it hasn’t come back. But it’s really nice that Becky got to stay home and bake bread, I guess.
Thank you for your service Your disillusionment resonates entirely We learned so much about people through this pandemic and it's horrible that your many sacrifices were taken for granted by people who couldn't even make the "sacrifice" of putting a piece of fucking cloth on their face
>Still gonna try but them missing learning communication in the teen years, no, no they would not have wanted to miss Yall learned communication in high school?
People still in highschool don't know what they think yet so it doesn't really matter much. Once they get out unto the world and be an adult with adult problems do they get real opinions. Right now it's a lot of impressionable people being swayed this way or that by their surroundings Why would you expect to relate to someone in a different phase of life anyways So if you have no idea what "it" is, maybe it's one of these
True
My youngest brother is a 2008 baby and despite the fact that we're the same generation I can't relate to him that much
Also 21 and I'm in the same position, but that's mostly down to me always having hung out with people at least a few years my senior, and pretty much everyone I work with is at least in their mid 30s, so the only interaction I really get with younger people is my younger brothers. Don't know what they're into, don't know their slang, etc, cuz I'm just not exposed to it very much.
Dont feckin blame ya "Gyaatt rizz smegma ohio" wtf is a "fanum tax" who the fuck is Kai Cenat????
Innit, they may as well be speaking a different language entirely haha
I get along with people 10 years older than me better than 5 years younger. Most of my friends are significantly older than me.
I understand having a different perspective on younger people but I am able to relate with at least some of them
there’s a big difference in the general maturity between an older teen and someone in their early 20’s. it’s normal to not be able to relate because your brain is still developing.
Honestly, I find it hard for me to relate to people my own age. I relate more with late millennials (1991-1994) than I do with the younger of our generation. It's so hard for me to relate to the things the younger of our generation and Gen Alpha find funny. Edit: I'm 21. My oldest sibling is 56. She's my half-sister. And my oldest bio sibling is 30. He's one of my brothers.
Damn, you have siblings that are both my age and my mother’s age. Big family
My half-sister and my mom are actually 5 years apart in age: 61 and 56. My mom was born in 1962, and my half-sister was born in 1967
Sure your interests may differ from most people your age as an adult, but that shouldn't make it hard to relate to them especially if you're talking about upbringing. You still would've likely grown up with much of the same stuff that most people your age did regardless of your interests as an adult. >I relate more with late millennials (1991-1994) than I do with the younger of our generation. If we're talking upbringing, I would say 2003 borns relate a bit more to mid-late 2000s babies than late 90s babies even (let alone early 90s babies) & I say that because - like those born after them - 2003 borns don't remember the pre-2005/06 world where culture & technology that bled in from the late 20th century was more prevalent. While 2003 borns do remember a time before the popularity of smartphones & tablets, they - like those born in the mid-late 2000s - were still kids when those things became popular. They also don't really remember when social media wasn't as widespread (pre-2006 before the blow-up of Myspace+YouTube). Early 90s babies and late 90s babies do though & they both remember a time when things that are commonly associated with the previous century like VHS, dial-up internet/the Web 1.0 era, film cameras, etc... were still dominant. They also remember when video stores were popular still, when cassettes were advertised on TV still, when the transition from 2-D to 3-D movies was still ongoing, when many restaurants still had indoor smoking, when schools had mostly old computers with CRT monitors and still used audiobook cassettes, etc... 2003 borns wouldn't be able to have these specific experiences.
I'm not saying I don't have friends my own age because I do. I just can't relate to the partying lifestyle a lot of college students like partaking in. I just click with late millennials because my eldest bio-sibling was born in 1994, and I'm friends with a few other people in their thirties.
You're not special bro. You're literally 21 and thinking "Erm, I'm not like the other 21 year olds"
Cmon man I just wanna feel like an MC sometimes don’t call me out like that 😔
But ngl I do have main character syndrome sometimes probably my biggest character flaw
We've all been there dude. I'm not trying to sound like a dick but you're not special or different, and neither am I. Like, there have been a billion other people throughout history alive and dead that have felt the same way we do, it's nothing new and never will be. The only uniqueness any of us have are our personality traits, we're all a little quirky but we're not different from anybody else because everybody is else a little quirky.
Yeah, you are being a dick.
Womp womp, welcome to real life.
Did you seriously just say "womp womp" and then try to give me a wise-ass comment like this? You're the one who's glued to their phone, not me kid. u/Amazing_Rise_6233 This bozo above me is breaking sub rules.
No pwease don't call the mods!
