Why do humans fear aging but love vintage?

Humans will fight time like it’s a personal enemy, but give them a dusty record player, and suddenly, they’re in love.

By Mehak Aggarwal

Aging is a universal reality, but let’s be honest, nobody wants it happening to them. The moment a wrinkle appears, people react like their face just declared war on their youth. Meanwhile, that same person will walk into a thrift store, spot a battered old suitcase with peeling leather, and say, “Ugh, the character! The history! I have to have it.” It’s a level of hypocrisy that would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

Think about it, humans treat aging like a disease, but when it comes to objects, the older, the better. A 50-year-old vintage car? “Wow, look at that classic design! Runs like a dream.” A 50-year-old human? “Have you had your joints checked?” A little rust on a car? “Adds character!” A few stress lines on a face? “You should really try Botox.” If people admired aging faces the way they admire vintage cars, we’d all be walking around saying, “Yeah, it’s got some miles on it, but that’s original craftsmanship right there.”

And then, the cruellest realization of all: your parents are aging too. “One day, you look at your dad and think, When did he start making that little grunt every time he sits down? Suddenly your mom started holding the corner of the bed every time she tried to get up, and that’s when it hits you, aging isn’t just creeping up on you, it’s coming for everyone you love.” Expresses Piyush Bansal, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Bluorng. Guess what? There’s not a single thing you can do about it. No face cream, no overpriced vitamin, no amount of kale smoothies will stop time from dragging us all forward.

But while you’re panicking over one grey hair, someone else is paying top dollar for “perfectly aged” goods. A rusted vintage car? “So much soul!” A rusted hip? “So much surgery!” A leather bag with cracks in it? “This patina is exquisite.” A person with wrinkles? “Have you considered Botox?” If a person had the same narrative as a bottle of fine whiskey, they’d be described as having a “rich complexity, a smooth finish, and deep notes of wisdom.” Instead, they get told, “You should try this new night cream before it’s too late.” Too late for what? The youth Olympics?

The truth is, people love the idea of time passing, just not when it happens to them. They’ll sit in a candlelit cafe, sipping overpriced espresso while romanticizing an old typewriter, but the second they spot a forehead crease in the mirror, it’s a crisis. “No, no, no, things like this aren’t supposed to happen to me! Only to cool things, like vinyl records and whiskey!”

“Every time I see a wrinkle on my face, I think if I should start looking for old age homes, and then I follow it up with an hour of skin care that will make my wrinkles go away from YouTube” laughs Anika Kochhar, a 21-year-old student pursuing fashion designing from NIFT.

So what’s the takeaway here? Simple: people don’t hate aging. They just hate seeing it happen to themselves. Because let’s be real, if wrinkles were considered “limited edition” and grey hair came with a certificate of authenticity, you’d have people showing them off like a rare Rolex. But since that’s not the case, you’d better keep slapping on that night cream, before someone starts calling you an antique!