I remember reading that when national parks tried to make a ‘bear-proof’ trashcan, they found that there was a larger overlap between the smartest bear and the stupidest human to make a viable product.
I feel like it’s a similar situation here. The smartest kid and the stupidest adult are far more similar than we’d like to admit.
I don’t think there is a “dead giveaway”. Plenty of kids can pass as adults online and plenty of adults seem like kids online. And sometimes with stuff like word usage/grammar/etc you can’t tell if it’s a child or someone who doesn’t speak English very well or maybe an English-speaking adult who happens to type like that. There’s a lot of different people in the world.
I imagine that part of it comes down to motivation. I pretended to be an adult on a special-interest forum when I was twelve years old because I needed an escape from my miserable existence. At that time, I had no control over my life and every morning I woke up meant I had a new chance for traumatic shit to happen. I desperately needed to be someone else, so I took my time, researched shit, and avoided any conversation where I might be outed. I’m sure I didn’t fool everyone, but I got some shocked responses when I went back as an adult and owned up to it.
Kids doing it for the authority boost or just as a childish fancy will be easier to spot. Kids doing it as a coping mechanism for their horrible lives will probably blend in a lot better.
Damn. I know this life. I don’t wish it on anyone, except those who exposed me to it…
When they’re adamant that voting third party in the United States will be useful in some capacity, I assume they’re 13
Nice try little Timmy, but I won’t be telling you how to pass as an adult.
Extreme/insane positions on everything. Not just one or two insane positions, not just political extremism; when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING. No nuance allowed. And it has to be fully sincere, otherwise you are dealing with a Jreg.
There are milder versions of this, but I have rarely met a child that didn’t have a strongly held insane belief formed from their limited experiences. My favorite was a kid who told me that eating pasta supports fascism because it comes from Italy, so loving Italian products means you support Mussolini. Pizza is fine, though, because that’s American.
I’ll bite. What’s a Jreg?
Very confidently wrong, poor reading comprehension, poor grammar, limited vocabulary, emoji gore, catch phrase/pop culture quotes/talking points repeated with no comprehension of what they’re saying, clearly not aware of how many things in life work, religious regurgitation while being surprised everyone doesn’t agree with them. Very easily impressed with basic factual statements, clearly thinking confidence is the main thing that makes someone correct. Thinks their mom telling they they are handsome is a valid point. Idk, that’s all I got.
Huh
Hexbear is an 8/10 on this scale
I think you’re handsome too, reader. Don’t listen to the haters.
Username with a year that tracks as a kid.
42,069 AD
The neat thing about anonymous discussion on the Internet is that it doesn’t matter. What you have to say is all that matters.
I don’t know anything about anyone and that’s great.
At the same time that’s one of the bad parts of anonymous discussion. You never know if someone’s an expert or a random person guessing (on ELI5), engaging in good faith or purposely trolling, etc.
When someone asks what’s a dead give away someone is a kid, it tells me they’re not old enough to remember the ASL days.
I wrote a whole goddamn novel-sized autorespond in Polaris that triggered on an asl. I was a 96 year old tibetan yak farmer who was allergic to wool and hated the local monks. I used to pee in their milk until one day the abbot found out and beat me with his hat.
Either that or it started screaming about asexual lizards
ASL
13647/F/a weird anime
Hot. PM sent.
Your definition for kid is out of date.
