People really need to take a wider view of this paranoia about age gaps and realise this is how we lose the ability to build communities. You need to be able to realise that people can have things in common with you even if they grew up in a different time/place/culture. You also need to realise you can build communities with people who don’t have obvious things in common with you, that people can have the same goals and needs as you even if in most ways they’re very unlike you. Now, more than ever, we need to be able to work together to have any chance to stand ip against the few who have so, so much more power, money and influence than any of us do individually. We need to form communities that reach across age (and class and race and sexuality and so on…).
I... I have coworkers who are from 26 to like. 56. we have work in common?? the work we all do?? together?? commonly? all of us, at all of our ages???
Also I don't care what I have in common. I can strike up a conversation over plenty of shit I don't have in common. That's how you exchange information on topics. Learn To Ask A Question And A Follow-Up Question.
do these people not talk to their family members? I mean my niece and nephew are some of the coolest people out there and they are 30 years younger than me. Do they have nothing in common with their parents or aunts and uncles? My community elders in the fiber community are awesome and I have learned so much from them. And regularly do social things together.
Also not for nothing but. I was 26 once. for a whole year. we have 25 years prior to that in common as well, I was all those ages too.
ALSO also not for nothing but............... you can have conversations with people who have little in common with you. That is, in fact, a GREAT way to learn about things you don't know about, at any age.
If you only ever associate with a narrow age range of your peers, chances are actually a lot higher than you won't have anything EXCEPT your age in common, as people are vastly varied in their interests and hobbies and knowledge. Going online may HELP to find people in a narrow age bracket but a) people generally aren't yelling their age from the rooftops and b) are you going to exclude someone you have a lot in common with just because they're a bit older or younger than you?
And I DO mean "a bit." The difference in age between 26 and 32 is six damn years. My youngest sibling is 5 years younger than me. I'm currently 41, and my neighbors down the street are in their 60s. They've got 20+ years on me, and we talk all the time about raising fowl and life problems and what's going on in our lives. Outside of farming, we don't have a ton in common, but that's actually great! I love to hear about whatever nonsense is going on in their lives that isn't going on in mine. The things we don't have in common are just as interesting as the things we do.
Like it just astounds me that people think like the OG tweet up there. Have you metamorphosed into someone so completely different in just 6 years that you can no longer relate to anyone that age ever again? You cannot think of one single thing that you might be able to talk about with someone of an age you practically just were? Like I know a lot can happen in 6 years, believe me, and idk about anyone else, but I certainly haven't blacked out and woken up a brand new me who doesn't remember what was happening 6 years ago. I have have hobby projects I'm still currently working on that are older than that. Yeesh.
