You know you are getting old when:

[GHT]

You know you are getting old when you check your phone and you find, no messages and no missed calls and you think: "Thank goodness for that."

 

[Fading Fast]

You know you are getting old when you check your phone and you find, no messages and no missed calls and you think: "Thank goodness for that."

Oh dear God yes - no messages, no texts, no (real) emails, no missed calls to return or address is heaven.

 

[Just Jim]

Oh dear God yes - no messages, no texts, no (real) emails, no missed calls to return or address is heaven.

Yes, but . . . when I don't have missed calls/emails/texts, I worry. I just transferred at work, have only had a few after-hours calls etc in a mnoth. When there is nothing there I check to see if the phone is on.

Just checked. Nothing new since the email when I scanned some stuff to my computer about 615 PM.

(Personal cell? I might check it once a week. Anyone who needs to reach me knows my work number.)

 

[Amy Jeanne]

You don't have any apps on your phone except FB, IG, and Strava and don't even know what most of them are or how they work. Or even what the point of them is.

I upgraded my phone and the clerk actually said to me "I've never seen a phone with so few things on it."

 

[scottyrocks]

You don't have any apps on your phone except FB, IG, and Strava and don't even know what most of them are or how they work. Or even what the point of them is.

I upgraded my phone and the clerk actually said to me "I've never seen a phone with so few things on it."

Yep, been there. Wait, am there!

 

[Zombie_61]

You don't have any apps on your phone except FB, IG, and Strava and don't even know what most of them are or how they work. Or even what the point of them is.

I upgraded my phone and the clerk actually said to me "I've never seen a phone with so few things on it."

I wish I had a phone like that. Every time I've asked about deleting/uninstalling the apps I'll never use (which is almost all of them) I've been told they're so "integrated" that it can't be done. Initially I thought that was just an excuse, but I've now heard it from so many different clerks that I'm thinking there might be some truth to it.

 

[GHT]

Yes, but . . . when I don't have missed calls/emails/texts, I worry. I just transferred at work, have only had a few after-hours calls etc in a mnoth. When there is nothing there I check to see if the phone is on.

Just checked. Nothing new since the email when I scanned some stuff to my computer about 615 PM.

(Personal cell? I might check it once a week. Anyone who needs to reach me knows my work number.)

That was me back in my pre-retirement days. Thankfully personal phones were still analogue, texting was tedious in that you had to tap the keys so many times to achieve the correct letter, but that didn't take too long, and without a spell checker I didn't have the daily argument with my phone.

The so called smart phone that I have had for the last six years is just too smart for me. It was four years before I realised that it had a camera, another year and I found the flashlight, maybe one day I will find out how it connects to the internet, then apps won't be something vague that goes right over my head. My analogue phone still works albeit with a clever gizmo that sort of translates analogue to digital. I use it for the novelty value, especially when I'm amongst a crowd of youngsters.

 

[scottyrocks]

I wish I had a phone like that. Every time I've asked about deleting/uninstalling the apps I'll never use (which is almost all of them) I've been told they're so "integrated" that it can't be done. Initially I thought that was just an excuse, but I've now heard it from so many different clerks that I'm thinking there might be some truth to it.

I've gone into the Application Manager and either 'Force Stop'ped or 'Disabled' many apps with no adverse effects. Of course, as always, YMMV.

 

[ChrisB]

I use a flip phone. What’s an app?

 

[earl]

I don't even own a cell phone.

 

[GHT]

I use a flip phone. What’s an app?

I don't even own a cell phone.

What an intelligent pair you both are. Let me enlighten you to the "joys" of a smart phone. These things argue with you, think that they can spell better than you and they take the p*** out of you at every opportunity:

 

[Tiki Tom]

Indeed. I view my phone more as a babysitter, nag, and adversary than as a “modern convenience”. Just today I was reading an article about how the youth in Hong Kong have learned to avoid being surveilled, tracked, ease-dropped on, and incriminated by ...turning off their phones.

 

[scottyrocks]

Indeed. I view my phone more as a babysitter, nag, and adversary than as a “modern convenience”. Just today I was reading an article about how the youth in Hong Kong have learned to avoid being surveilled, tracked, ease-dropped on, and incriminated by ...turning off their phones.

Nothing like a little genuine oppression to bring about change.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I keep trying to install apps on my phone, but I can't shove them down the mouthpiece.

