21. The permanent sense of alienation started at around 17, but it's not like there are any alternatives to imageboards.

>>20642
you gonna start posting pictures of yourself next?

21 here. I have a weird tendency to assume people on the imageboards I go to are significantly older than me, even though they're very at or below my age.

25, tough visibly i might seem alot younger.

People i chat with sometimes said they thought i was some grumpy 50 year old man lol.

>>20645
No.

>>20646
I used to do that, though it was because I started playing games like Runescape/WoW at a young age (I think I was 9 or 10 on Runescape) and I was genuinely younger than most people, though at the time there was plenty of other kids my age who played, last time I played a year and a half ago the age seemed to be at least late teens on average, shown by the number of meme references and weed references in names.

I guess after years of assuming I was younger than everyone, and finding out I wasn't has made me automatically assume the majority are younger, which ends up in me feeling paranoid.

>>20644
I guess it started around the same time for me, though I was mostly isolated since the age of 11 an eye disorder which started at 16 knocked any hope I had out of life. I've only grown more apathetic about everything, rather than depressed with the capacity to enjoy things like back then. No pleasure without pain I guess, but it's better than feeling little about anything.

I'm going to be 32 in two months.

Been on NEET sites since I was 24. Things have changed a little bit, but the basic dynamics are still there. People are still NEETs for mostly the same reasons. I have seen a lot of stuff change on the surface, though; most things change over the course of time, and the internet has kind of accelerated that.

I don't really interact with anyone; no online friends or anything. I am on tumblr, but only because I like to look at pictures posted by people who are into vaporwave. I mostly just go online to send e-mails to professionals and family, and to share my writing.

I know that all of this may come off as a femmy "Tell me about you!" but we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves. If we've been in this backwater ghost town on the internet together for a long time, it is reasonable to want to get the general individual details of others.

>>20648
>meme references
>weed references
>at least late teens on average
Oh boy. You're not entirely up to speed with how this works nowadays, are you?

>>20652
Is it not how it works? Weed references are usually a big signto age.

>>20651
I guess that's true, I don't know anyone like myself in reality, maybe one person in high school who had worse anxiety than me is neeting it up but I have no way of knowing.

It helps to know there is more like me, even threads like the figure or hobby ones are nice despite me feeling too awkward to actually buy figures myself.

>>20655
Try 7-13. The demos underwent a pronounced shift downwards as children latched onto already derivative memetic content that adolescents were soon forced to distance themselves from in a manner similar to us and those same adolescents. 15 seems to be the current cultural "maturation" point that marks the graduation from memespouting to subtle memespouting under the guise of sophisticated political or philosophical undertones.

>>20656
>>20655

I was just going by Reddit when I used to check it. 7-13 as a majority demographic seems incredibly too low and mainly because Runescape Oldschool was full of people who were already used to the original game.

I don't interact with anyone that young ever, so I wouldn't know about todays kids. I thought a lot of it was using stupid names ironically.

I'm a 20 yr old neet who believes he's become disinterested with the internet.

Just turned 26. Been hanging around here for almost four years now. I probably won't ever leave because I have #t-c on my auto join for IRC, which I never close, which auto re-connects when I take my computer out of sleep mode. Guess I better pack a lunch.

23-year-old NEET here.

>>20651
any words of wisdom for a young neet?

I'm 27, spend something like four years as a NEET until relatively recently. Went full hikkimori for a while there too. I got tired of not having much money so I got a job a few months ago, I'm surprised I've lasted this long.

I've been feeling too old for this shit (anime, internet, videogames etc) for a while but I have nothing better to do so I'll keep at it till I die. Beats having a cunt 3dpd and douche bag friends. I doubt I'll live long anyway, my life style is extremely unhealthy.
oh and I've been on TC since day one.

I'm 27, spend something like four years as a NEET until relatively recently. Went full hikkimori for a while there too. I got tired of not having much money so I got a job a few months ago, I'm surprised I've lasted this long.
I've been feeling too old for this shit (anime, internet, videogames etc) for a while but I have nothing better to do so I'll keep at it till I die. Beats having a cunt 3dpd and douche bag friends. I doubt I'll live long anyway, my life style is extremely unhealthy. It's not that I feel I've gotten too mature for the stuff or anything like that, it's just that everyone involved with stuff related to nerd culture seems to be around 15-21 and it makes me feel like a dinosaur to hang around sites with these people. The age gap might not be much, but it's enough. Nice to know I'm not alone here at least in this age range.
oh and I've been on TC since day one.

24, full time NEET since dropping out at 15.

