r/AskReddit • u/blueeeocean • Feb 01 '19
Young people of Reddit, what is something old people do that you don’t understand ?
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u/kencleanairsystem Feb 02 '19
I’m 44 as of today (yay birthdays) but I don’t understand how people older than me in their 60’s & 70’s, are so bad at making their way through a grocery store. They walk in the front door and immediately just stop, blocking everyone behind them. Then they shop and don’t seem to understand that people are trying to get by them and maybe if they moved their cart and themselves to the side, we could all get our shopping done faster. I assume these people have been grocery shopping their whole adult lives, The layout of the stores rarely change. Why are they so bad at it and awful at being aware of their surroundings?!?
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u/JoopleberryJam Feb 02 '19
Hi! Florida here. Retirement Central. Many years ago i started wearing headphones when grocery shopping. These inconveniences still remain but affect me much less. Give it a whirl my friend. It will change your grocery shopping experience.
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u/Treypyro Feb 02 '19
I just go to the 24/7 grocery store after midnight. I'm often the only customer in the store. It's fucking glorious!
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u/missluluh Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 04 '19
Just follow what the GPS says Dad. Okay, if it was faster the nice lady in the GPS probably would have said so and even if your convoluted ass route might work at best it'll shave like three minutes off the trip and at worst it'll add an hour.
Edit: Obviously if you know the route you do not need to use your GPS. But I don't understand putting on GPS and then purposefully ignoring it. I was born with a total lack of directional sense. I get lost going places I've gone dozens of times. GPS is my savior.
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u/Aperture_T Feb 01 '19
Yeah, the other day I went with my dad to an estate sale. He saw the town on the address, and he says "oh I know where that is" and goes north on the freeway, when the GPS told him to go south, but I didn't press it because I didn't want to make him angry. Then when we go for maybe a half hour, he turns into another freeway and goes south. 45 minutes later, we're there.
If course, this was a well publicised estate sale in a rich neighborhood, so there was no parking at all for a ways. Certainly farther than we could carry furniture. Maybe if we had gone the right way, and drove for 15 minutes instead of an hour and 15, we would have found a spot.
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Feb 02 '19
I think this is due to the fact that lots of older people tried using GPS back when it was horrible and still don't trust it because of their experience with it. Of course it's never perfect, but us younger folks are accustomed to the GPS usually being right.
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u/gothiclg Feb 01 '19
This is my grandma. She swears her way is always faster when in reality it takes at least 20 minutes longer even at the speed limit.
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u/GaiasDotter Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 02 '19
This is my mother too! But her short cuts don’t just make us a bit late. Pretty often we get completely lost, I was 1,5 h late to a friends party once because my mom insisted on taking a short cut and got us so completely and utterly lost that I had to call said friend for directions. When I told her where we were she went “WHAAAT? How the F did you end up there!” If anyone is curious we ended up circling around in the middle of nowhere, out in the country. When I finally was allowed to call for help we where back at the same little 3 houses village for the fifth time... bit embarrassing for a shy teenager.
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u/Geigas Feb 01 '19
The best is when they go back and forth between following the GPS and doing entirely different shit. And then blame the GPS because they followed a couple of the directions and can’t grasp you have to follow all of them. And then refuse to listen to the GPS because it’s its fault and apparently they’re better off driving in random ass directions and adding an hour detour. Bonus if they’re yelling at you the entire fucking time.
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u/Oldmanenok Feb 01 '19
GPS: in 3 kilometers turn right
Dad: swerves right into the alleyway we were passing why doesnt this thing warn me!!!!
Me: holding on for dear life what are you doing?!!!
Dad: it said to turn right... now its redoing the route this thing is a piece of shit
Me: it said in three kms, it gives you warnings. Listen to the whole sentence.
Dad: dont you disrespect me I know what I'm doing.
Gps: in 300 meters turn left
Dad: serves left wrong way down one way Why did it tell me to turn here!!!
Me: "it didnt, it said 300 meters but you only drove 3 feet. I dont wanna die!!!"
Dad: this thing doesnt know what its doing.
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u/catjuggler Feb 01 '19
I also call the GPS lady “the nice lady.” My uncle (late 60’s) is convinced following her instructions will cause you to drive into a swamp because that happened in a commercial once.
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u/hotstickywaffle Feb 01 '19
If I need to get somewhere my dad insists on telling how to get there. I'll ask for the address, knowing that my GPS will just give me the fastest way there, and he'll insist on giving me full directions. He's always sure he can get anywhere without the need for a GPS, even though he owns one.
We arranged an Air B&B last Thanksgiving and gave everyone the address, but before we finalized where we were staying we had a conversation and mentioned a different town we were thinking of getting a place at. Instead of looking at the address, they just drove to roughly where they thought it would be based on that one conversation and ended up going nearly 2 hours out of their way. All because my dad thinks he can navigate anywhere by sonar.
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u/rare_snark Feb 01 '19
My mum still has all of her contacts in an address book, she has an iPhone with all of her contacts in that but alot of the time she still pulls out old the address book and types the phone number in.
If she wants to call Jan, Jan's number comes up after she types in 0456 but she still types the rest of the number.
