Social Ripening and Social Decay

Social Decay is a phenomenon which can be observed in many cliques where the common bond is based upon a hobby, profession or other activity that is chiefly practiced by young adults (such as college students). This does not apply as frequently to cliques that are based upon a multigenerational or age-stable interest (such as fans of a sporting team).

At ages 18-20, you and other members of your clique find that you are in the same general stage of maturity. Most of you have crappy jobs, many of you live with your parents.

Provided that you yourself are succumbing to Social Decay and remain with the clique, you will observe that over time, clique members will defect from the clique as they enter their adult profession, attain higher social status, or form families. Your peers who remain in the clique, will be those who remain at the same socioeconomic, professional and/or psychosexual level that they were when they joined the clique, and additionally, new members - usually more college age people - will join your clique.

25 is the "half-way" point where many new adults will have left the clique, and many will remain - I will call age 25 the "half-life". You have half decayed, but not entirely. The defectors will be replaced by the "fresh blood" of latent adults who join the clique.

At 30, you have mostly decayed, and anyone over 35 still left in the clique is pretty much a stunted burnout, itinerant, has never left home, and/or possibly a pedophile.

Social Ripening is the inverse, wherein the core members of a clique actually become more socially adept and financially stable with age. This is particularly true in cliques whose chief interest is a professional or academic pursuit - in a group of science or history buffs, the older members may actually be married professors, but the younger members are considered "nerdy" and "square" by most people their own age.

Alex P. Keaton (from "Family Ties"), who hopefully will undergo Social Ripening at 40, and Comic Book Guy (from "The Simpsons"), a victim of Social Decay, have one thing in common: they are not in the dominant age group of the people who practice their lifestyle.