Do you find people your age intimidating?

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I find talking to people my age really stressful. I can talk to people older or younger than me just fine, but I find people who are very close in age to me to be intimidating. They're usually the ones who react the worst to my autistic traits and it makes me very self conscious when I'm around them. I avoid interacting with people my age due to this.

I think it might just be people in your age group From my experience, until people really figure out who they are, they tend to have a need to prove something, this is especially true with young men!

I'm someone who can read people very well, so I don't intimidate at all well: I usually see it as the pure BS that it is. Unless I'm being threatened with bodily harm, I'm not usually intimidated. I will always walk away and stop dealing with said person.

DIVAIR

Interesting question. I'm thirty soon and when I was younger I tended to get on with older people easily. When I was in bands in my teens and early-mid twenties, I'd always be the 'kid' in the group, with the other band members being in their thirties and forties. Plus, one of my best friends at university was almost double my age.

I think it's something that becomes less important as you enter the workplace though. At university,you're mixing with people in your age group all the time so being around older people feels different. However, at work a wide range of ages is inevitable and so it becomes less of an issue.

Yes, but only because I find people in general intimidating.

Pretty much everyone who isn't an infant or toddler also intimidates me in some way, but I for some reason find people my age particularly stressful to be around. It's weird because I feel like I should be more comfortable with people who are in my peer group.


When I was a kid I got along more with people younger than me, but now that I'm an adult I get along with people older than me a bit more. Older people used to intimidate me the most, but the more I interact with them I realize they're somewhat less judgmental than people my age.


True. People my age probably also feel intimidated by other people our age. I do think I am often a bit more intimidated than normal though because of my delayed social and emotional development. I don't always get along with people my age since they are more critical of me and notice the differences I have to them.

I don't generally or particularly find people my age intimidating, but I might find people your age intimidating (as I did back when I was your age). Though in reality I don't think I've interacted with anyone your age IRL in a very long time, except maybe in very brief situations.

Teenagers are the worst. (I mean... no offense... But I think you get what I mean.)

I don't think that's weird or unexpected, actually. Your own peer group is usually the one that will be more active at enforcing social norms expected from that peer group. If you are a nonconformist or have difficulty conforming to social norms, then your own peer group (like "male teenagers") will most likely be the most stressful one to be around.

People my age are too busy for me to find them intimidating. I felt the same way you did when I was your age.

Well I even have trouble with infants and toddlers...like I have no idea what to do if a baby stares at me, sometimes I wave at them and try to give a smile if they are looking at me. Of course with a mask I cannot really smile or I can but they won't be able to see it since my mouth is covered. I do kinda wonder how this era will effect little kids whos first memories was everyone wearing masks. I don't want kids and if I got pregnant I would abort ASAP but I still care about kids I want the best for them I just don't want any of my own.

No, they find me intimidating

Makes sense. I've never been able to fit in with any group of people who were all or mostly my own age.

When I was little, my playmates were always 1 to 4 years younger than me. Kids my age didn't like me.

When I was in my twenties, nearly all my friends were people 10 to 20 years older than me.

Later in adulthood, some of my friends were quite a bit older than me, and others were quite a bit younger.

I used to when I was younger. Especially women (same gender). Yes, that's precisely because they are the ones expecting you to conform to various unspoken social norms the most.

Now I've grown old enough not to care.

My playmates were about 2 years younger, usually, when I was a child.

I tended to like to hang out with older people, though, when I hit adolescence.

I don't know if I found people my age "intimidating." That's not the right word. I just found that they didn't care for me too much, regarded me as "immature."

I had a similar issue growing up. I did not fit in with my age group at all. Too advanced in my studies to relate to my classmates, yet too immature in social behaviors.

I find most people my age (early 60s) to be both dull and boring.  Very few can engage in discourse on more than a handful of topics (i.e., grandkids, retirement, sports, and general gossip), and most have gone through most of their lives with little or no in-depth interest in the sciences.

@HeroOfHyrule

Do you find people (your age or otherwise) intimidating online too or only IRL?

I've had people online tell me I'm intimidating several times. I can kinda see why. IRL though?... Nah. No way.