Things that make you feel too old for this world

Osteoarthritis

Married couples with children who act like children themselves. I'm hard pressed to see any fathers around me who act like the fathers did when I was a kid.

Seeing toddlers and children staring at the Smartphones in their little hands and remembering that when I was their age, I had mud pies in my little hands.

Those pharmaceutical commercials that end with "Ask your doctor about [insert name of drug you want prescribed]". Then a couple of years later, the commercials asking if you were harmed by that drug and offering to represent you in a Class Action.

Insta-hoes

In Manhattan, night or day, people walk around smoking weed. I’d say I smell weed about four times as often as I smell cigarettes.

It’s not that I mind, because I don’t. But it just surprises me. We used to have ashtrays at each bank teller window. Now people smoke weed on the street at 7:00 am.

It’s just different, that’s all.

Donald Trump being President. I have never seen a more immature, petulant, uneducated, disgusting human being in my life become the Pres of the US. And the fact that people LOVE him so is sickening. If this is what we value now, I want no part of it.

People constantly on their iPhones or other devices. Whatever happened to wanting to be left alone with your own thoughts.

The end of gay bars. I do not understand hooking up via an APP, and I do not want any part of it.

Dressing down: Whatever happened to dressing up to go out to a nice restaurant, the theatre, a concert? Or to impress someone you're interested in?

The assault on democratic values and institutions at this time and the apathy of a significant portion of the populace to it. I've experienced disappointments in elections before, but 2016 was so different. How could anyone but a moron vote for this racist, sexist, irresponsible imbecile?

Social media is a cesspool of narcissism and immaturity.

R8 - I agree with everything you said! By the way is BonniePrinceCharlie your pets names?

“Influencers”. They’re obviously prostitutes, and they have no influence over anything. Selling laxative tea and “positivity” are not a thing.

I’m honestly not saying this out of jealousy, I swear - I really want them all to fuck off.

R9, too bad there's not a function here on "The Data Lounge" where we could message others. We'd probably get along.

No, it's a moniker I came up with, because of my interests.

I went out to dinner last night with a couple of friends and a couple of their acquaintances. I'm mid-50s, they're mid-30s. All professionals. A nice suit-and-tie restaurant.

The topic at the table for several minutes was "who was your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?".

I plastered a bland Miss Manners smile on my face and ate my entree.

My recently acquired fear of stairs

CGI

The death of politeness

Cameras everywhere and I mean everywhere thanks to camera phones. I hate it. Particularly in crowded places it feels like you can't have a single anonymous moment. So sick of people who feel the need to film every waking moment. A few months ago there was some viral video of some kid talking to passengers on a plane while the parents filmed. All I could think was how much it would suck for the passengers who did NOT want to be filmed. But it's hard to opt out when the parents already have the camera rolling and shoved in your face.

So many cities are all the same. I don’t know where all the regular people and poor people went. I was up at North Capital Street in DC recently and there were no more black people. I was shocked since it used to be a black neighborhood twenty years ago. It was like an inversion of “Being There.” The gap between rich and poor is so extreme, it scares me. I see us turning into Venezuela. Small towns are decimated by drugs. The very rich live in ridiculous opulence and outsource EVERYTHING. They don’t mow their lawns or walk their dogs or clean up after themselves. On line shopping has replaced stores. All the businesses in my town are yoga studios or CBC places. I’ve been sick of yoga for years and it’s not going anywhere.

I am under 60 yet often the oldest man on the bus during rush hours.

I hate cell phones.

I can’t figure out Snapchat

R15 Absolutely. The gap between the rich and poor is indeed extreme for a developed country. Very unnerving. The problem is that whenever anyone starts to bring it up some idiotic right winger will start shrieking about "class warfare ". What these dimwits don't understand is that these are the social conditions that ,left ignored, often eventually create class warfare.

Loud Mouths. People on the street, on cells, and in restaurants all sound like they're aiming their voices to the last row of the Winter Garden.

