What Makes You Feel Old?

[LostInTheMist]

I was just reflecting after posting in the "last thing you copied" and listening to the Saga Begins song that I remember when it first came out (in the previous millennium) the only way to see the music video was to catch it on MTV, and you had to sit and watch it all the way through because you couldn't pause TV back then.

The other thing that makes me feel old is that kids who were born after 9/11 are old enough to vote (18 in the United States) now, and some will be turning 21 this year. (Which is the legal drinking age in the United States.)

This isn't intended to be negative, which is why it's here, but if it belongs in the Bad and Ugly Forum, then I guess it should be moved there.

[Endorphin]

When the weeks and weekends seem to blend together these days; and I sit back and wonder where all the time went.

[Nouhime]

Driving and song comes on the radio with the year it came out. Realising that I was still in school or high school when that song was first running.

[solkar]

Nothing. I'm aware of being older than before, and being older than most people now, but I never feel old.

[Azy]

A local radio station plays 80's music for the older listeners at the lunch hour.  Now they're including 90's music, because 90's is old now.  I was a kid in the 90's, but still..... 

[KnightmareTerror]

When I heard Green Day get called "Classic rock" on the radio.

[Nico]

Nothing. I'm aware of being older than before, and being older than most people now, but I never feel old.

I'm pretty much the same, actually.

[cincinnatus]

A local radio station plays 80's music for the older listeners at the lunch hour.  Now they're including 90's music, because 90's is old now.  I was a kid in the 90's, but still.....

Hearing the "progressive" music you listened to as a kid as fill music at the grocery store.

[Oniya]

I'm about to make half of this forum feel old:

Little Oni ordered her first cocktail for her birthday last weekend.   ;D

[Inkidu]

I'm about to make half of this forum feel old:

Little Oni ordered her first cocktail for her birthday last weekend.   ;D

Nope, nuh-uh, no, sir. I refuse to believe she's not perpetually the same kid when you first came to this website and no amount of reality will change that fact. :D

[Wandering Mind]

Talking to others who bring up that they are in their 20s.  Oh yeah, talking to people who are feeling their age and they are around the same age as me.    ::)

[Azy]

I was watching an interview with Daniel Radcliffe, and it was mentioned that the first Harry Potter movie was released 20 years ago.... 

[LostInTheMist]

I passed 25 years of using the internet without even noticing it. I've been on the internet since I was eight years old, back when it was ancient dial-up and I had to ask permission, because it would occupy our phone line. I'd fire up netscape navigator and... honestly... I don't even remember what I did online back then. Played games? Really, I don't remember anything I did online until I was 12 or 13 and stumbled into online roleplaying.

[Azy]

I passed 25 years of using the internet without even noticing it. I've been on the internet since I was eight years old, back when it was ancient dial-up and I had to ask permission, because it would occupy our phone line. I'd fire up netscape navigator and... honestly... I don't even remember what I did online back then. Played games? Really, I don't remember anything I did online until I was 12 or 13 and stumbled into online roleplaying.

Oh god....  The internet didn't exist until I was 14....  I remember because when the Science teacher took us into the computer lab to introduce us to this crazy new thing called dial up internet my arm was in a cast.  I didn't have it at home until AOL caught on. 

[Oniya]

I accessed USENET and BBSes with a 2400 baud modem and a terminal program.

Oh god....  The internet didn't exist until I was 14....  I remember because when the Science teacher took us into the computer lab to introduce us to this crazy new thing called dial up internet my arm was in a cast.  I didn't have it at home until AOL caught on. 

I did phone support for Q-Link, and sorted bug reports for the Win3.1 version of AOL.

[Lingo]

Going back to school!!

Then again, talking to people who are 20+ years older than me and in PA school is wild. Like damn son, you the real MVP, chase all the dreams!

[JosephTheBat]

When somebody asked me why people used to queue in front of street phone boxes LOL

[RedRose]

Labels, names and initials, verbs suddenly becoming a name or opposite, having to learn about all of them.
More serious: I remember smoking inside (not me), no seatbelt, ashtrays on planes, kids getting hit in public (granted still see but less), and while we're at that, hitting fingers with a ruler

[Nameless One]

Finding out that cursive speech is something that actually exists in the real world. And that some young people are actually speaking in cursive ti each other for fun. And finding it extremely annoying for some unknown reason...

[Inkidu]

Finding out that cursive speech is something that actually exists in the real world. And that some young people are actually speaking in cursive ti each other for fun. And finding it extremely annoying for some unknown reason...

Which can be hilarious because it's becoming more common to find young people who don't know how to read cursive. Heck, I write almost entirely in cursive unless I can't or shouldn't since I learned it in the third grade and it was seen as old hat even when I was growing up. (As someone who likes to handwrite notes for writing projects cursive is easier on the hands.)

