Shouldn't seniors answer life's questions since they lived the longest?

Age does not equal knowledge. Related, yes, but it’s just as silly to assume an old person is wise than to assume a young person is not wise.

Age doesn’t always mean experience, so I think anyone can give their input. After all, we have some very bright youngsters there!

Whoever has the correct experience to answer the question should do so. It can either be directly related to the subject or based on previous things that the person answering has been through.

While the perspective of older people is important, it is equally important to see the perspective of youngsters and middle aged folks. Variety and experience make for well rounded responses.

Experience definitely takes precedence over age, but the theory that those who are older definitely have had more experiences is certainly somewhat valid.

I’m 51 years old, married for most of that. I would never dream of answering a 20 year old’s dating question, because those kinds of interactions change from generation to generation. Better leave those answers to the young’uns.

To play devil’s advocate, I would say that the younger the asker the less likely someone older is to understand the asker’s perspective. What does an 65 year old know about living in the current age?

I have known and learned from many a wise old sage in my day, and I have also wondered what some old people have been doing all their life to not have a clue, and, on very rare occasions I meet a young person (asmonet for example) that I would swear had the wisdom of a 90 year old monk. I guess it just depends. I hope that I’m one of the old people who keeps getting smarter instead of one of those who appear to have spent the last 60 years with their head…. well…. somewhere where they don’t notice what’s going on around them.

Not every senior citizen has lived the same type of lifestyle so you may get different opinions based on their particular experience. Each person is unique and know one is an authority on every issue. Some old men will tell you not to get married. They may base this view because they were divorced three times in their life. Another person may say find a good women and have a lot of kids because they were a family man.
Each person no matter what there age would probably have their on take on life.

I think this inspired a new question!

I am the sum of my experiences, good, bad, boring or interesting and that is about all I can contribute.
But age is a barrier that can be crossed. I have two teenage sons and I have to be both a wise old sage to them and still be their buddy (rarely but sometimes) when something is bothering them. Do I know what it is like to be 19 in 2009? Not a clue.

But do I know how to be courteous to people, or how to teach yourself to hold your temper, or how to maybe sweet talk a teacher into doing or not doing something? Yes. Can I suggest a strategy about something, yes.

Can I talk to them about contemporary sexual mores? I can tell them what not to do and I can keep my mouth shut about my salad days, times which I don’t want them to know anything about. (What would they think of their mother if they heard these stories?)

It depends on what you are qualified to do. I have no idea how to design a web page, software development is a big mystery to me, I had never seen an Itouch until my daughter received one on Xmas morning, Ice hockey and beach volleyball bore me to death and I would be nuts to answer a question on Fluther about any of those ideas.

But when and if you can contribute, Fluther lets you do so.

That’s why it is nice to be around here somedays.

SRM

i believe every old people that has gone through thick and thin has something valuable to say about life.

Young whippersnappers! I’m an old guy, so when you see any of my answers, just ignore them.

Heh, I dunno what you people are talking about. I will take relationship advice from an 80 year old before I take it from a 13 year old…. granted some people just dont know what they are talking about or give bad advice, but when someone talks from experience I usually give it a listen.
I should also add, it doesnt matter if its 1920 or 2010, peoples problems usually don’t change a whole lot. Same shit different day, or generation…

What makes you so sure that seniors have the answers to life’s questions? If they did, I’m sure they’d have passed it on by now, and we’d all know. Everyone has something to contribute, old and young alike. It’s up to us to try to make something out of all those little pieces.

I think our society discounts the wisdom of age more than we should.

Life experiences don’t depend on age! There are some people who have been through more in a few days than some elderly folks go experience in their many years! Take my Nephew. Before he was even a year old he died for 10 mins. and as a result lost a leg. He’s had open heart surgery too. Not very many elderly folks can say they’ve been through the same. I know he can’t very well tell us about his experience, it was just an example!