Not so long ago, I brought up this topic among some friends of mine. Sadly, the debate was heavily trafficked by immature people. As I've recently recalled the debate and sought out its return, I'd like to present it to my ForgeHub friends =] ____________________________________________ Before I get into the bulk of my post, I'd like to insert this friendly edit::: PLEASE, DO NOT POST WORTHLESS ONE-LINERS! I hope that, if you're visiting the debate section, you're capable of constructing a contributory post. Still in single-digit replies to this thread, I already see too many reasons for me to give up hope of a fruitful discussion. Have some respect for yourselves. ____________________________________________ How heavily, if at all, do you believe a person's age reflects their maturity? Often times, I see legally "elderly" people acting more immaturely than the worst 7th graders. On the other hand, I've found, simply by changing my life's focus from school to work, that different walks of life affect your maturity much more than you'd predict. ______________________________________________________________ So, tell me what ya think, and have a nice discussion. I'm sure this is one of those that I'll enjoy. Please, though, try your hardest not to speak out of bias. Debating is designed to seek out truth, not your agenda.
I will keep this short. I don't think age has much or anything to do with their maturity level after let's say middle school. I think it just depends on how they were raised and the jeans (or is it genes?) passed down by generation.
Agreed, I do think it has a little to do with age but not much. For example, I have a soccer coach who is 26 and acts more like a kid than I do and others on the team and we are 16. I also have a spanish teacher that is also 26 and she sings and dances in class and pouts when we don't do stuff. It's quite funny.
Are you insisting that maturity is genetic? That's....different. I agree that it depends on parents, but not that one's maturity blurs into a gray area for anyone past middle school. Altogether, I will disagree, and say that I believe that age has more to do with maturity than you have stated.
Lol you said you act 7 and coincidentally when I checked, you posted this 7 minutes ago and you also happen to have 7 blog entries. I believe that maturity is self-controlled. It's something you can choose to do, it's just that some people can not control it as easy.
Maturity is not age, it is behavior... This debate can not be simple or a one vs. one debate. Since Maturity is more of a mental behavior there are a limitless amount of possibilities.
Of course, it appears self-controlled. However, when one is placed in an unfamiliar situation and must make an immediate decision, his ignorance reflects his maturity just as much as his ability to make the right decision. Maturity isn't simply decision making. [insert reply to RadiantRain here] <<<<(I couldn't find anything to reply to sad faic)
(Saw your post on GoO, so I decided to check it out...) I believe this may be what RadiantRain was saying, but... What is "maturity?" Who is to judge what is mature and immature? Maturity is completely based upon perspective. Now with my perspective... Maturity (IMO) is based upon a person's experiences in life, meaning that age is a large factor, for the younger you are, the less experiences you have lived through.
A fine definition, Gollum. I feel decision making factors heavily into one's maturity. To counter one of your points, though, maturity is semi-measurable. We, as a society, grade and label each other. Logically, we can deduce the right and wrong things to do in nearly any given situation. Thus, a person's decision compared to the common and logically accepted decision reflects on his maturity.
Age, how a person was raised, and how the person thinks all effect their maturity. They are all relative in how a person acts. I am a laid back and chill kind of person. However, I am serious when I need to be. Being mature is knowing how to act in front of people. Being mature is knowing when to take things seriously. Being mature is when you take your life in your own hands. Being mature is a lot of things.
All- very true. The only part I didn't like about your post was that you didn't continue. I would've loved to have heard some more. Thanks for bringing a child's rearing into maturity's factors as well. Good call.
I would say that maturity is influenced by a mix of things. You can't deny that age is one of these. They say you're an adult at 18 but that's no kind of guide for whether or not behavior is excused by age. That seems to come much sooner, like 12-14. I think after that, age drops off quickly as a factor in maturity. I think the #1 factor is the hand you're dealt in life. No one wants to grow up but life and experience has a way of forcing maturity on some but not others. Some can get away with staying childish. Having kids makes a person grow up, but so does a hard set of conditions.
