What 'phase' did you have during your younger years that you never grew out of?

Videogames, no they're not a waste of time they're a huge cultural entity with a grand future.
- After meeting your needs for survival, everything else is entertainment
- With just how many are out there, how prevalent they are, and how large of an industry they are, they are definitely a huge cultural entity. As for a grand future, that I'm not so sure of if triple AAA titles are to be continuing the trends they are already going down.
  
  Who said anything about AAA? :p

Being gay (despite how many times my dad said it was just a phase)
- I always suspected people saying being gay is a "phase" are gay or bi themselves. I don't understand the thinking otherwise.
  
  Son, your love for cock is just a phase. I got over it you will too. Now excuse me while I get on grindr and harass young men with my faceless empty profile.

Hating the rich. Hated them when I was young; hate them even more as a boomer puke.
- Oh shit, I've stumbled upon the rare good boomer
  
  I'm not 'good'. However, I'm not a fool, and it's nothing short of suicidal folly to ignore or embrace those who consider themselves the owners (and harvesters) of mankind.
  #ETROBAAT (eat the rich; one bite at a time)

Emo/pop punk. Idgaf the music is banging. Went to the MCR reunion tour and had the time of my mid 30s life.

Being a gamer 🎮
Listening to Rock Music 🎸
Complaining about my parents' bad habits 🍷🍺
pr0n.

That I had to do everything for myself, all the time, in every way.
I'm indigenous Canadian and my parents basically grew up on their own in the wilderness. They basically just let is do anything and everything for ourselves on our own all the time.
I worked all the time as a kid ... at first because I had to but eventually because I wanted to because my parents were like that. I followed by example.
I remember at one point as a teen taking part in project after project trying to get people to help, to take part, to share or to even just join me and make the work easier. It was always a pain to get help.
I remember arriving at a breaking point and I just started ignoring people and did enormous projects on my own. Often people would just see me struggle and help but more often than not they wouldn't.
I've worked on my own ever since in building and construction .... I got it to the point where I could literally build my own house from the ground up.
- Possible to do solo with the right tools/enough muscle and stubbornness, much easier with 2 people
  
  You don't need tons of concrete to build a foundation. It's better but not necessary. I built three foundations on my own so far with a concrete footer and pressure treated crawl space. Mixing, hauling, pouring and setting small batches of concrete on your own is possible.
  A good and experienced builder can install drywall on their own. I'm not the best but I just finished drywalling my small porch on my own .... ceiling and walls. It's doable, not easy, not fun but it's possible.
  It is better with two or more people to do these things but with modern building techniques, equipment and a bit of knowledge, just about every step is doable with one person.
  It's not ideal, it is dangerous but building an entire house is doable by one person. It's also better based on age. In my 20s I had a hard time because I had the strength but not the experience. In my 30s I thought nothing of it all and did my best work ... now in my late 40s I'm struggling to do all these things now and seldom do anything on my own any more.
  
  Except in order to be legal you need a licensed person to do much of the work. Licensed electrician to do electrical, licensed plumber to do plumbing, etc.

I'm nearly 50 but I'll never stop buying band t-shirts. It's my absolute favourite thing.
- Graphic tees make the kind of first impression I want to make. I wear my special interests emblazoned on my torso because I want to meet and talk with people who vibe with them. If you recognize the Aphex Twin logo or Miskatonic University, we've already got something in common. It's that frickin' simple!
  
  I agree!!! Also I look like a babe in them lol.
  
  Maybe I need a Misk U shirt or pullover
- 40 and same
  
  I LOVE going to shows and getting a new shirt every time.

Horny.
- I’m male, in my 50’s, and still waiting for that ‘peek at 17’ to stop…
  
  Right? I wish I could turn off my libido like a switch.

Heavy Metal.
- It keeps getting heavier too
  
  Well, kinda. I mean, I was a huge black metal fan in my late teens and couldn't suffer melodic death metal because... Well, melody was a no-no. Nowadays shitty production is a no-no for me and I mostly listen to melodeath lol. But the thing is, a well produced song can be soooo much heavier than a bad produced one

I thought this said phrase at first and was so confused.
Being goth tho 🖤

Hating kids. Never liked them when I was their age (it was mutual) and still don't like them. It took ages to find a partner that feels the same. She kinda likes them, for a short time, but doesn't want to have them, so that's close enough.
Also, not caring about clothes. Yeah, you need to wear something, way to cold not to, but what... don't care to much. Jump in store, get jeans (current favorite is a local farmers store brand, cheapest), next store, shirt and sweater, done. Record shopping time for a set that fitted was 15 min for 3 stores and 2 complete sets. Waste of money to have more then 1 set to wear, 1 in the laundry and one drying. (And 1 spare for emergencies, like missing your mouth with coffee when not awake yet)
- Don't want kids, never wanted kids, never will want kids. Did not grow out of it. Did not - as some idiots claimed was inevitable - marry some woman who then demanded kids out of the blue. In fact, did not marry at all. Never wanted that either.
  Them: "Eventually you'll be miserable like me!"
  Me: "Why the fuck would I do that?"
  I went to visit one of my friends last week and we were having fun playing video games and going to the beach and getting takeout so we decided I'd stay a few days. Because we're both single childless adults and we can do whatever the fuck we want. Was a great few days.

