A phenomenon happens as you age; it’s developing the art of not giving a hoot. Additionally, you begin to grow a dislike of things that were once loved or at least tolerated. Here’s a look at some that are pretty typical.
1. Driving at Night
Driving at night can be a scary experience when you grow older. Between the depth perception becoming off-kilter to the ridiculously blinding bright new headlights, it’s less fun. Driving in the rain at night? Forget it.
2. Noise
Noise becomes more obnoxious and intolerable as one ages. For example, the city bustle, loud car exhaust, noisy neighbors, loud music in restaurants, and chattering groups of people are annoying.
3. Cars With Booming Sound Systems
Speaking of noise, I know not everyone loves booming car systems, but I did. However, as I’ve grown older, I find them to be disrespectful of others and obnoxiously loud. Your car stereo should not be rattling my home’s windows. You will regret that when the tinnitus hits your ears later in life.
4. Leaving the House
Today, leaving the house costs a hundred dollars without even trying. No, thank you! A growing number of older folks are less thrilled about going out into public spaces.
5. Crowds
Another reason leaving the house becomes less enjoyable is that you want to avoid being around large crowds, partly because of the noise but also because of the appalling lack of basic manners and human decency.
6. Drunk People
And let’s not forget drunk people! These people are the absolute worst when you’re sober. Drinking becomes less fun when your body begins rejecting it. Remember partying until six in the morning and being at work by nine? That’s impossible anymore, and really, it was never fun.
7. New Technology
I’m one of those people who held onto my iPhone 7 for as long as it worked because I hate adapting to new technology. I feared losing my home button! It’s expected that as you grow older, you will begin rejecting learning new tech every six months. Who has the energy or time to exhaust on that forever?
8. Gratuitous Sex Scenes
I’m old enough to remember staring into the black-and-white static of televisions to see brief glimpses of skin. Nowadays, it’s shocking what shows up in TV shows and movies. There’s no reason to fully expose male or female genitalia. If it’s not integral to the movie’s plot, then why is it there?
I honestly think they are pushing an agenda to expose younger people to adult entertainment that leads to searching certain websites, developing addictions, and funding their massive ad revenue income stream. There’s no reason for it, and it’s incredibly uncomfortable.
They could easily allude to the fact two people are going to engage in adult relations without having an X-rated scene tossed into the movie.
9. Being Reachable Anytime
The expectation of being contactable all day is exhausting and something most older people could do without. There was a time, long ago, when you had a time when people weren’t texting, calling, and emailing you and expecting you to answer or respond immediately.
10. Loud People
Loud people become less charming with age, especially the inconsiderate ones on their devices. Forget the talkers; the people who don’t have the basic courtesy of wearing headphones while watching their stupid TikToks are the worst.
People who hold their phones out like a slice of pizza while talking on speakerphones or those who are Facetiming in public are ridiculous, too. What makes you so important that you can’t respect everyone else around you’s mental space?
11. Keeping up With Pop Culture
Keeping up with anything pop culture becomes much less appealing. Who cares? It’s mostly fabricated stories about people you’ll never know. You know you’re getting older when you start seeing headlines for celebrities and can’t identify the names and faces. It’s glorious.
12. Staying up Late
The difference between staying up late in your youth and when you’re older is that one of you is not getting out of bed easily the following day. I find that if I stay up several hours longer than usual, it’s difficult to adjust my schedule back, and I end up being messed up for a few days. It’s also a surefire way to guarantee I am taking a nap.
13. Social Media
Social media has become a toxic environment intentionally designed to be addictive so that users won’t get off of it. Companies spend fortunes developing targeted media and ad technology that users can’t help but be affected by.
If you watch any short video content, such as reels, the algorithm will continue to feed you the content you watch, guaranteeing you’re stuck in an echo chamber. You can’t resist it. You’re not immune—science says so—and the only option is to unplug.
14. Targeted Advertising
Targeted advertising has grown so powerful that you can look at something on the shelf at Target, and your phone is aware of the item and will begin advertising it to you after you leave the store.
