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It sounds incredible, but back at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the average human life expectancy around the world was about forty years, so if your age started with a four, you could definitely call yourself lucky in those days. After more than a century, everything has changed drastically, and today we perceive our 40s mostly as the middle of our life.

In any case, as someone approaching 42, I can tell you that this is truly a nice age. Like, however, any age. And recently, renowned entertainer Steve Harvey started a viral Twitter thread about La-La-Land... sorry, about signs of being in your 40s, and some answers there are damn right and no less damn hilarious. So here's the list with the most spot-on tweets collected for you by Bored Panda!

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#1

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Rob
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"You look like you are writing a letter...", well I was, but I'll now be looking for a hammer to smash your smug little face in!

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#3

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Apatheist Account2
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For the kids...there was a piece of the cassette that could be removed to prevent overwriting the tape. Putting sticky tape over it allowed one to record over whatever was on there.

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Those who are now in their 40s are Gen X'ers and partially Millennials, which means that they fully caught perhaps the most incredible period in the history of humanity, when our life gradually moved online, and a wide variety of analog things gave way to digital services. The period when all sorts of "worldly wisdom" that we were regaled with by our parents and elders in general turned over time into amusing absurdities. Like, for example, that very statement that we will not always have a calculator with us. Well, yes, on the other hand, they are partly right - for example, on my smartphone, the calculator application is on the second screen, not on the first...

#4

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Hokuloa
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ugh. I also remember the horror of having to trim the perforated side and separate the pages of lengthy papers at O-dark-thirty in the am. Dozens of pages into the process, in a groggy daze, and one of the perforations would fail and tear the page. The horror, the horror…

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#5

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Hokuloa
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just saw a functioning one of these recently and did a total double take. Hadn’t seen one in years!

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#6

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Rob
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Has that mullet been put through rate my mullet? Looks like a classic!

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And even at 40+, health begins to remind us of itself. No, not really. We just start to realize that there is also such a problem, and if at the age of twenty we could hang out all night and then feel great in the morning, at thirty we could hang out all night and in the morning feel like, well, after hanging out all night, then after forty, we sleep all night and in the morning, we sometimes still feel like we've been hanging out all night. And it all comes from, for example, having slept in an uncomfortable position.

That is, if the kids let us sleep at all. Your social media feed is gradually filled with photos from holidays and sports competitions - only these are no longer you and your friends, but their offspring. You finally understand what an amazing thing a minivan actually is!

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On the other hand, if you are forty or over, then you have seen a lot of really wonderful things. You saw Michael Jordan on the court with your own eyes, watched Michael Jackson just standing silent on the stage during the Superbowl XXVII Halftime Show, and weeped when Jack Dawson sank after the Titanic. You have a lot of "analog" skills that are unlikely to ever come in handy, but you can amuse the youth, or, well, your friends' kids when they come over. And you're also gradually moving from the "cool dude" category to the "weird guy" cohort. But that doesn't bother you, damn it, because it's, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, 'August of your years!'

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#10

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Apple Jakes
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow yeah I remember when this seemed like a technological advancement.

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#12

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Robert T
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My parents still have some slides, but the projector has long since gone. I bought my dad a slide scanner so that they could look back at some of them. Some were taken 60+ years ago.

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Well, there are many things that can easily identify a person in their 40s, both amusing and sad. But at the end of the day, each age has its own undeniable advantages - and if you are now forty, then this is that invaluable alloy when you already have worldly experience, but there is still strength. Okay, even if your back hurts in the morning. So what? Anyway, it won't hurt to scroll this selection to the very end, crack up at the most spot-on submissions and maybe add some more apt and witty signs from your own - in case you, like me myself, are at this really wonderful age!

#13

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Robert T
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

With the advent of LED bulbs, it's not the lights that make the electricity bill go up.

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#14

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DadManBlues
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Before you're 30, you're in warranty, your head will grow back if it has to. Not even your hair after that.

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#16

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Hokuloa
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To sleep:, perchance to dream. For a full 4hrs (hopefully) before waking to pee. Moreover, let me not yet shuffle off this mortal coil.

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#18

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Alexia
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you drink 2 liters of Pepsi in the evening, you wake up to pee regardless of your age :)))

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#20

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Robert T
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I printed them at home. I had more advanced computer kit than the school for about 5 years.

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#21

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JL
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When they start to greet you like Norm from Cheers, then it's time to worry.

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#25

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Molly Whuppie
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

and then you hear it on the "golden oldies" or "retro classics" station on the radio while you're driving and almost drive off the road.

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#26

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TeenieMeanie
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Stay drunk and avoid hangovers. Follow me for more bad life advice.

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#27

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Robert T
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope. But there will come a time when the ask for some ID to get an OAP discount!

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#29

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Tee Rat
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looking back on each decade I wish I felt as good as bad as I thought I felt at the time. If that makes sense.

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#30

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Michelle C
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mom would do this all the time when my sister and I were kids!

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Note: this post originally had 38 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.