Never wanting to be in pictures or being outside/active for long periods of time. I will eternally look like a goblin and I don't have the social battery to deal with long excursions of "doing stuff". It tops out at maybe 2-4 hours depending and after that my brain basically turns to goo.
Oh and also: wearing all black. It just makes dressing myself not a hassle.
- There are certain types of people - extroverts, morning people, sports fans - who assume that they are the correct way a human should be and everyone else is somehow defective.
- Hahaha same. Friend and family called me the vampire. 95% of my clothes are black, including socks.

I was told I would understand being a Conservative and become more right wing when I got older.
Still a left wing personality. Still don't support death to my friends and loved ones. Glad to be in Canada so I don't have to worry as much... But still have a lot of worries for their safety.
Oh and definitely my love of Halloween.
- I was fairly conservative as a teenager (mostly because I was fairly ignorant and my parents were low key conservatives. I bucked the (apparent) trend by moving left. Happily call myself a socialist now.

Alternative. Music, politics, food cars. Mainstream never came back.

Hating people.

Piercings and tattoos. Gaming. Not wanting kids.
I don't look very alternative so all these things surprise people if it comes up in casual conversation.

Believing that modern life is some kind of scam. Being very angry at 'society' (uhm I know, I'm part of it, so there) for not seeing how wrong everything is.
Wanting to be alone.

Wearing gender non conforming clothes (turns out I'm non binary, so I doubled down), not wanting to be around ex family (also doubled down), not wanting kids (cats don't count right? ❤️), being a nerd.
- Cats count.
  Pets are the new children.
  Plants are now pets.
  Children are big exotic animals, like tigers. Even if you were foolish enough to want one you can't afford it.
  
  Thankfully tho cats don't come with all the things I dislike about human children. ❤️❤️❤️

I was told that after I got out of school I'd understand why it was necessary. I uh, still completely hate American schools and how they're structured and have no clue why they work the way they do.
- Forcible social interaction & increased immunity via spread of germs.
  Also they occasionally teach you stuff.
  But there are so many better ways it could be done.
  The thing is, once you have kids of your own, you'll understand the #1 reason for schools: state funded daycare so parents can go to work.
  
  I'm never having kids and one of the items on the list (among many, many other higher priority ones) is how miserable the school system is.

Pushing 50 and still pushing on a skateboard
Video games
Not wanting children
Bare bones utilitarian furniture
Athiest
- Living the dream! I spent 10 years of my life skating. Ended up moving to a place with zero areas for skating without commuting an hour, so unfortunately my boards are going to turn into wall art soon.
- Atheist, perhaps?
  
  I suppose dyslexic goes on the list as well. At least I spelled it correctly on my dog tags

Being depressed about the nature of life.
I cannot exist without something/someone else dying and I've always hated that.
- In the words of a long dead king, "Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever."
  Being depressed about the nature of life is not new and you are not alone in it.

Computer nerd.

Wanderlust and not wanting to get married and have kids. People said I’d change my tune when my friends started settling down and having kids but they did and I became even more certain. I don’t dislike the kids at all but some of us are just born to be the rowdy uncles.
As for Wanderlust, I have it worse than ever. I just slowly lose my mind until I travel and refill my sanity jar. (I might have actually lost it during the pandemic. When I got the 2nd dose of the vaccine, it was like a brain fog suddenly cleared because I could leave the U.S. again.)
- In my mid 30s and I thought it was a 20s thing. But I also see my friends setting down and worrying about extra-curricular activities and other parent drama. And to me, personally, it seems so petty and depressing.
  I got to travel a lot last year and will later this year and that feeling of wanting to explore has not gone away.

Pissing people off by having fun doing something the way I want to.

I still listen to angry music, envy the occasional gutter punk I see, and think if I somehow got my hands on the globally nuclear arsenal that I would gladly give the world a much needed reboot.

Metal and anarchism

Gaming, listening to emo music, thinking engineering is cool as shit, willing to do a boring job to make more money than I can in engineering (project management)

Hating the parents

Driving like a hoon. You'd swear I was a teenager behind the wheel.
I still have the loud-piped hot hatch and subwoofers at 39.

I used to be a mega goth/grunge (idolized the look of Trent Reznor) kid with a super morbid curiosity of death and everything that most people shied away from.
I still think Trent Reznor is cool as shit, still love grunge music and the scene, but not really the goth and don't have the same level of curiosity. Looking at things I specifically went out of my way for as a teen now makes me physically ill.

I was told when I was younger that I'd "understand" why kids are given homework. I remember having several hours of homework each night.
I have a school-age child and they don't have nearly as much homework as I did, really only of she doesn't complete something in class. It didn't work that way when I was a kid.
So it wasn't just me who thought I had too much homework. I wonder how long it will be before the pendulum swings the other way?