In your younger years, you think that the life you lead will last forever, with the novelty and freedom of being young and excitable never looking like wearing off. Alas, we’re all human, and we all change. Here are 19 things that won’t be appealing as you get older.
Social Media
At first, the fabricated lives of social media stars might have you hooked, as, on the surface, they seem aspirational. However, with age, you start to see through the myths that you are being fed, realizing that these sites represent a utopian lifestyle that only the smallest of percentiles will achieve.
Five Day 9-5 Work Week
It turns out working nine to five isn’t actually all that great. You spend the first two days of the week wishing it was still the weekend and the latter three looking forward to the next weekend. There’s no wonder that CNBC says 87% of Americans would welcome a four-day workweek!
Keeping Up With Fashion
As a youngster, you are always desperate to fit in with the crowd, keeping up with all the latest fashion trends to avoid appearing lame or out of touch. Becoming more mature will help you realize that comfort is the main priority. Plus, timeless looks are far cooler than short-term trends!
Regular Social Events
In your 20s, you wouldn’t miss a single social outing; it would feel like a huge part of your persona has been stolen from you! However, once the years start to stack up, your bed starts to feel comfier, and the hangovers become more vicious, leaving you wishing you’d stayed at home.
Being a Super Fan
Back in the day, you used to obsess over certain bands, screaming out loud when they released a new song or concert tickets. These days, you watch videos of Taylor Swift fans crying their eyes out over a song and cringe with second-hand embarrassment. That’s just a part of growing up.
Gossiping About People
At some point, every young person would have listened with great intent while someone retold them some juicy, and likely untrue, gossip about someone they knew. As you mature, you start to realize that gossiping about someone behind their back is harsh and unfair.
Leaving the House
Adulthood requires you to pay a lot more attention to things than you would when you were young. Having to worry about everything being switched off, all the windows shut, and whether you have everything you need before leaving the house is stressful enough to make you just not bother going out.
Strenuous Exercise
The aching and creaking of your aging joints the morning after a strenuous workout is enough to make you regret ever trying to become fit and healthy. Most Americans struggle with keeping active, as Fortune points out, with only 28% being physically active, which is pretty shocking.
Traveling Abroad
When you’re in charge of booking a hotel, getting through airport security, remembering the passports, and sorting out airport transfers, traveling seems far less appealing than it used to. When you were a child, vacations were purely about having fun doing things you wouldn’t otherwise get to do at home, but no more.
Drinking Alcohol
While hangovers have never been fun, they used to subside quickly when you were young; you could even go out again the next evening! With age, they become nastier, clinging on to you for at least three days after you consumed your last drop of alcohol. It’s just not worth it.
House Parties
Going to house parties as a young adult was exciting, especially if the playlist was well-curated. As you head into your 30s, the thought of being confined in a small room with the sound of heavy music and people shouting into your ears from all directions seems like a nightmare.
Loud Noise
Loud noises, such as bikers’ spluttering engines, the sound of an emergency service siren, or a dog’s non-stop barking, are not welcome as you get older. This increased sensitivity to loud noises is a result of the deterioration of hair cells and nerve fibers in our ears due to age. We’d much prefer silence!
Junk Food
During childhood, junk food is the ultimate treat, reserved for special occasions. When you hit early adulthood, you’ll likely have over-indulged as a result of the freedom of being older. Once you hit full maturity, however, you realize that junk food just makes you feel unhealthy, sluggish, and gross.
City Life
The hustle and bustle of city life appeal greatly to younger people, as Bloomberg suggests, with those between the ages of 20-24 being the most urban age group of all. The lights eventually begin to fade for older age groups, who usually end up opting for the calmness of outer-city residency.
Adverts
With their brash voiceovers and hyper-active editing styles, adverts are aimed at younger people, who are more likely to purchase something as a result of seeing it advertised. The older you get, the more annoyed you become with people constantly trying to sell you things you neither want nor need.
Young Children
Most people experience a middle-ground moment in their lives when they have reached full maturity but have yet to have kids. In this period, there are very few things more annoying than a screaming child openly misbehaving and getting in everyone’s way. Our parents would have been so angry!
Revolution
The thought of being involved in a major political movement of social change is the peak of excitement when you’re in your early 20s. However, your staunch political views will often mellow out as you get older, with the idea of revolution sounding like too much effort to get off the sofa for.
Responsibilities
When you’re a child, being given a task, such as looking after something, is exciting; it gives you an air of importance, as you have been entrusted with responsibility. Once responsibilities get more serious in adulthood, such as bills, kids, and a mortgage, they’re far less fun and 100% times more stressful.
Feeling Ill
Finally, despite the discomfort, feeling under the weather when you’re a child always brings the excitement of a day off school. With age, there’s no shirking from responsibilities; subsequently, 9 in 10 American workers have gone to work while sick, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, which is pretty concerning!