|
Post by christyotwisty on Jan 18, 2018 18:17:52 GMT
My experience has untethered me from correlating compatibility with age. From a one-time basis from a FountainPenPals Subreddit match, I wrote to someone who'd never had a penpal before, a young person who prints whereas I unthinkingly write in cursive. I thought that'd be the end of it but the person messaged me saying they'd like to continue the correspondence. I reviewed the interests and saw a significant overlap between theirs and mine, so now we have escalated to swapping requested items.
Some of my best penpals have a twenty-year difference in age.
|
|
|
Post by rosesnbrambles on Jan 18, 2018 20:26:20 GMT
I have 3 daughters (ages 19, 16 and 15). As I read this thread, I asked myself how I would feel if they had an older penpal and whether it would matter if the penpal was male or female. I would actually love for them to have older penpals because at least two of them are ...afraid of "old people" (their words not mine). Unfortunately, my girls were not blessed with loving grandparents and have limited interaction with older adults even at church. Their unease around those old enough to be their grandparents is something of a failure on my part. I will confess I would feel a bit more wary if the penpal was male - at least initially. That said, the longer I thought about it the more I realized it, ultimately, comes down to how much I trust my children to make smart choices regarding how much and what kind of information they give out to anyone whether in person, online or through snail mail. I've been trusting them to do that for years. The younger two are in a program that will enable them to earn an associates degree at the same time they are earning a high school diploma. They spend their entire school day on a college campus, taking college classes with adults and moving about campus on their own; they've been doing that since they were 14. There's far more potential danger to them there than in correspondence.
I don't have an age preference. People are interesting in general.
|
|
|
Post by radellaf on Jan 19, 2018 3:15:09 GMT
I think with how much access everyone has to online messaging online, from texting to forum posts, the only thing that could possibly be more risky about who you communicate with would be if you're using your physical address. I imagine if I had three loved ones writing a lot of letters to strangers, I'd probably want a PO Box.
It seems a lot of people on the lists are retirement age, which would make sense because I'd guess people are busiest after college and before retirement. A lot of the time I don't know the age of penpals. The only one I knew was a teen I sent a 5Q reply to and never heard back from or saw back on here, so I kinda wondered if parents (I think they were religious, too) had something to do with it. Also, felt I had to limit what I wrote to be "safe", so I guess I prefer not writing to minors. I grew up with a family that didn't think "curse words" were really a thing, so be it letters, forums, or video game chat, I'm not a fan of having to G-rate my interactions.
Having common interests is good, but really, I find it's mostly a matter of whether I find someone's style & stories interesting. I mean, the biggest worry were the few who, GASP!, didn't use fountain pens. But, no, even non-pen people write good letters. ;)
|
|
metalchick84
Crayons
Posts: 11
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. International penpals only
Country I live in is: UK
|
Post by metalchick84 on Aug 27, 2018 10:45:02 GMT
it may be hard to believe, but once upon a time, a loooooong time ago, we were much younger than we are now. Frankly speaking, I believe that from the age of 30 we don't age but outwardly, even if others just see shaky and myopic old people with grey / no / hardly any hair. At times I'm staggered looking at me (ME? ) in the mirror. Well yeah obviously I get that, but it's simply just a personal preference. I would prefer to write to someone I can relate to to an extent and share things in common. I'm not stupid, obviously there was a time when older people were once younger, don't have to be smart to know that!
|
|