Age

Fandom is much larger and more diffuse, but we feel safe in saying that the average age is much older now.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Fans range in age from the early teens to the seventies, but most of us were born between 1930 and 1940. Various polls -- IPO, Poll Cat, and later ones by Campbell, MacKenzie, and assorted fans -- put the median age in the early twenties; the arithmetical average isn't reliable because calculations are distorted by the very aged such as Bloch, Tucker, Doc Smith, Ackerman and others who have existed ever since Gernsback created the world. The question whether mental and chronometric age among fans are related is hotly argued, some maintaining that those under a certain youngness are not competent to dispute or judge their elders. And sometimes the expression "young fans" refers to the time the people concerned have been in fandom, rather'n their calendar ages.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

Fans vary in age from the first teens to a few middleaged men, but most of us were born between 1915 and 1925. In 1938 the average fan reached by the IPO was 18, and the arithmetical average of ages was 20. The Poll Cat reported the average age in 1942 as 23, but that is topheavied a bit by the older men (one was 50, with no corresponding counterbalance aged minus 4), and Widner estimated the median would be about 20. The question whether mental age and chronological age among fans correlates very highly is debated, some maintaining that those under a certain youngness are not competent to dispute with or judge their elders. The time a person has been in fandom is sometimes referred to rather than physical age in speaking of "young fans".

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Fanhistory

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