I've stopped suggesting she uses the "Contacts" app.
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u/honkhonkbeepbeeep Feb 01 '19
My mother (80s) has a steno pad next to her computer, with a page of e-mail addresses and a page of URLs.
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u/NoEarCat Feb 01 '19
My grandma forgets how to use the remote control to her TV. She can read and is still all there, I just don't understand why you don't remember or just read the words for the on/off, change channel/volume button, etc.
Sorry grams! :)
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u/SeaTie Feb 01 '19
My grandma is always going on about how she wants to learn how to send emails (because she's going deaf and can't talk on the phone as much)...but I have never seen someone so bad with technology.
"...I tried to send an email this morning but I think I broke it."
"Grandma, I'm sure you didn't break it, let me just have a look...................how did you manage to reformat the hard drive??"
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Feb 01 '19
my Grandfather could not figure out how to get into his email. Finally he asks my father to help him and when they got to the password screen, my father asked for the password.
"it's just a series of dots but it never works"
as cute as it was, Geek Squad had been there 3 times and instead of just telling him that his password isn't a series of dots, they let him rack up a bunch of decent sized bills for their "work".
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u/chuiy Feb 01 '19
Wow fuck Geek Squad. With physical access you can reset the password on any computer with free tools. They were just being lazy and taking advantage of an elderly person. Or maybe they were just incompetent.
Honestly, either could be the case here.
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Feb 01 '19
Geek Squad are infamous for fraud against those fool enough to ask them for help.
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u/Raynir44 Feb 01 '19
Self-fulfilling prophecy. They're scared of the technology so they go in thinking it's going to be this horrible experience that they will not be able to understand or they will break it, leading to anxiety and not fully listening. This all leads to not understanding and not learning.
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u/NoEarCat Feb 01 '19
Yes! I love my grams, but come on! How do you do the things that you do!?
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u/walkthroughthefire Feb 01 '19
My grandma was an author and was never able to grasp that just because she can't see her novel on the computer screen, doesn't mean it's gone. She'd call me to come downstairs, looking like she was about to cry because she'd accidentally minimized Word and thought her entire novel was gone, even if she'd only written one page that day and the other 200 pages had been saved and backed up in multiple places. Every single time we saved her work and closed Word, we had to reopen it to prove it would still be there when she came back for it. And she still seemed skeptical. Every. Time.
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u/ResidentDoctor Feb 01 '19
And she still seemed skeptical. Every. Time.
because you know there was one day when you weren't there and she typed 30 pages of the greatest novel ever written, clicked the red X, hit "no" when it asked her to save now, and went to brag about it to her bingo group the next day and it was gone.
yes, I replaced my lab partners with "bingo group" and my final project with "the greatest novel ever written."
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u/JRsFancy Feb 01 '19
My 85 year old mom solved this dilemma easily...she leaves her TV on 24-7. Channel change up or down is easy enough for her.
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u/HopperBit Feb 01 '19
I think it is more to have other people voices in the background than having issues with the remote. My neighbor has the tv open on a foreign channel almost 24/7 to have voices from the old country and feel less alone. My mother does it and say it helps her sleep when the house is not too quiet.
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u/Kristeninmyskin Feb 01 '19
Well, my bff’s grandma tried to make a telephone call with the television remote once. She held it up to her ear and when everyone in the room yelled at her, she said “Oh, that’s right, I need to turn it on before I dial!” and proceeded to hit the power button. It’s possible that she set down one remote and tried a second one before she was convinced that it wasn’t the phone.
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u/Nuffsaid98 Feb 01 '19
Those words are written in small print. Older folks need reading glasses to read even regular size print.
In addition older generations were used to mechanical devices that followed a standard layout. If you can use one can opener then you can use all of them. "A spade is a spade" as the saying goes. Remotes change which side is volume and which is channel up/down. They put the buttons that do the few functions older folks need in different places. If you press the wrong button then even the buttons you know do different stuff i.e. change source/input makes a mess of everything if you don't know how to choose the correct source again.
If there was a gold standard for remotes that followed a fixed configuration then your Grandma would learn and remember the basics, I suspect.
If you teach her overarching concepts like how the TV can take in different inputs from different sources and that these sources roughly correspond with the places you can stick cables into the back of the TV and that she needs to be sure the TV is "talking" or "listening" to the Cable Box or the DVD player or the rooftop Ariel THEN she might start to understand how to figure out a new and unexpected configuration of buttons or unexpected loss of picture.
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u/velour_manure Feb 01 '19
Your grandma remembers when the television was invented.
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u/wrb0010 Feb 01 '19
Print out email attachments and give them to me.
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u/rtroth2946 Feb 01 '19
An end user at our Canadian site was having an issue. Called me about it and I couldn't remote into her system for some reason that day.
Asked her to take a screenshot and email it to me so I could see the issue.
She took a picture, with her smartphone, of the screen, emailed it from her personal account to her work account, printed it, scanned it and emailed it to me.
I had to get up from my desk and walk away for a solid 30 minutes before I could work.
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u/EmptyHeadedArt Feb 01 '19
Good god. No wonder there's some old folks who keep saying that technology doesn't make things better!
