Today, 05/17, I'm "celebrating" my 3rd GAG birthday, if we consider my original account's registration date as the beginning.
I won't say all those things most people say I'm glad I'm a member here, blah blah and all those common stuff, but I'll speak how this site has been educative for me in some kind of way, and what I've learned from here, whether it was a good or a bad thing.
(In alphabetical order)
1) American slang
One of the most educative things here, was learning and understanding the American slang. If you aren't American born it takes some time to understand American slang, since if you are living abroad they don't teach this form of English, but formal English instead.
2) Being a virgin after 20 isn't an uncommon phenomenon
I was always thinking that it's very rare, especially for a guy, to be a virgin after 20 unless if he is a very religious person, or very afraid to have sex even with a hooker. Here in GAG though I've noticed many people in their early 20s claim they are still virgins, including guys. Another thing I learned here and I admit it surprises me.
3) Getting Gift Cards from a forum
Actually I've never thought such thing would be possible. Stupid me, but I thought in order to get a Gift Card you had to ask an Admin from the site you want to have a Gift Card for. Like for example if you wanted an Amazon Gift Card, you had to deposit money in your bank account first, then contact Amazon's Administration Team, and ask them to make you a gift card from your money.
But here you don't need a bank account at all, which is surprising, and till today I've never found any other forumish site which provides such Gift Cards, except those sites where you complete Surveys, watch Videos, etc, but most of the times they don't work if you don't live in US or other big countries as well. A nice feature indeed.
4) Gym is like a church for many guys
No kidding. At least half of the dudes I see here, they'll always make a reference about gyms and stuff and many of them will post a body picture showing off their muscles. In my life, among the guys I've met so far only 1 out of 10 were into this gym thing. I can't tell if it's only a GAG thing or just gyms aren't so popular where I live. I always thought jocks belong to the minority, but seems like I was wrong. Not only that, but I've noticed many girls as well here, don't appreciate much guys who don't lift.
5) How easily someone gets promoted to moderator status
I've mentioned about this issue in a previous MyTake as well, about how easily people get promoted to moderator status, but never mind once more. Anyway, in most sites I've been to, only people who get promoted to moderator status very soon, are those who've been there from the start. If you joined like 1-2 years later, it would take lots of hard work to climb the "moderator ladder" and it would take a year at least to reach this status for sure.
But here I've seen people who are members for only 3-4 months being promoted and there are way too many moderators (I think they're like 100 in total. I mean all moderators. Simple moderators, Super moderators and Uber moderators). Personally I believe 20 in total are enough. But anyway, it's not up to me obviously.
6) How many young people want to marry
I know people who are in their 20s and they don't give an "F" about marriage. I'm one of them as well, and those people belong to the majority. But here I see many young people, both guys and girls, wanting to marry, and hating being single. So sometimes I wonder do those people I've met and say I don't want to marry, don't want to marry indeed, or they actually say it because they're afraid they'll be made fun of if they say I want to marry? Well I don't know about others, but personally I really don't want to marry.
I should also add here, I'm very surprised how many people my age (I'm almost 25 now), are married with kids. I've seen questions coming from Anonymous 18-24 mentioning that.
7) Posting anonymously is always better
Once you start getting recognized in a site (whether it's GAG or not) then eventually you'll gain more and more attention, which means less freedom to express your views since chances are, you are going to receive comments like "Wow, but weren't you said this before..." or, "Could you please answer this here?". The latter is very common in GAG, which is a Q&A site. So my point here is, being undercover, it means more freedom to express your views. It's one of the few sites which still provide this feature. So why not use it?
8. Social Hierarchy
I mean all those "Alpha", "Beta", etc types of males. GAG was the site where I learned about it, and I wasn't aware how big this concept i, which is sad indeed from both sides (look at the picture. it speaks by itself.). I have heard about the Alpha Male title before, but only as a title, and I thought it was given to guys who think they are "very very manly". I wasn't aware about the rest, and I wasn't aware it would be as big as it appears to be here in GAG, and there are so many people who take it so seriously. Personally never did and I'll never do.
9) Thinking about suicide is not uncommon among young people
I thought that the thought about committing suicide existed only among a small amount of human population since I wasn't hearing about suicide attempts (whether they were successful or not) very often and I've never met anyone who has actually thought about it. Or at least they didn't express it. Here in GAG though topics about suicide attempts and self-harming are pretty common. I've been in other sites as well and all those years (a little bit above than a decade )I've seen like 10 topics about suicide/self-harming in total, like only 1 per year on average.
10) Young people being against sex before marriage
It's more like Part II of #6 I posted above. Anyway, I'm really shocked by the fact how many young people (especially females) are being against sex before marriage, and even considering it a sin. I was always taking it for granted that young people nowdays, don't have such issues (unless they live in some village with backward views), and not only young people, but even our parents' generation was considering it stupid to keep yourself till marriage. A sad way of thinking I think, especially if it comes from young people.
And last but not least, I'd like to thank GAG's Administrators for taking their time to read this 6500+ character long MyTake.
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