People Are Sharing Old Photos To “Prove” That Humans Aged Faster In The Past
Former professional baseball pitcher Brandon McCarthy had a shower thought: did people age faster in the past? So, he did what you normally do in these situations. Ask Twitter about getting old in the past.
When you think about it, evolution is a very slow process and humans are more or less the same basic issue model that they’ve been for years, so it can’t be the case, right? However, people started replying to McCarthy with old photos of their parents where 20-year-old dads look like they’re about to retire. And that’s irrefutable evidence right there!
Continue scrolling and check out these vintage photos and the hilarious debate.
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However, if we got serious for a moment, we’d discover that different humans age differently, and that’s the way it has been. A study of nearly one thousand 38-year-olds revealed that while most had biological ages close to the number of birthdays they had notched up, others were in quite worse or better health.
Researchers used 18 physiological markers, including blood pressure, organ function, and metabolism, to evaluate the biological age of the participants. For some, the past dozen years had taken no obvious toll on their body’s biology.
Others, however, hadn’t been so lucky. A good many participants had biological ages in the 50s, and in one “extreme case” a person had a biological age of 61, meaning that for every birthday over the past dozen years, their body had aged 3 years, thus shortening the life span significantly.
“The overwhelming majority are biologically in their mid-40s or younger, but there are a handful of cases who are in pretty bad shape. In the future, we’ll come to learn about the different lives that fast and slow aging people have lived,” said Daniel Belsky at Duke University in North Carolina.
“Our goal was to see if we can measure aging in young people,” said Belsky. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that aging is really the cause of much of the disease and disability burden we face, but our existing science is based on aging in older people who already have a lot of age-related diseases.”
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Smoking was the main thing, I think. When I first started working in the late 70s, it was still normal to smoke all day long at work. If you didn't smoke people thought you were some kind of health nut/weirdo. It's really hard to fathom now, but you could even smoke in hospitals and doctor's offices back then.
I think we also think a lot of them look old because their styles look like something an older person would wear. That's because people tend to stick with the style they had at 23 in the 1960s (for example) which we now associate with a person who's 70. Others in these examples just didn't have good dental care or luck with their hairlines. You'll find people today in their 50s, with no teeth, or balding who look way older too.
That's a great point, same thing I was going to say.
That was a big part of it. When I was a kid, high schoolers dressed "older" to look more mature and sophisticated. These days, 60-year-olds dress like they're 14.
And airplanes and buses and on and on.
Yeah
It is hard to fathom. My grandmother smoked all the way through her pregnancies. I think they knew it wasn't good for you, but they just didn't care.
I'm as anti-smoking as anyone, but tbf, back in those days doctors were advertising and recommending smoking, until the 1950s. The full extent of the health risks were not fully understood or disseminated to the general public or taking seriously until the late 60s, early 70s.
No, they really didn't. But, what they fail to tell pregnant smokers today is that going cold turkey whilst pregnant is bad for your baby. Withdrawal is bad for the unborn baby and often that is forgotten..
They actually RECOMMENDED smoking to pregnant women. Mama got pregnant with me in 1969. Her first baby, my older sister, weighed 9 pounds 12 ounces, despite Mama gaining only the prescribed 16 pounds! She asked the doctor how to have a smaller baby this time - they told her to take up smoking. I'm ever so glad she didn't - I was born a month early at 7-4, and would have had far more health problems if she'd smoked.
Yes, that is the time when my father was born :)
My pediatrician smoked...IN THE EXAM ROOM.
This isntbthe only factor. Every pic is individual. Im 40 look 25 smoked 20 years. Im not short either. People are starting to question me as human
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I remember it well, really miss it! Lol!
Some of it is fashion and hair styles
Exactly -- the short, curled hair and the drawn on eyebrows were very aging for women -- prom pictures all look like 40 year old housewives dancing with teenage boys.
And Botox ;)
How many people do you actually know, personally, that use Botox, though? I don't know anyone who does.
Yeah the 19 year old girl with the bob would look 19 with a modern haircut.
She looks 19 to me. The hairstyle is old now but back then it was young and stylish, and her face is young.
There is no way the mustache twins are 17, not by a long shot.
They probably lied about their age
To avoid the Vietnam draft, I suspect. That was the signature hair style back then for rock stars and hippie draft dodgers.
They lied about their age to 17-year-old girls.
The guy who posted it said later it's was a joke.
Thank you. It's just impossible that they're 17. And not just the facial hair and sun-damage. A 17 year old just doesn't have that bone structure.
They look like they're in the mid-twenties!
My older brother looked like that at 18. Lots of hair including body hair. Today few young men have body hair and they look like 13 year olds. Act like it as well
They look atleast 10 years older than my boyfriend who is 33 so I'm also suspicious about their age.
All those preservatives in our food are doing their job. :)
I admit I have always wondered about this. When I look at old-time pictures of high school students they all look like they are in their mid to late 20's. Why is this?
In the 50s twentyyearolds were serious adults with jobs, houses and families to look after. Maybe that's why. Ps. Can somebody please fix the "no comment"bug, it seems that some of users cannot comment other than replies to other comments?
