What do you think about advice from a young person?

I take advice from people whom I look up to. Some of the people I look up to the most are younger than me.

 

Well I'm worrying about the same, because I, myself, have a lot of older friends who I really try to help sometimes and I may be wrong, but I feel disregarded most of the time, although I know it's not their intention.

 

It's not altogether your age. You are young, though, and you justifiably behave as if you are self-conscious and uncertain of yourself. Develop your posture, and learn to speak more confidently.

A trick that I like to use is a sort of "hustler" persona. You roleplay as a hustler, and sort of segregate that secondary self from the rest of your personality. It's not your identity. It's a tool. You can use a tool to do evil things. It's the "loaded gun" problem. But develop this sort of fictitious character, in your brain, that actually does know how to speak persuasively.

I have autism. I really thought that, when I was 18, people would start respecting me and not treating me as much like a child. Didn't happen. Then, it was 21, and I was supposed to be a full-grown adult and old enough to buy alcohol. Still didn't happen. Then, I was in my mid-20's, still being treated like a toddler. I am 32, and sometimes I still get that, even from people who are younger than I am.

People who are younger than I am have reacted to optimism, on my part, by saying, "well, you're young and idealistic. When you get older, you'll see." And I said, "I'M THIRTY-TWO!!!"

It's therefore not about your age, but it's about social skills that you have not really had enough time yet to develop. What the hustler has that the average person doesn't is very strong social skills. That person might misuse those skills, but they are still skills that you, the honest person, cannot survive without.

 

It's not really about age, it's about social skills; I get confused for being older alot on the internet and on games because I'm apparently so articulate according to most people

 

I'm 20. Honestly, I don't mind. As long as whoever is giving me advice knows where they're coming from and what they're talking about, I'm cool. I know I try to help out people of all ages, so I'd hope I'm not turned down because of my age. My biggest pet peeve is being treated like a baby or an idiot because I'm young.

 

I think its more about the advice and the quality if it rather than the age of whom is giving it to me...

 

As long vas you have expertise about whatever you are advising, it is valuable. I am sure that a 10 years old playing a violin can give better advice about music than I could ever give.

 

Wow, I'm not the only one. This happens all of the time to me too. I seem to care more about what I say and how I deal with people I guess

 

There are some young people who have more life experience and wisdom than people three or four times their age. Some of the younger members of this forum amaze me and I'd gladly receive their advice and knowledge.

 

It would depend on the content of the advice and not the age of the person.

 

I always feel self conscious of my age, 13 being the youngest for most sites. On everything else, I lie, and say I'm 16-17 because I've had a few times being thirteen and treated like I'm terribly immature. I'm aware I am not totally matured yet, and I have much more to learn, but I've been disregarded for age in the past (not on EC) and it really bothers me when people say so. I haven't seen anything like this here yet, thankfully.
The content and experience matter more than the age

 

I'm not going to ask someone who's 15 for financial advice because they don't have the experience to give me a well-educated answer. I'm not going to ask a 15 year old for sex advice, because that's creepy. That doesn't mean I wouldn't take their opinion on say, whether or not this shirt looks good. I guess it all depends on the advice. If someone doesn't want your advice because you're young, don't take it personally. There's just some things you don't ask 15 year olds for advice with.

Honestly, enjoy it while it lasts. Sometimes I truly get sick of constantly giving my friends advice because they deem me as the most rational.

 

^This. So much.

I usually prefer to get advice from people more experienced than me. It depends on what I'm seeking. Honestly, I don't really have that many fifteen year olds in my social circle, so I can't attest to the overall experience/maturity of fifteen year olds, but from what I remember, it's not really something I would put too much faith into. That's not meant to be a dismissive statement of all fifteen year old advice-givers, but....

Another thing to maybe consider is whether the person wanted advice in the first place. One of my pet peeves is telling people my problems and having them shove all these solutions in my face, when all I wanted to do is vent.

 

When I joined the staff team, I was the youngest Advisor by a fair amount. Although my age is technically not public, it is common knowledge that I am of college age. I definitely don't believe that my input has been questioned more because I am younger than a number of people that I give advice to or than others who give advice.

The best advice that I can give is to give the absolute best advice that you can. The vast majority of the issues that we face are issues that need only a clear mind and an unbiased opinion. You can offer that to people. People will always find a reason to doubt the views that you have to offer, but if you are consisting in offering the wisdom that you have to offer than people will come to respect what you have to say.

 

That's why I'm playing the oblivious idiot most of the time.
Or I am truly an oblivious idiot, who to tell? I can't! XD

 

Side Note: The best way to become comfortable with given advice is to give advice where support is needed but not being given. I started given advice on this site by running searches for threads that had received 0 replies. I was sure that someone somewhere could have possibly given better advice than I could on certain subjects, but I never wanted someone to reach out for help and to have their questions and concerns go unanswered. It was only after doing that for a couple weeks and reading positive responses to my posts that I realized that I accepted that giving advice was something that I was right in doing.

 

To be fair, I was homeschooled and grew up without any teenagers around; so I guess I just mimicked the adults around me.

 

I love being able to use this image, LOL.​

Seriously...

Good advice comes from anywhere or anybody. Too many people focus on the messenger and less on the message, when it comes to wisdom.

If what you're saying is sound and reasonable, I'll entertain it. But even if what is being said is absolutely asinine, the reason they even spoke up has my interest. I did not become a more knowing individual all by myself, there was help. And I'm still not as knowledgeable as I would like to be.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to intelligence. It doesn't excuse you from getting clowned, but I'll assume the reasons you do what you do is for some grand plan. Being thought of as 'stupid' is crippling, it's almost as bad as being labeled 'worthless'.

Growing up I learned, if you wanted the best chance of teaching/imprinting upon another, it will be how you present. Not when you are 'on top' or in control, but when you start to lose that security. If you keep calm and appear confident in your actions, it has a far deeper and lasting influence upon somebody. To threaten and shame into conformity may work, but the seeds of resentment are planted. Eventually, your tactics are going to come up against the "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" rage.

Guess who taught me that?

Somebody two grades younger than me. I was owned by a 3rd grader, LOL.

 

Ditto this.

But I trust my own instincts. I never do what I'm told, if it doesn't make sense to me (just one little reason I'll never serve in any military capacity). I seek advice when my intuition needs fueling...and I filter the response through that. Not infrequently, advice of people more than a few years younger than me contains clear markers of not incorporating important information that age grants perspective on...in those cases, I include that fact in my filter. But it is also common, as Patrick says, that a young person will simply have and offer perspective or advice that is incredibly useful and needs no filtering. Most frequently, the situation is somewhere in between.