Message Board Idiots (MBI)
Aug. 11th, 2002 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiI really want to have something to say...but I don't. It seems that when I most want to talk or write, I don't have the words.
More and more, it alarms me that for the past several years, I've easily been able to masquerade as an adult online. At various points, I've been 18 (when in doubt...), 23 (when they roll out the K-Y...) and 30 (when the debates start...) and I've never been "caught." In fact, there have been points when I revealed my true age to be 17, 16, 15, and was not believed. (But I have never been accused of trolling for minors, which would excuse this.)
More and more, it alarms me that I seem to be able to spell better than many of my "elders."
More and more, it alarms me that I am more eloquent, more poised and certainly more well-informed than many of the chumps I meet online.
This is not to say that I know everything; often, I head into a discussion with an air of deference, only to discover that no one knows what they're talking about any more than I do, and further, they're not willing to look at what information is presented to them, and consider it. I find that people plunge into political debates blind and deaf to other points of view.
I am still young enough that I can make jokes with my friends about becoming an adult; "We're going to get stupid!" is the line we toss out. But there is a certain amount of fear in that, at least for me. I know a ton of curious, well-informed, analytical kids my age; by the sheer number of stupid adults, am I to believe that our brains will disintegrate or something? Laugh, if you will, but I'm serious.
Maybe it's that adults don't have peer groups the way we do; nobody to discuss world affairs with on a regular, daily basis. Maybe it's because adults have less spare time, so they don't have any time left over to think. Of course, this really doesn't apply to the people I know on lj, becuase I think lj supplies both the peer group and the necessity of thinking.
Yeah, I know this post sounds idiotic, and the readers of this entry will lift a bemused eyebrow. I just don't think I'm saying everything right, that's all.
More and more, it alarms me that for the past several years, I've easily been able to masquerade as an adult online. At various points, I've been 18 (when in doubt...), 23 (when they roll out the K-Y...) and 30 (when the debates start...) and I've never been "caught." In fact, there have been points when I revealed my true age to be 17, 16, 15, and was not believed. (But I have never been accused of trolling for minors, which would excuse this.)
More and more, it alarms me that I seem to be able to spell better than many of my "elders."
More and more, it alarms me that I am more eloquent, more poised and certainly more well-informed than many of the chumps I meet online.
This is not to say that I know everything; often, I head into a discussion with an air of deference, only to discover that no one knows what they're talking about any more than I do, and further, they're not willing to look at what information is presented to them, and consider it. I find that people plunge into political debates blind and deaf to other points of view.
I am still young enough that I can make jokes with my friends about becoming an adult; "We're going to get stupid!" is the line we toss out. But there is a certain amount of fear in that, at least for me. I know a ton of curious, well-informed, analytical kids my age; by the sheer number of stupid adults, am I to believe that our brains will disintegrate or something? Laugh, if you will, but I'm serious.
Maybe it's that adults don't have peer groups the way we do; nobody to discuss world affairs with on a regular, daily basis. Maybe it's because adults have less spare time, so they don't have any time left over to think. Of course, this really doesn't apply to the people I know on lj, becuase I think lj supplies both the peer group and the necessity of thinking.
Yeah, I know this post sounds idiotic, and the readers of this entry will lift a bemused eyebrow. I just don't think I'm saying everything right, that's all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
I know slightly how you feel...
Date: 2002-08-11 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-08-12 09:49 am (UTC)i've gotten stupider as i've gotten older. :)
well... in a way. i've learned to take life a *lot* les seriously. i was academically smarter when i was younger, and i no longer put as much effort into that level of thinking.
i can, however, good a good deal better. and raise cats. and have adventures.
when i was 17, i could easily hold my own in a serious conversation with people in their thirties. on saturday, i hung out with a group of people in their thirties and forties, and we cooked food and flirted and played Mad Libs (that was all Becca, yo) and talked about zines and living in Brooklyn and stuff like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-08-12 12:33 pm (UTC)That's exactly why I play the adult. Although there have been times in rl when I've deliberately used that assumption for my own purposes; when you play "dumb 'n' cute" long enough, adults don't watch what they say around you as closely because they think you won't understand what they're saying.
i was academically smarter when i was younger, and i no longer put as much effort into that level of thinking.
I totally hear that - for example, I have a lot less time to read than I used to, and I seem to have much less curiosity for reading, too. If I was still reading at the rate I did several years ago...well...
But I'm not sure I'm buying this "level of thinking" thing from you. ;)