I second that. I can't post comments under articles either. Only replies and list entries.
True, most at age 20 or early 20s already had "serious" jobs. Back than only a fraction of the population went to college and most high school grads had jobs lined up for them. It was also much easier to afford a home and jobs had pensions or stock sharing plans. This no longer exist.
Eva - it's been that way forever & they don't do anything to fix it. I've complained about it. sigh And I don't use phones as computers. They are toxic & take forever to do anything, so I'm on a PC just so people know this isn't an app issue.
Oh that's a bug? Here I thought I had gotten some kind of semi comment ban for a few weeks 😆😆
I had the same problem. Try uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. Worked for me. Twice actually.
Thank God it's not just me having problems! I was thinking it was just a problem on my side I'd just have to deal with! I can only post comments on my phone and not my iPad? The only difference I can think of is Android vs apple?
To Cat ▷ No, I use Android, it's not an iOS vs. Android thing. / To Roody ▷ tried installing the app and it wouldn't show the comments section to start with. Instead it showed me the "Oops! Something went wrong." screen. Maybe I should reinstall Chrome (I tried updating it, since there was an officially confirmed bug regarding the browser, but that didn't work). Maybe It's a WebView problem? Didn't try updating that one yet. Maybe I should upgrade to the latest Android version, but soon I plan on changing my phone altogether, so I don't want to put too much effort right now.
In addition to smoking and a complete lack of sunscreen use we have to remember that adulthood really DID start earlier back then. They married earlier, had kids younger and would have had all that and a mortgage to pay by the time they were 21! Nowadays people have their twenties in which to 'enjoy' life before committing to all that..
Not neccessarily to "enjoy" life before all that. Lots of the time is spent on education and job hunting, and then either saving money or settling debts. I was almost 27 already by the time I graduated university. My husband was 33. And none of it is unusual.
This. I was single and carefree for 15 years. All my photos I look young and the same Six years ago I married in my mid thirties and since have had three kids. I look like I've been beaten with an age stick. I have no doubt if I hadn't settled down I would still look ten years younger.
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El - If you want the truth, actually sunscreen is harmful to the body. Our bodies NEED sun. The reason they spread these lies is to stop people from being healthy. It's their agenda. I'd send you a link to a video about this that proves we all need sun otherwise get sick, but I don't think they allow URLs here. One guy even did tons of studies showing the diseases people have in countries where there is less sun or people don't go out into the sun (that's us, unfortunately) anymore - sigh Note that too much sun where you burn is a no no, but every day we should get sun.
Their clothing and hair and makeup were the same style as adults.
They were not the same as adults at the time. High school girls in the 1950’s wore ponytails, capris or circle skirts, and saddle shoes or oxfords with bobbysocks. Women wore their hair short or in chignons, red lipstick, pearls, and high heels with stockings.
I have class pictures of my grandmother at 14 in 1956. If you don’t focus on the “done” hair or button up shirts and just look at the faces they all look just as young as young teens today, if not younger.
I think it has to do with the way they dress. I wouldn’t dress like this at all, and I’m 25.
That's a nice observation
Bea Arthur was 50 in 1972, not 44. Most of the pictures on this post are later pics than they claim.
Thanks for pointing that out, this article is pretty BS.
Wow that's good
And poor deluded Rebecca looks every bit as old as 50yo Bea Arthur.
This is due to several reason: cherry picking people whose facial features make them look older; people used to dress more formally; baldness make you look older; old photographs also have that effect.
Some of these I had to call bullshit on
I think this is an example how internet can manipulate us about how right we are. When you have an opinion to share with internet there are always a lot of people that are agree with you. So you get more certain and excited about your idea.Am i right?
Yes, this looks like selection bias. People age at different rates regardless of era. There are plenty people who look older than their age now and people who looked younger for their age then.
I'd bet that if all that makeup Liz Taylor had on was scraped off and her hair wasn't permed, she'd've looked her age. She was styled to death in that portrait.
There's some truth to this, but it's really difficult to tell with puberty and teenagers. I always looked much much older than I really was, until I became 19, when I started taking better care of myself and started looking younger. There is no real way a teenager is "supposed to" look. There are teenagers with a slim and petite look and teenagers, heck, even 11-12 year olds with curves and D+ cups already. And most of them are respectively ashamed for having or not having curves, because they're taught they should look a particular way. It's similar for boys, some grow a full beard already and/or have robust biceps, while others look more fragile. But the truth is, all of these body types are normal.
Yes, she was very primped in that picture. That was right when she was transitioning from child stardom, and putting forth a very deliberate effort at an adult image.
Oh for pity's sake. Cosmetics, styles, hair, all contribute to how someone is perceived (and photoshop and botox weren't around back then, nor was cosmetic surgery so common in celebs).... and youth was not alwasy worshipped. In fact, seeming mature was preferable. Girls were still expected to marry and be responsible for a household well before the average age of marriage in our current decade. Boys were expected to find jobs and support a household, or go into the military. You went from high school to the workplace in most cases. Also, the trend has been for people to not dress differently as they age, so the distinction of fashion as an age indicator is basically lost. I know I'll catch crap, but people can't just blame a lack of sunscreen and a lot of nicotine for the changes.
