Young people of the same age are relatively similar to each other. Their life experience is mostly being someone’s kids, and attending school. Their desires are to explore things, and discover their own limits. They also often see each other as potential partners. They often have a lot of free time.
The flip side is that a small absolute difference of age can make a huge difference. For kids, plus or minus three years is like a different species.
Older people are more specialized. They have different professions, different family situations. And less free time, because they have their jobs, partners, kids. They are less flexible, because they had decades to find their personal preferences and build their habits (both good and bad). This all makes socializing harder.
The absolute age differences matter much less; a 40 years old can easily have a conversation with a 30 years old, or a 50 years old. The more salient difference is the job and family situation: two adults having the same kind of job and kids of similar age will have many topics in common, regardless of the age difference between them. Two adults of the same age, one with family and kids, and the other single, are like different species.
On a meta level, the older you get, the more insight you have into the things I described here. Young people underestimate how much their social circle is shaped by attending the same school, and how easily it can fall apart then the school is over. Older people, interacting with their colleagues, are often aware that they are only one job interview away from starting anew; but they don’t have much time to interact with their non-job friends.
(Not sure how much of what I described here is true generally, and how much I just generalized from 1 example.)
Young people of the same age are relatively similar to each other. Their life experience is mostly being someone’s kids, and attending school. Their desires are to explore things, and discover their own limits. They also often see each other as potential partners. They often have a lot of free time.
The flip side is that a small absolute difference of age can make a huge difference. For kids, plus or minus three years is like a different species.
Older people are more specialized. They have different professions, different family situations. And less free time, because they have their jobs, partners, kids. They are less flexible, because they had decades to find their personal preferences and build their habits (both good and bad). This all makes socializing harder.
The absolute age differences matter much less; a 40 years old can easily have a conversation with a 30 years old, or a 50 years old. The more salient difference is the job and family situation: two adults having the same kind of job and kids of similar age will have many topics in common, regardless of the age difference between them. Two adults of the same age, one with family and kids, and the other single, are like different species.
On a meta level, the older you get, the more insight you have into the things I described here. Young people underestimate how much their social circle is shaped by attending the same school, and how easily it can fall apart then the school is over. Older people, interacting with their colleagues, are often aware that they are only one job interview away from starting anew; but they don’t have much time to interact with their non-job friends.
(Not sure how much of what I described here is true generally, and how much I just generalized from 1 example.)