Empathy I think maturity is founded in empathy. In any given situation, a mature person will be able to consider their behavior's affect on others. Being able to put yourself in other peoples' shoes and take into account how your statements or actions will be perceived by other people is the foundation of maturity. Knowing what behavior is appropriate in a situation is also very important. The ability to change the type of language you use with your friends as opposed to the way you act at a job interview shows a person's knowledge of expected behavior in different social situations. Maturity is a social skill that can't help but improve with time. As you make social mistakes through life you generally correct them for the next time. There is an undeniable relationship between age and maturity. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. You will find some incredibly immature senior citizens and some very socially adept teenagers, but as you get older you become more aware of what works and what doesn't in a wide variety of social situations, and that is what being mature is all about.
I think maturity depends on experience in life, and experience comes in age. I can't really say any more than that.
Though to a point I believe age does have something to do with a persons maturity level, I find it very ignorant to assume or judge someone's maturity level on their age. I'm sure everyone has seen or met an adult who act childish and I'm pretty sure that everyone has met some little kid who blew your mind when he talked politics or something of that caliber. Maturity I believe has more to do with a person's upbringing and life experience rather than age.
I think that Age is most certainly relative to Maturity in terms of how mature you were at 5 to how mature you are 25. How relative that age link is varies. I could be extremely immature at 5 and remain at roughly that level all the way up to 95 (weak age link), or I could be extremely immature at 5 and be very mature at 95 (strong age link). It depends on how strong your own personal link to age and maturity are and how much you're influenced by the world around you. When you think about it, it's not really age itself that is linked to maturity, but how suseptable you are to influences from goings-on in the world. If you're suseptable then, as time passes (you grow older), you will respond to the stimili of the world and gain knowledge, wisdom, socially acceptable behaviour, e.t.c. and, thus, appear more mature. If you're not suseptable then, no matter how much time passes by, it's not going to have much effect on your current maturity levels, whether they be immature or mature to begin with. Heh, I'm going to make this mathematical... This "Suseptablility to influence" we could call symbol "S". So "S" is a number that represents your suseptability. The greater your "S", the more suseptable you are. We're also saying that maturity will be effected by how long you're exposed to these influences. So we'll call that "Age" So your maturity is affected by how suseptable you are to external influence ("S") multiplied by how long you've been exposed to it (A). Maturity = S x A (Note: perhaps "S" could even be negative, implying that external stimuli has a negative effect on your maturity, which would mean that further exposure to it would cause you to become less mature. Rebelious nature perhaps?) But there's another thing to take into account: You're suseptability may increase or decrease over time, e.g. you're naturally more suseptable when you're young (say up to age 5 or something) since you're actively absorbing everything anyway to develop individuality, but then that may alter. At different stages of your life this suseptability could change. So it's important to note then that this value "S" is not constant for an individual, it can alter as time passes. So really your overall maturity is the sum total of the formula above at each change in "S" and "A" Net Maturity = ((S1) X (A2-A1)) + ((S2) X (A3-A2)) ... + ((Sn) X (An-An-1)) That prob looks too confusing to understand to the non-mathematicion so I'll give you some made up values to give it some context. Gauging 2 people's Maturity: Person A: This person starts off with positive suseptibility of 5 to influences that affect his maturity level, it remains at this level until he is 5 years old. His suseptibility then decreases to 2 (his maturity isn't going to be effected as much anymore), it remains like this until he is 40 years old. Now he's 40 his suseptibility is at 0 (his maturity is all made up, nothing will change it). It remains like this forever (well, until he pops his clogs) Person B: This person starts off with positive suseptibilty of 7 until he is 5. His suseptibility then decreases to 2 (not affected so much anymore), it remains at this level until he is 15. His suseptibilty then takes a U-Turn and it drops to -3 (he is actually becoming less mature as time passes, he's decided to be a rebel in his teenage years), continueing until he is 22. His suseptibility then goes to 2 (finally grown out of his rebeliousness) and continues until