>>20682
Curious, have you been living at home with your parents? I tend to almost always be riding the line on NEETdom since all I can ever hold are parttime jobs, but if the day comes, I want to mentally be ready. Nine years is a long time.

>>20683
Parents, yeah. I get enough money from birthdays/holidays and odd stuff like returning the bottles I find around the house to buy things I like so I'm not feeling the suffering of being poor like a lot of NEETs which is probably why I've lasted so long. I also don't feel pressure from my parents to get a job anymore, because after being like this for so long they've accepted it.

>>20684
>I also don't feel pressure from my parents to get a job anymore, because after being like this for so long they've accepted it.

I feel the same way here except in regards to fulltime work. I keep trying to get fulltime work in my field, but I can't ever seem to. I feel like there will be a point where they start to accept it and stop bothering me so much about it. Part of me thinks to the far-flung future about what I will do when they die and I'm on my own, but I guess I'll just have to save what I can from parttime work and ride out the inheritance as long as I can. Hell I'll probably die before they will since my diet is so shitty.

>>20670

Well, I can offer some three points of guidance.

1. Read books. They will help you understand how others think, will inspire original thought, will make you far less self-absorbed, and will make you feel like you are actually doing something with your life, even if you are just talking to yourself in your living room six hours out of the day. I've read almost 200 books since I was 29 and a half and I don't regret it one bit; wisest decision I ever made.

2. Forsake love. Love does not last, it is draining, it makes you vulnerable to almost anything, and you'll end up far stronger learning how to stand on your own. I'm still a virgin and while the loneliness was painful from around 23 to 29, I realized that I never really connected to anyone and that I was just used to being alone. I prefer being alone now, which was how I was before I was 23, oddly enough. It will pass, and you will be stronger in the end. Seeing my dad not being able to stand on his own not even a year after my mother died and then have some random woman move in with him just four months after they met was traumatic, but also empowering in that I know that despite being half his age, I'm harder/faster/better/stronger than him. Why waste your life for just a few short years with some floozy who is only going to be pretty for at most ten years, and you'll likely fall out of "love" with her long before then? I don't get it.

So yeah, I've given up on women. And I'm not mad. It is just better off for me.

3. Don't blame yourself for everything that goes wrong. A lot of people do that around here. Cut yourself some slack; the belief that everything is your fault is literally impossible. Realize that a child is not to be blamed for how they were raised, although they can still be blamed for their nature.

I was 19 when I came to this site and I felt super young. I'm 23 now. Most of the users back then were in their early to late 20s, some even into their 30s and 40s.

Now it seems like I'm getting into the older age group. Though looking at topics of conversation and how people type and chat with one another it can be seen that the general userbase is younger than it used to be.

I don't mean that in a bad way. People who are young can say the same thing as older people, but it's usually in a very different way. The tone, words, etc are different to what I'm accustomed to.

22 here. Became NEET after HS for a bit over 2 years but for the last year or so I've been working part-time, and it has drained my soul to the point where I might just give up soon.

>>20720
Is working really as bad as people make it see? I'm currently in college but I know I'll drop out soon and get kicked out, something im ok with because im sick of my family too. I hope wage slaving outweighs my shit home life or else im killing myself for good now. Too fucking tired to try any more.

>>20723
Depends on the job, and the co-workers.

>>20723
There are multiple factors.

One thing in particular for NEETs is the stability, stress, and flexibility of the job.

My best jobs have been the ones where I am almost on an equal level to my superior in terms of social level. They are usually not even called managers, there is just an unwritten pecking order or they have the "Head" position. In those cases, they are usually more amiable, more concerned with your concerns, and are more understanding of errors if and when they occur. However, this also goes both ways, and being a dick to them will make this better standing deteriorate rapidly. Also, this does not necessarily make the job easier, but it does make the work more tolerable.

In jobs where there is a distinct segregation, you are less of a human and more of a unit of labor, and as such you are treated in a less humane manner, and you are squeezed for efficiency. A good example would be my positions as a fast-food worker, where you are simply a more complex machine mediating the operations of an thoroughly mechanical process.

In general, the more skill you have and the more social skill you are, the less likely you are to be treated poorly by superiors. These are areas in which NEETs tend to be deficient, though.

>>20728
what do you do now?

>>20729
University, with a side job of System Administration for the school's computer labs.

I'm 23. I slightly remember seven years ago when seeing threads that ask for age(on 4chan), most people would answer around the 18-23 range.

>>20730
>SysAdmin
Jelly, that's what I wanted to be. Wanted.