 

[Miss Moonlight]

I'm going to be 50 next year, and it doesn't feel like that means much. I have a young child (she's about to turn 10), and my body hasn't changed much in spite of drastic, medically required dietary changes. But I have this tropical wiggle dress and dammit. I cannot handle wearing it. :/ I would have rocked this thing 12 years ago, same body. But now, I feel like I'm wearing something that just doesn't belong on me. I am 100% for women doing what they want, wearing what they want, and I strongly dislike the articles about what women over this or that age shouldn't wear.... but I also feel so ridiculous in that dress now. Like I'm advertising something that isn't for sale. lol Which is silly because I never thought of it as advertising before, and certainly not for sale! Nor do I see that on other women and think that. My husband would probably like it, but I'm putting the dress on eBay soon. I wonder what messages I've taken in subconsciously about this kind of thing. It makes me feel old, and nothing else really does.

 

[GHT]

I'm going to be 50 next year, and it doesn't feel like that means much. I have a young child (she's about to turn 10), and my body hasn't changed much in spite of drastic, medically required dietary changes. But I have this tropical wiggle dress and dammit. I cannot handle wearing it. :/ I would have rocked this thing 12 years ago, same body. But now, I feel like I'm wearing something that just doesn't belong on me.

What you are experiencing is mood change, happens to most of us. In another thread I admitted that, when younger, I was influenced by trends. Perhaps by peer pressure or self imposed, but not anymore. Trends are fickle, style is class and timeless.

A wiggle, wiggle dress on a younger woman can accentuate her body, but on the more stylish, graceful body of the distinguished lady it can, from the rear, look like two wrestlers fighting under a blanket.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm going to be 50 next year, and it doesn't feel like that means much. I have a young child (she's about to turn 10), and my body hasn't changed much in spite of drastic, medically required dietary changes. But I have this tropical wiggle dress and dammit. I cannot handle wearing it. :/ I would have rocked this thing 12 years ago, same body. But now, I feel like I'm wearing something that just doesn't belong on me. I am 100% for women doing what they want, wearing what they want, and I strongly dislike the articles about what women over this or that age shouldn't wear.... but I also feel so ridiculous in that dress now. Like I'm advertising something that isn't for sale. lol Which is silly because I never thought of it as advertising before, and certainly not for sale! Nor do I see that on other women and think that. My husband would probably like it, but I'm putting the dress on eBay soon. I wonder what messages I've taken in subconsciously about this kind of thing. It makes me feel old, and nothing else really does.

If it helps, the codicil to 100% wearing what you want is that you can choose not to. I'm 54 and the same 6'1", 150lbs, 31/2" waist I was in my 20s (might be down half and inch in height, just a guess), but there are some things that I choose not to wear as I think they look silly on me at my age (some others at my age can pull them off). I don't feel old (although, on some days when this or that joint is aching or my back is creaking for some reason, I'm reminded I'm not 20), but there's nothing wrong, IMHO, recognizing that things do change and being in your 50s isn't the same as being in your 20s. Personally, I'm happier with my life now than I was in my 20s, so that helps. Just my two cents.

 

[tonyb]

I'm going to be 50 next year, and it doesn't feel like that means much. I have a young child (she's about to turn 10), and my body hasn't changed much in spite of drastic, medically required dietary changes. But I have this tropical wiggle dress and dammit. I cannot handle wearing it. :/ I would have rocked this thing 12 years ago, same body. But now, I feel like I'm wearing something that just doesn't belong on me. I am 100% for women doing what they want, wearing what they want, and I strongly dislike the articles about what women over this or that age shouldn't wear.... but I also feel so ridiculous in that dress now. Like I'm advertising something that isn't for sale. lol Which is silly because I never thought of it as advertising before, and certainly not for sale! Nor do I see that on other women and think that. My husband would probably like it, but I'm putting the dress on eBay soon. I wonder what messages I've taken in subconsciously about this kind of thing. It makes me feel old, and nothing else really does.

As observed well over a decade ago in the hats forum here on the FL, it’s always best to wear the hat, and not the other way around. An awkward self-consciousness is not what most of us would choose to project.

The statements we wish to make with our visual presentations to the world change over time. We aren’t quite the same people we were a dozen years ago.

It’s not just clothes. The sight of a paunchy older fellow with an elaborate combover getting out of a late-model Corvette in a supermarket parking lot would have people thinking the Viagra didn’t work.

 

[GHT]

The sight of a paunchy older fellow with an elaborate combover getting out of a late-model Corvette in a supermarket parking lot would have people thinking the Viagra didn’t work.

Maybe it did, but the sight of the potential lover puts a damper on his lover's ardour!

 

[HudsonHawk]

You don't have any apps on your phone except FB, IG, and Strava and don't even know what most of them are or how they work. Or even what the point of them is.

I upgraded my phone and the clerk actually said to me "I've never seen a phone with so few things on it."

I have lot of apps, and I know FB is "Facebook", I *think* IG is "Instagram" (though I've never actually seen it), but I have no earthly idea what Strava is. Never even heard of it.

I have apps to watch baseball games, control my thermostat and order Whataburger. You know...the things that actually matter to an old guy.