# Things that make you look old **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889 "2016-03-04T02:20:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/21 "2016-03-04T10:58:39Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > What made me feel old was realizing that the movie \*Star Wars \*is older now that _The Wizard of Oz_ was when I was born. Damn, _Pulp Fiction_ is older than _The Wizard of Oz_ was when I was born. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/22 "2016-03-04T11:26:12Z")
Reading a dead-tree book. I still carry one everywhere and read it on the Skytrain, in Starbucks etc. I’m almost always the only one not staring at their phone. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/23 "2016-03-04T11:36:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Reading a dead-tree book. I still carry one everywhere and read it on the Skytrain, in Starbucks etc. I’m almost always the only one not staring at their phone. Don’t feel bad - my daughter continually has her nose in a dead tree. She’s twelve 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/24 "2016-03-04T12:09:37Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Reading a dead-tree book. I still carry one everywhere and read it on the Skytrain, in Starbucks etc. I’m almost always the only one not staring at their phone. Or newspaper, folded “that way”. ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/25 "2016-03-04T13:43:32Z")
I’ve noticed that old people seem to favor a particular ring tone for their phones- the one that goes “brrrrrrrrrrrring!”- like an olde tyme landline. My dad, my husband’s dad, and my boss all have this ringtone. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/26 "2016-03-04T13:44:33Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Gray hair. > [@MandaJo](#): > > Two spaces after a period. I cannot stop doing this. > [@elbows](#): > > You’re looking up and around everywhere you’re going. Not looking down at a device! > > Could you look any older? > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Reading a dead-tree book. I still carry one everywhere and read it on the Skytrain, in Starbucks etc. I’m almost always the only one not staring at their phone. Oh fine, you got me…I’m old. I even wear pantyhose sometimes! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/27 "2016-03-04T13:46:42Z")
**Things that make you look old** My birthday ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/28 "2016-03-04T14:08:13Z")
> [@tuesdayweld](#): > > Wearing a wrist watch. Younger people (than me) check their devices for the time. I would find it difficult to give up wearing a watch as it is such an ingrained habit after all these years of wearing one to check my wrist for the time. “Set in my ways”, apparently. Given that the “device” you speak of is typically a cell phone kept in a pocket, [it’s actually more olde-tymey than a wrist watch.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_watch) (from there, it was interesting to learn that [Flavor Flav was not really a fashion innovator…](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_eggs)) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/29 "2016-03-04T14:23:59Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Gray hair. The GOOD news is, it’s looking like I probably won’t have to worry about gray hair… ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/30 "2016-03-04T14:50:34Z")
Seems to me that if you’re a man and you’re short haired and clean shaven, that is pretty much a sure market that you’re above a certain age. It seems like facial hair and beards are surprisingly prevalent among the younger set, even the out of college ones. I tend to think of newspapers and watches as being things that mark someone as squarely in the “Over 35-40” set. I mean, my parents and my in-laws HAVE to read their newspapers every morning, and my father routinely bitches that the paper is getting smaller and smaller and not worth the money. I pointed out to him that his paper (the Houston Chronicle) actually has a decent website, but he wasn’t having any of that. Watches are in the same category; I think one has to have got past a certain age without habitually and routinely using a cell phone/blackberry in order to still be wearing and routinely using wristwatches. I’m 43, and I quit wearing my watch about 7 years ago; I got eczema on my left wrist where I wore my watch, and had to stop wearing my watch for a while, and realized that I never missed it, as I was apparently already using my phone for timekeeping and my watch essentially as jewelry. Certain styles of clothing mark one as old as well; things that were faddish and are now squarely out of style; Members Only jackets, acid-wash jeans, baggy jeans, bangs on women, higher socks when wearing shorts, etc… I’ll say goatees/van-dykes on men; they seem to be a relic of the 1990s and 2000s, but there are still a lot of 30-something and older men keeping them around. I don’t see many on people in their 20s. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/31 "2016-03-04T14:59:57Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Or newspaper, folded “that way”. The commuter fold? My Ex said she was taught that in school in NY. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/32 "2016-03-04T15:01:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > The commuter fold? My Ex said she was taught that in school in NY. Yep, I only see people my age (I’m 58) read news that way. Meanwhile I read it on my tablet. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/33 "2016-03-04T15:06:26Z")
Still uses a flip-phone. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/34 "2016-03-04T15:16:30Z")
My parents use flip phones. What makes them REALLY old is that they turn it on when they leave the house and turn it off when they get home. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/35 "2016-03-04T15:29:13Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Two spaces after a period. I cannot stop doing this. No periods to have spaces after?? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/36 "2016-03-04T15:35:08Z")
_Other people_ make me look old. That, and the hair in my ears. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/37 "2016-03-04T15:44:34Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Making social phone calls. I’m 35 and I can’t friggin’ stand to talk on the phone. I’ll sever business relationships because companies force me to do business over the phone–I sure as hell don’t want to talk for _fun_. Email, text, Tweet, post on Facebook, hell, meet me face-to-face. Do NOT effing call me. I’m 47 and have always hated speaking on the phone. That’s got nothing to do with age. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/38 "2016-03-04T15:46:16Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yep, I only see people my age (I’m 58) read news that way. Meanwhile I read it on my tablet. FIL (v.1.0) was an advocate of the commuter fold. You do not annoy other passengers on the train or bus. I guess ear buds are the modern version. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/39 "2016-03-04T16:25:28Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Two spaces after a period. I cannot stop doing this. I do this too. I didn’t know it’s not done anymore? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889/40 "2016-03-04T16:26:13Z")
My Walkman. But it still works and I still have tapes I like so ------------ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-look-old/747889.md?page=3)