Survey Confirms: Delusion Means Never Having to Admit You’re Old
A new PEW Research Center survey of 3,000 adults confirms two points of conjecture that can now be elevated to the platform of truism: (1) No matter what age we are, we never admit to seeing ourselves as ”old”, and (2) We’re all masters of self delusion [reference point #1].
At the low-age range of the survey, answers were predictable: 18-29 year olds said that they think someone is old when they turn 60. Nothing shocking there.
Stepping up a rung, 30-49 year olds said that someone doesn’t traverse the threshold of old timeyness until 69.
For 50-64 year olds? Geezerdom doesn’t start until you’re 72.
For those 65 years plus a few, the magic number is 75.
(I guess that’s where the researchers thought they’d cap it, but I really wish they’d have kept asking because I’d love to know what an 80 year old would say.)
The average age of perceived oldness across the survey was 68.
In short — no matter how old we are, being old is always up ahead at least a few mile markers.
I’m not sure why the word “old” carries such undesirable baggage. Are we so youth-obsessed in this society that even when you’ve survived into your wiser years, it’s shameful to admit that you’re no longer young (i.e. old)? If the answer is yes, we are that youth-obsessed, then to that I say (in my Yoda voice), “Silly, we are.”
Silly because while being “young” is great, it’s undeserving of a position so privileged. Worship of youth is a delusion that fuels the lion’s share of entire industries, like plastic surgery, hair replacement, and untold varieties of skin enhancement. Consider the money spent every day by people running from their age in a vain attempt at buying their way into lost youth. Consider the societal sickness that underlies things like beauty pageants for little girls, which are nothing more than venues for aging mothers to pretend they can live their childhoods over again — only better this time. Pathetic.
Every time I see a 50-something man with a hairpiece, I hope for a gust of wind to blow it off his head. Every time I see a 50-something woman wearing clothes that a 19 year old at a nightclub would wear, I feel like losing my lunch. It’s just all too much, this compulsion to physically appear to be something you are plainly not. Worship of youth is a one way ticket to looking–and most likely acting–ridiculous.
Embrace your age, I say, and feel fortunate you’ve made it this far.
–David DiSalvo
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David for the sake of full disclosure you should have told us your age.
You did remind me of something I said to my mother on my 50th “Well you know the only time someone is going to refer to me as young now is if it happens to be at my funeral, so young to have died” Other than that the words young are unlikely to ever to be used in regard to me!
Brian — how right you are! Apologies for the omission. I’m 39. So according to this survey I should think that “old” starts at 69, which is ironic considering that my father died one month from his 69th birthday, and he never struck me as particularly “old.”
39, pffft, snot nosed kid!
In response to another comment. See in context »