Does Age Matter in the Blogging World?

I have been reading blogs of girls who are half my age. And then I wondered. Is it creepy for them that someone who is closer to their mum’s age is reading their blog? Is it too childish of me when I find these blogs both entertaining as well as enlightening? I often find the blogs written by girls in their twenties that I gravitate towards filled with maturity beyond their years. I am very impressed as I recall being that age and extremely childish and not as knowledgable. But part of me also feels a sad yearning. A sad yearning for the daughter I might have had. In my mind somehow, when I imagined myself with kids, it was always a little girl.

I am glad though, that I have my cousins. My whole life I have been the older cousin. My cousins are as young as 16 years my junior and they have always felt more like my brothers and sisters. In spite of the age gap, I never felt like an aunt figure to them or had any kind of major generation gap so perhaps that’s another reason why I feel so comfortable with younger bloggers and their content. Ok I will confess I still don’t get the appeal of Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber, but that’s just a very small element of their lives. Also I secretly hope to influence them with my old fashioned taste in music.

It’s a bit hard to find more than a handful of bloggers in their 40’s and I tend to enjoy blogs by 30 somethings quite a bit. I guess after 30 something, mentally, we don’t quite change very much. I feel that the most changed for me took place due to major life events rather than the biological age and for me that happened when I hit my 30’s. Also I think we don’t move from one age to another, but in us there still remains some part of that 5 year old, or that 22 year old.

I have definitely become more world weary since, and I sometimes long for the optimism and energy of my twenties. I think I get that from the young bloggers although they seem to be as world weary as I am. And then I wonder, if life harder for them now than it was for me when I was their age? And I think yes. School and work has become a lot more stressful since my time, in terms of what they have to juggle. Also with technology, everyone seems to be unable to switch off and bosses place unreasonable demands on employees. Let’s not talk of work life balance. There is none to speak of. I would definitely want to return to the 90’s in that regard. Even just trying to land a job is so much harder. It came too easy for me when I was 21. Those were the days, and I think I got a bit complacent thereafter. But that’s a whole other blog post.

On the other hand when I read blogs by people older than I am, I feel thrilled to learn from their life experiences. I would love to read a blog by someone in their 90’s. Oh what I could learn. Imagine history related from a first person’s account. As they saw it.

I sometimes wish my father or grandparents had kept diaries. Blogs are better though, as the reader then does some censorship, but diaries tend to be very personal, no holds barred affairs. I have ripped out a couple of my diaries for that very reason, but there are many that remain that contain emotions that I only felt in that moment and not a true reflection of how I feel. So that’s the worry. That I might hurt someone inadvertently.

So many untold stories that I yearn to hear. I think it’s great when parents blog. I am quite certain their children will appreciate these journals when they become adults. As a child I was thrilled that my mother kept little diaries. Usually she just wrote one line rather than a whole entry, but I was thrilled to note that I came into the world 10 days before I was due. As a kid I thought her library book was due, but I soon realized she was referring to me. I was also floored to learn that when she was working in an office, she earned just S$300 a month and at that time it was a decent salary. (Just checked with my mum and she told me her starting pay was S$217 and I don’t think she ever reached S$300 as yearly increments were just S$5-10 then) All these little details are so precious to me.

So, I don’t think age matters. We just gravitate towards people with a similar world view. Perhaps it’s easier to meet people of all ages and backgrounds when you blog. The world then becomes your Oyster, and I look forward to the learning and camaraderie.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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14 Responses to Does Age Matter in the Blogging World?

  1. carrotoh says:

    i am really glad you wrote this 🙂

  2. Zoe says:

    Really nice post! I like reading your personal thoughts. I certainly feel that age doesn’t matter! Haha and it’s not creepy at all! 😀

  3. Karin says:

    I don’t believe age matters in any world, not just the blogging world. It’s possible to learn from and create friendships with people of any age and I think it can be enriching for both participants in a friendship of disparate ages. Well, that is how it has been in my experience anyhow. I’ve always had friends of all ages but even more so now that I am older myself – old enough to be the mother of some friends and young enough to be the daughter of others. I like it that way.

    • bookjunkie says:

      I feel that way too. Learn quite a lot from my cousins who are more than a decade younger. But they don’t make me feel ‘old’ as such.

  4. Chaithra says:

    I can totally relate to content in this blog and it doesn’t feel that they are written by someone much older than me . I think you have great deal of enthusiasm and it’s so hard to keep up with frequency of post on this blog .

  5. kirsten says:

    I don’t think age matters at all. It’s how you see the world and how you feel that matters!

  6. whatsaysyou says:

    Awesome post and hey, age totally does not matter when it comes to blogging.

  7. Crystal says:

    My friends in real life and online span years from late teens to people in their 60’s. For me, it’s all about the individual and our ability to have an interesting conversation. I enjoy the optimism of people starting out in college or their new lives post-college. I appreciate the experience of people going through similar experiences of their 30’s. Older adults have different life experiences and different lessons to teach me. But all my friends are interesting people who I feel enrich my life.

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