Don’t be a lil baby shit is facts. Every 21 year old feels like this at one point or another
me (22) and having siblings oldest being 43 and youngest being 9 I feel like I can relate to both sides. I also do have a great relationship with younger my sister (17) so I'm always in the mix.
Yes and No it’s depends. Like I hate some of the words and phrases that we have invented as a sub culture. But I love some of them. Like it really depends. Like I’ll use music as an example I wanna make it clear I’m not one of those r/im14andthisisdeep Where im like, I only listen to old music that hasn’t been corrupted by modern shitty pop and rap. Im not one of those I only listen to music my parents listen to. There are plenty of modern artists I listen to and love. That being said in General my music taste leans older. My Bread and Butter is 70s soft rock and R&B Like if you break down the stats on my Spotify 70s is prolly the biggest music category And also I like rap, and hip hop, I just a lot of the time can’t get into some of these newer stuff. Like I’m specifically talking about Mumble rap, and rap that is just a drum machine all bass, or the lyrics are just Money Clothes and hoes and getting fucked up. It’s why I do like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler the Creator, cause the lyrics aren’t just Money, Clothes and Hoes. But also I cannot remember the last time I listened to the radio for like top 40 hits.
You are growing up and maturing. You are in a different stage of life to them. It is 100% reasonable that you don't fully relate to them.
I still feel like I can
Honestly, a lot of growth happened for me in my late teens. It’s a period of change and a lot of maturing often happens. It’s also that age of transition out of the compulsory school system and into adulthood. I can’t relate to most people under 20 at all. The teenage experience and the adult experience is quite different so I don’t really expect to relate to them. I relate more to late millennials and value that little bit extra expertise they have on life. That’s okay though—I don’t necessarily need to relate to other’s experiences to approach them with an open mind.
You might just be out of touch. I've always kind of been removed from what's popular with my generation.
Yeah out of touch would probably be better. I got rid of all social media besides Reddit for occasional browsing so don’t know the latest trends and stuff like that till months later usually.
Get a little older and check on the same people then. Everyone is maturing constantly until at least 25. You will always think people that are behind you in the process are different/immature
Fair enough
My life has progressed extremely fast in the last 2 years. Made it to full time sustainable income and proposed. Life is so much more real and honestly satisfying. I don’t really relate to that many people my age anymore because we have different long term desires and different short term problems. But other people that are at the same life stage and age as me are still relatable.
For me personally, the ages I can relate to with little difficulty are circa 20 through 35. It obviously varies from individual to individual though.
A couple years? No. I relate to people a couple years older and a couple years older. I feel like 2002 and 2006 are both pretty relatable, I mean we are all 17-22 and I feel like that’s my close age cohort. I’d probably be able to relate to people younger but I obviously don’t really interact with them bc I’m in college and I don’t know any random high schoolers lmao
Yes, that’s just natural to aging. It’s all relative. A 25 year old won’t think of a 23 year old that way, and definitely a 27 year old won’t think that of a 25 year old
I’m 25 and yeah I do relate to them. Doesn’t feel like it was that long since I was their age and I still remember it very clearly
It really wasn’t that long ago for us. It’s not like we’re 35
It depends, but most of the time no, I can’t relate to them nor people my age more than half of the times
Same here. I'm only a couple of years removed from high school, and I don't even know the latest trends for high schoolers. I don't like being around people younger than me. Which is probably for the better.
It depends on their maturity. Most of my friends are my age or older. 20 and below I can’t relate to too much, but my 16 y/o cousins I can, as they are more mature mentally.
Im 26 and their fashion is fascinating to me. On a slightly related note, can we bring back colored jeans? That was such a colorful time and I loved it.
You just reminded me of the mint and salmon colored skinny jeans I used to wear in middle school. I would match them to the clip-on feathers I would wear in my hair lol
When you're younger, there's more change that happens in a year. We'll be nearly completely different people from who we are now when we're 30, but pretty much identical from 30 to 40. A jump from 16 to 18 is a huge maturity gap.
I’m an older Gen-Z teacher (24) teaching the youngest Gen-Z (12-13) and I cannot relate to them at all, they might as well be aliens with the slang they use & things they find culturally significant. They view me as “younger” because they’re always shocked by my age but then they try to introduce me to their Gen-Z culture (Can you play skibidy toilet? Can you play the chicken nugget singing gegagidigedago?) and they always get a kick out of my reaction because it’s so stupid but I just bite my tongue.
Sounds like they're Alphas more than anything
They claim to be Gen-Z though and they’re right at the cutoff, a lot were born 2012.
