I’m rooting for someone in the 80s or 90s category–that would be wonderful,.
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if you change the viewing from percentage to tally, it shows there was 1 person who selected 80
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I wonder how closely this follows the population dip in gen X? There are more young boomers and young millennials than gen Xers, but I don’t know if it is that stark to account for the lack of responses from those in their 40s and 50’s.
Just eyeballing US census data from 2020, there is a dip at the 35-55 mark, which is the same age range that would be 40-60 now.
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That’s an interesting aspect of this poll: it keeps jumping around.
Usually, in polls that I’ve conducted, after the first few responses – let’s say 20 responses – it “paints a picture” that just solidifies with more votes.
For example, in my poll about “Do you have formal biology training?”
The first few responses indicated that the results might be 50 - 50 or something close to that, and now, over 350 votes later, that is still the result.
But the results in this poll change every time I look at it! I find that interesting.
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Hypothesis: Age can be a factor in how much time one has to spend on the forum or how frequently they are on, as a result different age groups are surveyed at differing times from poll start
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I definitely noticed this with the teenage cohort, who instantly blasted to the top when the poll went up.
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Hard to infer anything from a sample size of 220 (currently) self-selected Forum participants, out of 8M iNaturalist accounts (not to mention the overall general population…)
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That was interesting.
Gen X spans only 16 years.
There might be something of a spike in the 60s because that’s when many folks retire. They have some newfound time to devote to nature and pick up hobbies like iNaturalist. The overall decline in participation from younger to older age groups is pretty much expected with any hobby that has a technological element.
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But as the digital natives move thru their decades that decline will become increase. Some retirees tip over to spend hours every day on iNat - guilty as charged.
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As it stands, 52% are 40+ so about half-and-half either side of 40, which is somewhere in the middle of the age range. I find that quite cool actually…
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I’d ike to see a poll that asks how old you FEEL you are when you’re actively observing.
I think 11 works about right for me.
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7 and 3/4 with one loose tooth.
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My theory is that maybe it feels more difficult to admit to being in one’s 50s, even anonymously…? I think it’s the time where many people hit that first speed bump in life, where suddenly they start to find themselves limited by their own bodies, in various ways. Lots of things change in their lives as well, and this is their first taste of life past “summer”. Older groups have survived the initial shocks of these changes and found their way through. Those of us in our 50s, while maybe not in denial, didn’t quite feel ready to own it. Ok, that’s my excuse anyway. I saw the poll on day 1, and finally voted today. 
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Here is some cherry-picked data that supports Diana’s observation.
I was reading a document about positive psychology in the UK:
https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/ff3a4f865b349e6e48_b5m6b1ah0.pdf
The document contained this chart:
The lowest line on the chart – a blue line – represents “Take notice”, which basically means mindfulness. You could call it “iNatting” (noticing the world around you).
Don’t worry about the exact age ranges along the bottom axis. Just note the shape of the curve, which is U-shaped, meaning that people in midlife have the lowest levels of mindfulness.
If you look at the next curve up – the teal line – you will also notice a U-shaped curve. That line represents human connection, which might indicate that people in midlife have less time available for connection.
All of which supports the voting above, which indicates a lower number of people in their 50’s participating in the iNat Forum.
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I wonder how the supposed “mid-life crisis” fits into this, which hits some people in or around their 50s as they assess their lives and where they are headed. I might have had one but don’t recall :-). What often happens in your 50s is you deal with aging parents and their passing as well as kids who are trying to find their way as adults. But obviously results vary depending on the individual.
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iNat feeds into the lifelong learning my mother taught me.
For her it was learning Russian at 60.
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I may finally get around to learning botany in my 60s.
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and finding out why an iNatter is called @thirty_legs
The mystery of marine life. Is that seaweed red? Or green? Or brown and in a kingdom all its own? Or is it not-a-seaweed but a bryozoan.
The learning curve is endless rabbit holes.
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Not for me, thanks. I think I understand what you’re getting at: the wonderment of childhood, when so much of the world is still new. But childhood was a difficult time for me. I still had that sense of wonderment at 22 when I finished out my undergrad in Costa Rica, and without the baggage of the way a child has to relate to grownups. That’s how old I still feel out in nature: 22.
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