Yeah, welcome to the club. One of my online things is virtual worlds. I registered for one call Habbo Hotel (if u know it, yeah sorry I assume things.) All the sudden I found myself surrounded by teens. Play acting or real I don't care...EJECT! Haven't had to worry about that sort of thing much in spaces like this, however. - Jim Stanger

By the way, LG, that tiny url is either very wise or very not wise. People are gonna find you googling "too young" aren't they? They're probably not folks that you'd appreciate connecting with. Just a thought... - Jim Stanger

@Jim, it could be worse. I didn't check to see if "barely legal" was taken. And maybe it's better that I have it than somebody else who would be linking to a darker place. - Louis Gray

I think that the fact, that someone at 31 is having problems with being followed online by a 14 year old geek - who is probably seeking a role-model - or by a 20 year old girl (isn't that what people used to call woman in saner times?), and instantly starts to worry about "people assuming things" is telling. When I was 10-14 I used to hang out with older people, learning from the collegues of my mother - usually mechanical engineers or such - or of my father - working in the computer industry. - Roland Hesz

Truth, brutha! The Einstein painting video I posted about earlier today on Twitter I tried to get /einstein linked to. Taken. Homesteading is in full effect! :-) I should secure /roadup but the domain is shorter than the tinyurl anyway. Oh what the hell...heh. - Jim Stanger

@Roland... telling? Explain a bit for us. - Louis Gray

I think it is a sad thing that you have to worry about "what people will assume??" If a teenager can't follow adults, how in the heck will they find a normal, everyday role model? How will they learn something useful? Why don't we just wall off people of separate ages? Sorry, but this is just plain crazy. - Roland Hesz

@Roland It is crazy, but it's a truth of modern day society...at least in the United States. Even if that truth wasn't there, though, I'd still hope a youngster would be able to find a role model they could learn from offline. At least start it offline, and take it online if it's something that works for both. - Jim Stanger

I'm 36. I have friends and colleagues who are 20. Ay 18, one of my best friends - and a great mentor - was nearly 30. Don't worry about it. - Didi Chanoch

@Didi Good on you. I'm not much older and I find teens and early 20's people a strange but fascinating alien species. Wish I didn't. Is it another sign I'm getting older? Do people of any age have to lose touch with younger people, or am I just closing myself off? And when will those damn kids get off my lawn?!? ;-) - Jim Stanger

@Louis Gray telling that you have to worry about it. That's a problem I think. - Roland Hesz

Part of this is also that the perspective is changing as well. I've been at the same company for about 8 years, starting there when I was 23. I've always been the youngest, or one of the younger, people in a specific category. As I grow older, and the next generation starts to be in the peer group, it takes getting used to. (Not creepy per se, just new) - Louis Gray

@Jim problem is, that if a Hungarian teenager wants to learn about, say rocket science, he will have to look for a US engineer say. Given that it takes about 20 hours to fly to the US, or more, the offline bit is impossible. The online thing will work, and sometimes that's the only way. And a 20 years old is not a youngster. That's an adult :) - Roland Hesz

Louis, that tinyurl link is throwing 500 errors. - Duncan Riley

@Roland Fair 'nough. Academic or similar contacts I see differently. The great promise of email all those years ago was the idea you could contact experts in a field that were otherwise inaccessible by other channels. I wouldn't wish that away for anyone, anywhere. General "kid looking for a parental figure" thing, though? Yikes! Too many unknowns, no rules. - Jim Stanger

@Duncan it works perfectly for me. http://www.louisgray.com/live... maybe try the full. - Roland Hesz

Roland, ended up going to Louis' site directly, but the tinyurl... here's a pic http://skitch.com/duncanr... - Duncan Riley

I know, if you sub LG you see them all, but just in case here's the other FF discussion going on about this: http://friendfeed.com/e... - Jim Stanger