Pharmaceutical companies ads showing old people as tall, good looking, beautifully dressed active people. You're only as old as you feel, they say. We're no slouches! We know these are the golden years when we reap the rewards of our upper income, white collar work. We don't let aches and pains keep use down. We're running, we're playing tennis at our club, we're on the greens swinging that golf club making a perfect shot (arm pump!) . We're on our boat hoisting the sails and later we're cooking up our freshly caught fish in a cast iron skillet over a campfire.

Because we take the perfect drugs.

IRL, seniors can't afford medications. Their pensions were stolen from them by greedy corporate raiders. All the shops in town eventually closed down when Walmart undercut them, leaving them with a clothing department made up of giant Bermuda shorts and tee shirts made of manufactured material. Their grandchildren live with them because their moms are drug addicts and their fathers left town to "find work" and were never seen again. Their property taxes went up and Trump made a law that they can't deduct most of it. They might lose their 2 bedroom condo. There aren't any jobs and they don't get enough in social security to make ends meet and .....oh shit, there goes the grandkids' SNAP benefits.

Kids strung on a leash so the parent with the short attention span won’t have to worry losing them. Seems barbaric,

The lack of big old trees in front yards. Woods. Fields. Wild quail in the driveway, bob whites and killdeer calling. Waking past a patch of woods at night in summer and the crickets, cicadas, owls, frogs are so loud you can't hear anything else. The fireflys light up the nigh air and the trees seem to wrap the humidity around their leaves so we don't feel it the oppressiveness so much.

Trending topics on Twitter — 90% of the time they involve people I've never heard of, and if I take the time to find out who they are I wonder who in the hell finds them interesting or worthwhile.

Right now it's "Simp" and "Kang." No idea.

R23 all that purple prose nature still exists, Maybe not where you live.

Anyhoo. I live in a city but in August it clears out and last two nights with a full moon I have seen several foxes lazily trotting down the side walk and through the garden opposite my building, plus bats, a dormouse, and a suspiciously large cat.

An employer almost exclusively keeping in touch with you, and arranging your calendar, via texts. I work for a business that's modeled a little bit like working for a temp agency or a catering company, in that they arrange jobs for you which you either accept or decline, week to week. OR (like me) you will have a set of regular shifts with repeat clients that's constant from week to week, and just rolls over for months.

This office, though, seems to think that if they text (or email) you something, it is the same as an employer picking up the phone, actually reaching you, and discussing something, which you either agree to or decline.

It's bizarre.

Upspeak, vocal fry. I'm on my phone quite a bit, but seeing so many people glued to their phones is depressing.

R26 , not really understanding your post. Are you saying that you don't respond and your employer assumes that your answer is "yes"? That would be bad. However, if you're saying that your employer communicates with you exclusively by email and text (and rarely phone), I don't see that much of a problem.

People who, when you describe a person you know, feel the need to instantly Google that person's name to look at their social media, rather than simply listen to your description.

It’s my birthday today and I can’t remember a time that matches the level of cruelty, violent acting out, and just plain meaness that is exhibited by people, including kids, as there is today. The only thing that comes close was the struggle for civil rights back in the sixties. But even then, there were lots of good people who were willing to stand up to the haters. It’s not just Trump. There is such a lack of kindness, compassion, empathy, manners, and basic decency that it’s depressing and scary and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. I tried to stay upbeat today but I had to avoid the news and all the political shows to do it.

[quote]r28 Are you saying that you don't respond and your employer assumes that your answer is "yes"? That would be bad.

Yes, this has happened.

[quote]However, if you're saying that your employer communicates with you exclusively by email and text (and rarely phone), I don't see that much of a problem.

One problem is it's burdensomly time consuming to text and email back and forth when things can be taken care of with one phone conversation, where I could ask questions about the client, the location, all kinds of things that will influence whether I will agree or not. It is also burdensom to constantly feel I must check my email and texts, which I do not place on the same level of importance as phone calls. Basically, they try to sneak this stuff in around the edges of my regular schedule. Had the job ever been outlined to me as something I would constantly have to police my incoming emails and texts for work, I'd never have accepted it. They do not pay enough to expect me to be looking for communication from them in my off hours.

The goddamned tattoos.

They’re everywhere.

I feel like I live in a vast sea of trash.