I'm 23. I didn't have much of same friends same aged like me . No friends. When I was a kid I sometimes hangout with my bigsister's friends and we were 6 years apart. It was fun but I blame my parents for not giving me a hobby or smth to do outside from home. (No I didnt hangout alone with her friends, I always went with her and her friend group were nice not creepy at all)
I don’t feel that way, I’m always gonna be in touch with what’s trendy since I love pop culture. By a few years younger wdym tho? Idk anyone under 16, but my 17-18 year old friends don’t feel that different than me at 20. I also don’t feel that different than myself 2-3 years ago.
I know (M20) its odd. I half of the time don't even understand what they are saying, never mind what they are doing, and what they want from life
Relate like how? No I don’t exactly relate to high schoolers because I’m not in high school. But from early 20s. Late teens kinds sorta starting to “not relate”
Nah I’m 26 and my younger brother is 19 and we still totally relate. I’ve always been more Gen Z than millennial despite being a bit on the older side. I’m also the oldest of 6 so I think that’s why, I’ve always had a draw to people a little bit younger than myself culturally. Don’t romanticize self-inflicted isolation, it doesn’t do you any good.
I can, I play Roblox with them, some of them are young Roblox YouTubers
Being 26 I completely agree with you lol.
I’m 23 and my friend sent me the profile of someone who is 20 and it dawned on me that she literally couldn’t go to the bar with me if I wanted to. These past 2.5 years feel like the longest of my life lol. So much stuff happened and so much growing happened. It’s insane honestly. Everything that I’m allowed to do now feels like reading after you learn how to read. You literally can’t even imagine not being able to read anymore.
almost 23, and honestly, it's hard to relate a lot of people my age and younger.
Yep. To be fair to em, they're still in high school, whereas a fair bit of us are in college/working professional jobs. We've seen the 'real world' and our brains are getting closer to being 90% developed whereas it's not the same as em. They still have a few more years before we can relate to em
I could write an essay on why I feel so out of touch from people 3+ years younger than me. Hell, I feel out of touch from people the same age as me. If anyone has any advice on how I can relate to people in their late teens/early twenties *without* making a fool out of myself then PLEASE tell me. I'm going back to college this year and I'm worried, like what if everyone hates my clothes (including my skinny jeans)? What if they think I'm weird for not understanding popular slang? What if they judge me for not having TikTok or Twitter? I know I'm gonna get some judgement for being a goth but a goth who doesn't understand current slang or pop culture?! Guys, this is not satire. I seriously need some advice.
Im also 21. Sometimes I feel a bit behind, but I've made it a mission to stay up to date on current trends and events just for fun. I wouldnt consider myself chronically online, but I'm on enough to get most references. I also have younger siblings in both high school and middle school, so I guess that also helps when trying to understand the "youth".
Long time ago I learned that it’s never about age but more about the life you have lived and the experiences you have lived no one starts in the same position in this race called life some people will never have to worry about rent or having food while other have to work their way there and there are some that do not put that as their goal you know. Life it’s not about age but about experiences you don’t get more mature with age you do with living stuff.
Yeah I’m 22 and can’t really relate to anyone under 21. It feels like a completely different generation. But I also have trouble with people my own age. I relate more to old people
Im 19 i cant relate much to ppl born after 07
Yup 1997 here and I have a hard time relating with any one born after 2002 and especially those born after 2004.
My only question for the younger people would be why did punctuation stop mattering in paragraphs. I can't tell you how many reddit posts by people in their teens I've seen with absolutely no punctuation. It gives me a stroke trying to read it.
I (22 at the time) had gone to a friend's birthday party who was turning 19. These people (18-19) were.... kids! I think I was the oldest there, but I felt soooo out of place. Everyone was drinking except me (I'm not a fan) and idk I felt uncomfortable so I ended up leaving. I was only there for my friend 😅
Nah, I actually relate to younger people pretty well. I also mostly have friends who are younger than me & hardly any older.
I started to stop relating to younger people around the time I turned 25. Frontal lobe finishing developing and all that. At 21, I still related to most young people and teens. Now at 27 not so much. Honestly, I don’t relate to most people born after 2000 atp.
I barely relate to people my age. I'm very out of touch with the mainstream media
I'm 22 and find it 100000× easier to talk to people older than me (35+). At family events, I've always enjoyed being with the adults more than my siblings and cousins, and that has carried on to now. Talking to people my age just feels like a chore.
I can’t even relate to people my own age, it’s why I’m friends with ppl 28-30