S
Steezie
Guest
There's something I've noticed over my years of being on the internet.
Your age has a dramatic impact on how seriously you are taken during discussions, even where it shouldn't seriously matter.
I decided to test this a few months ago. I went to a fairly large political discussion form and made three accounts.
The first account I set my age at 18, the second account I kept my age hidden, and the third account I set at 60.
I went on to interact with the forum and I made sure that all of these accounts posted the same basic subject matter stated in the same basic way with the relevant age perspectives in place.
Almost instantly, I noticed that my 60 year old was taken MUCH more seriously than my 18 year old but my ageless account was taken even more seriously than the other two.
I experimented with interacting about things that the 60 year old was less likely to have a great understanding of (the Internet, digital copyright, etc etc) and where the 18 year old was more likely to be comfortable with. In this case I found that even when the 60 year old demonstrated little to no understanding of the subject matter, what he actually said was taken more seriously than the 18 year old that demonstrated competence in the subject matter.
I repeated the test but instead used things like mortgage reform laws, tax cuts, Medicare, and veteran's affairs and the 18 year old was virtually ignored while the 60 year old was virtually the wise-man of the village, even after he set out he knew very little about actual policy. His opinions were taken much more seriously and treated with much greater respect.
In both of these tests, my ageless account was given much greater attention and respect if he demonstrated understanding of what he was talking about but virtually ignored or ridiculed if he didn't seem to understand the subject.
Overall, I found that, regardless of what you're actually saying, people online will tend to take you much more seriously and give your opinions more respect and weight if you are older, even if you don't clearly understand what you're talking about. Your opinion and ideas will still, generally, be given precedence over someone else who is younger, even if that person has a very clear and demonstrable understanding of what the discussion is about.
Most people's impulse, I'd think, would be to say "Well, of course! The 60 year old has more life experience and probably education than the 18 year old, so we should take their opinions more seriously." But that only makes sense as long as the 60 year old is demonstrating that they know what they're talking about. Why should age override ignorance?
What do you think?
Your age has a dramatic impact on how seriously you are taken during discussions, even where it shouldn't seriously matter.
I decided to test this a few months ago. I went to a fairly large political discussion form and made three accounts.
The first account I set my age at 18, the second account I kept my age hidden, and the third account I set at 60.
I went on to interact with the forum and I made sure that all of these accounts posted the same basic subject matter stated in the same basic way with the relevant age perspectives in place.
Almost instantly, I noticed that my 60 year old was taken MUCH more seriously than my 18 year old but my ageless account was taken even more seriously than the other two.
I experimented with interacting about things that the 60 year old was less likely to have a great understanding of (the Internet, digital copyright, etc etc) and where the 18 year old was more likely to be comfortable with. In this case I found that even when the 60 year old demonstrated little to no understanding of the subject matter, what he actually said was taken more seriously than the 18 year old that demonstrated competence in the subject matter.
I repeated the test but instead used things like mortgage reform laws, tax cuts, Medicare, and veteran's affairs and the 18 year old was virtually ignored while the 60 year old was virtually the wise-man of the village, even after he set out he knew very little about actual policy. His opinions were taken much more seriously and treated with much greater respect.
In both of these tests, my ageless account was given much greater attention and respect if he demonstrated understanding of what he was talking about but virtually ignored or ridiculed if he didn't seem to understand the subject.
Overall, I found that, regardless of what you're actually saying, people online will tend to take you much more seriously and give your opinions more respect and weight if you are older, even if you don't clearly understand what you're talking about. Your opinion and ideas will still, generally, be given precedence over someone else who is younger, even if that person has a very clear and demonstrable understanding of what the discussion is about.
Most people's impulse, I'd think, would be to say "Well, of course! The 60 year old has more life experience and probably education than the 18 year old, so we should take their opinions more seriously." But that only makes sense as long as the 60 year old is demonstrating that they know what they're talking about. Why should age override ignorance?
What do you think?