R31 , Agreed, at a certain point, a quick phone call is better than all the stupid texts going back and forth. Also, I do send work emails at odd times, but I don't expect people to read my emails and respond at odd times. Sucks if an employer expects that. (I don't send texts at odd times, just emails.)

People such as R31 who invent ridiculous adverbs.

[quote]R34 People such as [R31] who invent ridiculous adverbs.

The fact that you should object to this is tragical.

I hear you r32

I just came back from Europe and I’m referring it to “flotsam tattoo tour 2019”.

Extreme political correctness at the expense of common sense.

[quote]The goddamned tattoos.

I know a frau who has a sports team's logo prominently tattooed on her boy. Is that trashy enough, R32?

Social media. I'm not on any of it, and I don't want to be and don't care about any of it.

[quote]I know a frau who has a sports team's logo prominently tattooed on her boy.

poor kid ;)

R12, when you were in your 30s, you bored some 50-something with your talk about your favorite "Seinfeld" character, you just didn't realize you were irritating.

Me too, r39.

R31, nearly 20 years ago I was conducting business almost entirely by email specifically so we had a written record of what was said between our office and the agent. Even if there was a phone call, there was a followup email.

How old are you to be still complaining about doing business via email?

R30, I'm 47 and don't remember a lot of the early 70s, but my memory of roughly 1976 through the early 1980s is that people were nasty, rude and mean, there was a lot of crime, a lot of turmoil internationally (hostages, hijackings, bombings, global recession), lots of characters being objectified in movies and TV for allegedly comedic reasons, and once Reagan was in office, tons of talk about the gross diseased gays and disgusting black welfare queens and evil sneaky Asians taking over our newly computerized economy.

I'm not saying it's not bad now because it absolutely is, but I also remember it being bad before, too.

R43, I don't know how old R31 is. But I'm mid-40s and loathe email.

Younger folks on my team are very uncomfortable when I ask them to call someone or - heaven help us - actually walk 20 feet away and talk to the person.

That's funny, R35. I'm glad I helped you get the attention you don't have in real life.

You're taking your odd personal dislike of technology and trying to make it seem like "young people these days don't do their job properly," and that's not true.

It doesn't matter if you hate email. Who cares? You don't care that others hate phone calls, so why should anyone else care that you hate email?

Since email provides a written record of the discussion, it's ridiculous to pretend like only lazy scared baby Millennials want to use email. Email also doesn't require the person you're calling to drop everything and put all their attention on you you you, at the expense of everyone else.

I rarely had a phone call that didn't require a followup because the person I was calling wasn't available or because they had to look up information, anyway.

Going home to Boston and that all the ramshackle summer cottages tucked inside the harbor are now McMansions and there’s no street parking. Everyone arguing the 2 square mile town needs to build more 6 unit condos and outlaw single family homes to expand the tax base instead of balancing the town budget. It’s sad.

People telling you their pronouns

Tattoos

Piercings. Ear gages.

1800s facial hair for men

Everything being "curated" and "artisanal"

Movies being 90% comic book thrill rides

Food as some sort of extreme sport. Like double cheeseburgers on two jelly doughnuts instead of a bun.

Vaping

R47, if you can't function without a written record documenting every conversation, then you've probably reached as far as you'll go professionally.

It must be nice to look at the road ahead as all downhill.

R50 - LOL! Love the cuntiness 👍🏻

My job was at an insurance company where I would fix what others had broken, R50. Often that meant they had (usually inadvertently) broken a law by doing something like insuring someone without a signature or fudging a policy cancellation date. I reported directly to the state insurance commission and attorney general's offices.

Yes, I needed written documentation of everything. I'm sorry you've never had a job that was serious enough to require documentation. Not all of us can just call up Janice at the home office and verbally request 10 boxes of paper clips and call it a day.

Things have always been bad. I don't remember a time when they weren't and I'm old. It's always been a case of 6 of one half dozen of the other. I think I always have hated the world since I was 11 and being gay in a very conservative white religious US suburb was horrendous.

Life has always been a cesspool and I've never belonged so I'm old physically but the world is exactly the same. It's rotten like it always was.