If you search for something on Google, you’ll check your Facebook and immediately see ads for the thing you searched for. The same goes for Amazon. It’s honestly frightening, and the older you get, the more you understand how seriously wrong that is.
15. Commuting
My father insisted on teaching me to drive with a manual transmission, and for the longest time, it was all I wanted to drive. However, as I grew older, commuting and traffic jams destroyed my desire to own anything but an automatic. When you are older, you realize you have less time left and don’t want to, or can no longer, justify wasting hours of your life in traffic.
16. The Youth
Teenagers, specifically. The lack of respect is astounding to me, and I have one. Help! I’d never have been able to speak to adults the way the youth does today—moreover, the customer service in places where youth work is shocking.
Basic greetings have been replaced with: “What do you want?” Exchanging pleasantries like “Thank you” and “My pleasure” are becoming less common in the younger population.
I don’t think I will ever be able to grasp how teenage employees speak to adult customers after having such a wildly different experience working in the business.
17. Going to the Movies
Going to the movies has become less enjoyable because people no longer extend basic common courtesy in public. The last several times my husband and I have gone to Marvel movies, I was astonished by how many grown adults were talking during the movie and being on their cell phones.
18. Bad Manners
People who have poor manners become less tolerable as you get older. You begin to expect a basic level of respect, and someone who can’t be bothered to exercise simple manners is not one you want to associate with for long.
19. Fast Food
Fast food isn’t even food anymore. I wonder if it ever was. The older you get, the more your body rejects eating anything you can get through a drive-thru. It’s detrimental to your health, which is another reason older people begin shying away from the high-fat, deep-fried, and processed disease-causing trash they market as fast food.
20. Fireworks
I never thought I’d tire of fireworks, but midlife ensured that reality. They are absolutely beautiful, and I still enjoy a good show. However, as someone with pets who is married to a veteran and wants to sleep without late-night booms waking me for the several-week period that people light them off around the fourth, fireworks have lost their luster.
21. Commercials
Nonstop advertising has to be one of the most obnoxious headaches, and you can only escape by switching off your devices. From targeted ads to prescription drug commercials, it’s unreal. When you realize how much these things are programming you to believe lies and buy things, they become much less tolerable and even stir up a slight rage.
22. Extreme Temperatures
Extreme temperatures become more challenging to be comfortable in, so they have to go. Many older folks travel based on following the seasonal changes to avoid being too hot or too cold by staying in one location.
23. The American Healthcare System
The older you get, the more you find yourself in the American healthcare system, and it sucks. Insurance is a scam that costs a fortune to not even pay the entire bill. So, there are always extra fees like copays, deductibles, and prescription costs.
Everything requires a referral. Long gone are the days of going to the doctor and being helped. Now, you need a specialist for everything. They won’t continue to refill prescriptions without frequent office visits, and if you don’t have insurance, forget it. It’s unacceptable and has become a for-profit business instead of about helping people and saving lives.
24. Aging Body
Having an aging body is troubling. Sometimes, the mind and spirit are willing, but the body refuses to cooperate. Once you start making noises when you get out of bed, that’s a wrap.
As you grow older, the damage that working hard labor jobs has caused your body begins to hurt. Also, everyday things like sleep and stretching begin to cause painful injuries like spasms and sprains.
25. Modern Music
Do you remember your parents not liking your music and saying, “I can’t even tell what they are saying?” Me too, and guess what? I’ve become that parent. Mumble rap? Just say no.
Then, you Google the words, and they’re some of the nastiest lyrics you’ve heard. I never thought I would grow out of listening to new music, but here I am, stuck in the nineties with a side of the seventies from time to time.
Elizabeth Ervin is the owner of Sober Healing. She is a freelance writer passionate about opioid recovery and has celebrated breaking free since 09-27-2013. She advocates for mental health awareness and encourages others to embrace healing, recovery, and Jesus.