I would enjoy seeing the age groups of

Well I think you are stereotyping and making younger members look less experienced.

There is a member on here who I respect very much and he is half my age! He is one of the most intelligent people I have ever spoken to of his age or even my age for that matter. I thought he was my age when I started reading his posts and then chatting with him online. I can chat about things with him that nobody my age even understands. I know people my age who cant have a conversation with me on many things. It has nothing to do with age, IMO it has to do with how informed one makes them self. Just because someone is young it doesnt make them any less smart than someone older.

I dont think anyones age really has anything to do with their posts honestly. I dont care what the age is I just care about the quality of the thread.

[edit on 9/14/2009 by mblahnikluver]

reply to post by enigmalone


Sigh another thread with Age groups and the lot? Not cool. I just turned 18 and if their were some sort of notification of age, I doubt my threads would do good. I kept my age under wraps, because the first thing people want to know is your age and if you say your 16 or 17, people are like," this kid does not know anything... He doesn't have experience or knowledge that is equal to my own, because I am older and have seen stuff." Well I have to respond with some understanding of my own:

1) Experience creates BIAS
2) AGE is just a number, created to be used as an external time constraint.
3) There are many more, but I think you understand my point.

Since we are young, does not mean we do not have experience. I never witnessed Monroe's death, RFK's death, JFK's death, The Zodiac Killer, The Black Dahlia, and many others. But do I need these experiences to understand what the hell is going on? No.

Experience is not everything. Knowledge is nothing. Understanding is everything.

I've been 39 for a few years now.

We discuss ideas, opinions, expressions, not each other right?.

If a member wishes to divulge their age for whatever reason they are free to do so, otherwise it's really none of our business.

Heck the very idea of non personal conversation is a major element in thought liberation and free expression and is a cornerstone of ATS imho.


For the record: My Age + My IQ < Room Temperature

reply to post by ArMaP


I know its too big, I kinda like it that way ...... and so do the ladies.

what does that have to do with anything ??

reply to post by enigmalone


I kinda understand where you are coming from. There is (i wont say childish) maybe immature nonsense and who knows from all ages. I don't think we can split it into age groups because there are some smart youngsters around for sure.

I hate getting interested in a subjet that starts off well and then gets derailed into lunacy.

There I said it and I'm OLD
MJ2

I agree with mblahnikluver on this one. Although my birth date is connected to my username (there are a couple of jinx's on ats, most of them havn't logged in for years) I sometimes feel that people aren't interested in or misinterperate what I say, because I'm so young.

Although, I wouldn't have a problem seeing anothers age. Due to personal experience, I know how it feels to not be listened to by people who are older than me.
I think it is the subject that counts, it doesn't matter if you are 16 or even younger. If you are interested enough in a certain subject and read alot on in, you might know more about it than some 50 year olds.

If I see someone younger than me make a mistake, I would give them advice and help them achieve whatever it is they are after. I certainly would not ignore them because they are young. (Unless they are rude and act in an uncivil manner.)

And, personally, I love reading posts from, and chatting to older people. They are sometimes a bit more understanding and patient towards younger members and post in a respectfull manner. I feel they like to guide us younger members. And that's cool!

Originally posted by IntastellaBurst
what does that have to do with anything ??

It does because you don't know what was the poster's idea when making the post, as we don't know what was your idea when using that avatar image.

If you think that a post looks like "a research paper for Special Ed that didnt make it" then that's the result of what and how it was written (and we can never really know what was the idea behind the way some post was made) and your interpretation.

Some people may look at your avatar image and think that, for example, you are too old or too computer-illiterate to know how to use the features provided by ATS.

Age is only an indirect way of knowing other people's experience, but it relies too much on our own prejudices to be useful.

Avatars work more or less in the same way, many people judge the posts not by what is written but by the poster's avatar, some people use all they can to judge other people, ignoring the most important, their actions.

reply to post by ArMaP


That is exactly why I changed my avatar from myself to something else. It is also why, up until recently, I didn't let people know I was only 18. When I was 17 this past winter there was a small group of membership that trolled my posts and reduced them to the ramblings of a kid. I was called childish, uneducated, all of that.

So what ended up happening was that the member was eventually banned for something else, and things quieted down. But every once in awhile I would get a very respectful message informing me that by having an avatar of myself that showed generally what age I was, I was actually reminding people that I was young, which could be interpreted negatively by some individuals.

So now I have a gender non-specific, age non-specific avatar.
Although it's pretty easy to tell that I'm female. Even though some people actually couldn't figure that out when my avatar was a picture of me.
(Why I would post an avatar picture of some other random person, I'll never know.)

I'm out on the age identification also. A couple of my closet friends on ATS are young, and extaordinarily bright and gifted, and I adore them and their contributions. (Yes you, Myth, for one).

I like the freshness of ideas, the wisdom and dignity of the more mature, and I don't really care to know anyone's age, or have them know mine.

It's irrelevant.

My mouse can click out of a thread as efficiently and quickly as it clicks in.

Originally posted by JJay55
I've been 39 for a few years now.

haha I will be that age next year,and hiding from all my friends the next year!

