The Ol' Jump 'n Tap

If you're tall you do this without jumping to assert dominance
- This guy talls.
- I just hit my head into street signs.
  
  They had it coming.
- I hit my head on basement staircase ceilings to asset dominance.
  
  Tell me about it. I have developed an instinctive reaction to lower my head a bit when going through doorways because you never know when a building is a bit older and the doors are just not 2m tall.
  
  Combine the two for ultimate dominance. I’m not just tall enough, but I can and have to hold my hand up so I don’t hit this ceiling going down the stairs
  
  I recently bought a new house and holy crap, what a difference. Even shorter people had to duck going up & down the stairs in my old basement. There is not a single place in my new house that I need to duck my head, and it's glorious.

"teenage"
How do you do, fellow kids?
- Did this at work last month, I am 35.
  
  Tried it at with last year at 42 and realized i needed to do a bunch of stretching first.
  
  You gotta keep that youthful exuberance going, man. Keep killing it out there.
  
  I broke my hip doing this on the way to Bingo last week.
- Now that I'm in my thirties I no longer have to (can) jump
- I'd still do it if I wasn't afraid of my knees exploding on impact, plus the only run up I'm getting is the pain running up my back when I move.
  
  My right knee is still killing me from it raining last week.
  
  Start working out. My knees in back were in a ton of pain before I got back into shape.

Not just teenagers.
- Nearing 40 and still like to jump up to tap something which is high. Never gets old.
  
  Unlike our knees
  
  Y'all still jump at this age??
  
  Way past 40 and I still enjoy doing this ..... but my body doesn't.
  You get to a point in your life where you start feeling like your mind is trapped inside aging infrastructure and there's nothing you can about it.
  
  There's a little arch over the entrance to the living room in my home and post workout I'll often have a brainwave and go talk to my wife and I'll just instinctively rest my hands on that arch. I don't know why but it always feels natural to do that post workout
- And not just boys.

I'm so fucking tires of these stereotypes based on nothing at all. I'm 40 years old and haven't stopped jumping to touch that shit.
- I'm so fucking tires
  
  oh, you naughty tire, just leaning up against that tower… unzips
- I stopped when my knees made me stop. If it weren't for them though, I'd still be doing it too
  
  You gonna take that shit from your knees, or you gonna hit them back?
- Same, seems like just unnecessary gendering, not all that far from “boys like cars and girls like dolls”. I am reasonably physical, never had the urge for this.
- Many folks don't take care of themselves and think it's normal to hurt. Health is possible even when working manual labor, or having little free time and money.
  This comment has nothing to do with congenital deformity or traumatic injury causing lasting damage.
  Edit wtf is this ratio, I'm agreeing with the above
  
  Homie, to the rest of us it doesn't even look like you meant to reply to that comment
  
  A lot of people seem to fail to realize (or at least fail to realize until its too late) that every muscle of the body is "use it or lose it" but also (barring significant disability/atrophy) you can rebuild those muscles with enough training and practice, and it's always easier to maintain the muscles than to rebuild them

Boys grow about a foot taller between 10 and 16, and most people's arm span is about the same as their height, so the overall increased reach is significant. I was taller than average after a huge growth spurt, and I remember realizing how many things I could jump up to touch that weren't in the realm of possibility before that. You better believe I was jumping up and touching stuff.
- According to my big brother, peeing over walls and off high places is another, if they can get away with it. (Like castle ruins etc.) Could it be similar in that you're now tall enough you don't just end up peeing on the floor at your feet?
  
  Peeing other than in a toilet was only ever a matter of necessity for me, so I can't give credence to that.
  
  Boomer humor:
  Two guys are peeing off a bridge. The first says "Man, that water sure is cold!".
  The other says, "Yeah! Deep too!"
  
  It’s power and control, linked with seeing how far you can pee, target shooting, writing your name

It's not just teenagers who like it.
It's just that adults tend to refrain from actually doing it.
- Came to say this. The urge doesn't go away. We just are more selective about picking the best time and place.
  
  There's an emergency fire doorframe I pass a few times a day that is perfect height for me to 360 dunk on. On the rare occasion that nobody else is in that hallway, you know I'm tappin the fuck outta it
- getting laughed at for jumping 2 inches off the ground does that to a man
- As an adult you did it often enough to know:"yeah, i could reach that.'
- also, knees hurt from the thought of it.
  
  Really? Don't know how old you are but I'm in my 40s and I wouldn't call that normal.
  