R53 - I agree. I’m not quite as old as you (I’m 49) but I’ve really never felt like I fit in, or even wanted to participate in “the world.” Sure, I play the game (partner, job, family) but I just feel like I’m going through the motions and I truly am apathetic. The rare bright spots are when I was in my 30s traveling the world alone, still young and sexy. It’s more and more difficult to find things to look forward to.

[quote]r43 nearly 20 years ago I was conducting business almost entirely by email specifically so we had a written record of what was said between our office and the agent. Even if there was a phone call, there was a followup email.

I have worked as a legal secretary, and understand the need to put important agreements, updates, etc. in writing.

I was talking about communication between an agency and an employee. It does not help that the texts and emails from management are sometimes fuzzy in detail. If we were on the phone, things could be clarified immediately. A factor in this is, this particular business owner is overextended, tries to save time via electronic communication, and a their written communication is poor.

^^ Of course, I just created a typo when referring to "poor written communication": (

Absolutely, if someone can't manage to write a coherent email, then there's a problem. I often took notes during phone calls, signed them and added them to the file (which even in the early 2000s was done via scan and not a paper file anymore) when I had an agent who couldn't be reasoned with, which was often. For instance, our mailroom accidentally sent a policy for a fire department to the wrong agent. She was completely uncooperative and when we sent her a new prepaid envelope for her to send the policy back, along with a scheduled FedEx pickup that we paid for, she told us she burned the policy out of spite.

You can imagine her emails. Complete gibberish. But we still included them in our report and they were part of why she was fired.

I'm a big fan of documentation and find the hostility toward it on DL to be a little odd.

Watching our natural world get steadily destroyed because humans are so efficiently destructive. It's profoundly distressing/depressing.

Pathological violent narcissism as social norm...

I can't believe social media is still so entrenched in our lives. I would have thought the same old shit would have become repetitious by now - but nope.

I also find it ridiculous when grown adults say that can't live without their phone and say it is part of their identity. WTF? Hey, the technology is great - but Jesus Christ. Stop acting like 8 year olds.

A few grey chest hairs 😰

[quote]r57 I'm a big fan of documentation and find the hostility toward it on DL to be a little odd.

Yes. But my current situation rarely requires that level of documentation. It's simply about filling a shift.

This employer also sends out barages of updates which don't apply to me. It makes me loath to even look for their texts or emails. For instance, "It has come to our attention that some as speaking negatively of coworkers to a client or their families. Please remember this is not part of our business model, which promotes supporting each other." followed by more detail....

Why am I recieving this text?? I'm an exemplary employee, as far as the clients are concerned. Call the violators you've been notified of into the office, and leave me the fuck out of it.

FaceTime conversations on speaker in public places.

Why?

Most of you here commenting on this thread are hopeless. That's what make me feel too old for this world, and I'm still 20 years away from retirement.

I often hope a huge meteor crashes into the earth and destroys it in a few seconds. Sweet relief

It will not be as painless as you're hoping.

Yeah but that happens all the time in meetings too, R62. Managers are wimps, they tell the whole office to stop doing something that only one yutz is doing.

I'm R53 and what I don't get is you people saying how much more polite and civil people were. I remember people being just as mean and cruel. Kids bullying you and adults not caring. Was I the only kid experiencing this? Teachers just waiting for the weekend, their tenure, and then retirement benefits. Treating kids like crap so they would build character. Maybe I was the only one back then who experienced this. Yeah people were nice and polite as well but no more than today.

Well one thing I truly miss is (are?) the seasons. They were truly spectacular. Gorgeous. One thing young people will never know and really should be envious of.

Crappy rap music that's lowered listeners' IQ by 20 points.

The RIDICULOUS "modern" conclusion of the Stonewall Uprising: Trans Women of Color GAVE you your rights!!!

I'm ready to give up!

You were not, R68. I also don't really remember a "good old days" and suspect many on here who do are literally talking about the 1950s.

Trannies everywhere, especially in women's sports and locker rooms and bathrooms.

For you, R72:

[quote] one thing I truly miss is (are?) the seasons.