If you're talking about the 1960s and 70s, youth absolutely WAS worshiped during that time! Nonetheless, older people really did look older than people who are the same age now. I think it's the styles. But I wouldn't discount the fact that I'm much older myself, and therefore, a 30-year-old looks a lot younger to me now than they did when I was 15. :)
Okay, we all know how smoking ages your skin and too much time in the sun without protection will just add to it BUT, some of the people are TRYING to look older. If you were 17 you didn't want to LOOK 17, you wanted to look mid twenties to be cool. Young kids dressed and kept their hair in older styles to look adult, now it's completely the other way around!
Boys do this by growing beards & it KILLS me. I don't get why they want to look 20-30 years older & I don't like men with beards, yet the majority of them go that route. Saying that, I don't remember most of these pics with beards.
I think we are missing why we think they look old. Is it their hair style? Their clothes? Is it a receding hairline that we would cover up with a ball cap? The photo of the woman during the depression depicts someone who is living a hard life. So yes, she would appear older.
She actually looks like a 32 y.o. who's having a hard life. But the ladies of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, do look their ages, the men look older!
My Mom was born in 1927. When she was in her 60s, no one could believe she wasn't in her 40s and it wasn't due to fancy hairstyle, makeup or clothes. She just looked young. She finally started going gray in late 60s. Was still not fully gray when she died at age 80. Some people age faster than others for a variety of reasons. Also, as others have pointed out, some of these, it's just the hairstyles that are dated and thus we associate them with someone who is the age now that would have had a haircut like that.
At age 62 years old I find every one is way older than they look to me. I saw a cop with a gun, badge, handcuffs, and a big police SUV and I told him he looked about age 14 to me. He didn't even look old enough to shave let alone drive a motor vehicle. Lucky he saw my honesty and took my comments as a complement.
It was good up until people started posting hollywood make up BS. My husband had a full beard and mustache in the 7th grade. He wore a suit since it was the same day they were taking class photos. He was actually mistaken for the teacher by a fellow student.
They looked older because of their clothing and old-fashioned mind set.Some of the elderly look ridiculous today while trying to look young with dyed long hair,tight jeans and jean jackets.
Maybe people weren't so obsessed with looking younger back then.....
One bonus of working in a dental office is that I get to see the ages of my patients. The ones who look much older than their years? Smokers! A lot of people heavily smoked a few decades ago. I still remember the shopping mall and airports when I was a kid... a cloud of smoke and ashtrays everywhere! My great grandmother was a chain smoker and looked 75 by the time she was 40!
What blew me away most was the 29 year old cat. Apparently there have been many recorded instances of cats living to well over 30. Mind blown
However old, whoever they are, those mustachioed blondies are hot!
I doubt they were 17. People actually entered puberty later on average back then. Someone posited the theory that they may have been lying to avoid the draft, which seems more likely.
One that really stunned me was Uncle Remus in Song of the South, James Baskett was only 42 when he made that movie.
I think that is probably the only thing they got right in SotS - being a "free" man in the Reconstruction South aged one about as quickly as being a slave did.
This is a very good point.
Some people look older when they are young but then their looks catch up with their age. Many use makeup, dyes, Botox, modern styles these days for a “refreshed” look.
I call it the grandma syndrome in films. Grandmas were always portrayed as stooped little old white haired ladies with buns. When you think about it, a lot of people become grandmas between 40 and 50, but the movies often still portray them as little old ladies.
Yes, people back then thought once you reached a certain life stage you had to look and dress old.
Two years ago I helped with a summer program at a target school for students 11-14. Over half of them looked like young adults: tall, fully developed, guys had facial hair and girls were far past training bras. Back in the 1970s, my voice didn't crack until I was 15.
Liz Taylor looked like an adult head on a baby body. Pretty but look at her kid photos. Its weird.
Are most of these real? I know there a few jokes in it, but really??
Life habits were different, but like some people already pointed out in the comments, the hair styles and clothings play a part as well in some of the examples. For actors in sitcom, it's probably deliberate as they had to play characters older than their real age for example.
I think that the poofy hairstyles, heavy makeup and "serious looking" clothes also have a lot to do with it. Plus old cameras
The average body weight for men and women grew at least 20 pounds since the 70s. Average body mass index is 2-3 points higher. The extra pounds result in more youthful appearance.
Did they look older in the past? Sure. But this should be proof that there have been improvements to quality of life (to some extent). What are the factors that make a person look older? Skin and hair. Skin care and Hair care products have improved greatly. Additionally, I would also point out that better dieting health care probably help too. Add to that the fact that black and white photos have a tendency to make a person look older anyway just because of the way lighting can affect a person's appearance and it's no wonder people looked older than 25 at age 17.
I think everyone looked old in the 1980's. The people on tv in that decade look younger now. I know most have plastic surgery but it's true for people not on tv too.
Also, BP please do more stories like this!