26, and I come and go. I might feel welcome elsewhere, but I never really like the people or users.

>>20735
What do you do in your free time and what communities do you switch to?

>>20736
The Internet Honor code won't allow it

>>20736
Video game playing and figure collecting mostly. Communities I refer to include websites on the topics, as well as meatspace groups based on ideologies I subscribe to. Again, even if I'm included I find it very hard to care. I like it here, though. Everyone's so honest I can't help but respect.

I'm 27 now. I've been coming here off and on since '09 I suppose. I definitely am starting to feel the age gap sometimes. It's weird to think that I sometimes probably argue with people who are almost a decade younger than me on the internet about Japanese cartoons. In real life I'd probably just roll my eyes if I saw some 20 year old kids talking about anime. I should have made real friends with similar interests when I was younger.

>>20756
It's never too late to make internet friends!

Recently turned 20. Spent some time after High School being NEET, but I'm currently in University.

It's strange, people I interact with on the internet tend to be either slightly younger, or much older.

>>20758
how's uni treating ya?

>>20759
Badly, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

>>20756
The thing is, do you think that such friendships would be meaningful or valuable? You say that you would roll your eyes at 20-year-olds talking about anime now, but do you think that you would get along with them if you were 20 too? I've seen those kinds of people, and I think I've had disdain for them since I was a teenager. Maybe I just developed my taste sooner since I've been consuming Japanese media pretty much since elementary school. It's also possible that I'm just pretentious and like to pretend that I'm superior to them, though, so just take all this with a grain of salt.

I am 28 y/o NEET and have been recluse since 2007.

Waldo ain't got shit on me.

>>20756
I'm basically in the same place as you, only I don't watch nearly as much anime as I did back then. Maybe you don't either? I dunno.

I think the key is to look for the ones who respect you and look up to you. Listen to them and their opinions both quality and QUALITY, and help influence them as they grow. Never much liked the oldfags who ignored me/berated me.

>>20756
I'm also 27. You aren't missing out. I tried real hard to make friends when I was younger. People with "common interests". Let me tell you, none of those people gave a fucking shit about our "friendship". Everyone I've ever spoken to has taught me that no one gives a shit about you, as a person. They see you as a role that fills some sort of blank in their life. They do things not because they like you or want to get to know you more, but because they want you to fulfill your role in their life. That's all you are. A role. I don't even think it's possible to be a human being in someone else's eyes. "Common interests" doesn't change that either. Every single person I've ever known has grown out of their interests. Every single one. If all we had was our interests and they grew out of them, what's left?

You know what people our age are doing? Making babies or getting married. Their top priority is making a new family. They don't give a shit about anything else. They have a new life mission now. It didn't matter who they used to be or what they used to think, all that matters now is their weddings and babies. If you had tried to make friends at a younger age, you'd likely be in the same position as myself. That is, friendless anyway. Sure, you might know one or two people more, but the best interaction you get out of them is them sending you an email once every five years to see "what's up". If that's friendship, then fuck friendship.

I recently turned 27. I gave up around age 14 or 15 and became increasingly reclusive. I have a job now but outside of it I never leave my apartment. At one point I was fully shut in for 6 months (didn't even leave room unless I had to shit) when I was 20. I have maybe 4 friends (all from this site) but other than that I don't really know anyone or interact with others. I've gotten really good at surface level interactions with normals and that keeps people at bay pretty well when working.

>>20878
>I've gotten really good at surface level interactions with normals and that keeps people at bay pretty well when working.

I've actually been getting the impression lately that you're actually a lot more normal than you realize. Not you personally, but I think that the thing of yours I quoted is true for a very large fraction of the people who appear to be normies.
A the start of Sept. I got a new job which is kind of salesmanish so I've been interacting with way too many people and also abusing anxiety drugs and while its pretty fun as I get to know these people I realize that so many of them are way too awkward and uncomfortable in their own skin to be normies. They're just faking it like you and me, most of them are also using "performance enhancing drugs" AKA drugs.
My own life history is this
Periods of time when I've been financially secure: Sober hikki N33T
Periods of poverty: Stoned 22/7, reliable, intelligent, hard worker who makes lots of money and gets promotions and raises swiftly. Even when I'm high all the time I like that couple hours of sobriety in the morning after waking up.

I bet I'd rich as a motherfucker if I never believed in that "drugs are bad" shit and was just high since I was 13 years old, probably be long since retired and rich and having my own private island near tokyo that I would invite 2D high school club members to visit.

>>20686
thanks friend, hope all is going well on your end.

I'm 31.