R68, I don’t understand. It was warm and humid today, as it should be in summer in Philadelphia. In a couple of months, it will be cool and crisp. In six months, it will be chilly and rainy, bitterly cold, or snowing like a madman. Then spring will come, just as it does every year. The seasons are still very much with us.

Thing that makes me feel too old for this world: the death of humor. Offensive humor, edgy humor, even harmless, silly humor. We live in deadly earnest times.

R24, I would just say Twitter and leave it at that.

Well, OP, thanks for the thread. Fun and insightful...until the Great Documentation War of 2019 started.

[quote]R67 Yeah but that happens all the time in meetings too, [R62]. Managers are wimps, they tell the whole office to stop doing something that only one yutz is doing.

Yes, i’m sure.

I also am irritated by the complimentary/inspirational emails/texts we staff get. “Just to let you know how much we appreciate all you do, every day.”

Yeah, you appreciate me SO MUCH, you typed some words into your phone, checked a bunch of recipient boxes, and hit SEND ALL.

Again, if it’s a real issue, either positive or negative, just call.

I hate social media. Everybody trying to one-up each other and show off how fabulous their life is, with a million fucking hashtags.

I hate cell phones. I barely take mine to work half the time. I am sick of walking down the street and having some asshole walk into me because he can't look up or some stupid cunt who looks up and kind of moves out of the way but it is STILL checking her phone as she manoeuvres through the street. I am tired of going out for dinner and all of my friends are on their phones when we're together. I am tired of having to listen to people shout into their phones. Why the fuck are you on your phone at 7:30 a.m.? What do you possibly need to say at that time of morning on the streetcar with your foghorn voice? And people who drive and text deserve to die. They are a danger. It should be a criminal offence not a regulatory offence as it is here in Ontario.

I miss going to the movies. It's mostly shit in the cinemas nowadays. The sex comedy is dead. Comedy in general is pretty much dead now too. I can't even remember the last time I laughed at the cinema. I like comic book movies, but how many more fucking Avengers movies do we need? Remember when Robert Downey used to make interesting movies? He was Charlie Chaplin before he was Iron Man.

What happened to melody? What happened to the chorus? Music is absolute shit nowadays. What was the last song that people said "Oh, what a great song or what a great album"? In the '80s and '90s we had Thriller, Hysteria, Faith, Don't Be Cruel, The Joshua Tree, Dirty Dancing, Purple Rain, Born in the USA, Like a Virgin, Rhythm Nation 1814, Synchronicity, Nevermind, Jagged Little Pill, OK Computer, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Ray of Light, CrazySexyCool, Titanic... albums that people loved across gender, age, race, sexual orientation. I don't even know who listens to the shit that's put out there. I miss when everybody rushed out to get that album because it was so good. I think the last time was maybe Adele. But it's so rare nowadays.

It's weird that with social media and updated technology that I think we are even MORE disconnected.

I dislike being the only one out properly dressed in a hat, and gloves.

This thread is making me HORNY as HELL!

Two dollars for a cookie.

I have lived too long.

My birth certificate.

(It was carved into stone).

The mid-level cars they crank out today are plastic-bumpered bland clones. I miss when cars were made by craftsman, not robots, and had fins, shiny chrome bumpers, crank windows, weighed 5000 pounds, and when you opened the hood you saw the motor.

R14 I was in a grocery store last week and for some reason a 20 something guy felt the need to take my picture. I confronted him and he told me it's his right to take pictures in public. I tried to grab his phone but he took off running. Some days I really hate what society has become.

R68 I agree with what you wrote but I think, as a kid in the 70s and 80s, people were a lot less public about their meanness and cruelty. Today people are proud of being assholes and want everyone to see their assholishness.

R74 how old are you?

I went out last night with some twenty five year olds from an art show we were curating and one had vocal fry and they all were deadly earnest and talking about Quentin Tarantino being problematic. They started doing shots and I went home to bed.

I don't think R84 is being facetious, so I agree.

I miss the days when you could buy a full size coupe or sedan for several thousand dollars. Maybe it was crap off the assembly line, but mechanics could work on the cars and make they right again.

Today unless you have tens of thousands of dollars, you're stuck with a tiny car that barely seats my fat ass so much as four people.

