Just a stereotype I guess, no need to worry if you're a chad.
-----My thoughts-----
Guys, it's funny that we can easily underestimate the age of the people we talk with online, don't know why but I always feel like I'm in an Internet community that is made up from people in their 20s or something, while in fact all ages are there among us.
You guys feel the same ? Maybe it depends on how old the person is and their own perspective ?
Awkwardly serious reply incoming (might be sick).
The reason is that in RL people usually have very close ties to the people around them and there actions and behavior has a ton of implication and consequences. We have to behave following social norms as every deviation from those norms would potentially have very direct results for our relationships, private, professional or otherwise.
People talk and think about others around them a lot and also talk about those people, and therefore behavior that's not normatively approved can result in a lot of other people becoming aware of that, even if the person talking about those did not do it with ill thoughts or intend.
Therefore, knowing that, we usually pay a lot more attention how we behave and adapt it to whom we hang out with.
On the internet, the huge avantage is anonymity. You don't have to pay too much attention to society norms because it won't likely affect your personal life even if it backfires. People also usually do not care too much or think about you on the internet, which means it's less likely they will actually talk about you with others. This knowledge is the main reason people will not try to act too adult on the internet (except to win a discussion or lecture others, people love that).
Cause frankly, most of the seriousness comes from the fear of being called out for inappropriate behavior which does mean we have to act serious to prevent that. If you are close to a lot of people in the 30s or 40s you realize they are not as serious or adult as they appear to be in a professional or public area. It's a necessary facade.
I'm not saying we can't be serious or adult, I'm very obviously implying that we can and do that. But we also still can follow our inner childs, if we are in a context where we don't think we will be called out for it. The anonymity of the internet usually fulfills this criteria.
*Serious mode off* God this is exhausting. ^^