Lately, my social media feeds have become strangely interested in my age.
Or perhaps more accurately, they have become interested in everyone else’s.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve seen countless posts asking whether someone is too old for YouTube, too old for TikTok, too old to become an influencer, or simply too old for social media.
It made me stop for a moment.
Not because I suddenly started questioning my own age. I started my YouTube channel at sixty, and at the time I was far more worried about microphones, editing software, and whether anyone could actually hear what I was trying to say.
But seeing the same question appear over and over again made me wonder something else.
What does “too old” actually mean?
The more I thought about it, the stranger the question became.
Imagine telling someone they’re too old to start gardening.
Or birdwatching.
Or learning photography.
Or joining a local choir.
It sounds almost ridiculous.
Yet replace those activities with YouTube or Instagram, and suddenly it becomes a perfectly ordinary question.
Why?
I’ve been turning over a few possible explanations in my mind.
Maybe we confuse being a beginner with being too old.
When children try something new, nobody expects them to be good at it. Learning is part of the process. But somewhere along the way we seem to absorb the idea that adults should already know what they’re doing. Becoming a beginner again can feel strangely uncomfortable, especially when other people can watch.
Or perhaps it’s because some hobbies happen quietly.
You can spend a year learning to paint without anyone outside your family noticing.
Start a YouTube channel, however, and your first awkward attempts are suddenly public. Maybe what feels uncomfortable isn’t age at all. Maybe it’s simply being seen while you’re still learning.
Then there’s technology itself.
I grew up hearing people say computers were for younger generations. Later it was the internet. Then social media. Now, increasingly, it’s artificial intelligence.
Every new technology seems to arrive with an invisible age limit attached to it.
And then, a few years later, it simply becomes another ordinary part of everyday life.
Perhaps there are really two different questions hiding behind the phrase “too old.”
The first comes from other people.
“Isn’t YouTube for younger people?”
“Why would you start now?”
“Aren’t you a bit old for that?”
I’ve started wondering what people really mean when they say those things.
Are they thinking, I would never dare do that at my age?
Do they believe there is an invisible timetable we’re all supposed to follow?
Or are they simply repeating an idea they’ve heard so often that it now sounds like common sense?
Sometimes I even wonder if they’re imagining their own future.
If I haven’t started by now, maybe I’ve missed my chance.
Maybe some doors quietly close as we get older.
Perhaps those comments reveal as much about the person saying them as the person they’re directed at.
The second question is the one we ask ourselves.
When someone asks, “Am I too old for YouTube?” maybe what they’re really asking is:
- Will I fit in?
- Can I still learn this?
- Will anyone care what I have to say?
- Will I look foolish?
Those don’t feel like questions about age.
They feel like questions about confidence.
About vulnerability.
About beginning something when there are no guarantees.
Maybe courage has something to do with it too.
I only know that curiosity has never once asked to see my birth certificate before introducing me to something new.
So I’ll leave you with the question that’s been following me all week:
What does it actually mean to be “too old” for something?
