Please tell me about your interesting young adult!

[Thesnailonthewhale]

All the young adults I've met recently and that's about a dozen between the ages of about 19 and 24. Are all so fucking boring.

My 22-year-old colleague who I have to sit next to, lives at home with his parents, no expenses or bills to pay, it's not saving for anything so essentially has to ground a month pocket money and almost infinite spare time. I asked him what have you done this weekend, or last week or whatever. This last weekend he spent three evenings watching twitch streams about Pokémon until about 3:00 in the morning. Didn't go out with any friends. Didn't go and see the world. Didn't go. Didn't do anything. Just sits around watching TV watching live streams.

Another one who's about 23 who I know through a friend. We were having lunch together and I asked her what does she get up to then in her spare time. Nothing apparently. Hasn't been to see the world. Hasn't been visiting anywhere. Not interested in galleries, exhibitions festivals literally nothing. And so we find out what it is she does with her time, and it's just a shrug and she might be watching something on Netflix or whatever.

When I was their age I was going I was going to Europe for the weekend getting the cheapest flight possible, staying in a hostel and exploring the world. Going out with my friends we'd go to museums and art galleries because we were boring like that. Or we'd go to a theme park for a day or whatever. But we do something and have interesting stories to tell.

So please restore my faith in young adults and tell me the interesting things they are up to please!!!

'Mute mushroom'. I say good on the young lady for not bothering to converse with the OP. Maybe she is very intuitive, when it comes to reading people.

Or maybe you are just rude and they don't want to talk to the nosey older person asking them insanely boring questions posing as being nice but really being horribly judgy.

Try texting instead of talking 😃

Maybe.

So you're actually just rage baiting?

Same on both counts.

"Oh, nothing much" was my stock response when asked what I did at the weekend. "Went clubbing and hoovered up a load of drugs at three separate afterparties" or "spent the weekend in bed with an inappropriate man I wasn't intending to see again" were not things I was going to tell my colleagues.

I don't do either of those things much any more but I'm also not going to give my colleagues a blow-by-blow rundown of the 19-course tasting menu I had at the weekend because they'd probably find it a little dull.

I've worked with some miserable grumpy anti social people over the years. It's a challenge to work with some people but you don't have to be friends, just work.
Your colleague just hasn't learned any social skills.

My young people are amazing. DS1 would never visit a gallery or enjoy travel or anything arty but he's mad about anything scientific or mathsy, adores his job (maths teacher) and talks with enthusiasm about it and young people he teaches. He's into all kinds of sports, quizzes, politics.
DS2 is a nature lover, enjoys the outdoors, hiking , birdwatching and travel.
Their partners are amazing young women. One is an elite athlete and has a challenging career. The other plays a sport and also works within that sport, is keen on travel, design, craft and singing.

I feel very boring in comparison.

No. Just curious about why young people seem to do nothing and have nothing to say for themselves

The 23 year old at my work is studying for exams related to her role, has recently moved in with her boyfriend into a new house, has just come back from what sounds like an incredible trip to Australia and has got me hooked on fruit teas and is constantly recommending new teas to me. She spends time with her family and young nephew a lot too.

She’s as interesting as any other normal person I’ve met.

It's probably me.

OK. My interpretation of what you describe that they're noticing your judgement loud and clear and also notice that every time they give you a piece of information in response to a question, you pounce on it and ask further questions about it. They don't see that as you being interested, they see it as hostile questioning. They just don't want to give you fodder for further interrogation. It's not a viva. Would you persist in talking to an adult that way, if they were obviously closing down the conversation?

I'm chill, but accept that I'm old and boring and they don't want to talk.

Im. only asking one follow up and then dropping it... 🤷‍♀️

And I understand I am the problem.

Maybe you just know boring people

Maybe I'm the boring one.

But your post of 14.25 lists a series of questions you've asked the same teenager over two days. At 17, in her shoes, I'd have been thinking 'Get off my back, hostile older woman'.

It's fine.

I'm the problem.

I get it.

My nephew definitely does not fit into the category you are describing.

He works from home but travels extensively. He has been to many places in Europe and recently toured Japan on his own.

He is a great conversationalist, and will talk knowledgeably about any subject that comes up.

Not to me he won't. I'm a grumpy, nosey judgemental old cow that interrogates young people and puts fear into them apparently. 😂😂😂

Sounds like they think you are a dinosaur and wishes you’d stop talking and asking nosey questions.

I know.

I'm the problem.

I get it.

Funny, there was a bit of an unkind joke among my uni society about a particular girl who did nothing but bang on about her gap year. I guess it's a question of finding your tribe. Maybe this poor girl is just not yours.

I have talked with my YP at length on about 6 different subjects in the last 24h, but I suspect none of them are topics he would raise with a random colleague 20+ years older than him.

My 19-year-old is working full-time in a retail job while saving up to train in a field he's much more interested in, hopefully next year. He's a motorsport fanatic and a very talented self-taught motorsport photographer who spends every Sunday in the race season travelling to tracks all over the country, usually on his own, to take photos, which he then spends hours combing through and editing. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of NASCAR, F1 and British Touring Cars that goes back decades. He loves driving and is a brilliant karter, and he's having flying lessons when he/we can afford them. He and his friends are keen hikers who have done several peaks already this year, including Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). He's at the gym at least five times a week. He would not offer any of this up to someone who asked him what he's been up to recently, though - you'd probably get 'Not much - just working'.

I know

I'm the problem.

I get it.