[stormwyrm]

I have a box of "save icons" in my attic. :P

[Oniya]

Finding out that cursive speech is something that actually exists in the real world. And that some young people are actually speaking in cursive ti each other for fun. And finding it extremely annoying for some unknown reason...

I had to look this up, and the definition I found describes it as 'slurring so badly (as if drunk) that all the words run into each other'.  Which, I suppose, is a good description of cursive writing, since the letters all lean and run into each other.  I'd also consider someone speaking that way deliberately to be extremely annoying.

OT:  The way my shoulders are aching after yesterday's yard work.

[BlueOrange]

First, I noticed they were letting children into university.

A few years later, they started letting children out of university.

Now they’re letting MY children out of university!

[Oniya]

First, I noticed they were letting children into university.

A few years later, they started letting children out of university.

Now they’re letting MY children out of university!

*fist-bumps*

[BlueOrange]

Hehe!


I’m also grateful for some of the things. Like Rebecca Romijn still being amazingly attractive :)

[Inkidu]

I find myself criticizing the youth of today. :P

[Lilias]

The soundtrack of my angsty teens now qualifies as 'classic rock'. And if that weren't bad enough... I didn't know how to feel when the Spawn's class learned 'Living On A Prayer' for showcase assembly in Year 6. :P

[Hrairoo]

I passed 25 years of using the internet without even noticing it. I've been on the internet since I was eight years old, back when it was ancient dial-up and I had to ask permission, because it would occupy our phone line. I'd fire up netscape navigator and... honestly... I don't even remember what I did online back then. Played games? Really, I don't remember anything I did online until I was 12 or 13 and stumbled into online roleplaying.

This one hit me today when I saw a dial-up meme about kids these days being impatient for a 5 second download. And I tried to think about it, tried to remember what it was like, and I really couldn't. I remember spending hours clicking through page after page of search results on Elfwood(the big art site) looking at art and OCs, or going down Wikipedia rabbit holes with my own little list of search terms as my interest expanded with each article like water ripples(back then, self learning was an ever widening tunnel of starting to read an article and getting interested in a blue word, clicking, starting to read that article, finding another blue word that piqued curiosity, etc. etc. And I would just make lists to keep track of things I wanted to search next, or other things that caught my eye that I wanted to look into but needed to go down a different pathway first), looking up Gamegenie cheat codes for SNES games.

Anyway, I remember how I spent my time online. However, I don't remember how I felt about how slow things moved. Did I notice? Because there was nothing to compare it to, that was just how fast things went. Was I ever irritated or impatient? Did I do things while I waited? Like doodle or read? I don't remember. However, I know how I'd react now to pages loading slow or internet taking any amount of time other than "instant" to boot up. Hell, I always get just a little worried, thinking something must be wrong when there is any sort of 5-10 second delay in anything online, lol.

[BlueOrange]

OMG, kids in this thread thinking that ‘slow downloads when they were a kid’ makes them old <3

The first time I felt really old, I was having a conversation with my son while I was driving. A song came on the radio, and I recognized that it was a cover. I told him I preferred the original, and he looked at me as if I was the stupidest, least relevant person in the world. And in that horrifying moment, I realized he was right.

That was 19 years ago.

[Esoterica]

What makes me feel old is the fact some Elliquians are half my age. Lol. And can be here according to the rules.

[LunarMoon]

A local radio station was playing songs from the 90's the other day that I remembered listening too as a kid. Just made me think about how fast time really moves and we're just living it.
Oh, and watching old cartoon's from the 90's too! Rocket Power, Rugrats, Hey Arnold-- ya know, those ones? Sometimes I show them to my younger cousins and think, "Dang, has it really been THAT long since the shows aired?"

[BlueOrange]

It's like the fact that there's a Powerpuff Girls reboot.  It's like "Wait a minute, when exactly did the original series end?"

[Secretwriter]

Realizing that kids born when I was in my late teens and early 20s are in their  late teens and early 20s now. 

[Conqueeftador]

I'm not really that old, but I can already notice the generational difference. The fact that I own, and prefer,  a computer is enough of a difference between the generation below me. It seems everyone prefers to use mobile devices for everything! I find them cramped and limiting.

[SummerDawn]

Realizing that kids born when I was in my late teens and early 20s are in their  late teens and early 20s now.

Yeah. Or realizing kids in University never knew a world before 9/11.

[Azy]

I'm not really that old, but I can already notice the generational difference. The fact that I own, and prefer,  a computer is enough of a difference between the generation below me. It seems everyone prefers to use mobile devices for everything! I find them cramped and limiting.

Yeah, definitely that.  I've discovered a few games that come in handy when I get bored.  If I'm not home and need to look something up, my smart phone is handy.  But when I am home I prefer my computer.  I don't get the unlimited data plan because I don't need it.   

