When does someone's conception of "old" vs. "new" solidify?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was reading this thread about embarrassingly bad comic relief in old TV shows, and based on the responses started wondering how people’s conceptions of what’s old vs. new are formed, and if there’s an age when they solidify, and everything before a certain point in someone’s life is “old” and everything afterward is “new”?

I’m 48 and my thinking in the thread was that pretty much anything prior to about the early-mid 1990s was “old” and anything since then was “new” or at least contemporary. Like I wouldn’t have thought of “Friends” or “ER” as “old”, but they’re both about 30 years old. “St. Elsewhere” and “Magnum PI” both are “old” even though they’re only maybe 5-7 years apart.

I’m sure other things are the same way- I don’t really think of stuff like the original Xbox as all that old, even though it’s been nearly as long, but the Atari 2600 is definitely “old”.

Seems like my conceptions solidified around my early-mid 20s and that’s the pivot at which things are thought of as old vs. new. Or maybe it’s the halfway point between birth and however old you are at the moment? Anyone got any ideas?

2

It’s very simple:

Not old - Stuff I did, owned, experienced, whatever after I graduated from college, left my parents’ house, etc.

Old - Stuff I’m old enough to remember before then, i.e., when I was a kid

History - Stuff my parents could remember but I never experienced first-hand

Ancient History - Stuff too old even for my parents

3

That’s not that simple though. For me, it’s all right around the time I turned 24. What I’m not sure about is whether it’s a life milestone kind of thing that defines it, or if it’s roughly the middle point of my life so far that defines it- both are right around 24 years old for me.

4

I keep waiting for an oldies station playing the music of the 90s since it was 30 years ago and when I was a kid in the early 90s the 30 year old music was on the oldies station. The best I get was this weekend my station played a throw back weekend covered music from the 80, 90s and 2000s.

Based on listening to the music I think anything more than 15 years old is old even if it came out after I was in college.

5

Yeah, I’ve been taken aback a couple of times to hear GnR and early 2000s Metallica (think “Fuel” or “Whiskey in the Jar”) being played on the local classic rock station, and with the proliferation of 80s-90s-2000s radio stations. Not “oldies” stations, because that’s still Bobby Darin and Elvis and that sort of thing that the geriatrics listen to.

6

Even the oldies stations seem to have dried up around here at least on terrestrial radio but I’d guess the death of the baby boomers is what will cause the shift and then we’ll skip Gen Z and the millennials will be the catered to oldies generation.