Lots of reasons but mainly because when you were 24 you were expected to be an adult and take on adult responsibilities. Today even in you 30s you can be in Grade 27, living at home and only are required to support your habits.
On the other hand, kids nowadays look and act like teenagers much sooner than before. I work in a public library and it happens to me all the time that students ask about a book, or for some help to do their homework online, I talk to them as if they were 16 because it's what they look like, then find out they are 11 year old girls.
Half of them are bullshit.
Ladislav Pollo easy
Yes Like Heather Graham doesn't look like a 50 yr old at all.
I've noticed this too. And I don't think it's always to do with associating certain styles with old people or living more difficult lives either as I've noticed it in photos/footage from as recently as the 90s. Obviously back then there were still people who looked young for their age, likewise, there's people who look old for their age today; however looking older than your age did appear to be more common.
Sun baking, smoking, no Botox etc. plus their hairdos and clothing look old to us because we associate those styles with old people now. But they were trendy at the time. Also I’m sure we could find plenty of photos of people who looked young for their age..
Sergei Eisenstein, Russian filmmaker at age 37 (in 1935). 800px-Serg...c2b440.jpg
For every picture that shows a young person looking old then I can show you the same thing today. Come on! You can make anything look your way with pictures that you choose. I was born in 1946 and am now 73 on my way to 74 but people still look at me and think I'm in my 50's. Jeez! Perspective people!
The Mark Twain one was the best.
I never knew that Sam Elliot had a twin.
I'm 47 and get mistaken for the late 20s to early 30s all the time. Strangers legitimately think I'm my 25 yo sons slightly older sister. I do not complain lol
I'm sure there are a lot of factors in play here. Likely the greatest of which being genetics. Obviously, lifestyles were a bit different as well, and hardship/smoking/drinking/tanning, etc. will absolutely have an impact, but as far as I'm aware, nothing affects how you age more than your genes. I'd be willing to bet there are plenty of photos from decades past showing people with the opposite aging effect.
It had to do with styles. There was no such thing as “juniors” clothing until the 70s. Also, lighting and photo/film quality have to be taken into consideration. The smoking thing is true: I know of a doctor who had interns carry his ashtray for him during hospital rounds
This has been such an interesting post, BP, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm 77, with a mind of 36, sort of Sitting on the Fence, looking both ways. Up until the Fifties, everybody wanted to look older, but from the mid-Sixties, Youth was IN, with the Beatles, The Stones, mini-skirts, etc.etc., and it has continued so till now. Seeing a young girl trying to look older is as bad as seeing a senior citizen trying to look younger. I'm lucky, I suppose, I've always been satisfied with my age.
There wasn't botox then.
Its no surprise really. Nowadays people tend to eat healthier, exercise more, have a skin-care regimen, etc.
Makeup...
Brian Stanton ?
My Grandfather, mid to upper 40's, and my mom in high school. WeChat-Ima...f60a0c.jpg
The hairstyle makes her look older than HS.
Yes, I agree with most comments, however, what about good genes, my mom came from a very large family, born in 1920's worked extremely hard her entire life, even so, she had good genes, she never looked her age,younger by at least ten years, I have been blessed with that gene !!!
Women in my family tend to look younger, my daughter and I both regularly got carded at 30, lol. I'm in my 60's but look look only slightly older than my 50-ish year old sister. Her words, not mine.
Imagine in another 50 years - all teens year will look like 7 year olds (or iMacs with arms and legs!!) and think that the 20/30 year olds of 2020 look like OAPs
No wonder we all thought people were old when we were kids! Hell some of these were terrifying!!! haha
Another thing is nowadays most people dye their grey hair. Basically people are obsessed with hiding the signs of aging nowadays more than ever. Male fertility is less than 50% now than it was in the 1950s, I suspect from these pictures that men have a lot less testosterone than they used to, making them look more boyish nowadays. Something similar is probably going on for women too.
I haven't even looked at the entire article yet but I can tell you that in the 90s, 40 onwards was considered 'middle aged' and people generally acted and dressed that way too, whereas now ppl in their 40's tend to dress and act as youthful as they can. When my Nan was in her 50s she wore what I would call 'old person clothes' but nowadays most people 50+ also dress and behave quite youthfully. It makes sense that ppl age slower now due to societal factors, also it is worth baring in mind that plastic surgery is very common these days, teenagers even have botox sometimes.
Also, there are Other factors involved: Actually, some Intended to make others Look MORE Mature than their real ages at that time in photos for marketing perspectives. For example, the photos of Elizabeth Taylor and Ritchie Valens taken at the age of both 17 here are most probably what the Producers and Agents wanted to present to the public, comparing to a photo of someone's Mom's ... maybe high school yearbook ... photo in 1967 when that Mon was 19 years old. Fashion & Makeup Styles, Photography & Lighting Equipment have been changed and/or evolved to go along with the Changes of Mentality, e.g. when you're actually Young, you actually may Want to Look Older but when you're actually Older, Now you WANT to Look Young!