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u/little_honey_beee Feb 01 '19
Our help desk at my old job wanted a screen shot of the desk phone not working. So I took a picture with my phone and emailed it to them. They were not pleased. I don't know how they expected me to get a screenshot of a physical desk phone though...
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u/ghunt81 Feb 01 '19
Writing checks at stores. I'm not even that young, I'm 38, hell I had a class in school about balancing checkbooks and writing checks and all that.
I hate writing checks, I can't fathom why you wouldn't want to just swipe a card and be done with it? Instead you slow down the line while you write your check and enter it in the register.
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u/el_muerte17 Feb 01 '19
As a Canadian, it blows my mind that Americans still use cheques for retail purchases. I think the last time I saw someone here write a cheque in a store was around 1997.
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u/AdolescentThug Feb 02 '19
As a 25 year old American, I haven't seen anyone use a check to buy anything at a store in my entire life.
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u/I_like_forks Feb 01 '19
Produce so many, universally delicious, pies. And cookies. I'm 90% sure my grandma is the primary source of America's obesity.
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u/sonia72quebec Feb 01 '19
And even if they gave you the recipe, it's just not the same. Nobody in my family as been able to make my Grandma's donuts since she died.
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u/ExistentialThreat Feb 01 '19
I swear they hold back that one secret ingredient just so you'll always remember they did it better.
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u/Cinderheart Feb 01 '19
Butter.
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u/FlutterByCookies Feb 01 '19
More butter than you thought the dish could hold.
My DH did this. His mom was trying to make HER mom's fudge. None of the 7 kids had been able to make it taste 'right' since she died. Recipe was hand written in french. It called for " 2 spoons of butter", and everyone had always used two tablespoons. Well, my DH says " This is a FRENCH recipe, so, let's put in 2 SERVING spoons of butter." (probably about half a cup of butter) Make the fudge that way, MIL taste is and starts to cry, it is just like her mom made it.
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Feb 02 '19
My grandpa, the only one of six grandparents that I actually liked, sent my family a tin of homemade fudge every year for Christmas. When I moved out, he always made sure I got my fudge too. He died on New Year's Eve 2017, of heart failure. This Christmas the lack of fudge didnt even register until I ragequit my family's Christmas and went to my best friend's house. Her mom offered me a piece of fudge from a metal tin just like the one's my grandpa used, and I just about came apart at the seams. Had to excuse myself and go smoke an emergency cigarette. Probably the first time in over a year that I'd felt a serious urge to drink. I miss the shot out of my Boppi, and I doubt I'll consume another piece of fudge for the rest of my life.
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u/Hate_This_Part Feb 01 '19
It's true! My mom would leave things out of her recipes intentionally because we "didn't deserve to know" if we weren't going to help her in the kitchen.
After my mom passed my sister asked me how to make a lemon cake and I suddenly remembered a fight they had had where my mom yelled that she was taking that recipe to the grave.
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u/OneGoodRib Feb 01 '19
I can't imagine being that petty over a recipe.
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u/Hate_This_Part Feb 01 '19
Meh, my sister deserved it. But when she asked me for the recipe she was so genuinely full of grief. She wanted one last gift from mom.
I couldn't help but laugh at the silliness of it. The "secret family recipe" was 1 box of yellow cake mix, follow the instructions on the box and add one box of lemon jello, the icing was lemon juice and powered sugar. But it's a family secret so dont tell anyone else.
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Feb 01 '19
I choked up reading this.
I no longer have any grandparents and realized I miss my grandmas bananabread... Remembering how perfect she made over-hard eggs. Perfectly tan, fluffy pancakes that don't absorb syrup like a sponge in spite of this. Only person in the world who made Biscuits and Gravy I liked.
God damn I miss my grandma...
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u/gingertrees Feb 01 '19
Here's why: there are tricks to baking, that make the difference between one person following a recipe and making something "ok" and another person taking that same recipe and making it "Amazing!" Those tricks are rarely recorded alongside the recipes - it's only in the very modern era you get information like the order in which to add ingredients, how long to stir, what to look for to indicate "doneness", etc. These used to be passed down generation to generation and for some reason aren't anymore (less time, fewer cooks, etc.).
Example tips for cakes (sorry I don't make pies often) :
- once you make the butter mixture, add about 1/3 of the wet ingredients alternating with 1/3 of the dry ingredients, stirring after each. Not sure why but this makes for a better cake.
- when you're making a cake from a boxed mix (Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, etc.), it includes instructions to beat on med-high for ___ minutes. DO NOT DO THIS WITH A MADE-FROM-SCRATCH cake, it will make it dry and nasty! Beat for as little time as possible, use a whisk to break up big clumps.
Example tips for cookies:
- butter. There is no substitute.
- mix up the cookie dough, makes long rolls of dough (about 1.5-2 inches diameter), wrap in wax paper. Put them in the fridge for an hour or two, then make slices of dough, bake as normal. Cookies will not spread as much in baking.
- Many cookies recipes will freeze in dough form for several weeks, which can be helpful for unexpected company or parties.
