Aging has more than a few side effects . One of the more notable things that comes with aging occurs solely in your mind : you have less patience for the things you don’t like, and even some things that you once had a positive impression of have lost their luster.
If you’re feeling more and more like an old crank with each passing day, you’ll be in good company with this r/AskReddit thread on stuff that people like less and less the older they get.
Money’s like the wind: you only feel it when it’s moving.
“Spending money.
When I was younger, I’d save up cash and buy clothes and shoes and food and all kinds of useless [stuff].
Now I’m in my 30s and it feels like I’m bleeding money just to survive. I’m currently looking for a new apartment with in-unit laundry and you’d think having laundry in your apartment was a luxury for kings and queens.”
Can we just agree to disagree?
“Yeah, when you come to a the realization that you don’t have an opinion on everything, or NEED to have an opinion on everything it gets tiring when people engage you as if you do.”
Climate change is real.
“Heat. I live in South Florida where people from colder climates covet our weather. They don’t understand the hell that is humidity. Most of the time I walk from my car to my doorstep, I’m drenched in sweat. Walking my dog in humidity is like walking through a hot cloud. I live inland so I don’t get the ocean breeze. The air feels like soup. Also, this is not the heat of my Florida youth. It was always hot, but never like this. Worse, our air conditioners cannot keep up with the constant heat.”
Nothing will ever match that N64 high.
“Honestly, video games. I still like them, but I feel like only 1/10 hold my attention more than a few minutes. Even then, I don’t complete many these days. When I was a kid, I would play just about anything and I would do so for hours on end.”
Hangovers just get worse and worse.
“Alcohol. I’m 33, and I think it’s a waste of money and doesn’t make me feel good. It just makes me bloat and makes me feel [lousy] the next day. I still drink on occasion, but very seldom these days.”
You have to do one every year until you die.
“God it’s exhausting. My ideal birthday is a quiet day at a lake, just me and my wife, chilling in silence. I hate gifts, I find the taste of birthday cake revolting, I hate being the center of attention. Just give me peace and quiet.”
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People are overrated.
“I don’t necessarily hate (most) people and I still do good things like donate to charities, volunteer, and so on. I’ve just become remarkably indifferent to anybody other than my family and friends.
When I was younger I was, like, ‘A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet!’ Now I’m, like, ‘Whatever. I can’t be bothered.'”
Fortunately for me, sugar still brings joy.
“Sugar
I don’t know why but I want to taste the ‘actual food’ more than the taste of it coated in sugar.”
“I used to be able to put away a yard of cotton candy at a baseball game, now even a fraction of that makes me feel sick. I’ve definitely lost my sweet tooth as I’ve aged.”
Life is tiring.
“Enjoyment and happiness doesn’t hit like it used to. I am still generally happy and enjoy doing things, but it doesn’t get me as excited as it has in the past.”
“I had an older friend who said getting older was like the roller coaster ride evening out. Highs not so high but lows not so low.”
When did headlights get so bright?
“Driving at night.”
“When headlights come at me while I drive at night I basically spend the whole time hoping I’m in the right lane. I drive 40 minutes to work in the dark and 40 minutes home in the dark from pretty much September until April. It’s horrifying.”
My childhood self would be judging me.
“Real talk, slowly forgetting what it was like to be a kid. As I was growing up, I always told myself ‘I’ll never forget how I operate and think right now like all these adults around me who don’t understand us!’ And here I am, not being able to remember what it was like to be a child. Sorry past self.”
If there’s a lineup, it must be for something good.
“Large crowds, waiting in lines, small talk, and doing laundry.”
“If I see a line with more than 10 people I’ll just say to myself “[forget this]” and walk away, unless it’s at the register at the grocery store.”
The whole concept of ‘late’ changes.
“Staying out late like past 9pm is late.”
“My wife and I talked the other day about how we legit got excited about going to bed early. We were actually giddy about it. But I think it was more about the kids already being asleep.”
Only several more decades until retirement.
“It feels suffocating when I think about it. Waking up at the same time everyday to do repetitive work and just waiting for the week to end so I can have 2 days off to do errands and dread the next 5 days and occasionally get a couple of extra days off for vacation. And dealing with an increasingly entitled public.”
2006 was a simpler time.
“Social media. It’s vapid, boring, and a continuous stream of advertisements now. I remember when it used to be fun. Now I’ve deleted pretty much all forms of it except Reddit.”
“Don’t forget how easy it can be to burn time just doom scrolling. You don’t even see anything interesting you’re just scrolling for the sake of scrolling. I’ve been working on getting out of that habit since I much rather put time towards other things.”
Leaving the house is overrated.
“The pandemic lockdown fed my homebody instincts and now it’s hard to go back.”
“I played Animal Crossing New Horizon through the pandemic and to be honest it was my first time getting to experience an island vacation.”
Don’t forget those rogue self-driving cars.
“Driving. I loved cruising around. Now I’m really scared some rando is going to kill me while texting or not checking their mirrors or making a video.”
“I’ve had this shift in just a couple years. I loved driving but I’ve been nearly hit by so many people texting or even playing games on their phone that I’m nervous now.”
Online shopping has changed the game.
“Malls. Used to love hanging out at the local mall with friends as a teen but as an adult, I fully just beeline straight to what I need to get and then it’s just survival mode until I get back to my car.”
‘Frasier’ doesn’t hit like it used to.
“Man, there are sitcoms I used to like several years ago. I go back and watch them now and they just seem crude and dumb.”
“I agree. I see shorts of stuff from Big Bang Theory or Friends and all I can think is how insufferable and just outright mean these characters are. The jokes aren’t all that funny either.”
Those carefree childhood sick days.
“Being sick. It was an excuse to stay home and play video games when I was a child, and my body could usually fight it off pretty well. Sick days weren’t even that bad.
Now my body hurts a lot more with much lesser illnesses, symptoms linger around much longer, and many times it’s not serious enough to justify staying home so I just have to go about my day anyways. If I do get sick enough to stay home from work I am nowhere close to being in good spirits. I am not playing video games all day long. I am laying in bed contemplating where it all went wrong.”