That Mark Twain photo is NOT his high school photo. The top picture on this page (http://oldphotoarchive.com/stories/mark-twain-photos-samuel-clemens-photos/2) was taken when Twain was 36.
This is bull*hit... Age info on most of them is incorrect. For example, Larry Bird is 36 in this pic, not 25-30. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/closeup-of-boston-celtics-larry-bird-during-game-vs-new-news-photo/81392809
That picture of Sparky Anderson! Damn I miss him. And I agree with everyone about the smoking, you could damn well smoke anywhere you wanted. I remember when my dad turned 50, and he was grey and balding, I am 53 now, and I still look back at those pictures and was like what happened? Love and miss him very much
Could have some without the jokes.
Done* without the jokes
Please do check this pic. Mick Jagger and former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.. Same Age, maybe drugs are not so dangerous! monti3-5e0...f5a5f2.jpg
Old people clothes contributed to the look. They also worked harder around the house. Worse nutrition then. Better hea!th now. VACCINES, etc. now help too. Fluoride as wll.
Vaccines save lives but don’t have anti aging capacities. Fluoride (and tooth whitening, and better dental care in general) do make a big difference though.
well back then they didn't have all these skin care products and as much make-up as we have now
The two blonde 17 year olds....from back in the day.....yeah. When I was in school they would have been just a little to old for me, (about the age of my future husband). But the kid in me would still like to put their poster on my wall.
Could also be the photography. They are usually black & white which makes the person look older & even the very old color photos made people look older. Despite the clothes & hair issues, they still look older. I was blessed looking at least 10 years younger & when I'm tired I look older. Sleep is very important & so is releasing our stress. Two things most people don't seem to care about unfortunately. Despite the way we look, it's more about how we feel. People back then had way better health than we do now. Most people now are sick with something due to all the poisons they have forced on us & things will only get worse in the next 5-10 years when 5G (the weapon) starts to roll out. Check out Agenda 21. I'd post a link to a vid depicting all the ways they poison us, but they don't allow that here.
I personally am a big part of the cause of this. I srsly have an absurdly babyish face. Just weeks ago, I was doing a task at a job for a woman who was my supervisor who's about 40, and was asked by someone if I was her son. I'm turning 36 in two weeks. When I was 31 someone once said I looked like I was 12. When I was 22 a coworker at a job said she thought for like six months that I must be a 16 year old doing his first job. One time a bouncer refused to let me in a nightclub, insisting my ID had to be fake. I was 23. Lol. I just have to laugh about it.
When I went into highschool in the early 90s I remember being in grade 9 and looking at the pictures of graduating classes from 60s and 70s on the wall and comparing them to the kids who were only a few years older then me. The pics of the sports teams all looked like fully grown men with full beards and whatnot compared to gangly kids I was in school with it baffled me. I used to point it out to people all the time. Some told me once it' was all the genetically modified food we eat nowadays.
Just in the past year I saw an article similar to this comparing Paul "Bear" Bryant and Nick Saban (Both Alabama football coaches) with regard to how they looked at age 65. Bryant was just so wrinkled and his skin had no elasticity while Saban looked 20 years younger than Bryant. I'd say it's part genetics, part lifestyle (Saban works out and eats healthy), and part vanity (I'm certain Saban cares more about his looks and takes steps to look younger). I'm 53 and back when I was 48 I got carded for cigarettes and the cashier was taken aback and commented how young I looked - and I've been smoking 30+ years. BUT…I've always had very oily skin and my dermatologist said oily skin is like having 24/7 moisturizer which probably explains why my skin is still so "young" looking.
If you wanna preserve meat you use smoke and / or alcohol...
Seems to have had the opposite effect on old timey people.
Yeah that's a good idea
Hmm... I wonder how much they enjoyed sunbathing. Too much sunlight could be harmful to our skin.
50 to 60 years ago, life was hard for everyone.
Life in the 60’s and 70’s was definitely not hard for celebrities. Life was less healthy, but for many of the people pictured not especially difficult.
Showing photos of 17 year-olds that smokin` hot should be Entrapment!
Being attracted to (supposed) 17 year olds in photographs is not illegal.
There are a lot of factors, such as dress, hair styles, etc. But I believe the most important factor is the age one enters puberty. Today young people enter puberty around 2-3 years earlier than in the 50s and 60s, due to better quality of diet, medical health, and other things. I was born in 1944, and didn't enter puberty until I was fifteen, almost sixteen. Girls entered puberty around 12-13 yo. Today's youth enter puberty at least 2-3 years sooner, getting a head start.
But shouldn't that have the opposite effect of delaying an adult appearance?
Smoking was the main thing, I think. When I first started working in the late 70s, it was still normal to smoke all day long at work. If you didn't smoke people thought you were some kind of health nut/weirdo. It's really hard to fathom now, but you could even smoke in hospitals and doctor's offices back then.
I think we also think a lot of them look old because their styles look like something an older person would wear. That's because people tend to stick with the style they had at 23 in the 1960s (for example) which we now associate with a person who's 70. Others in these examples just didn't have good dental care or luck with their hairlines. You'll find people today in their 50s, with no teeth, or balding who look way older too.