What’s “vocal fry” and is it really a thing?

The climate getting hostile. Historically high temps in the summer where I live (Western Europe) causing Greenland's ice fields to melt. It goes beyond worrying about the future, it's the fear that there's no future. Our leaders are clowns. What is going to happen to us ? I just want to die before it gets too bad. It's a relief that I don't have children.

R89 - true! Backseats are a joke now; mine only holds a few grocery bags.

Look, I agree with most of the sentiments expressed thus far, but seriously, don't look back and declare it better.

Take what you can of the new technology, habits, and zeitgeist and leave the rest.

Don't dwell in the past. Doing so is what curmudgeons and curmugeonettes are wont to do.

R30 No offense but you need to see a doctor if that’s how you are truly feeling. If all you ever do is focus on the negative, then that’s all you’re ever going to see. No wonder you feel like shit.

I’m fifty and things have gotten both better and worse over the years. Back when I was in high school in the 1980s, the tough kids considered it their right to beat the shit out of any kids who looked gay. That is no longer the case. Social media has distorted people’s perspective, in reality times have gotten more tolerant and public cruelty is no longer acceptable.

R30 No offense but you need to see a doctor if that’s how you are truly feeling. If all you ever do is focus on the negative, then that’s all you’re ever going to see. No wonder you feel like shit.

I’m fifty and things have gotten both better and worse over the years. Back when I was in high school in the 1980s, the tough kids considered it their right to beat the shit out of any kids who looked gay. That is no longer the case. Social media has distorted people’s perspective, in reality times have gotten more tolerant and public cruelty is no longer acceptable.

I completely agree with those who say vocal fry. I work for a large organization and I can't get in the elevators these days without at least two women having a loud, nasal vocal fry conversation. It really sets me on edge. Who sits through interviews with these women and decides to hire them?

I'll also add women trying to walk in the most ridiculous shoes. (Thanks Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex & The City). I get it. You want to look stylish. But when you are walking down stairs and can't control the clomping sound of your shoes, it's a problem.

So I'll sum everything up by saying, I feel old because my "sensory" mechanism must be failing me. I used to enjoy being out in society and among people. Now, voices now set me on edge, clompy shoes set me on edge.

Clompy shoes set me on edge even when I was young.

[quote]Clompy shoes set me on edge even when I was young.

I don't know why it bothers me, but the lobby of our office building is not carpeted, so women go clomping across the tile. I just want to yell out, "Control your shoes!"

You two would have loved Dr. Scholl's wooden clogs fashion of the '70s.

[quote]You two would have loved Dr. Scholl's wooden clogs fashion of the '70s.

I was around for those. I remember little girls clomping around in them and their mothers telling them to pick up their feet. I don't remember teenage girls and grown women having a problem walking in them. But maybe my stimulus sensory wasn't quite so sensitive back then. There's a difference between putting your foot down normally, and your shoe making a sound, and just letting your shoes (or sandals) flop on your feet which is what makes the noise, because the person is too lazy to properly move their feet.

Can’t stand vocal fry. I had to turn off NPR the other day because the female journalist’s vocal fry was so strong. I was unable to focus on what she was reporting.

Also – is it just me or does vocal fry seem to be very class-based phenomenon? Seems to be an upper middle class to rich kid thing. Can’t say I’ve ever met anyone working class who speaks that way.

I would pray for people who wear shoes you can hear to need amputations, but my mind always goes to the amount of noise they'd make in wheelchairs.

"Vocal Fry" is speaking in the lowest register. It's nothing new, and many men habitually do it.

Why would it bother another?

It also features that elongateddddddd endinnngggggg, r103.

[quote]"Vocal Fry" is speaking in the lowest register. It's nothing new, and many men habitually do it.

Vocal fry is not speaking in the lowest register. It is speaking while grinding your vocal chords in any register you're speaking in.

You are misusing the term.

Fascism and the death of American democracy

The mass hysteria that has resulted in everyone thinking they're "trans". ( it vaguely reminds me though of the time when everyone thought they were victims of satanic cult abuse or when everyone thought they could "channel" . Or had been abducted by aliens)

What passes for hip hop now

The guy in r106's video is wrong. Vocal fry will damage your voice. The voice was not meant to be continually used in the lowest (or highest) registers.

