Can you be friends with a young guy?

Agree with the majority. Not sure why it would be weird.
He most likely perceives you as an older person he can chat to easily - like a friend of his Mum, or a Godmother or Aunty.
You are only chatting whilst working, presumably, not hitting wherever the clubbing strip is in your part of the world ?

He’s a work colleague, I have great chats with many of mine. From the outside, it strikes me that if you are worried about it, it might be because you are starting to feel romantic feelings?

I think it's perfectly fine. I find I connect with people because of who they are - not because of their age or sex. I have friends who are much younger and friends who are elderly.
I'm just wondering why you're worrying that this is weird? Is it possible that you're started to develop romantic feelings for him?

One of my close friends is much younger than me and male (I'm female). We share a hobby, so it makes sense anyway, but there is zero sexual chemistry on either side and a 20-year age gap and we have been close friends for nearly a decade. Nobody bats an eye-lid. It's friendship and friendship comes in many packages. Enjoy each others' company 🙂

I think it’s fine, especially at work. I have a group of work friends and we range in age from 20s - 50s, admittedly all female (work in a school and male staff v. thin on the ground) but we are all at very different life stages and from very different backgrounds but the friendships are still genuine.

I think friendships with two very different ages/ life stages would be hard to develop in the outside/ real world, but in the workplace you’re often forced together with people for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, in that situation you do start to talk beneath service level stuff or beyond the stuff you outwardly have in common (eg: family, children, pets, career, hobbies) and can start to talk about politics or philosophy or values and connect on a different level. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that or any reason you can’t be good friends, although I expect if one of you left the job you might find it harder to keep going if you had to try and arrange to meet on common ground in real life.

I would happily be pally with a younger guy at work if it came up but I wouldn’t be sharing the vibe/same frequency/having my soul lightened. That sounds like a route to making an arse of yourself in one way or another.

I can’t see why you think this is weird.

Eh? How is that weird?

It's not like you're hitting nightclubs together, doing a line of coke and crashing on his sofa every weekend.

Why’s it strange? You are old enough to be his mum, I can’t see why this is weird.