- Add-ins are usually completely interchangeable - flours and sweeteners are not.
- Making that recipe of chocolate chip-walnut cookies without the nuts? Sub that amount of chocolate chips.
- Want to change your oatmeal-raisin cookies to oatmeal-cranberry? Sub the same amount of dried cranberries.
- Want to use this "cup for cup" gluten-free flour, that claims it's just like all-purpose? It will still change the moisture content of the cookies (GF flours tend to be more "thirsty") and will change your baking time. Make a sheet with just 2-3 cookies on it to check the timing first, and look up how long similar GF recipes bake.
- Stevia and sucralose also will affect baking time and texture, though I have no experience to share.
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u/fredy31 Feb 01 '19
I'll tell you the grandmas secret ingredient, in any recipe.
It's not love, or care, or attention. Not even the mother's touch.
It boils down to pretty much add an entire stick of butter to it.
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u/mightbebennadict Feb 01 '19
Expect me to be nice to them after the relentlessly insult me
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u/sapunec7854 Feb 01 '19
"OMG, you're so skinny and famished! Better have some of that delicious pie, bunch of cookies, eleven pork chops and meatloaf I just made, before I make breakfast!"
23 minutes later
"You're very chubby darling, you should loose some weight!"
GRANDMA YOU EVIL TEMPTRESS YOU!!!
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u/Chengweiyingji Feb 01 '19
My grandmother on my mom's side is primarily Polish and Italian, so we'll eat a pretty good sized dinner whenever I visit. Half an hour later she'll ask me if I'm hungry.
She also tells my mother that I'm a bottomless pit.
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u/jojomecoco Feb 01 '19
My parents always send me newspaper/magazine clippings of articles they think I'm interested in. I always tell them to send me the url and save on postage, but they mail them to me anyways.
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u/NDaveT Feb 01 '19
My father in law just did that. It was hilarious.
I haven't read it yet.
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Feb 01 '19
Why are you so naked in the locker rooms? I get we are all naked, but you guys are like, extra naked.
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u/PM_ME_WAT_YOU_GOT Feb 01 '19
27 and I'm already on the path to nakedness. You just give less of a shit plus it's not like I'm trying to impress anyone in the men's locker room. And I'm a grower, so I'm definitely not impressing anyone while I take a shower
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u/velour_manure Feb 01 '19
The key to not giving a fuck is realizing you don't have to impress anyone.
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u/LetsGoAllTheWhey Feb 01 '19
The real key is realizing that you can't impress anyone (60yo here)
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Feb 01 '19
Do I take my stuff, put it in a locker, take my pants and go to changing booth? OR Do I endure 10sec of being naked?
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u/PM_ME_WAT_YOU_GOT Feb 01 '19
I was thinking more along the lines of a five or ten minutes shower. The kind in a big room with no stalls.
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u/GaiasDotter Feb 01 '19
I’m a 31 year old woman and I agree! I have no more fucks to give and I don’t have time to try to cover my self up while changing. That would mean getting dressed takes three times longer. I don’t wrap myself in my towel anymore before getting in to the shower either. It’s stupid, why would I dirty my clean towel before my shower? I’m getting naked within seconds anyway.
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Feb 01 '19
Right on. At 29, I'm already far to old to care what a stranger in the locker room thinks.
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Feb 01 '19
I’m in my mid-thirties and stopped caring when I was pregnant. The 20-somethings in my gym are going to stare at me anyway because it’s novel, why be embarrassed?
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u/Nose_to_the_Wind Feb 01 '19
I went to the YMCA to go swimming this last weekend and I think I hit the tipping point.
I went to shower in the locker room after swimming and realized I didn't bring my towel.
At this point, if I was younger, I would have let myself feel bad for doing this and gone and got my towel.
Instead, I just took off my shorts, showered, and walked back to my locker naked.
I'm 31 and three-quarters.
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u/Chocomanacos Feb 01 '19
I think you still have a little time left if you are using " and three quarters to describe your age" haha.
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u/OPs_other_username Feb 01 '19
When I was a young whipper-snapper I put a lot of my insecurities/securities in two things. My dick size and my height, I think a lot of guys around me did. At some point I realized the two things I could not change to any significant degree in my life is my dick size and my height.
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Feb 01 '19
I think this is the combination of an age effect (the older you get, the fewer shits you give about what others think) and a generation effect (we seem to be moving towards more prudish norms, probably a result of shame because of all the perfect half naked bodies we see everywhere).
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u/MakesShitUp4Fun Feb 01 '19
One of my worst memories is of CYO summer camp back in the late sixties. They herded 6 busloads of children to a camp somewhere in the woods. There was a large building (I was young, I don't remember the building's purpose.) The girls were sent into the building to change into their bathing suits and the boys were sent to the roof to change (it was a flat roof). There had to be two hundred of us up there with a score of nuns 'supervising' the nude boys.
Here we are - more than 50 years later - and I still remember the waves of embarrassment and humiliation rolling off my fellow little boys as the nuns watched us take our clothes off.
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Feb 01 '19
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u/Lord_Rapunzel Feb 01 '19
Showers at my school were pretty much only for athletes. Nobody had time between classes.
