Maturity - LONG post, read it all before posting

Hi,

Recently there's been talk about maturity. At first i wasn't to bothered over it, until i came to realize most people are completely clueless as to what it is, what makes a person mature and what separates them from the rest.

A lot of people on this site get the impression I'm immature or believe that i am, that rather interested me considering compared to the majority of users using this site i have a lot more freedom, I'm a lot more independent and i tend to have age on most of you as well.

I'm classed as an adult, I'm treated as one in real life. My parents treat me as an adult, i don't have a set bedtime, i don't have a certain time i need to be home at night, i can watch what i like, drink/eat what i like. I can spend as much or as little time on a computer as i choose.

I can drink, smoke, vote, buy porn, see an 18 rated film, go where i like, drive. The list goes on.

Just last night i went out with a few friends to a bar and just hung around with them for a few hours.

Most of the above a lot of people I've noticed have restrictions on or in fact most of it the majority can't even do - so what exactly am i getting at?

Well, because i don't just do that. I watch cartoons, i brought the new super Mario bros game a week ago (the age rating is 3+), i play RS, a game children play, in fact i do a lot of things one might consider childish or silly for a person my age.

YET I'm treated as an adult, over a child and seen as mature.

So what is maturity? What makes a person mature? Why do i get treated as an adult when i do so many "chidlish" things? I'll tell you why - Knowing when to act silly, when to act the kid and when you need to act mature, adult and responsible. That's maturity.

Being able to separate the two and know whens the time to joke around and whens the time to be serious is what makes someone mature.

The same goes for forums, many users might post silly things, say silly things (i sure do.) does that make them immature? Not in my eyes.

I will act like a kid, i will mess around and have fun, because you know what? The threads around here aren't all that interesting, yet the community, the people, i absolutely love.

Of course there's people i don't like, however do you see me marching into their threads and making stupid comments? Taking cheap shots at them all the time? I see it a lot, i see members taking cheap shots at people, i see people being rude, mean and completely out of line.

That's called being immature, there the people that can't separate the adult side with the child. Because someone is different from you isn't a reason to think less of them, be rude to them, make presumptions about them.

In all honesty, this whole thread did spawn because a few people got the impression i was immature, do not make the mistake in thinking that in anyway, shape or form it bothered me, i wouldn't give them a second glance in real life because there of no importance to me, i don't care if you hate me or like me, you aren't that important to me.

I did however see it as the perfect opportunity to point out the difference between the two because a lot of you appear to be severally confused and seem to think, just because someone is an adult they can't have fun anymore and they should always be serious and boring.

To point out the real immature people, who they are, what they're like and hopefully get through to them so they grow up a bit and save me having to punish them later on for it.

Myself and others have done a lot for these forums, put in time and effort to make sure it runs smoothly and nice for everyone, don't criticize people because they want to have some fun on something they WORK hard to keep running smoothly, don't bash someone because they find something funny or interesting and you don't. You wont catch me doing that, i know what's appropriate and what isn't.

Let people be who they are, stop trying to shape people into what you see as right or wrong, mature or immature, funny or not. You're only making YOURSELF look a child and quite the fool.

I figured this had discussion value, so it's going in off topic. It's a lot to read but it's worthwhile.

Now that is way off topic and just threw off the whole point of his post.


This really brings into focus that you can't judge someone right off the bat by what they do for fun, what they act like, but aren't acting like what they really are inside. A person can act in a certain way but be completely different, and usually the way they are acting can be for fun, acting smart (yes, you know some people do), acting mean, etc, but then they act like themselves a lot, but no one pays attention to that and only focuses on what they are acting like, not who they really are. Why did Creepy become a mod? Because Mike and Shane saw him as a responsible individual who would be good at keeping this forum in order and to properly punish individuals as needed.

Just remember this idiom important in life:
You can't judge a book by its cover.

Maturity is a lot more than being 'sensible'. Imo, sensible is boring, to be mature you have to be what Creepy just outlined - know when to be silly and act stupid and when's the right time to stop.

When's the right time to stop?
When the person you're speaking to is getting annoyed or somewhat insulted by what you're saying - That would be a good time to tell yourself you've taken it too far.

If we followed the dictionary word from word a lot of things would have different meanings.

Uh..your idea of mature sounds a lot like independence to me, no ones ever 100 percent independent really.

In my opinion, maturity just means not making an *** out of yourself.

Fixed.

Seems you put a lot of effort into this post Creepy

I would like to say one thing and that is I don't think you are immature in the slightest, and I never did. If people were too serious here, it would be really boring as MQ stated.

The majority of your posts have entertained and ... concerned me, nonetheless i see nothing wrong with it.