Age, Schmage: The “Optimal” Illusion of Aging

Age, Schmage: The “Optimal” Illusion of Aging -
{What better age than now…}

The answer to Life, Universe, and Everything is: 42 
(according  to Douglas Adams – The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

When I turned two I was really anxious, because I’d doubled my age in a year.
I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I’m six I’ll be ninety. – Stephen Wright 

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Have you ever wondered why there is not a black (or pardon the pun: gray) market for fake ID’s for people who hope to pretend to be a “senior citizen?”

In other words, there are many adolescents that want to be taken as older than they really are so that they can “legally” purchase or have access to age-based criteria clubs, bars, liquor stores, whatever.

           

But lets say you over 50 years of age – why would you want to pretend to be older than you really are to gain access to what? “Discounts”? For a lot of people that first AARP invitation is quickly tossed and buried –

And God help the punk kid behind the cash register who ASSUMES you are eligible for the magic 65 plus discount – when you are not even close to that. 

I have thought about this numbers racket, especially in the aging domain. It seems like when we were kids bordering on being juveniles, we were like greyhounds trying to catch the rabbit of adulthood; you know – hurry up and get there to that magic number; why does it take so long? – That rabbit keeps moving… 

When you get older, its the other way around. Now, you are more like a blissful beagle trying to stay up with the tortoise – sort of, (“Nah, you go on ahead, I’ll catch you later…maybe…”)

When you were young, you wanted the silver badge of courage that said, “I’m an adult !”
When you get older, you keep trying to get a sub-prime mortgage on the second half of life – a little cheaper, a little younger than it has to be.

Age, schmage. Life: It is a numbers game.
Like Bob Seger belted out back in the bad old days, “Feel like a number, feel like a stranger…”. 
And then you have the classic line: “Act you age!” – Okay, which one are you talking about? Let’s see – I got your chronological age, biological age, mental age, felt age, social age, cognitive age, prospective age, real age, surreal age, mega -, hyper, uber- age. And then L. Hayflick adds the twist: R U talking about my skin cells, my heart, my liver, my eggs, my sperm ? Yep they got various “ages” too. 

Now you can go to many places on the web and calculate your various “ages” and I predict that your vitality compass (trademark to AARP) will be as – if not more important – in mate selection processes than the old standby of “I’m Aries, what are you?” Yes, in the online dating services it will be – “My chronological age is 54, but my biological age is 47, my dental age is 49, my felt age is 44, and because I am a blue-zoner, I got another 40 years going – call me”)

As they say, “When the tailgate goes down, the bullshit stops.” – So where do we stand on all this?

Well, my friends, welcome to a new segment of the Rogue Scholarship on Aging blog site:

Data “R” Us 

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Yes, welcome to the aging research-article-of-the-month club where I highlight an example of good old fashioned scholarship (empirically sound, peer reviewed, and editorially approved by the high priests of academic publications) -

and then I unpack the mystery and the jargon -

put it into the King’s English – and then offer up a “bring it home and put it on your refrigerator door” message - or better yet - what we in the rogue business answering the “So What?” (question). In other words, why should we care? 

My goal is select the gold nuggets from the literature on aging -

and then build a bridge to the rest of us who may not have the luxury of professional subscription or access to the grandmother of all database search tools – Trust me, this will be worth it.

So here we go:

Self-Perceptions of Aging: Do Subjective Age and Satisfaction With Aging Change During Old Age?
Anna Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn, Dana Kotter-Grühn and Jacqui Smith ¹ Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
² Department of Psychology and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 2008, Vol. 63B, No. 6, P377-P385 

Abstract:
The present study examined time-related change in felt age, physical age, and satisfaction with aging in old age and covariates of this change. Using 6-year-longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (age range = 70–104 years), we found that individuals’ felt age remained on average about 13 years below their actual age over time, whereas they reported a decreasing discrepancy between physical and actual age and a decrease in aging satisfaction over time. After we controlled for level differences, a differential pattern of individual differences in change appeared for the three dimensions: Age contributed to a greater decline in aging satisfaction but an increase in the discrepancy of felt age. A higher number of illnesses at baseline attenuated change in felt age discrepancy. Future research on change of self-perceptions of aging will provide insight into mechanisms of resilience of the aging self in later life.

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Okay, some good stuff here !

The – “Bring it home and put it on your refrigerator door message” =

Most older adults report that they “feel” and “look” (“felt age”) younger than they really are (bona fide chronological age) and that most older adults appear to almost always cheat (or define it downward) their chronological age by 13 years younger (on average). Women were less satisfied with their aging and have a more accurate picture of their physical age than men (authors suggest the “tension” between FA and CA is more salient for women). “Feel younger” makes you act younger and makes you “look younger” ? Wait a second – hold on, not so fast. Perhaps – the jury is still out. More research is needed. But “feeling young” may enhance overall subjective well-being, so…. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the youngest of them all? – Never mind, I already know (no wonder breaking a mirror is bad luck – a least for seven years, but then 13 -7 = 6 years net gain in the plus column!)

Why should we care? Perhaps there is a new market for “Felt Age” birthday cards ?

Seriously = this research can help serve as a catalyst to help us better understand resilience and vitality in the older self.
This is a gold nugget. But in the bigger picture of your aging: 

The numbers game of aging can be arbitrary and capricious – remember we created the measurement sticks for aging – and there is no magic or scientific reason WHY chronological age should be the holy grail of benchmarks of and for aging (sorry Census Bureau – and media hacks) – it is a proxy indicator – a lazy fall-back position by which to judge or prejudge in later life. “Felt age” could be some subterranean (a la Freud) desire and defensive mechanism to “not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. But it could also be the older adult’s version of Guerilla Aging (think Rage Against the Machine’s - Guerilla Radio):

It has to start somewhere - It has to start sometime - What better age than now - 

Visualize this: You are on the dance floor – in a big gymnasium – and you see the Grim Reaper in the room

- over there – hanging out by the back wall. You know will eventually you will have to dance with her. But not yet ! – Okay - That is “felt age” – Hey, Ms. Reaper, the night is still young - at least according to my watch – Now turn up the other song – I mean crank it up! –  

The Strangest Party by INXS – do it ! - These are the times……………………………………

Thanks, Scott D. Wright