  My back hurts from reading about it

I have several friends who are trans men who have reported to me that the urge started after they started testosterone. It always makes me smile :)
- This is actually very interesting to me. Is it literally in the hormones, or is it more an unconscious choice of this is what I see men do? I never considered afab/etc. did not do this
  
  Having also worked in a middle school, I’m pretty sure it’s the hormones

Is this like always having to clack tongs a couple of times every time you pick them up?
- The only difference is this one only increases with age. When you become a dad there's a sharp uptake in this behaviour as you chase the kid around the house with it.
- Yes, most definitely
- I'm not finding it now but there are some shorts where the guy gives a tong to teenagers and they don't double clack.
  also no double press on a drill.
  this generation is lost man

There was a metal street sign by my high school that was bent from so many people doing this.
- LOL, perhaps the city should have invested in reinforcements
  
  Honestly it may have made it worse given how boys are as teenagers. I feel like someone would have stolen dad's angle grinder 😅

the only thing stopping grown men from doing it is our knees not handling jumps the way they used to :(
- I've been skateboarding since '85, and my landing gear is fucked.
  So many childish things I would 100% still be doing if I had an MCL.
  
  tony hawk...

im a fan of the head bump, where you jerk your head back at the same time you slap it and people think you hit your head. so funny

The behavior doesn't stop but it does start with the crazy growth spurt in height that is pretty unique to teenage boys (AMAB). Suddenly things that were way out of reach become reachable, like in the course of 6 months.
- AMAB
  All moms are beautiful?
  
  Assigned Mother At Birth, it was part of the Affordable Care Act (I think, from what I heard on Alex Jones)
  _{(Assigned Male At Birth)}
  
  Guys I found JD's Lemmy account...
- I got stretch marks on my flank during those growth spurt years.

I've taught math at every grade level (elementary, middle school, high school, college) and can confirm this is indeed a universal truth.

As a short guy, this was not something I got to take part in a lot of the time and now that my ankle is fucked I'm not even going to chance jumping or running anymore.
- As a tall guy, I rarely had to jump which isn't any fun.
  
  Wana trade? I'm 5'6 and I would do dam near anything to be 5'10. Outside of a halfbrother who is 6'3, I'm the tallest one in my family.
  
  You just have to aim higher. When your friend jumps to tap the exit sign, you jump to tap the ceiling.
  I still giggle every time someone struggles to change a lightbulb, when I can just reach up and do it
  
  Yeah, but you look down on a lot of people.

Kinda surprised by all the joint pain ITT, especially knees. Age alone doesn’t do this.
Knees are remarkably hard-wearing joints, capable of continued high mileage well into old age. I hope y’all are using those knees so you can keep using them for many years to come!
- Kinda surprised by all the joint pain ITT
  Obesity is a hell of a drug.
  
  Also sitting for 8 hours a day and not leaving your home except to grocery shop
- I've had auto immune arthritis for 30 years and my knees are still apparently better than 90% of this thread. It's wild to see.
  
  Damn, arthritis is no joke. Good on you for persevering and retaining mobility.
- I've noticed the patients we are doing knee replacements on have gotten younger. Never really saw people 50 or under getting them when I started in surgery. Then again, the patients are also typically morbidly obese and there is no shortage of them in the US.
  
  That’s an unfortunate trend, though I’m glad you’re there to give people another chance at mobility. With some of the new options I’ve heard buzz about, I hope people are able to get the help they need to thrive and maybe reverse that trend.
- I used them to excess in my 20s so I won't have to use them in my 80s! Nothing worse for knees than carrying heavy shit for miles and miles. Oh well!

The pull cord to the attic hatch in the hallway ceiling. Who else is with me? When I could reach that without jumping, I knew that day that I was a man (I was twelve).
I took so much of the popcorn off the ceiling my mom got upset.
- Why was there popcorn on the ceiling?
- Upset? She should have paid you! :)

I've always considered more of a "can I jump high enough to reach that? I bet I can reach that." The tapping just adds to the satisfaction of a success.

I saw this often when I was younger, but I never had any desire to do it.

there's a tree near where I used to live with a horizontal trunk segment worn smooth from college kids (effectively adults) doing this

Teenage? Still doing it at 30!

Just checking what's in reach now.

I need to get my sister off her bong. All those damn kids trying to, you know.

~~Yeah, in my twenties I realized how dumb and boring it was, so I stopped.~~ (Cope. COPE! 🧓 😭 😭 😭 😭 )

‘Under the engineerium,’ Torgaddon said, ‘the ducts are twice as high, but I can touch them.’
‘You lie.’
‘I’ll prove it.’
‘We’ll see.’
https://reddit.com/comments/o4e409/comment/h2gs7uz

Anyone with testes knows they tap low hanging stuff too

is this in reference to something ?
- Probably observed behavior of teenaged boys. Also, she's not wrong.