Is the whole world of middle aged people just really vacuous now?

[Sunbury1986]

Hi all, I'm no academic so I'm not talking about education in the formal sense. I just feel that everyone I meet and talk to, many are educated and hold positions of title and status, are really dull to talk to. the main conversations seem to be about property prices, their "job title", which is hardly the brightest way to introduce yourself unless you are really status anxious, or which bloody Russell Group uni their child is applying to, and obviously if their/your child doesn't make a Russell Group they are going to be lucky to get a job in a Pound Shop. AIBU? Or do I need to (re) step away from people I know? I believe many succeed with out a RG uni education.

Well no rules are not the same as laws but I am glad both are anti discrimination and protect people from abuse

Insulting people should never be a general legal no-no imo, but I've seen the rules on MN cited more than once in the past week as some sort of guideline to life in general and I do think people need to think how far they truly want the law to go in shutting down dissenting voices.

Could that be condensed down to "get a grip"? Maybe! [grins]

So we're not allowed to offend old people by calling them "elderly, old" but we're allowed to offend religions by making provocative cartoons because that's free speech.

Is it just me who thinks the worlds gone doolally?

you can call people what you like ... They just don't have to like or accept it

But calling someone old or elderly is a description. It's not offensive and it's not meaning to provoke either.

It is when you link being old with a list of negatives ...

People who bang on about freedom of speech often seem to only apply that to themselves! If YOU have freedom of speech so do I - and I have the right to object to thing I find offensive as do you

I suppose calling a newborn just "a baby" or a baby a toddler is offensive too. Or calling a child a teenager...a teenager a young adult...it's all part of growing old really. We're all getting old. It's not supposed to be mean or rude. It's a description.

But I will be more careful when using the word "old" and "elderly" now, that's for sure. .

I think this is getting beyond a joke! I will continue to use old, elderly, old duffer old biddy, old git ect, when it's appropriate. [ I would probably be deleted on here! but I will carry on in real life) I have even been known to use the word harpie on occasion

There's a hard core of posters who seem to be actively looking for threads on which they can jump, citing ageism when it is nothing of the sort. They completely miss,- deliberately it seems, the point of the thread, and actively seek to derail it with this nonsense!

It's absoloutely astounding that these people call ageism at any opportunity, and compare racism and sexism to calling somebody an old git or an old duffer.
I feel embarrassed for them

I'm very middle aged, middle-class, home-owning, multi-Uni-degree bearing.
OP hasn't written a single thing that offended me.
So No Offence Should be Taken In My Name, please.

And I imagine you as LLCoolJ, lljkk.

Nothing offensive about calling an old person elderly or old. Lots offensive about attributing negative characteristics to a whole group

YES OP and really sadly some of their teen children too! Try volunteering at a charity. You meet more interesting people!

I think that all social conversation is to some extent vacuous, by necessity. It isn't confined to one age group. You might set the world to rights about politics, culture and many other fascinating subjects with people you know well, but at other times it's human nature to look for common ground and safe subjects. Family, work and home life are among those subjects.

To say that middle-aged people are vacuous when talking about university applications is no different from saying that parents of younger children are interested in nothing but nappies and Peppa Pig. We're not at university stage yet but from conversations I've been part of (age 45) it's less about the prestige of specific universities and more about the hassle of the application process and the general terrors of parenting teenagers! Property prices and job titles I can't comment on, as I've never heard any of that.

Back to what OP was actually asking, the thing is, inter-generational Boy is that vacuous feeling runs both ways. DC have passionately embraced Harry Potter or Games Workshop or Star Wars Lego or just plain talking about themselves non-stop. I love DC & like their enthusiasm so nod politely but sheesh, they aren't exactly truly scintillating topics of conversation for hours on end, are they?

Wouldn't life be dull if we all had same strong interests at exact same time.

BTW I have no problem with being called 'middle-aged' as a factual description. The problem is when it's used as a general word lumping together the supposed negative characteristics of what is in fact a massively-varied age group. 'Old' and 'teenager' get the same treatment. The words aren't ageist, but the generalisations are.

Nothing offensive about calling somebody black or gay. Lots offensive about assuming all black people are muggers or all gay people are promiscuous....

All twenty-somethings are shallow idiots

Signed,
Yrs
Dr 55 year old.

Hope this observation helps, OP Age before beauty; pearls before swine and all that, y'know.

Celticlass said it beautifully. It's getting beyond a joke.

'Isms' and 'ias' are not eliminated by banning words. Attitudes change through action or experience. Or they simply die out (flat earthers).

I am 50 and have never had those conversations.

I am 45 and would be APPALLED (or perhaps a bit put out) if someone called me middle aged out loud, even though it is probably the correct term.

I think this is because (in my head) middle aged is grey hair, sensible shoes, sports coats, SAGA holidays and that sort of thing and elderly is really ancient!

So I'm still young damn it. Young!

Oh, and like Sunny I've never had those conversation either, but then DD is only 9 and DS 8m and I don't know what a Russell Group university is.

Middle aged used to be 30-59ish, I think shifting it to 40+ is already pretty generous.

If age-prejudice is common in workplaces
(I asked about this before on MN, got batted down & told I was absurd and it simply didn't exist?)
then maybe I would take sweeping generalisations in other contexts more seriously. But as a comment on quality of chitchat? Meh. Folk can have their opinions.

My dad referred to himself as 'middle aged' the other day. He is 63 and I pointed out that you don't see that many 126 year olds knocking about.

I think most people are pretty dull tbh, age has nothing to do with it. Unless you stumble across the ghost of Oscar Wilde or Joan Rivers, most people are going to bore you after 20 minutes.

Bloody hell, learned about this thread from another thread.....

Generalisation much?