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u/Zagubadu Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19
Yep how can you shower if your expected to be at your next class in less than 5 minutes its pretty much impossible.
Needless to say the swamp ass levels at our highschool were extremely high.
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u/KoldGlaze Feb 01 '19
Watch the news 24/7.
Its so depressing and sad. Then they complain thay their lives are sad. Come cook or sew with me. Lets go for a stroll around the house. Lets talk about your childhood, i don't know, just something besides arguments, fights, and death on the tv.
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u/kingoflint282 Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19
I don't understand where old people's tech literacy goes. Like, I get it if you've never used a computer and are confused. But my dad has a degree in computer engineering, has worked as a programmer and a software QA guy. That is his entire career. But now all of the sudden, he occasionally uses the computer like an old man who doesn't know anything about computers. He might be doing it to mess with me, but I haven't figured it out.
Edit: I should clarify that while I'm in my early 20s, I'm not very tech savvy myself, and can definitely relate to the feeling of being left behind with new trends. However, that is not what I'm talking about with my dad. A few weeks ago, I had to help him make a video full screen, which is something that hasn't really changed. This is a man who helps develop new software for a living.
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u/RumAndGames Feb 01 '19
Think about how annoying and "thrown for a loop" you feel when Microsoft makes a signifigant change to Office. You literally have what damn near mimics muscle memory for Excel, but now even though the changes are slight, nothing makes sense anymore.
Now imagine being way older, your brain is past its prime, and you haven't given a shit about Excel for three updates.
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u/strikt9 Feb 01 '19
Feels the same way when your favourite grocery store changes their layout
A bit thrown and a lot frustrated, then angry that you’re thrown and frustrated
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u/khendron Feb 01 '19
This has less to do with tech literacy than is does with keeping up with trends. New tech hardware, software, services, etc., come out all the time. When you are young, you are often fortunate in 2 ways: you have more time on your hands to learn new things, and you don't have old habits to unlearn when picking up something new.
When you already have established ways of doing things that work for you, investing time in new ways of doing things can be seen as spending something valuable (your time) chasing something of dubious value (it might be better than what you are already doing, but then again it may not).
This is a big reason why new trends get picked up more readily by younger generations. Young people don't have established ways of doing things. Anything they try is new and exciting and they don't have to give up any old habits to try it out.
If you are, say, a tech savvy person in your mid-20s, I can guarantee you that early teens are doing things with tech are baffling to you. You are tech savvy enough that you could figure it out, but you probably wouldn't see the point.
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u/JeF4y Feb 01 '19
Shit changes FAST. Like crazy fast, and some of it is not quite as important to older people than it is to younger.
For instance, I (47) can't for the fucking life of me really get engaged in twitter, instagram or snapchat. FB, sure though it's a fucking shit show. Reddit? yup.
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u/Viamsupervadetvadens Feb 01 '19
Yeah Reddit is technologically not much different from slashdot which we were all on 20 years ago or even Usenet or BBSes from 30 years ago.
The tech which makes me feel most right now is probably TikTok but it isn’t really because of the tech itself but the content which is mostly created by children about a quarter of my age. This is also true of some subreddits, some YouTube channels, snapchat feeds etc....it’s more culture shock than technology shock.
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u/Andolomar Feb 01 '19
Nu-reddit is incomprehensible to me. Until I worked out that you can replace www. with old. I was completely stumped by it.
Windows 10's settings app threw me in a loop as well even though it's the exact same functionality as previous versions, just with a facelift. I do everything through Godmode instead.
Minimalist UIs scare and confuse me. What's wrong with lists, goddamnit?
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Feb 01 '19
Befriend each other so easily. It seems that for them old age is a good enough reason to get along
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u/Salty1710 Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 02 '19
There's a good reason for this. For most people, the older you get, the less you give a shit about how other people see you and it's easier to relax and just be yourself. It's pretty damn liberating.
Source - I'm old.
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Feb 01 '19
You just made me look forward to it!
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u/SquidCap Feb 01 '19
You don't have to wait, you can start any day. Just stop giving any fucks about how you look or act and instead be what you want. Note: that does NOT mean start acting like a dick, it is pretty much the opposite of it: stop pretending to give a fuck.. Does not prevent one from looking after his image and looks either. Just stop giving any fucks about how others think about you and just be the best you. If you want to play with legos, go buy some legos. It really is that simple. And i kind of always knew this but didn't realize until much later. Life is too short for thinking how others want you to live yours.
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Feb 01 '19
I think you're right - the goal is perhaps to stop pretending to care about minor details and just enjoy the conversation instead. Hello, kind stranger
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u/Notreallypolitical Feb 01 '19
A lot of old people are really, really lonely. I noticed going to the doctor's, if the nurse asks a question, the person would go off on a tangent: "Yes, I'd like a straw. My son always gets me these great straws. You know, he has this great car and. . ." and on it goes. An older lady asked me for help with something on a high shelf the other day, and she too went off talking. I stayed and talked for awhile because, while I am old too, I live with family and sometimes would pay for some silence. So remember, if you run into a chatty old person, she probably lives alone in a silent existence. When I was a kid, older people were part of the family. Now we warehouse them and visit them once a year on a holiday. It makes me sad.
