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Comment by LapsangGuzzler

1 year ago

It’s an inevitable outcome of a culture so focused on age. I watch twitch streamers in their 20’s talking about how they’re old already. Narcissism isn’t just a social phenomenon spread online, I think it actively contributes to many public health concerns we’re seeing today.

4 comments

LapsangGuzzler

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icegreentea2  1 year ago

I agree with your observation, but at the same time, I do think that what a lot of these people might be expressing is their observation of the disconnect between their socially implanted expectations (you're an adult when your 18/21! you are now -mature-), and their experience reality. Which is that for many (most?) people who go through the typical North American education pipeline through university/college (and I'm only making this limitation because that's my experience, and the experience of most of my friends), that looking back, they were definitely not "mature" at 18/21. They probably weren't even mature when they graduated undergrad or started their first full time job out of school.

Everyone has a different point, but they typically recognize somewhere in their 20s that 'oh wow, we keep changing and maturing'. And the first, most basic way to express this observation is with a pretty crude 'oh wow I'm old'. I think eventually, most people can move beyond that first reflexive observation.

  • WJW  1 year ago

    I some times make the following observation:

    When I was 15, I thought I had grown up quite a lot and looked back on my 10-year old self as someone who was just getting started.

    When I was 20, I thought I had grown up quite a lot and looked back on my 15-year old self as someone who was just getting started.

    When I was 25, I thought I had grown up quite a lot and looked back on my 20-year old self as someone who was just getting started.

    When I was 30, I thought I had grown up quite a lot and looked back on my 25-year old self as someone who was just getting started.

    Now that I'm 37, I think I have finally grown up and my 30-year old self was just getting started. But I recognize that my 42-year old self will probably look back on me and still see the same pattern.