TikToker Says Men Stop Maturing at 18 and Women Should Opt Out of Dating, and the Internet Has Thoughts

A TikTok creator known as @brittnicnight lit up the internet on September 5 with a video arguing that most men stop maturing emotionally around 16 to 18, while women keep growing through breakups and life experiences. She says that widening gap leads to insecurity, cheating, and women lowering their standards, and her advice to women is blunt: opt out of dating, get off the apps, and decenter men. The video racked up more than 11,000 likes and 865 comments, and the replies were anything but unanimous.

Some commenters agreed, sharing their own dating horror stories as evidence. Others pushed back hard, pointing out that maturity is about effort and growth, not gender, and that plenty of men do the work while plenty of women never do either. The Daily Dot noted it couldn’t verify the creator’s claims, which makes sense since this is one person’s opinion, not a study.

What makes the video stick isn’t the premise, it’s the timing.“Opting out”of dating is having a real moment right now, and social media advice like this is shaping how people think about relationships before they even download an app. So where do you land on this one? Is maturity a gender thing or an effort thing? Drop your take in the comments.