Being expected to fly 2500 miles with my airplane seat in the upright position. Critical thinking skills are now politically incorrect: "I like trucks and guns, therefore I am male and must hack off my breasts." The election of Trump. Reality shows like "Alone" and "Naked and Afraid" where millions watch others suffer to the brink of death.

[quote]r108 The guy in [R106]'s video is wrong. Vocal fry will damage your voice. The voice was not meant to be continually used in the lowest (or highest) registers.

The video says at the end, "According to vocal coach Ken Taylor, as long as you are[bold] not doing it constantly[/bold], or yelling while using the vocal fry register, you shouldn't see any long term issues with your vocal chords."

So, you two are in agreement.

It's so interesting that men criticize this in women, but not other men, although it's all around them and they may even employ it.

It's really just another way to bash women.

There are more people younger on earth than I am.

I can’t listen to the host of This American Life because of his vocal fry. More women than men seem to use vocal fry so that may explain why people complain more about women doing it.

[quote]r112 There are more people younger on earth than I am.

Not really! There are many subteranian, ancient cities [italic]beneath[/italic] the earth's surface. When we get older, we go away there, leaving a pod husk that just LOOKS like us behind for families to mourn.

I've already been contacted by a representative. You will be, too.

You get to meet all your favorite old movie stars!!

Keeping my line of vision at mid-level and above to avoid a visual of the nasty feet of the men and women thirsty for foot worship fetishists.

CD players & stereo systems in-built in cars, and now the cords that connect phones to the speaker system. I remember the in-car telephone the size of a brick!

[quote]No offense but you need to see a doctor if that’s how you are truly feeling. If all you ever do is focus on the negative, then that’s all you’re ever going to see. No wonder you feel like shit.

Agreed, and this thread has been a real eye-opener as to the kind of people we have on DL nowadays. We've always had threads about how great things were decades ago, and those threads would get a couple of emotionally unstable types who complain about everything that has happened to them since 1974.

This, though? This thread is completely out of hand. It's full of hostility against completely benign things like shoes and radio shows and cookies, with an unearned sense of persecution running throughout.

And who is on Datalounge, an internet forum, and still complaining about email, texts and social media? These things are all over a decade old. You're still not used to it? It still feels like new technology and you're mad at everyone who uses them?

Look, I get that everyone here is scared of being old and irrelevant, but the irrelevance is a choice. You're not being persecuted because your boss sends texts. You don't need to commit ritual seppuku because you saw a $2 cookie. Shoes make noise on hard, uncarpeted floors and you'd better learn to get used to it or else you're going to stroke out at your work desk.

Looking through my old checkbook registers from 1989-1994 seeing what I spent money on and how much things used to cost. I only paid a little over 8.00 a month for my pager/beeper. But my long distance phone bill was huge!

I remember back in 1992 when Sprint introduced 10 cents a minute long distance phone service.

We were so fucking excited about it. Suddenly long distance was cheap! Every week my friend in New York City and I would get on the phone and watch Melrose Place together.

[quote]Shoes make noise on hard, uncarpeted floors and you'd better learn to get used to it or else you're going to stroke out at your work desk.

And guess what, Clarissa Cuntslice: I've hated shoes you can hear since at least the early 1990s, when I worked in an office with terrazzo floors, and cows would transverse the enormous lobby that connected two buildings. I am never going to like that noise, no matter how much you flap your raging piehole at me. Never.

You do a marvelous impression of OurMillennialBitchcunt, btw.

I think noise has become a major issue for many people. In fact, I'm scared to think of what will happen to people in say, five to ten years after all these noise complaints.

Look at DL, we've had major threads about people barking on their cell phones on subways/streetcars, people playing their devices (loudly) on public transit, now we're discussing clomping of shoes.

We've also had noise-cancelling headphones become popular over the last decade.

People are more sensitive to noises. I wonder how technology will help (or hinder) this problem.

Because it's only going to get worse. I believe Misophonia will be a recognized medical disorder one day.

