Well then you probably are an outlier

In My Humble Opinion
41

I am pretty average per these criteria with two exceptions:

  • I live alone and own only one car.
  • I married at 20.
42

I don’t doubt that they do, but I will say that there’s more going on that just being shitty: it’s really hard to include someone in your social circle these days if they don’t have a cell phone. Twenty years ago, people made plans in advance, but they really don’t anymore: a couple people decide to do something, and they send out a group text to the usual crowd saying where they are and what they are doing, and people can join or not as they please. And in a lot of ways, this is great for shy introverts: once they are in a group, they can get included in a lot of things that they can opt in or out of with no real pressure. But if you don’t have a phone, people have to deliberately remember that you don’t and go out of their way to call you. It’s not a huge burden if someone is already a close friend, but it makes it hard to ever get to the “good friend” point that way. Also, you get fewer invites if they are more deliberate. There’s people at work that I am 90% can’t go to happy hour, because I know they have kids and responsibilities. I’m reluctant to ask them in person, because I worry that that will make them feel pressured or guilty when they have to say “no”. But I’m more than happy to put them on a group text because I know that they will feel perfectly free to just ignore it.

43

I married at 39. Ergo…average!

Fortunately those people are outliers.

44

Well that’s not very nice.

45

I prefer to think of it as, I have uncommon taste. I’m not saying my taste is better, what I’m saying is that I like what I like, and often I like things that are not other people’s faves. Often. Or that I don’t like things that most people do like. (Ice cream and pasta for instance.) I never really thought that these preferences cast me entirely out of the mainstream.

But in a sense everybody on this message board is some kind of outlier because I’m guessing that 99.9-something percent of humanity is not posting to the board or even aware of it.