I joined 16 years ago as a newly pregnant 31 year old. It’s been such a useful source of support and information. Also a great source of debate. I found I was roughly the same age as other posters back then.
Just recently I’ve found that I can’t really identify with a lot of the attitudes or experiences I read about, I find MN a strange place at times, I find people incredibly rude and often unable to engage in debate where they are willing to listen to the other side of the argument. I’ve seen lots of posters labelled ‘goady,’ and whilst arguably some of them might have been, to me, this has often stemmed from an opinion that might have been calmly and politely debated in the past.
Then I was reading a thread about ‘common names when you were at school’ and it became apparent that some of the posters were born after i had left school, or even after I’d left university. So 20 years or more younger than me. A whole generation.
In real life, I don’t have friends 20 years younger, as we don’t tend to share the same attitudes or experiences, not that I think there’s anything wrong with it. So perhaps this explains why I’m finding MN such a strange place these days, I’m just basically of a different generation than a lot of other posters. I’m getting old!
There’s a gransnet......I’m way too young for that! Do we need a ‘middle aged net?!’ I’m still a mum (kids 15/11) so I still like the idea of MN, but god it’s a strange place at times.