this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
37 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26890 readers
1676 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Obviously teenager is 13-19.

"Young adult" would start at 20, but where's the cutoff at the upper end? Similarly, what's the range for "adult", "old", "elderly", " ancient"?

If someone asks for responses from "old men", how do I know if it applies to me?

top 14 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] neptune@dmv.social 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Going to be highly dependent on context. At the cancer hospital? "Old Men" might just be 80+ years. At the office, it might be 60+.

Young adult in a lot of countries will start at 18 or even younger I think? US, adulthood starts at 18 even though a lot of adult things are still closed to them (drinking alcohol, having completed college, etc). So if we mean legally a young adult is probably 18-30 whereas if we mean a young person who is starting adult life we might not mean until 22 or older when they have a chance to start a career, etc.

Elderly and other descriptors might follow the contours of eligibility for government programs like social security.

[–] MrZee@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

To add the the context dependence: “Young Adult (YA)” books and media are generally geared toward teenagers. At the library, YA is reading materials that are too complicated to call “children’s books” but still a lot easier to read than general fiction/literature/etc. From an age standpoint, kids often start reading YA stuff in late elementary school. So… at the library, young adult is close to synonymous with “teen”.

[–] ramble81@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I heard a teenager describing a 40 year old as "elderly". Context matters.

[–] BakingCookies@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yup. I substitute teach at a middle school and a couple years ago, I heard a 12yo say 40 would be a good age to die because you'd pretty much done everything you could by then... I'd just turned 40 a few weeks earlier.

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

There's going to be some overlap and it's very subjective depending on who you ask and the context, but in general I'd personally say

Infant: <1 year old

Toddler: 1-3

Child/kid: either used generically to refer to any minor, someone's offspring, or about 4-11ish

Tween: 10/11-12

Teen: 13-19

Young adult: usually 18-about 25, depending on context may include older teens about 16+ and go all the way up to 29

Adults: 25/30 depending on where you end the young adult range- 39

Middle aged: 40-60/65ish

Old is very subjective, and depending on context, the person's personality and health, etc. I wouldn't normally use it to generically refer to anyone under about 50/55, and more often probably skewing more towards 60, 65, even 70, though I'll occasionally use it half-jokingly for people about 10 years older than I am, which would currently make those "old" people in their early 40s.

Senior- 65+

Elderly- 70+

I would normally only refer to a living person as "ancient" jokingly, I'd normally only use it seriously to describe things that are from probably about the 5th century CE (or AD if you prefer) or earlier.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It's slightly variable and largely depends on the dragon's subspecies, although 5e removed all that in lieu of a simpler, but more boring, universal scale that covers all of them equally.

[–] gon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Adult's 25, Old's 50, Elderly is 75, Ancient is 100.

[–] shortypig@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Those of us in our late 40's are horrified to learn this! You turn 40 and you're "middle aged". Ten short years later and you're just plain old.

[–] TheInsane42@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At least growing up is optional, even when growing old is mandatory. ;)

[–] Mobiuthuselah@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I consider it an honor. Not everyone gets to grow old.

[–] TheInsane42@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

When nature would have gotten it's way, I wouldn't have reached 1 year. I finished my 5th decade, half way trough the 1st century. ;) (my wife 'celibrated' her 10y anniversary as cancer patient last year)

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

lmfao ancient? “Ya, I’m pretty ancient myself”

[–] Senseless@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Judging by the telco tariff plans here I'd say young adult is 18-27

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I would say "young" is anyone 3/4 your age, or less. "Old" is 5/4 - 6/4 your age or higher. Though the fractions can vary from person to person.

Elderly is generally retirement age, or close to it. The point where the body's slowdown becomes obvious.

Ancient is roughly 80+ those who have exceeded the average human lifespan, and are still ticking. Though elderly + frail is how it often plays out in public, since you don't know someone's actual age.

load more comments
view more: next ›