That's a great point, same thing I was going to say.
That was a big part of it. When I was a kid, high schoolers dressed "older" to look more mature and sophisticated. These days, 60-year-olds dress like they're 14.
And airplanes and buses and on and on.
Yeah
It is hard to fathom. My grandmother smoked all the way through her pregnancies. I think they knew it wasn't good for you, but they just didn't care.
I'm as anti-smoking as anyone, but tbf, back in those days doctors were advertising and recommending smoking, until the 1950s. The full extent of the health risks were not fully understood or disseminated to the general public or taking seriously until the late 60s, early 70s.
No, they really didn't. But, what they fail to tell pregnant smokers today is that going cold turkey whilst pregnant is bad for your baby. Withdrawal is bad for the unborn baby and often that is forgotten..
They actually RECOMMENDED smoking to pregnant women. Mama got pregnant with me in 1969. Her first baby, my older sister, weighed 9 pounds 12 ounces, despite Mama gaining only the prescribed 16 pounds! She asked the doctor how to have a smaller baby this time - they told her to take up smoking. I'm ever so glad she didn't - I was born a month early at 7-4, and would have had far more health problems if she'd smoked.
Yes, that is the time when my father was born :)
My pediatrician smoked...IN THE EXAM ROOM.
This isntbthe only factor. Every pic is individual. Im 40 look 25 smoked 20 years. Im not short either. People are starting to question me as human
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I remember it well, really miss it! Lol!
Some of it is fashion and hair styles
Exactly -- the short, curled hair and the drawn on eyebrows were very aging for women -- prom pictures all look like 40 year old housewives dancing with teenage boys.
And Botox ;)
How many people do you actually know, personally, that use Botox, though? I don't know anyone who does.
Yeah the 19 year old girl with the bob would look 19 with a modern haircut.
She looks 19 to me. The hairstyle is old now but back then it was young and stylish, and her face is young.
There is no way the mustache twins are 17, not by a long shot.
They probably lied about their age
To avoid the Vietnam draft, I suspect. That was the signature hair style back then for rock stars and hippie draft dodgers.
They lied about their age to 17-year-old girls.
The guy who posted it said later it's was a joke.
Thank you. It's just impossible that they're 17. And not just the facial hair and sun-damage. A 17 year old just doesn't have that bone structure.
They look like they're in the mid-twenties!
My older brother looked like that at 18. Lots of hair including body hair. Today few young men have body hair and they look like 13 year olds. Act like it as well
They look atleast 10 years older than my boyfriend who is 33 so I'm also suspicious about their age.
All those preservatives in our food are doing their job. :)
I admit I have always wondered about this. When I look at old-time pictures of high school students they all look like they are in their mid to late 20's. Why is this?
In the 50s twentyyearolds were serious adults with jobs, houses and families to look after. Maybe that's why. Ps. Can somebody please fix the "no comment"bug, it seems that some of users cannot comment other than replies to other comments?
I second that. I can't post comments under articles either. Only replies and list entries.
True, most at age 20 or early 20s already had "serious" jobs. Back than only a fraction of the population went to college and most high school grads had jobs lined up for them. It was also much easier to afford a home and jobs had pensions or stock sharing plans. This no longer exist.
Eva - it's been that way forever & they don't do anything to fix it. I've complained about it. sigh And I don't use phones as computers. They are toxic & take forever to do anything, so I'm on a PC just so people know this isn't an app issue.
Oh that's a bug? Here I thought I had gotten some kind of semi comment ban for a few weeks 😆😆
I had the same problem. Try uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. Worked for me. Twice actually.
Thank God it's not just me having problems! I was thinking it was just a problem on my side I'd just have to deal with! I can only post comments on my phone and not my iPad? The only difference I can think of is Android vs apple?
To Cat ▷ No, I use Android, it's not an iOS vs. Android thing. / To Roody ▷ tried installing the app and it wouldn't show the comments section to start with. Instead it showed me the "Oops! Something went wrong." screen. Maybe I should reinstall Chrome (I tried updating it, since there was an officially confirmed bug regarding the browser, but that didn't work). Maybe It's a WebView problem? Didn't try updating that one yet. Maybe I should upgrade to the latest Android version, but soon I plan on changing my phone altogether, so I don't want to put too much effort right now.
In addition to smoking and a complete lack of sunscreen use we have to remember that adulthood really DID start earlier back then. They married earlier, had kids younger and would have had all that and a mortgage to pay by the time they were 21! Nowadays people have their twenties in which to 'enjoy' life before committing to all that..
Not neccessarily to "enjoy" life before all that. Lots of the time is spent on education and job hunting, and then either saving money or settling debts. I was almost 27 already by the time I graduated university. My husband was 33. And none of it is unusual.
This. I was single and carefree for 15 years. All my photos I look young and the same Six years ago I married in my mid thirties and since have had three kids. I look like I've been beaten with an age stick. I have no doubt if I hadn't settled down I would still look ten years younger.