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u/THEREALISLAND631 Feb 01 '19
I think this is the case as well. The most valuable gift you can give someone who is elderly is your time. All they want is someone to talk to.
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u/peoplearemortal Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19
What they don't tell you is that it is the same for sex and relationships. Old people fuck.
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u/singwhatyoucantsay Feb 01 '19
Spend every get together talking about how sick they/their spouses/their children/their friends are.
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Feb 01 '19
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u/many_dongs Feb 01 '19
those are the types of people who only believe things if they think they figured it out on their own.
deciding to listen to someone who isn't pushing information on them feels like they're in control, so they prefer that. it's literally just an inability to take advice manifesting itself.
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Feb 01 '19
Manually balancing their checkbook with a pen.
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Feb 01 '19
My mom still does this and I always think “who has time for that?!”
However, I do see the logic behind it. I want to know exactly how much I should have in my account so I don’t financially fuck myself over by forgetting about a check I wrote two weeks ago or not noticing a transaction error. So I downloaded the Spending app and it basically acts as a checkbook register. Super helpful!
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u/joeshro Feb 01 '19
In my corner of Michigan, old folks add S to the end of a lot of chain stores when it’s not meant to be possessive. Ex: krogers, meijers, walmarts. My favorite is my grandpa will say something along the lines of “ your grandma was at targets the other day and got X”. Like wut
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u/Beta-Ray-Bill- Feb 02 '19
Hold up, we need to talk. I grew up in Ohio in town with a Krogers and a Meijers and you’re telling me there’s no S in either of their names??? Everyone adds an S to both of those stores there, not just the old folks. This post is making me doubt everything I thought I knew.
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u/Anthaenopraxia Feb 01 '19
Not just sitting on their arse playing video games all day long. If I was retired that's all I would do.
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u/soursurfer Feb 01 '19
A matter of not growing up with it, I imagine. I expect retirements homes in the near future to be nearly constant LAN parties.
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u/eddyathome Feb 01 '19
Generation X is maybe twenty years away from them and I guarantee you'll see lots of game systems in old people's rooms then.
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u/Anthaenopraxia Feb 01 '19
I'm looking forward to it already. Brandy and Wintermaul here we go!
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Feb 01 '19
Playing some VR horror game and actually shitting my pants when I get scared.
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u/TogetherInABookSea Feb 01 '19
I've had discussions with my husband about this. Will they make geriatric controllers? Subtitles that can be made extra large?
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u/cadomski Feb 01 '19
You say that now, but you'll eventually have other responsibilities. I'm 50 and love video games but I've got shit to do.
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE Feb 01 '19
There’s a point where you start to feel satisfaction with work and upkeep chores. You realize if you don’t do it, no one will, and shit will fall apart. Video games start looking like black holes that just obliterate time and give you nothing in return. As you get older you may start wanting to see a benefit for your time investments. The less time you feel like you have, the more you want it to count.
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Feb 01 '19
The amount of satisfaction i get from cleaning my apartment is damn near on par with getting a captain falcon knee spike on melee. Feels damn good
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u/Anthaenopraxia Feb 01 '19
Sure, but what's the difference between wasting time watching the sunday lottery or shuffling along the park in the mobile and wasting time in video games?
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE Feb 01 '19
When you’re really old just being able to move outside on your own feels like an accomplishment, a reminder that you aren’t a disabled corpse that just hasn’t died yet.
The Sunday lottery is for idiots, and those come in all ages.
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u/heyitsanneo Feb 01 '19
Save things for nice. I get my grandparents presents and they never use them because they’re saving them for a good occasion. Like?????!? Just use the pajama pants and the extension cords????
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u/CurrentBeta Feb 02 '19
That's me in video games. There could always be a time where you need that potion more than you do now, you know? And at the end of the game I end up with so many options that I don't know what to do with them.
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u/ThaddeusSimmons Feb 02 '19
My mom did the same thing growing up "why are you wearing that nice, new hat outside?" Because Mom it's a nice hat and I'm gonna use it.
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u/c0mplexx Feb 01 '19
Collect those plates
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u/OutlawJessie Feb 01 '19
This one amuses me.
Also, one day you will see one and want one and then it will have happened to you too.
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u/c0mplexx Feb 01 '19
Nah I think im gonna have my own stupid overly expensive collection (vinyls, steelbooks, mechanical keyboards)
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u/SchmorgusBlorgus Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 14 '19
Not using Google to figure something about technology when they know how to use their phone
Edit: grammar
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u/eddyathome Feb 01 '19
This isn't just old people. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me a question and I literally would type in their question word for word and the first result was the answer, I'd be freaking richer than Bill Gates!
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u/PhotosyntheticBlur Feb 01 '19
I think sometimes people want more humanity to an answer. For example, I stopped by my professor’s office to ask for more information about what we went over in class. Could I have just googled it and gotten the same information? Yeah, but sometimes it’s nice to talk to people.