Also, people not knowing that dial up internet was a thing. 

[SummerDawn]

LOL. That really dates me Azy. I didn't get dial up until I was in my early teens. I remember tying up my dad's phone for 2hrs while I downloaded the trailer for Startrek Insurrection.

[Oniya]

Yeah, definitely that.  I've discovered a few games that come in handy when I get bored.  If I'm not home and need to look something up, my smart phone is handy.  But when I am home I prefer my computer.  I don't get the unlimited data plan because I don't need it.   

Also, people not knowing that dial up internet was a thing.

ANSI graphic 'door' games on BBS's run from someone's basement.

[gaggedLouise]

I'm not really that old, but I can already notice the generational difference. The fact that I own, and prefer,  a computer is enough of a difference between the generation below me. It seems everyone prefers to use mobile devices for everything! I find them cramped and limiting.

Yes, that's a real divide for sure. I'm a "computer person" or even an analog media lady (books, physical CDs, LPs and dvd's) far more than a smartphone person. The thought of having my private life packed onto a mobile phone that might get lost or mislaid relatively easily - or worse, hacked - is frankly unappealing to me.

The recent passing of Michail Gorbachev felt like a bit of an age marker for me too. I'm old enough to clearly remember the times when he was president of the USSR - and the whole map of those days, the awareness that Eastern Europe was a kinda shut-off and dangerous realm, a world with lots of secrets and closed locations (camps, prisons, entire cities and regions) and where travel was restricted (especially within the Soviet Union of course). I hope we won't be going back to some of that climate again...

[BlueOrange]

ANSI graphic 'door' games on BBS's run from someone's basement.

Did you get the phone number for the BBS from the newspaper?

And we’re you excited by the possibility that your BBS might join one of those open-access internet collectives?

[Oniya]

Did you get the phone number for the BBS from the newspaper?

And we’re you excited by the possibility that your BBS might join one of those open-access internet collectives?

Oh, I got the number handed to me on a napkin at a social event.  One of them actually had access to USENET.

[BlueOrange]

I miss USENET. Ahh, for the days of the global village. Before it became a global sprawling metropolis!

[Krispythekritter]

I use to play the game Tetris all the time while I was growing up. Now at work when we need to make objects/items fit into spaces I tell my younger coworkers to use their Tetris skills. Some of them look at me confused while others just tell me they have no idea what that is or have never heard of it.

I also remember going to go roller skating during the weekend but I don't think there are many of those places around anymore.

[MoonWolf]

Found my monkey webkinz from middle school

[persephone325]

Scrolling through a drop-down box to find my birth year.

[Stella]

Y2K fashion coming back.

It was terrible the first time around, guys.

[salaciouspen]

People telling me something happened or came out a decade or so ago and my first thoughts automatically go the 1990s, getting confused when I have no recollection of what they're talking about for that specific time frame, and then grumpily realise they're talking about the early 2000s.

[DragonflyAlice]

That all my cousins and siblings are "proper" adults. Some are even married and have children! (Some have died :()

[BlueOrange]

That all my cousins and siblings are "proper" adults. Some are even married and have children! (Some have died :()

Ouch.  That's a connection to mortality that I do not envy you!

I've started having weird thoughts about whether my kids are going to get their act together and turn me into a grandparent.  I never suspected that I'd ever think such a thing.

[RedRose]

90's stuff. Socks in sandals, Docmartens, skirt on leggings, thick shoes...all back.

[CaptainErotica]

Telling people(mainly co-workers) that I have lived in Japan since 1994 and their reply is that they weren’t even born yet.

[The Lioness]

Re-vamping my request thread, only to see I've got updates on there dating back to 2013.

Oh yeah, and realizing I'm now approaching the age my mother was when I graduated high school.

[RedRose]

SO. TIRED.

[BlueOrange]

Re-vamping my request thread, only to see I've got updates on there dating back to 2013.

You remind me of the OOs and the request threads that start with “I’m new and still working things out” and they’re dated 2011. “Elliquy age” is definitely a thing.

[Lady Shadow]

Fake eyelashes, I think I am last woman that uses mascara.

[Silvered Sutures]

People born in 2005 can legally vote.

[Pink Duct Tape]

Twitter.

[varjue]

OH MAN. There's a lot of things that make me feel old.I think one of the things that makes me feel really old is when people don't know what a VHS is or like... a Gameboy. That's so wild to me! Someone also once called my DS ancient and that felt absolutely like astonishing.

[GhettoMedic]

Part of this might just be because EMS prematurely ages you both mentally and physically, but I'm only 28 and every new EMT at my service looks like a literal child.

[Pain]

I've been playing Kingdom Hearts since I was a kid and, although it's still a relatively popular franchise (Square Enix and all that) there are people who haven't played the originals or owned a PS2, which makes me feel really old.

