When are you too old?

At family parties there was always that relative (usually an uncle) who would stay up burning the dance floor late into the early morning. Typically this person would be double the average age of the rest of the die hards on the dance floor. But they kept going regardless of the genre being played.

I noticed that my Apple Music service also suggests new music to me. I have no doubt that some of this new music is also being suggested to people half my age. My team from work once went out for drinks together in the coastal town of Ballito. We wound up in an establishment where I am guessing the average age was 18 as it was during the peak of the post school summer vacation for school leavers. One of our team members has a grandchild and all of his kids are above the age of 25! It was uncomfortable being there surrounded by these pimply faced teenagers swigging beer and vomiting into trash cans while we looked on with parental judgement.

All this has led me to ask the question of whether there is an age where one is just too old for it to be socially acceptable to do something? Take DJs as examples and legendary DJ Black Coffee is 42, with another legend DJ Fresh being 46. Their next decade milestone birthday is when they turn 50!

Our favourite marijuana smoking rapper Snoop Dogg is 47 and still releasing music that is popular with people over 30 years younger. So when does that age come where society expects a person to suddenly slow down, cut out contemporary music and listen to so called “old people” music? Or when is it unacceptable to be seen in the same bar that could be frequented by your own children? When is it time to start dressing conservatively and trade in those Jays for Hush Puppies?

I guess the answer I want to hear is that it is never too old. That would bring me joy considering that I am already double the age of the average school leaver. In 5 years time I will be double the age of the average graduate and 10 years after that I will be double the age I was when I got married.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that society thinks like that. There is a social construct where one becomes too old to be seen doing something or behaving in a certain way. When was the last time you saw a 70 year old man in skinny jeans, vest, sneakers and gold chain? Hopefully, not recently 😂.

So for today, another unanswered question…when are you too old to do something? And why? If your answer is never, I challenged you to look around. There are many things older people just don’t do or are just not expected to do. Where exactly is that inflection point? Should it be changed, should it remain? Why or why not?