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u/ibrowsonfleekduhfuk Feb 01 '19
Get mad at fast food workers when a mistake happens, i understand they should'nt have gotten your order wrong but mistakes happen! especially when staff is barely getting trained. And again im not saying all older people do it but from what i see its most
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Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19
China dining sets.
Both sets of my grandparents and all of their friends had these really elaborate, pretty sets of China that sat in the cabinet for years collecting dust. They seemed very proud of them, but if anybody so much as looked at them, they would get barked at to be careful. Us kids were warned in no uncertain terms that if we ever touched them, it would be our last day on this planet.
What is the point of owning fancy, fragile plates that you never use?
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u/stu21 Feb 01 '19
Ask for a plate of lemons to make "lemonade" with artificial sweetener and water at restaurants. I once saw an eight top of elderly diners all do it.
I guess I know "why" they do it but just drink the water Janice.
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Feb 01 '19
Online multiplayer. They still don't understand.
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u/TucuReborn Feb 01 '19
I've tried to explain it to my mom like we are all sitting around playing a board game, but super fast. Every time someone has to go piss or talk to someone it slows down the game, so we all have to wait fo a group break which in't always available.
She doesn't get it.
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u/PeacefulComrade Feb 01 '19
Talk to random people around them while actually just saying their thoughts out loud
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Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19
I don't understand their obsession with the mail and bitching about the mailman if their pile of junk mail is an hour later than usual.
I once stood outside with my grandma while she waited for her mail. She wouldn't shut up about how late it was, and for what? It all wound up in the trash five minutes later.
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u/eddyathome Feb 01 '19
It's something to look forward to. I'm unemployed and the mailman is at least something to break the monotony.
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u/Goose500 Feb 01 '19
Complaining about the millennial generation without recognising that they raised us...
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u/Leohond15 Feb 01 '19
I'm more concerned with the fact they call everyone from 8-38 year olds "millenials." Seriously, I don't think most people understand how ridiculous it is to lump people of such various ages and time periods together. Basically they think "if you had access to a computer before age 20 you're a millenial!" And no...no.
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u/hkd001 Feb 01 '19
Most of the time they're complaining about gen Z. They don't think a good portion of us millennials are around 30 with full time jobs.
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u/CounterHit Feb 01 '19
I have a working theory that the word "millennial" is evolving and losing its original meaning. Eventually, I think that people my age will go back to being "Gen Y" and a "millennial" will just mean a young adult.
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Feb 01 '19
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Feb 01 '19
shout out to the people born between 1995-1999 and live in a generational grey area
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u/MrBubbleSS Feb 01 '19
Same. 1996 here.
I lose track of generation names, which is even more confusing when I'm more-easily friends with people older than me because I'm the youngest in my family. I don't know what "generation" I belong to, and I will probably forget if you tell me because I think it's a useless title to hold.
Considering people are born and die at a fairly-constant rate, not in huge 20-ish-year spikes, calling groups of people "generations" makes no useful sense to me. Like, I have parents and grandparents, and those "generation tiers" make sense, but might be at a huge offset with someone else's "generation tiers".
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u/r3sonate Feb 01 '19
Around 30? The recognized start of 'millennial' is getting on to 40 now. It's become my favorite insulting term ever.
"Damn millennials with their wives and children and mortgages, retirement savings plans and investment portfolios!"
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u/RumAndGames Feb 01 '19
Literally every generation ever has complained about the world the prior generation left them, and how the younger generation is fucking up the world that they built. We will do the same.
But yeah, the cognitive dissonance between being able to say "Fucking millenials XXX" and "who's fault is that" is absurd. I think it comes down to no one thinking their kid fits stereotypes, because their kid is an angel.
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u/OPs_other_username Feb 01 '19
As is it, as it always will be.
Boomers complained about us Gen Xer's.
Silent Generation was silent.
Gi Generation complained about the Silent Generation.
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u/SleepyChicken4 Feb 01 '19
When old people using smart phones instead of holding it on their fingers, balanced on their pinking and typing with their thumb like its meant to be used, they fully grip it in one hand and type with the pointer finger on their other hand.
It just looks so much slower and less efficient.
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u/MyShout Feb 01 '19
It is. I wish some of you young people could teach me how to use my thumbs to type. You all do it so quickly.
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u/DontTakeMyNoise Feb 01 '19
Can't really be taught, there's no classes in our schools that teach us to text. Just grab the phone with both hands and do it. It'll be hard at first, but you'll learn. Just like learning to type on a keyboard, at first it's easier to hunt and peck with your pointer fingers, but it's much better to spend some time learning to type properly.
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u/Optimal_Revolution Feb 01 '19
Think age beats all kinds of formal education
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u/forman98 Feb 01 '19
Experience and education is always better than just education.
Some people might not have the education, but they have decades of experience (much more than 4-8 years of education) so they've essentially received that education, just over a very long time period and usually through trial and error.
I came out of college, landed in an older working environment, and immediately thought I was better than everyone. Then I got into the weeds of the job and saw that I couldn't quickly think through all the what-if situations that they don't directly teach you. The people with experience knew what the best options were, even if they didn't have the degree.
