Time.news – What happened to middle age?, wonders the Guardian. The question is not far-fetched, because middle age, in fact, is no longer what it used to be. It depends on who it applies to, to which categories of people. When it comes to characters from the star system, for example, one really has to agree on what is meant.
In the past, 40 was the sign of middle age, “but now finding consensus on when you start and what you represent is not easy”, writes the London newspaper, which points out how the Collins English Dictionary defines it as “the period of your life in which you are no longer young but have not yet become old” while the Encyclopædia Britannica sets its parameters as follows: “Among the 40 and 60 years old”. Meanwhile, a 2018 YouGov poll reports that most Britons aged 40-64 ‘consider themselves middle-aged’, but 44% of people aged 65-69 also think they are middle-aged. same.
Trying to shed some light is Professor Les Mayhew, head of global research at the International Longevity Centre, according to whom “it makes no sense to try to impose chronological age” because today “with people living further long, 30 years are no longer middle age, a threshold that has risen”, so much so that “in some cases, at 50 one could think of a second or even third life, but in other ways you could have serious health problems and not even be able to work”. And the professor then adds: “Governments are always trying to impose these labels of administrative convenience for things that should happen at a certain age, for example, presumably being an adult at 18 and not old enough instead to receive a state pension until you have 66. And it’s totally arbitrary,” says Mayhev.
Meanwhile, primary care physicians want you to book a “midlife checkup, great jazz concept for getting out of what should be a regular yearly health checkup,” the paper notes. The paper notes that middle age “once had a sort of of purpose, which once offered the stability and continuity that came from having a job for life” while now “it does not depend only on the employment which could be precarious or on the job function itself”, but a research by the Institute for the Future reports that “85% of the jobs that will exist by 2030 do not exist yet”.
According to therapist Julia Bueno, middle age is the “ability to retrain” and “it reflects whether there is still life in a body or whether it is heading towards decline”. And he elaborates: “I’m also aware that some people feel pressured to reinvent themselves, to look great, not to slow down or to age gracefully. There’s the pressure to put rejuvenating cream on your face or erase the traces of gray in your hair. It’s not allowed to be just gray, you have to be glamorous too.” According to the Guardian, however, it is true that, ‘in the past, middle age was associated with a particular set of life circumstances: having a mortgage, a spouse, children, a lawnmower for the garden. For many, these life stages are very late coming and sometimes they never even come. It must be more difficult to feel in the phase of a life all pipes and slippers when, at 40, you’re still living in a shared apartment and don’t own a sofa, let alone a house…”.
But then, what is the age of old age? “I’m not sure if such an age exists. It’s more about whether you can live independently. For example, both of my parents are in their 70s and still travel with their caravan. I don’t consider them old at all,” replies Dalia Hawley, 41, who lives in Wakefield with her partner, three chickens and runs a skincare business part-time.
In short, whether it’s half or whole, age would seem more like a psychological fact. Which in any case has to do with the passing of time and with the times that are running…