he is 50 years old. It now drops to 0 as he's peaked. So, we can now analyse this data using my formula to compare the maturity of Person A and B at any point in time. I'll just give a scenario for comparison but you can make comparisons yourself after this and play around with the figures if you like. Comparison Both persons are the same age and I want to compare their maturity when they were 18. Person A: For the first bit of maturity he started off with a change in suseptibility of 5, which remained for 5 years, so initially we have: Maturity = 5 x 5 = 25 The next change in "S" is to 2 for 35 years (40-5), but we only need up to 18, so the change in "A" is 18 - 5 = 13 So now Maturity = 25 (from first bit) + (2 x 13) = 51 Person A's maturity is 51 Person B: For the first bit of maturity he started off with a change in suseptibility of 7, which remained for 5 years, so initially we have: Maturity = 7 x 5 = 35 The next change in "S" is to 2 for 10 years (15-5) So now Maturity = 35 (from first bit) + (2 x 10) = 55 The next change in "S" is to -3 for 7 years (22 - 15), but we only need up to 18, so the change in "A" is 18 - 15 = 3 So now maturity = 55 (from previous bit) + (-3 x 3) = 46 Person B's maturity is 46 So maturity of person A is 51 and the maturity of person B is 46. Meaning that, when they were both 18 years old, person A was more mature than person B. Conclusion So, as I've demonstrated, age plays a part in maturity, but differently for each person, and I was able to formulate a means for comparison. In my example above with the scenario I gave, Person A was more mature then Person B. But if you create different Scenarios (like what about when Person A was 5 and Person B was also 5, who was more mature then? Or what about when Person A was 13 and Person B was 25?, e.t.c.you may/will get different results. Plus that's just with the values I gave for Person A and Person B, what if those were different as well? Howz 'at! tl;dr : You're not yet at the maturity to participate in debates
I believe like many have said that age does play a factor, however it doesn’t determine maturity. Instead things like experiences, personality, and surroundings play a much greater role. One thing I’ve noticed is that for many people (including my self) maturity is effected by the people around you., and the situation you’re in. Several of my friends act highly mature in any normal circumstance, however while in the company of some other people they act noticeably less mature. Some people also naturally seem immature due to the fact they may not take much seriously, but when they find themselves in a serious situation they drastically change. I don’t think you can judge someone’s overall maturity in just one instance, as maturity fluctuates. So it’s important not to assume stuff about a person right off the bat, or even assume at all… Then again, that’s not to say people shouldn’t mind first impressions, as others will form a sometimes lasting impression of you.
It depends on what you call "maturity". I have a friend who is VERY religious, home schooled, and constantly monitored by his parents. I say oh my god, and he freaks out and gives me a whole shpeal about how I'm going to go to hell because I'm an atheist and whatnot. Then after his parents take away his xbox for it being "bad" he criticizes me because I play xbox. It's like anything his parents say he automatically believes and it's kind of sad. We're both freshmen and he doesn't like girls yet. A really cute girl at my school sat down next to him at a game and asked me who my friend was. He scooted AWAY from her and she kind of had this disappointed look on her face and walked away. I asked him why he did that and he just shrugged and got all quiet. (No, he's not gay.) He doesn't know stuff that kids his age should know (if you catch my drift) and acts like a little kid. It's like watching Flanders from The Simpsons. The other kind of immature is when you want to act older by swearing constantly when you know your parents would not approve, wearing your pants around your ankles, and basically doing anything you can do to pose as a "gangsta". If you don't skateboard, don't wear skater shoes that's all i can say (you know who you are). Immature people like this fight ALL the time and try to make themselves look tough to people that are bigger than them too. You'd be surprised how often these short wimpy kids will come up to a person bigger than them just to say "you aint so tough" and walk away nodding their head thinking "aw yeah, I sure told him". The only reason why the bigger guy doesn't punch the kid is because he's a gentleman. And WHENEVER they get the chance they will punch the person in the arm harder than what is necessary like sending a signal "i think i'm tough". The other kind of immature is perfectly harmless. Being the class clown, or acting like a kid again is sometimes cool. Just don't over do it, and make SURE others are laughing too. Then it's okay. Age plays no role in immaturity unless they are surrounded by immature people. Little kids seem more susceptible to being taught to be immature.