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Speaking as someone who is actually getting old (just hit 60) this is a pretty click-baity title. Of course it's a gradual process that sneaks up on you, and o
by lisper 1y ago
Speaking as someone who is actually getting old (just hit 60) this is a pretty click-baity title. Of course it's a gradual process that sneaks up on you, and of course you slow down and value quiet more, and of course you start wondering what's the matter with kids today. Does anyone really expect to just wake up one morning and say to themselves, "OMG, I'm old today"?
(Actually, and somewhat ironically, I do remember a very specific moment about 20 years ago when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a window on a day when I was not looking my best and thinking, geez, who is that old guy looking back at me? Surely, that's not me.)
- mr_toad 1y agoI knew I was getting old when shop assistants started calling me ‘sir’.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- WalterBright 1y agoI ask for the old fart discount.
- Lammy 1y ago> geez, who is that old guy looking back at me? Relevant Weezer: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gkroIXktjgE https://youtube.com/watch?v=gkroIXktjgE
- ilamont 1y agoYou know you're old when the pop music you loved decades ago is played in the supermarket. For me that hearing Weezer over the supermarket PA whilst browsing aisle 7 last year.
- ne0flex 1y agoA couple years ago I renewed my passport. When the new passport came in and I compared the picture page of both, I went through a similar feeling (basically comparing my 20YO to my 30YO) noticing the bags under my eyes getting darker and just general expression looking more docile. After having my first born, my hair began to gray fairly rapidly (thankfully no balding yet) and when I look in the mirror, sometimes, it just feels odd.
- WalterBright 1y agoIt gets worse every time you renew it.
- cornhole 1y agoI considered myself old when I hit 30 and it’s been pretty liberating
- jjtheblunt 1y agosame, and i'm 57 now but feel no sense of age
- layer8 1y agoWait until the health issues hit.
- somenameforme 1y agoI never, still don't, really feel like I'm old or even getting old. Yet somehow, at some point, I started referring to twenty somethings as kids. Not sure exactly how I reconcile the two, but maybe learning to accept our own inconsistencies is another part of this whole not getting old thing.
- lifestyleguru 1y ago> Yet somehow, at some point, I started referring to twenty somethings as kids. I never started doing it intentionally but at some point I noticed they are all about self confidence while in reality they have no knowledge or experience. Which can be catastrophic when you entrust them with something important. That's when I started calling them kids.
- asveikau 1y agoThere are definitely days where you notice it suddenly, even if the buildup was gradual. I'm younger than you, but recent years as the gen Z kids come up there have been more of these moments accepting that my cohort is increasingly less of the star of the show.
- flatline 1y agoI agree about the clickbait. As I come up on 50, however, I think there are a number of axes on which we can analyze aging. Chronological age: there is no getting past getting older, you will age and it will be increasingly apparent with time. Grooming and style: you can, nonetheless, choose to date yourself with your clothing and overall presentation, or not. This can be overdone and make you stand out “trying too hard” not to be old. But there’s a world of middle ground. Physical: a mix of genetics, nutrition, exercise, access to medical care, self care, and luck. Some people slow down much more than others. Some people, like the author, simply choose to, having been relived of the expectation that younger folks be very busy. Mentality: do you want to look at younger generations as an alien species, or do you want to deal with people as people and acknowledge that while we all have different backgrounds, new perspectives have their own value. I find I can still relate well to people of about any age. At some point mental decline may rob me of that, but I won’t stop while it’s in my control. Interests: do you mostly enjoy media and activities particular to a time when you were younger, or do you have a penchant for novelty despite your age?
- WalterBright 1y ago> do you mostly enjoy media and activities particular to a time when you were younger, or do you have a penchant for novelty despite your age? I have negative interest in the superhero movies, so there's that. I don't care for the modern style of shifting the colors to blue/orange. Movies from the 70's have a natural look to the colors. I prefer 1970s music. Autotune is for whippersnappers. I yell at clouds a lot, too.
- readthenotes1 1y agoSomewhat ironically, HD killed cinematography. Because there's enough clarity to see set errors, everything important is filmed in the dark. Examples: just about every fight scene since 2018; Castle first season vs last. One of the reasons why Shogun was so appealing is they did something different.
- mrmuagi 1y ago
- jtwoodhouse 1y agoAny decent headline can be accused of being clickbait. The entire point is to get the reader interested.
- klank 1y agoI personally try to avoid attempting to manipulate interest and instead capture existing interest. In this framing, clickbait is something headlines can be accused of.
- criddell 1y agoI'm 55 this year. Getting junk mail from the AARP made me feel old. Especially when I opened it, saw the free trunk organizer and discounts and thought that's a pretty good deal. It's weird for me to think that I was born 25 years after WWII and today, 25 years ago was 2000. A year ain't what it used to be.
- WalterBright 1y agoWait till you realize the commercials for the shows you watch are all for old people medical problems.
- layer8 1y agoJust watching something where you get commercials already dates you. ;)
- WalterBright 1y agoAmazon, Netflix, Youtube, etc., run commercials.
- korse 1y agoPeople on HN experience ads? WHAT!?!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dowager_dan99 1y agoWatch a major network like CBS on a Sunday morning. All they advertise are housewares, home decor, other old people shows and age-related & vanity drugs.
- drewcoo 1y agoThe senior center a mile away from me has weekly Scrabble afternoons! I was delighted to find out about that after being shocked to know that I'm eligible for membership.
- shadowgovt 1y agoHonestly, the one thing I hope to hold onto is never wondering what's wrong with kids these days. We've seen too many generations asking that question for me to conclude that there is anything wrong with them. There's just a lot of ways to be human, and they're exploring a different channel than my generation did.
- MrDarcy 1y agoIf you’re in tech I’d argue you have a moral responsibility to be curious about what’s wrong with kids these days. Specifically, the research that went into the book The Anxious Generation.
- shadowgovt 1y agoThat's kind of what I mean. Every generation thinks this new tech is ruining kids: we thought it for radio, we thought it for television. Hell, we thought it for writing: "O most expert Theuth, one man can give birth to the elements of an art, but only another can judge how they can benefit or harm those who will use them. And now, since you are the father of writing, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own." I'm sure there are different stressors and challenges on young people that I didn't experience at their age, but "what's wrong with" is immediately the wrong framing. It flies in the face of a history of human adaptation to their environment. The notion that the newest batch of challenges is different, fundamentally, from previous ones is the kind of thinking that leads people to hold up THESE ARE THE END TIMES signs in the streets generation after generation for thousands of years. (Having a couple teenagers in my life: the challenges they experience are special and different from what I experienced, but mine were different from my parents and their parents lived through one or two world wars).
- 7thaccount 1y ago
- dowager_dan99 1y agoactive male who's now 51; I disagree a bit about it "sneaking up" - at least for me. I noticed a massive decline in just a year or two, where I started commenting "I feel old" a lot more. The delta isn't so different, but there are lots of things where I feel an inflection from "improving" to "flat or declining" and that is extremely noticeable. To me that's what aging is, and it happens FAST.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]