Do you "dumb down" your conversation when there's a young adult in the room?
See that is one thing I have kinda noticed today. I have been seeing a lot of older NSFW questions that you guys have asked and I feel that you jellies have been not posting that stuff lately and I don’t want you to stop posting stuff just because me or other younger people are here. I can’t possibly speak for others here but I want you guys to do the stuff that you would normally do. Don’t hold back just because of us younger members.
I know I may be a little turned off by some of the stuff but PLEASE don’t let that keep you from posting stuff you want to post, this is your site too! I saw a couple old (BUT VERY FUNNY) posts here that I would like to see more of that kind of stuff. If I see things I don’t like or that are too adult for me I’ll just keep moving on. Okay? This looks like a Meta question if you are talking mainly about Fluther. In my opinion, the culture and interests of the collective waxes and wanes depending on the members and their interests at the time. In the past, at certain times, we have had Jellies who were very interested in discussing sexual issues, now, perhaps because many of us are older and single, not so much. I don’t see it as a dumbing down but just as a current evolution. If you are talking more generally, I don’t dumb down my speech or subjects when talking to young adults but I have been cautioned at times by my kids to be more careful with my language or topics to protect their kids. Since they are the parents, I comply with their wishes but I personally don’t think any topic should be off-limits when discussed in an age appropriate manner. This may be a personal problem that is only my fault. Sometimes I feel like I’m being overlooked and possibly rightfully so. Because I lack experience and knowledge of certain subjects that I wish I knew more about. I’m sorry I talk too much I think I may have overstepped again. It all depends on the content of the conversation and of the young adult’s nature resp. identity. For instance, if I talk with my girl-friend, and my young wife enters the room, I lower down my voice. Two lives are on stake, you know. I hope you know that I’m just joking here. Neither am I married, nor is my wife that much insane to kill two innocent people who’re just trying to find some joy in their lives… Generally, I don’t “dumb things down” around young people. In fact, as a college professor, it’s kind of my job to do the opposite.
Yes, you can deconstruct the material into digestible bites, as it were, but you are doing a disservice to said young people if you condescend to them.
On a vaguely related note, I also don’t like baby talk. If you want your kid to learn a language properly, speak to them properly. The content can be age-appropriate, of course. But “to dumb down a conversation” means something else, namely something like “turn a conversation from serious to childish”, and I didn’t know that meaning. So, this makes me edit my answer a little: I dumb it down only if the younger person doesn’t understand something that surpasses their intellectual capacities, and asks me to explain it to them. But I don’t do it for the sake of the conversation as such, because I want the younger person to give its best in order to understand something, although it isn’t dumbed down, because it would be a sort of underestimation of their intellect if I immediately simplified it, only because the person that entered the room was younger than us. You’re all (or almost all) younger than me, and I still don’t talk to you as if you were minors. If I’m with my teen daughter and her friends, I won’t discuss how I used to drink or the partying that we did, when we were their age, and I won’t talk about any sexual subjects. If my adult friends are there we will avoid those topics, if there are teens with us. Other than that, I don’t talk to teens in a simplistic manner.
I know I may be a little turned off by some of the stuff but PLEASE don’t let that keep you from posting stuff you want to post, this is your site too! I saw a couple old (BUT VERY FUNNY) posts here that I would like to see more of that kind of stuff. If I see things I don’t like or that are too adult for me I’ll just keep moving on. Okay? This looks like a Meta question if you are talking mainly about Fluther. In my opinion, the culture and interests of the collective waxes and wanes depending on the members and their interests at the time. In the past, at certain times, we have had Jellies who were very interested in discussing sexual issues, now, perhaps because many of us are older and single, not so much. I don’t see it as a dumbing down but just as a current evolution. If you are talking more generally, I don’t dumb down my speech or subjects when talking to young adults but I have been cautioned at times by my kids to be more careful with my language or topics to protect their kids. Since they are the parents, I comply with their wishes but I personally don’t think any topic should be off-limits when discussed in an age appropriate manner. This may be a personal problem that is only my fault. Sometimes I feel like I’m being overlooked and possibly rightfully so. Because I lack experience and knowledge of certain subjects that I wish I knew more about. I’m sorry I talk too much I think I may have overstepped again. It all depends on the content of the conversation and of the young adult’s nature resp. identity. For instance, if I talk with my girl-friend, and my young wife enters the room, I lower down my voice. Two lives are on stake, you know. I hope you know that I’m just joking here. Neither am I married, nor is my wife that much insane to kill two innocent people who’re just trying to find some joy in their lives… Generally, I don’t “dumb things down” around young people. In fact, as a college professor, it’s kind of my job to do the opposite.
Yes, you can deconstruct the material into digestible bites, as it were, but you are doing a disservice to said young people if you condescend to them.
On a vaguely related note, I also don’t like baby talk. If you want your kid to learn a language properly, speak to them properly. The content can be age-appropriate, of course. But “to dumb down a conversation” means something else, namely something like “turn a conversation from serious to childish”, and I didn’t know that meaning. So, this makes me edit my answer a little: I dumb it down only if the younger person doesn’t understand something that surpasses their intellectual capacities, and asks me to explain it to them. But I don’t do it for the sake of the conversation as such, because I want the younger person to give its best in order to understand something, although it isn’t dumbed down, because it would be a sort of underestimation of their intellect if I immediately simplified it, only because the person that entered the room was younger than us. You’re all (or almost all) younger than me, and I still don’t talk to you as if you were minors. If I’m with my teen daughter and her friends, I won’t discuss how I used to drink or the partying that we did, when we were their age, and I won’t talk about any sexual subjects. If my adult friends are there we will avoid those topics, if there are teens with us. Other than that, I don’t talk to teens in a simplistic manner.