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El - If you want the truth, actually sunscreen is harmful to the body. Our bodies NEED sun. The reason they spread these lies is to stop people from being healthy. It's their agenda. I'd send you a link to a video about this that proves we all need sun otherwise get sick, but I don't think they allow URLs here. One guy even did tons of studies showing the diseases people have in countries where there is less sun or people don't go out into the sun (that's us, unfortunately) anymore - sigh Note that too much sun where you burn is a no no, but every day we should get sun.
Their clothing and hair and makeup were the same style as adults.
They were not the same as adults at the time. High school girls in the 1950’s wore ponytails, capris or circle skirts, and saddle shoes or oxfords with bobbysocks. Women wore their hair short or in chignons, red lipstick, pearls, and high heels with stockings.
I have class pictures of my grandmother at 14 in 1956. If you don’t focus on the “done” hair or button up shirts and just look at the faces they all look just as young as young teens today, if not younger.
I think it has to do with the way they dress. I wouldn’t dress like this at all, and I’m 25.
That's a nice observation
Bea Arthur was 50 in 1972, not 44. Most of the pictures on this post are later pics than they claim.
Thanks for pointing that out, this article is pretty BS.
Wow that's good
And poor deluded Rebecca looks every bit as old as 50yo Bea Arthur.
This is due to several reason: cherry picking people whose facial features make them look older; people used to dress more formally; baldness make you look older; old photographs also have that effect.
Some of these I had to call bullshit on
I think this is an example how internet can manipulate us about how right we are. When you have an opinion to share with internet there are always a lot of people that are agree with you. So you get more certain and excited about your idea.Am i right?
Yes, this looks like selection bias. People age at different rates regardless of era. There are plenty people who look older than their age now and people who looked younger for their age then.
I'd bet that if all that makeup Liz Taylor had on was scraped off and her hair wasn't permed, she'd've looked her age. She was styled to death in that portrait.
There's some truth to this, but it's really difficult to tell with puberty and teenagers. I always looked much much older than I really was, until I became 19, when I started taking better care of myself and started looking younger. There is no real way a teenager is "supposed to" look. There are teenagers with a slim and petite look and teenagers, heck, even 11-12 year olds with curves and D+ cups already. And most of them are respectively ashamed for having or not having curves, because they're taught they should look a particular way. It's similar for boys, some grow a full beard already and/or have robust biceps, while others look more fragile. But the truth is, all of these body types are normal.
Yes, she was very primped in that picture. That was right when she was transitioning from child stardom, and putting forth a very deliberate effort at an adult image.
Oh for pity's sake. Cosmetics, styles, hair, all contribute to how someone is perceived (and photoshop and botox weren't around back then, nor was cosmetic surgery so common in celebs).... and youth was not alwasy worshipped. In fact, seeming mature was preferable. Girls were still expected to marry and be responsible for a household well before the average age of marriage in our current decade. Boys were expected to find jobs and support a household, or go into the military. You went from high school to the workplace in most cases. Also, the trend has been for people to not dress differently as they age, so the distinction of fashion as an age indicator is basically lost. I know I'll catch crap, but people can't just blame a lack of sunscreen and a lot of nicotine for the changes.
If you're talking about the 1960s and 70s, youth absolutely WAS worshiped during that time! Nonetheless, older people really did look older than people who are the same age now. I think it's the styles. But I wouldn't discount the fact that I'm much older myself, and therefore, a 30-year-old looks a lot younger to me now than they did when I was 15. :)
Okay, we all know how smoking ages your skin and too much time in the sun without protection will just add to it BUT, some of the people are TRYING to look older. If you were 17 you didn't want to LOOK 17, you wanted to look mid twenties to be cool. Young kids dressed and kept their hair in older styles to look adult, now it's completely the other way around!
Boys do this by growing beards & it KILLS me. I don't get why they want to look 20-30 years older & I don't like men with beards, yet the majority of them go that route. Saying that, I don't remember most of these pics with beards.
I think we are missing why we think they look old. Is it their hair style? Their clothes? Is it a receding hairline that we would cover up with a ball cap? The photo of the woman during the depression depicts someone who is living a hard life. So yes, she would appear older.
She actually looks like a 32 y.o. who's having a hard life. But the ladies of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, do look their ages, the men look older!
My Mom was born in 1927. When she was in her 60s, no one could believe she wasn't in her 40s and it wasn't due to fancy hairstyle, makeup or clothes. She just looked young. She finally started going gray in late 60s. Was still not fully gray when she died at age 80. Some people age faster than others for a variety of reasons. Also, as others have pointed out, some of these, it's just the hairstyles that are dated and thus we associate them with someone who is the age now that would have had a haircut like that.
At age 62 years old I find every one is way older than they look to me. I saw a cop with a gun, badge, handcuffs, and a big police SUV and I told him he looked about age 14 to me. He didn't even look old enough to shave let alone drive a motor vehicle. Lucky he saw my honesty and took my comments as a complement.
It was good up until people started posting hollywood make up BS. My husband had a full beard and mustache in the 7th grade. He wore a suit since it was the same day they were taking class photos. He was actually mistaken for the teacher by a fellow student.