I would love every one here to use a real photo of themselves,rather than having virtual conversations with the joker and batman!

reply to post by enigmalone


I recently did a thread on age requirements.I got hammered by the
younger members.

I had more academic knowledge when I was at University in my early 20's, 10 years later i have forgotten most things I learnt.
Now, all i'm left with is my opinion on things rather than an academic perspective, which i would 10 years ago. I still feel I know more now.

Op if you dont like what the thread says then move on to one you want to comment on, Dont put someone down because you dont like what their saying or trying to learn

I for one think miles outside the box or at the center at times

Pay attention to the point not the way it is expressed

I say tomato you say tamata Its still food either way

Who cares about age

reply to post by dizziedame


I'm 57 as of October of this year

Originally posted by enigmalone
reply to post by dizziedame

 

I'm 57 as of October of this year

That is probably the perfect age to be.
Wise and seasoned.

A wide range of ages among members and posters provides a broader perspective on all subject matters. I don't think twice about approaching my children for their opinion. Often younger people have points of view that aren't clouded by years of 'experience'. If older people are close-minded to fresh perspectives, then we don't progress in any way.

I am particularly encouraged to know that there are young adults who are interested in matters of the wider world. Older people owe it to them to hear them out, whether we agree or not.

Age is not relevant to understanding the world and conspiracies, intelligence and a reasoned analytical mind is.

Who knows more about a conspiracy a 14 year old who has been researching it for 3 years or a 50 year old who has been researching it for 3 months?

Probably the 14 year old, where conspiracies are concerned it’s about the length of time one has been on their trail not the length of time one has been on the planet.

I started my interest in conspiracies when I first learned to read. Of course this made my teenage years a bit difficult. My Junior High School Teachers weren’t really interested in hearing my recitations on the Powers that Be, the Military Industrial Complex, the Corporate Government and the Banking Cartels. They especially did not like my accusations of them being involved in institutionalized brainwashing and propaganda efforts.

I might not have been very worldly but I was fast on my way to becoming very worldly as my beliefs led me to either get expelled from every box, or do my level best to escape every box.

Banished from Government learning institutions at the age of 14 you would think I was headed no where fast when it comes to intellect, learning, wisdom and experience.

The reality was I was on the fast track to all those things by confronting the dogmas of the systems and entrenched interests at such an early age and fighting and railing against them.

I didn’t quite have it all right, there are an extraordinary number of things in the heavens and the earth that nothing but first hand experience could ever prepare us for or even give us any reason to think such things exist.

Yet at the age of 26 the most amazing thing occurred when by happenstance I gained entry into the world of the Powers that Be. Middle aged men with law degrees from Harvard, and business degrees from Yale with memberships in all the right clubs and organizations, perched on top the corporate and pedigree food chain all had one question. How the heck did you get so smart and so wise and know so much.

The truth is some of the most mature members of ATS are way off the mark when it comes to a great deal of what really goes on in the world and who the players are and what the game they are playing is and why.

They make great cases for faulty and incomplete theories based on a lot of seemingly credible research but it always lacks one thing, and that’s the very thing you are complaining about and that is the real world experience and first hand interaction that would make their theories more than just theories.

Most people will never get close to the heart of the darkest and deepest conspiracies for one simple reason. Though they might have open minds, though they might be highly intelligent, they are perennially in the wrong place at the wrong time to ever interact with the big dogs that very much exist and make these conspiracies their life’s ambition and often the culmination of several life times of ambition.

Most of ATS fails the worldly test, and while many are worldly in important and insightful ways few are worldly to the point that they have actually interacted with the people and in those geographical places where these conspiracies are born and played out.

For the most part it’s a lot of theory and conjecture that just becomes more credible because of how popular the theories and conjecture is with other people who are also looking for answers and questioning.

The good news is that is how the journey of a thousand miles begins is with those questions and that curiosity and the younger people are when they start displaying that the better off we all are.

To that extent the young especially should be encouraged and even patronized when it comes to those who display that rare quality of rejecting the myths and dogmas and propaganda to look deeper and for more.

There was a time when I was young I was prepared to go up against reality, to fight impossible odds, to dare simply because life held out that promise of being able to win.

It is the youth that will and can change the world, because it is the youth who are the least convinced it can’t be changed and doesn’t need changed.

Sadly our job as adults is trying to convince them it is the way it is for a reason and can’t be changed.

Try not to do such a good job at that Original Poster. After all the bulk of the future belongs to them not us, our time is mostly gone and passing, where they are just coming into their own. They can make all the difference we never did and will if we but support the best and the brightest and most energetic amongst them in making that difference.




[edit on 25/12/09 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

Well, I am LII or XXXXXII or C-XXXXVIII. In other words pretty old LOL

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


As always PT, consistently on target and said with great grace and fortitude.

All i can add is an obvious parallel. Such as with age; race, gender, status/title... for the same reason these identity markers are poor measures/predictors of a poster's worth, they should not be put on display by the ATS account engine, for many people's prejudices/ignorance would get in the way of further learning/sharing/understanding.

Besides, i have known many old souls and as well adult children. Age really is as the old adage goes "only but a number" and i believe this applies for most of life's introspective endeavors.