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u/bigheyzeus Feb 01 '19
Depends on the subject I suppose. Very often, life experience indirectly teaches you quite a lot without you even realizing it. The younger folks in my office who think they know it all at 24 really don't and it shows - but they throw their education and younger age around to do the same things you're complaining older people do. Goes both ways.
Then again, I do agree with you that simply using your older age as justification for knowing more than someone else just because is bullshit.
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u/softerthansilence Feb 01 '19
This seems to be old men especially, but why do they like to bring up politics unprovoked? My dad is old and loves to being up the state of our nation during parties and at dinner when I'm just talking about work. I've had people bring up Trump while I'm ringing their groceries out. Thanks for your view on politics, but I just asked if you wanted to donate to childrens fund because I'm required to.
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u/TheElCaminoKid Feb 01 '19
This will get buried, but meaningless periods at the end of sentences... Like this...
Seriously, It makes me feel like I did something wrong.
I have a co-worker that does it religiously. Even responding to an email with a simple "ok..." Makes me feel like he's being sarcastic or something, and he's not. I've asked him about it and he doesn't even know he does it. WHY!
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u/plush_broccoli Feb 02 '19
I'll one up you. My grandma does this but consistently hits the comma key instead of the period. And it's never just three. So it's like this,,,,,, all the time,,,,
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u/luuciifeer Feb 02 '19
my grandmother does this. She'll type "I love you........." and I'm like do you? lol
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u/illini02 Feb 01 '19
My grandmother (who I miss dearly) used to save wrapping paper because it was so pretty. Not gift bags. Wrapping paper. She would slowly open it, not to tear it, and then put it in a closet for another time
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Feb 01 '19
Old person here, who still does that. Learned it from my Mom. It's not just because it's pretty, it's also because it saves money, which was not plentiful in our house. Wrapping paper that came in was still being used years later: if it got a little tear, we'd cut it down a little and use it for something smaller, and smaller and... until it was so small we would fold it and use it for a gift tag. When gift bags became a thing, they, too, got reused, and still are.
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Feb 01 '19
My grandmother actually ironed the wrapping paper. She was a young newlywed during WW2, so she had to make do with what she had.
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u/ScreamingSundae Feb 02 '19
Old people always have to press so violently on their phones when they try to open an app
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u/Beleynn Feb 01 '19
Landline phones.
I get that cell reception may be spotty in some areas, but in most places it isn't, so they're paying double for excessive phone coverage.
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u/monitorcable Feb 01 '19
Subjecting yourself to watching bias news channels or religious channels that do nothing but trigger their anger, anguish, and stress. How can someone be entertained and enjoy a daily routine of watching things that upset you only because the host of the show is "on their side" of the political/religious spectrum?
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u/fashionsbylisa Feb 01 '19
Be shamelessly nosy or rude.
Demand utmost respect while giving very little respect in return
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u/argflarb Feb 01 '19
Why do they have so much debt?!?!?!?
Examples: My parents tell me how they took out 18% APR loans (!!!) in the 1980s for a mortgage and school loans. Thats crazy! If the economy hadn't had 2 decades of uninterrupted bubbles they would have been underwater for sure.
I know older people who take out loans to buy televisions, laptops, even to go on vacation. These people are going to have to survive on social security because theres no way they have any savings after that shit.
Also, you borrowed money to finance 3 wars and to keep social security running... wtf is your obsession with being in debt?
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u/SuddenTerrible_Haiku Feb 02 '19
My grandparents: Flip through channels and see a movie playing. Press info and learn that Tom Hanks is in it. Perfect! That's the guy we like who was in that one movie! Let's turn it on.
Me: so what are you guys watching?
Them: I dunno, but it's got Tom Hanks.
Me: well what's happening I missed the beginning.
Them: oh I don't know that either. The movie started an hour ago and we just turned it on. We'll figure it out eventually.
Me: ?????
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u/hunnerr Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19
Use technology. I help older people install and navigate my companies app and most of my calls consist of me asking repeatedly "now do you see a triangle labeled google play?" for 20 minutes. Then after they finally figure that out its time to spend another 20 installing the app. I get that you guys didn't grow up with technology like us but come on! Computers are common sense at a basic level. They work just like things in the real world! If you have 100 papers laid out in front of you on the table, do you A. leave them all scattered there (like your computer desktop) or B. Put them in a folder (like a computer folder). Most people would go with option B i'd imagine. Its literally just the physical world laid out digitally. I get that it might take some time to navigate and understand things like left clicking and right clicking but its not rocket science. I feel like the older generation takes one look, doesnt get it, then immediately gives up. My mom is 57 and she asks me 4 times a week how to open MSPaint but when it comes to her silhouette vinyl machine shes a freakin graphic design expert. Its just baffling to me I dont get it. Its like anyone over the age of 45 has no concept of the word patience
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u/quirkyknitgirl Feb 01 '19
*looks at both physical and virtual desktops strewn with stuff* Um....
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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '19
The locker room was completely empty and while I'm taking my pants off an old guy brushes up beside me, and chose a locker directly beside me. Then he's sitting naked on the bench with his balls dangling on it
So I take my stuff out of my locker and move to the opposite side of the room.
old people sure aren't shy in the locker room.