@Jim I agree. I still think it's not about the age, it's about the 1) reason and context of contact 2) modified by age. What is perfectly normal with someone over 20 or your own age is weird with a teenager, and the other way around. But I would not say that "I won't contact people younger by X years". I will not in any circumstances welcome a kid on Second Life, but I will gladly talk with him or her about software development or music on twitter, msn, plurk, whatever. - Roland Hesz

@Duncan I see, well, I believed you, just tried to help, but then all is good :) - Roland Hesz

Michael Arrington just tweeted that TinyURL appears to be "completely hosed." - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

To find all relevant conversations, search for "creepier" and ignore the older stuff. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

This is an ancient thread, but I just read the article. My life situation is strange (10-yr-old at college), and I wish that people would just value others based on who they are (not title, class, sex, race, age). I'm 41 and take ballet/jazz/hip-hop classes with people -29 yrs younger, and was at a springboard diving competition with a lady +64 yrs older. One relationship was with a lady +16 yrs older, but always with older women. My Facebook friends are 17-75 (avg 37). - Mitchell Tsai

ancient thread perhaps, but thanks to things like FF, I get to be alerted to it in all my business lately and it was very thought provoking. got my wheels-a-turnin. I might just write something on it soon. This is what I love about technologies like this and other aggregators - posts that normally might have escaped me are brought into the foreground for me to "munch" on and digest and be inspired by. Food for thought, even if at times it seems like fish food - as in little flakes floating by in the FF link lists. - TheMacMommy via twhirl

Melissa: I saw this article in Louis's monthly recap (July 2008) http://friendfeed.com/e... http://louisgray.com/live.... Have you read that yet? - Mitchell Tsai

But don't you seperate who you add on twitter for example compared to maybe Facebook. I hardly check who adds me on twitter, compared to Facebook which I only add people I've met in real life, and non of 'virtual friends' Mind you, so far I know... I don't have any kids following me or adding me 2 FF, FB or Twitter... To a great extent, its just how much of your life willing to put online for whole world to see. - Sebastiaan van den Akker

I think it is refreshing that someone actually thinks of this. So many just want the followers. Age wasn't really the focus to me, but it seems that was the stopping point for many. It was more about that weird feeling of when you know you've stepped into a maturity level that is not your own. And frankly, at some of the levels things can get dicey. And generally, that has some relationship to age (but not always). It is creepy. - Boo

Apologies for coming late to this discussion, but don't see a point having been made here tht I think needs to be made: wrt twitter, ffeed and identi.ca (at least), following/subscribing is very much NOT the same as "friending" on other, more deliberately "social" social media e.g. facebook. I've never used the latter, so actually have trouble groking this issue. For me, subscribing/following says nothing about any desire for reciprocity; I'm just using a tool to make it easier to read your stuff. - Tegan Dowling

Oh, crud, sorry -- I see my point/issue *is* well-addressed over on the other thread, at http://friendfeed.com/e... Come on, Ffeed, get that de-duping stuff done! - Tegan Dowling

I'm 47 and my feelings on this issue are complicated. I do feel creepy when I find myself occasionally in situations surrounded by people 22-25 years my junior (in other words, 22-25-year-olds). Or more -- I felt totally gross when I innocently friended my 17-year-old niece on Facebook, only to find that I was apparently more than twice the age of her next-oldest friend. Eww! (con't on next rock) - Mitch Wagner

OTOH, it's wrong to judge people based on their age. And, as we get older, we have to work to keep our brains from becoming calcified, and one way to do that is to associate with people of *all* ages. I surround myself with people whom I consider peers, aged from early 20s to nearly 70, and I think that's good. When I find myself in a gathering that's much younger than me, I try to behave in a manner appropriate to my age -- which, I think, involves being a bit aloof and avuncular. (con't on next rock) - Mitch Wagner

That said: I like to go to clubs in Second Life, and when SL introduced voice, I was pleased to see a lot of people were using voice in one of my favorite clubs. I switched on voice myself -- only to discover that most of the people on voice appeared to be teen-agers. Ewwwww! I had no idea that they were teens -- I guess when we're clubbing in SL, we all behave a bit in an adolescent fashion. I never went back to that club again. - Mitch Wagner