I'm 26, and I really like pokemon. I started by watching the show when I was in 9th grade, and watched it for the first season, then gave it up. I have never gone back. I also played the card game, and played all the way through Blue. Then I dropped it until last year.
I restarted the series with Diamond, and thought that it captured the spirit of Red/Blue perfectly. I can't understand why everyone hates Gen IV so much. I followed that up with SoulSilver, and I'm still playing that. As for my current opinions on the rest of the fandom...
1) I think the anime in all of its forms is a travesty, and I'm embarrassed that it shares the same name as the games.
2) The card game has become needlessly complex, and by trying to constantly one-up themselves, they lost touch of what made it good in the first place.
3) I find it hilarious how everyone considers Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh bad and Pokemon good, yet they make comments that show a remarkably in-depth understanding of the other series. I would have never made the connection that Reshiram and Zeckrom were the Blue-Eyes/Red-Eyes dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh. I actually had to look it up on wikipedia to find out what people were talking about.
Anyway, I think the games are great, and the rest is throwaway.