[ra120271]

I don’t think alignment of interest degenerates linearly with generations. I would suggest that people in their 50s today are much more aligned in interests (not talking hobbies - more generic interests) to someone in their 20s than someone in their 70s.

This is not due to the age rather than the timing of the current technological age and its impact of social evolution of values.

That said to align generations around epochs of time is disingenuous to the diversity and value anyone brings no matter how old they are. We need to tread carefully that we don’t perpetuate ageism.

[Mezzie]

I agree with this, but 50s are more likely to be closer to 70s unless that 50 something was a techie or involved in other subcultures that exploded in popularity between their youth and now. My parents are both in this category (my mom is a sci-fi and hardware nerd, and my dad likes computer programming and video games) and both have real troubles socializing in their age bracket. My grandparents' generation had similar problems: Until he died, most people in both my grandpa's generation and the one after him thought the man was insane/eccentric at best for his television obsession, whereas by the time the Web hit it was starting to be seen as 'cool' by the youngest folks. Likewise, my great-uncle was seen as a weirdo for studying pop culture and now obviously that's an entire profession.

It's less about interests being inherently tied to generation and more about whether that generation was actually permitted to pursue that interest. Particularly once you add things like sex on top of it: My uncle is an engineer but my mom wasn't allowed to go to college. She was supposed to be a SAHM. That makes it really hard for her to find other 60 something ladies that are taking their modems apart.

> This is not due to the age rather than the timing of the current technological age and its impact of social evolution of values.

Very much agree with this. It is funny how many teens and 20 somethings are boggled by 'old' people showing up in spaces with them sometimes. I've liked this thing for 25-30 years! I'm not going to stop liking it!