I already said I hated the clomping shoe sound when I was young a long time ago and guess what the wearer doesn't have to clomp around in them. It's how you walk. You don't have to do a clog dance to get from one point to another.

Though I don't get the texting and email thing either as they have been a part of our lives for a very long time now. And I assume the cd stereo telephone thing in the car was a joke. cd players in cars are a thing of the past and the telephone coming through your car sound system has been around a while.

In the late 70’s, early 80’s girls wore shoes that were called Chinese slippers (I think, not sure). I dot know why, but wearers tended to sort of slide their feet, and it made a sound, but very low volume. Still annoying, but not as bad as flip flops. I think it is very common to have a visceral reaction to impractical footwear that affects gait and/or makes a sound. I’m not going to argue that many “In my day...” complaints are just silly, but shoe noise is BEYOND THE PALE.

[quote] This thread is completely out of hand.

Heavily drawn on eyebrows.

[quote]r123 In the late 70’s, early 80’s girls wore shoes that were called Chinese slippers (I think, not sure).

We called them Jap Slaps.

(sorry, it's true)

[117], One gets the sense that you're unconsciously projecting your own feelings about age. Because 1) you're reacting so (I'd say "too") strongly; and 2) You've really read a lot into this thread that just isn't there.

Use your r's, r127.

I love that I live in a time where the internet is easily accessible for me.

But I also hate that the internet has given douchebags the opportunity to reach a worldwide platform and to become famous and wealthy for being douchebags.

Twenty years ago a shithead like Jordan Peterson would have been forgotten as quickly as the news cycle changed. Today he's a millionaire and touted as a brilliant thinker. All because of the internet.

Every mirror.

The Millennial UPSPEAK makes me want to KILL!!

EVERYONE under 40 speaks in this nasty, unbearable sing-song where every sentence ends on an elongated vowel sound swoop up!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD record yourselves and TRY TO LISTEN TO IT!!

So?

I have foxes and bats, too. And Canada geese and deer.

[quote] EVERYONE under 40 speaks in this nasty, unbearable sing-song where every sentence ends on an elongated vowel sound swoop up!

Don’t move to Northern Ireland, whatever you do.

I was always too old for this world. Was born too late for the things I love.

A friend just sent me some pics he took at a party. I can't wear fitted shirts any more, that much is apparent. Is it going to be caftans from now on or can I get away with a billowy shirt?

Something that makes me feel my age is the plethora of digital communication devises and platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype, WhatsApp, WeChat, email, texting, video conferencing, facetime, cell phones, landlines, and on and on. People prefer different modes and sometimes I don't know how to approach a person digitally. I feel like I'm actually communicating less than before.

No one in my family talks on the phone anymore. I used to be able to catch up on Facebook but they'e hardly posting there any more either. My nieces and nephews are on Instagram and I'm not. I feel more out of touch.

Just last night after hearing about the Saudi oil facility attack on the news I thought "I'm just getting too old for this shit anymore."

I'm in my late 60s and although humans have always been assholes it seems worse now and I'm sick and tired of it. I'm beginning to think that as we age we're actually glad to die because humans are so stupidly predictable and awful and selfish.

Thanks for this thread, OP, there are so many interesting and thoughtful responses.

"I'm hard pressed to see any fathers around me who act like the fathers did when I was a kid."

Since your father raised you to be a backwards-looking reactionary he obviously failed at his job.

[quote]There are many subteranian, ancient cities beneath the earth's surface.

Oh, dear!

All the homeless and panhandlers. There's a park I pass on the way to work and there's usually four or five shopping carts piled high and 15-20 homeless people moving around in slow motion. This was a beautiful park for people to enjoy but I'd be shocked to see any kids playing in it these days. And nearly every busy intersection has panhandlers parked at the lights. Both problems have seemingly gotten worse over the past five years. No progress being made whatsoever.

My face in the mirror.

So many movies and TV series seem to be dark and violent. I was flicking thru the movie channels here in England and it was horror after horror and death and murder.

Is that really all people want to see?

& people running round saying this is the golden age for TV.

I also don't get this love of texts.