Article created by: Vėja Elkimavičiūtė
Everybody gets old eventually, but sometimes our age creeps up on us unexpectedly and we're surprised at how much things have changed. Many people talk about how the younger generation doesn't know what a VHS is, doesn't recognize famous old-school bands, or was just born in the 2000s. And even more people feel old after interacting with younger folks, from their new slang terms to their still fresh and hopeful outlook towards life.
This online user focused mainly on the workplace and asked people to share how their younger coworkers made them feel old. A bunch of users delivered entertaining stories that might even leave you feeling old and confused.
When i fell down the last couple of steps on a stairway. No one pointed and laughed like I expected, instead they helped me up and asked me if I was okay. That’s when I knew.
When they absolutely love a "new" song and then I tell them it's a re-make of a song from 25 years ago. They almost always try to tell me I'm wrong, until I pull up the evidence and then it's shocked Pikachu face lol.
My childhood cat lived to 21.5 so teaching (freshman biology lab, so students were ~18) became very weird when I realized my cat was older than my students
I'm a (female) computer geek. I was running cables with this guy at work one night, and he kept trying to keep me out of the actual work part. I finally told him 'I've been doing this since before you were born!'
That was about 25 years ago, and as of right now, I've been working in the computer field for 44 years.
Had a co-worker ask me, “Back before cell phones, did you just have to wait around at your house for a call?” Uh, yeah, pretty much.
They were complaining how hard and awkward it is to meet women on Tinder. I asked if they ever had to call a girl at home and her Dad answered the phone. They were horrified.
Another time one of my guys asked what a payphone was. We worked at a phone company.
Various colleagues were debating whether the Concorde had been real. They couldn’t fathom that supersonic civilian aircraft used to exist and now they don’t anymore.
The Concorde last flew in 2003, when these colleagues were toddlers.
In trade school, we were doing introductions, saying a little bit about ourselves. One kid says "yeah, I'm really into classic cars, I have a 1997 *something or another*. Me, the other couple older folks, and the instructors all made audible groans of horror.
Getting a blank stare after saying we’d meet, “Same bat-time, same bat-channel.”
Went grocery shopping and I thought, "Hey, they're playing some pretty good music."
Software engineering manager here. I have team members that have never seen Lord of the Rings.
I was talking to a coworker about movies and our favorites. I said something like “I watched that movie so much when I had it on tape in my college years”
Her: Tape?
Me: You know, on VCR?
Her: VCR?
Me: Oh well I guess those are old now. Everything is on DVD now.
Her: DVD?
Me: I guess those are old too. I guess Blu-ray is what’s on disc now.
Her: Disc?
Me: Nevemind
She was half joking but nonetheless it made me feel old.
They started calling me "mom" or "Mama bear" on the walkie-talkies. I find it kind of endearing, actually.
I'm in IT. Co-worker needed to borrow a serial cable. The cable was older than the co-worker.
I'm a preschool teacher. It's been a TRIP to watch parents go from Soooo much older than me, to the same age as me, and now they're younger than me!?!?
Younger dude said his first gaming console was the PlayStation 4, first computer ran windows 8, and had no idea what we meant by dial up or rotary phones. Had to stop and reevaluate my age lol.
(coworker) hey, a few of us are going out Friday night, wanna come?
(me) sure
(cw) great! Meet at my place at 11.
(me) wait, 11pm?...ok (to myself) that's when I was planning on going to bed
Our payroll company went under (luckily not with our money), so for that month, we got real live, honest-to-goodness paper checks. Several co-workers didn't really know what they were or how they could turn them into money.
When I couldn't decipher the two youngest coworkers parts of the conversation. I had to search what some words meant.
Years ago, before I retired, when I met a new young troop and realized I'd been in the military longer than they had been alive...