And CDs.

[Silvered Sutures]

The fact I saw my niece at a club.

[Oniya]

I forgot that anything more than five years old is 'obscure' on the Internet.

[Lady Shadow]

Watching AI evolve when I remember the thought of it brings me back to the Terminator movies, which are becoming obsolete themselves.

[Silvered Sutures]

The fact there are currently 6 terminator movies, the last of which came out last decade

[IsabellaRose]

The fact I saw my niece at a club.

A kid I used to babysit for was bouncing at a local bar, which was weird. Weirder still when I went inside and ran into my nephew, who told me he'd been "coming here for years" ...

[Victoria Skye]

Thinking when Skyrim came out.

Also when people in their 20s call themselves old 🙃

[Observing Trifles]

I once told a 19-year-old intern in my department that I was 32. 

He looked me dead in the eye and said, verbatim, "Oh my god, what were the nineties like?!"

Damn, my dude. Damn.

[Starling]

Tik Tok. Instagram. Snapchat. 

I feel like a boomer for either not using them or really knowing how to. I mean, I know the basics, I just don't know how - you know what I mean? On a technical level, I'd manage just fine, but I don't know why people would, I don't know how to make the most of it, etcetera. 

Backpains. Granted, they don't just happen because of old age, but even though it's like a monthly occurrence for me... it makes me feel like I'm ready to lie down in a coffin, maybe permanently doze off. 

Or when I'm reminded that I'm like a million years old because the books/sites changed from saying that the dinosaurs died out 65 to 66 million years ago in my lifetime. xD (I know that's not how any of this works, but let me have this!) 

[Oniya]

Tik Tok. Instagram. Snapchat.

I feel like a boomer for either not using them or really knowing how to. I mean, I know the basics, I just don't know how - you know what I mean? On a technical level, I'd manage just fine, but I don't know why people would, I don't know how to make the most of it, etcetera.

If it's any consolation, Little Oni only views the occasional Tik Tok videos on her social feeds.  Neither of the other two cross her typical chatter. 

[Verasaille]

Playing in a MMO with almost everyone younger than me and hearing some of them boast they are the oldest one in the game. Sitting there snickering that if I tell them how old I am they would be backing away like someone told them they were rping with their Grandmother!

Also realizing that my grandkids are old enough to have kids and that would make me a Great Grandma!

[Pain]

Someone recently reminded me that the Wii is 17 years old.

[CaptainErotica]

Realizing that I’ve been here longer then many of the other members have been alive. Or that so many of the other “Old Timers” are gone- but never forgotten.

[yobo]

Subtracting my age from the year I was born and realizing that year (so far back) is as close to the year I was born as the current year...

[Oniya]

Subtracting my age from the year I was born and realizing that year (so far back) is as close to the year I was born as the current year...

*stares in mathematician*

[Lilias]

Definite beginnings of arthritis in the shoulder. Having to be slow and careful when wriggling out of a sports bra, in order not to pull anything that will have me in agony for days, is a new low.

[BeliallMorningstar]

Having two bad knees and a bad back…

[wolvenrogue]

Remembering that my first home computer had 128K of ram and no hard drive.  It was advanced though,  it had a composite display and  two 5-1/4 inch floppy drives. Internet would not be available for  8 years. 

[Pink Duct Tape]

Ugh. Being exhausted after walking 3 miles on almost all flat terrain. I used to be able to do that in 1 direction, while smoking, and not break a sweat.

[Oniya]

Being told by the poll-worker that she remembered when Little Oni wasn't old enough to vote (as we all trooped in to do our civic duty).

[cincinnatus]

Going to pick up an order at a Pizza Hut I worked at, and talking with the store manager about how much it has changed, and yet not changed.

Mentioning about their book it program (kids read books over the summer and get free pizzas), and then she remembers coming to get her book it pizzas as a kid. 

Probably around the time I worked there, if not later.

The Manager.

Oh, and the kicker that really makes me feel old?  Turning 50.

[LostInTheMist]

What still makes me feel old is having conversations with people who are old enough to drink now who were born AFTER Septebmer 11th.

[LcxviiA]

Some of the newer slang that's out! Skibidi, rizzler, kizzy, etc. I know their meaning and they're cute, just makes me feel old!

[The Lioness]

Getting hooked on a music group ..and realizing my bias is 10 years younger than me. 

Oof. 

[Novak]

Getting hooked on a music group ..and realizing my bias is 10 years younger than me.

Oof.

Similarly classic rock stations now make me feel old. I think I’ll just refer to them as Dad rock stations now. 

[Oniya]

Hearing the 20-somethings at work complain that they're going to be blind, deaf, and in walkers.  (To be fair, two of them have significant sports-related injuries from football and gymnastics.)  I felt obligated to point out that 'I'm supposed to be the old lady back here. :D '