People are constantly trying to get me to learn. After a small stroke, I had therapists coming by my home 4 times a week teaching me all sorts of exercises to do to increase my mobility, never mind the pain involved that only increases with all that. My doc is trying to teach me how to eat. I refuse to call a celery stalk and two grapes "lunch". My dad was always trying to teach me how to make money by selling everything I owned for a profit, no matter how much I like the item and wanted to keep it. My mom always tried to teach me to keep my mouth shut, avoid confrontations and not to make waves. Well, they all failed. The older I get, the more I just want to be left alone. Guess I'm done ranting now.
40+ years in engineering and construction, the high school algebra and geometry came in really handy until......... "OK Google. How many gallon in a 10 FT diameter tank 17 FT tall?" Google and Siri have mitigated any need for any human to know any thing.
I haven't noticed any large differences, perhaps because, since I already know everything worth knowing, I haven't tried to learn any thing lately. Okay, more seriously, it seems that my weak areas are becoming weaker. Basic math comes to mind, but then I have very few occasions to need it anymore since the answers are a few keyboard clicks away. When I was younger, I could handle math okay but when it came to things like algebra or geometry, I was confused even in high school. In algebra, I would have to write as many of the formulas in the margins of a test paper at the start of a test as I could remember before I forgot them and, to be candid, I cheated my way through geometry and still only managed a C. I bailed out on my third day of trigonometry. When I taught paramedic courses, drug dosages involved algebra, and when I would review algebra before teaching pharmacology and drug dosages, it would make perfect sense to me. Yet a year later, when I would prepare for another paramedic course, I would have forgotten much of it. Anything involving numbers has always been a weak spot for me, and now I can't even remember a telephone number long enough to enter it into my phone, and sometimes I have to resort to my fingers when multiplying. Sometimes I forget my own phone number and I've had it for several years now. Although I still do fairly well with words and language, there are times when I simply can't remember a word that has been a part of my vocabulary since elementary school. I can usually think of a near-synonym of the word I'm looking for, but there are many times when I know there is a better word but I can't think of it. I'd be happy if I could retain what I already have. As for learning new things, age may be part of it, but there is also the fact most of us are no longer tested on our knowledge, so we're not learning with the objective of being able to answer questions on a test. As a result, we retain only the things that seem relevant or useful to us.
True, we really don't have to remember anything anymore, the information is at our fingertips. I also have trouble remembering things though, both long term and short term memory. It's really strange the things I do and don't remember. I can remember a conversation and even what I was wearing 30 yrs ago but sometimes can't remember why I went into the kitchen, I have no Alzheimer's in my family so I'm hoping for the best but I could also be the first! I can still help the youngest grandsons with homework unless it's Common Core!
I have found learning is more difficult as I age. My concentration is also a problem but still, still I keep trying to learn stuff.
I hope not for being a senior citizen is all that is next! I empathize with all that has been posted and believe Terry is absolutely right. There are juices to drink to keep us at optimum like pomegranate juice. We've all learned how to use a computer and cell phones out of school, so I think we are doing well for our ages! We live and learn and life is for learning I believe. It's like Terry said too much stress stunts everything!
The other problem with stress Krissttina is that as our lives and work especially become ever more complicated, this can be the cause of a lot of this stress, often manifesting in the form of anger and rage. Our societies appear to full of angry people nowadays and in my opinion a lot of violent crime is the result of this increased stress related anger.
I must say that compared with the past, I feel like being able to learn with ease at this age, but it's all about what kind of learning. For practical learning, yes, it's easier and faster than when I was young, but when it comes to memorizing things, you will find me having trouble, not sure if its due to age or simply laziness.
My short term memory is not too good but I can work with that. I make a lot of notes and do things like leave the refrigerator door open so I'll remember I'm putting water in the ice cube trays. I am reading a book on quantum physics and at first I had to keep reading the page over but then I left it for 2 or 3 weeks and went back to it and somehow its easier to understand. Plus I discuss it with my husband and that helps me remember. I'm going to put a puzzle out on the counter and start on that too, I heard that really helps. I know it's really important now to keep learning and I'm working on it quite actively. Lots of times on a forum I have to substitute a word I want to use because I can't remember the right one. A few days ago I deleted a whole post because I could not remember "home invasion" and that's what I was wanting to talk about. Now I remember the words but the thread is old so I'm just letting it go.
We all knew that young people are adapted to learn new and interesting things easily. But we should also remember that older people as they grow older can use their life experiences from the past to learn something new in their life.
I still learn things about using a computer. I'm very good at using a computer, but sometimes I need a new computer program to do something that I need done, so I start doing internet research to find what to use. I recently learned how to keep bath towels decently soft. Now, there are those, like my wife and SIL that aren't nearly as "computer savy" as I am. My SIL isn't much of a "learner" when it comes to using a computer. I'll try to explain something over the phone, but the explanation pretty much goes right over her head and I get tired of repeating my instructions to her. When my wife has a problem with her computer, I'll jump in and see what I can do. She just doesn't have the patience using a computer that I do. But, if it comes right down to learning something new, if I'm interested in whatever it is, I can learn it.
I was able to switch from a PC to a Mac at 57, although I don't consider 57 to be old anymore, now that I'm almost 65.