They looked older because of their clothing and old-fashioned mind set.Some of the elderly look ridiculous today while trying to look young with dyed long hair,tight jeans and jean jackets.
Maybe people weren't so obsessed with looking younger back then.....
One bonus of working in a dental office is that I get to see the ages of my patients. The ones who look much older than their years? Smokers! A lot of people heavily smoked a few decades ago. I still remember the shopping mall and airports when I was a kid... a cloud of smoke and ashtrays everywhere! My great grandmother was a chain smoker and looked 75 by the time she was 40!
What blew me away most was the 29 year old cat. Apparently there have been many recorded instances of cats living to well over 30. Mind blown
However old, whoever they are, those mustachioed blondies are hot!
I doubt they were 17. People actually entered puberty later on average back then. Someone posited the theory that they may have been lying to avoid the draft, which seems more likely.
One that really stunned me was Uncle Remus in Song of the South, James Baskett was only 42 when he made that movie.
I think that is probably the only thing they got right in SotS - being a "free" man in the Reconstruction South aged one about as quickly as being a slave did.
This is a very good point.
Some people look older when they are young but then their looks catch up with their age. Many use makeup, dyes, Botox, modern styles these days for a “refreshed” look.
I call it the grandma syndrome in films. Grandmas were always portrayed as stooped little old white haired ladies with buns. When you think about it, a lot of people become grandmas between 40 and 50, but the movies often still portray them as little old ladies.
Yes, people back then thought once you reached a certain life stage you had to look and dress old.
Two years ago I helped with a summer program at a target school for students 11-14. Over half of them looked like young adults: tall, fully developed, guys had facial hair and girls were far past training bras. Back in the 1970s, my voice didn't crack until I was 15.
Liz Taylor looked like an adult head on a baby body. Pretty but look at her kid photos. Its weird.
Are most of these real? I know there a few jokes in it, but really??
Life habits were different, but like some people already pointed out in the comments, the hair styles and clothings play a part as well in some of the examples. For actors in sitcom, it's probably deliberate as they had to play characters older than their real age for example.
I think that the poofy hairstyles, heavy makeup and "serious looking" clothes also have a lot to do with it. Plus old cameras
The average body weight for men and women grew at least 20 pounds since the 70s. Average body mass index is 2-3 points higher. The extra pounds result in more youthful appearance.
Did they look older in the past? Sure. But this should be proof that there have been improvements to quality of life (to some extent). What are the factors that make a person look older? Skin and hair. Skin care and Hair care products have improved greatly. Additionally, I would also point out that better dieting health care probably help too. Add to that the fact that black and white photos have a tendency to make a person look older anyway just because of the way lighting can affect a person's appearance and it's no wonder people looked older than 25 at age 17.
I think everyone looked old in the 1980's. The people on tv in that decade look younger now. I know most have plastic surgery but it's true for people not on tv too.
Also, BP please do more stories like this!
Lots of reasons but mainly because when you were 24 you were expected to be an adult and take on adult responsibilities. Today even in you 30s you can be in Grade 27, living at home and only are required to support your habits.
On the other hand, kids nowadays look and act like teenagers much sooner than before. I work in a public library and it happens to me all the time that students ask about a book, or for some help to do their homework online, I talk to them as if they were 16 because it's what they look like, then find out they are 11 year old girls.
Half of them are bullshit.
Ladislav Pollo easy
Yes Like Heather Graham doesn't look like a 50 yr old at all.
I've noticed this too. And I don't think it's always to do with associating certain styles with old people or living more difficult lives either as I've noticed it in photos/footage from as recently as the 90s. Obviously back then there were still people who looked young for their age, likewise, there's people who look old for their age today; however looking older than your age did appear to be more common.
Sun baking, smoking, no Botox etc. plus their hairdos and clothing look old to us because we associate those styles with old people now. But they were trendy at the time. Also I’m sure we could find plenty of photos of people who looked young for their age..
Sergei Eisenstein, Russian filmmaker at age 37 (in 1935). 800px-Serg...c2b440.jpg
For every picture that shows a young person looking old then I can show you the same thing today. Come on! You can make anything look your way with pictures that you choose. I was born in 1946 and am now 73 on my way to 74 but people still look at me and think I'm in my 50's. Jeez! Perspective people!
The Mark Twain one was the best.
I never knew that Sam Elliot had a twin.
I'm 47 and get mistaken for the late 20s to early 30s all the time. Strangers legitimately think I'm my 25 yo sons slightly older sister. I do not complain lol
I'm sure there are a lot of factors in play here. Likely the greatest of which being genetics. Obviously, lifestyles were a bit different as well, and hardship/smoking/drinking/tanning, etc. will absolutely have an impact, but as far as I'm aware, nothing affects how you age more than your genes. I'd be willing to bet there are plenty of photos from decades past showing people with the opposite aging effect.
It had to do with styles. There was no such thing as “juniors” clothing until the 70s. Also, lighting and photo/film quality have to be taken into consideration. The smoking thing is true: I know of a doctor who had interns carry his ashtray for him during hospital rounds