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Originally Posted by Umihito

Woah woah, I definitely didn't try to put myself off as superior if that's what you got from what I said...
'Outgrown' was simply just the first word that came into my head to describe it, I didn't think any deeper than that.

I didn't imply that you are placing yourself on a superior pedestal, although I had a feeling that you might feel like my post was directed entirely at you. My problem is with the terminology and its use in this particular subject. That's why I made it a point to solely quote your first sentence and not your entire post. You do not grow out of interest, you lose interest.

Originally Posted by Umihito

But yes, changing interests so anime doesn't play much part in their lives any more is another way to put what I mean. I maybe should of made it clearer, but I mainly mean it in the sense of moving from childhood into adulthood and losing interest in it because of that.
In that sense, I don't think there's any difference between 'outgrow' and 'lose interest' because you're quite literally growing out of interest for it.

Perhaps it's not your intention, but when you use the term "outgrow" or "grow out of" you're automatically implying that there is a predetermined limit, age-wise, that dictates a specific point which its acceptable/not acceptable to watch anime.

When you put it in the sense of a 40 year old English learner, you change the context of the show from children's entertainment to language learning, so the same can't be applied. But to each their own.

quite the contrary, Barney shows are designed specifically to facilitate learning (educational, moral etc) through entertainment for young ones. It can provide the same level of education to those who are early in their second language acquisition process. Being an individual who is capable of speaking English at a native level, I have no interest in it but, on the opposite side of the spectrum, it could prove to be a valuable tool for someone older who is learning the foundational aspects of the language. You see, you view Barney as a show designed to entertain children and thus see it as being useful for only them, but another person - perhaps a significantly older person - follows it religiously because it's become a great source of learning material.

So to sum it up, interest in itself is subjective, but that's all that it ever was and will be..."interest." It's either there, not there, dwindling or morphing no matter the reason. The term "outgrowing," to me at least, creates some kind of standardization that's off-putting to people whose interest are still invested in that particular medium.

Of course, I'm no wordsmith so I have no right to tell how or when to use a term, but I'm just voicing why this specific term, when used in this type of context, disturbs me.