When is a "senior" a senior?

Question

I've noticed a momement to refer to those over 50 and under 60 as "boomers" because they seem turned off by the term "senior"...yet some of those people have no problem with accepting the "senior discount" in stores? Any ideas behind this sort of mentality? I'm 46, not a senior or technically a full on "boomer" yet.

Aging hipster...that's funny lol

I don't mind being middle aged...after all, after the middle ages comes the Renaissance, right? hee hee.

I must admit I don't get this obsession with eternal youth...seems a bit like denial to me.

Answer 1

I'm 54, and have been a 'boomer" since the day I was born! It's only recently become significant as a demographic. If you were born between 1946 and 1963, you're a boomer by definition, no matter what age you are now. So guess what ... you're a boomer! Also known as an "aging hipster."

I think of myself as middle aged, and senior as the age when you can start cashing in on retirement benefits ... somewhere in the mid-60's. Looking forward to that day, but not trying to rush it!

Answer 2

The baby boomers are those born from 1946 to 1965 - someone who is 46- born in 61/62 - YOU are a boomer.

The term senior is different for all. Some senior discounts start at 50-55-60 or 65. I only qualify as a member of AARP. Which allows early enrollment at 49 -(you only have 3 years to go!!)

I think it is partly age and employment. I doubt if I will ever be a senior in mentality. As for retirement I put too much into my education to retire quietly.

Answer 3

I know I've mastered the ability to walk, talk and read. There's nothing much left to learn in these fields, and I can do it all with complete ease. Doesn't mean I never stub my toe, slur a few words, or stumble on a sentence now and then, but I've reached a point where it's completely causal. I'm not an olympic sprinter, or a public speaker, or a speed reader -- those are all entirely separate skills -- but what I learned is plenty to get through life. I never forget that the martial arts are called an art, whether or not that's an Eastern interpretation, but in the West this does have a purpose. An art couldn't be something you perfect. Music, painting and sculpting all have near limitless potential, but stages of development that you would have to "master" to get better. A black belt, as we've explained before on here, is about having a firm understanding of the fundamentals, or "All basic movements and techniques, can be applied with extended force and proper application in basic combination." The key words here would be "all basic movements and techniques" and "extended force and proper application". I would say there is a mastery of having LEARNED the requirements and KNOW how to put them to use, just not anything further from the basics. I think people go a little too far with the word, using it mostly erroneously, but the intent of comfortably and casually using what you've learned is what they're all implying. As for the martial arts as a whole, that I believe is impossible, especially as an art.

Answer 4

Excuse me, but at age 46 you definitely are a full on Boomer.
Baby Boomers 1946-1964!!!
I'd rather be identified as a Baby Boomer than a senior citizen even if I am one of the oldest baby boomers. Not many discounts available to seniors unless you are 62 or 65 years of age and those people who are currently that age are NOT baby boomers.

Wait until you are 49 1/2 years old and you get your AARP membership card in the mail.

Answer 5

Baby Boomer meaning you we're born between the years 1946 and 1964. But I do think It's funny that some places consider you a senior barely into your 50's When a lot of people are living to be 100.

Answer 6

A senior is a senior when a senior feels like a senior.

I personally enjoy the term senior citizen as much as I enjoyed being a senior in high school way back when. We had seniority.

Hate to tell you, but you are considered middle-aged by medical standards.

The term baby boomers was not the term we made up. It applies to what happened after the end of WWII when the soldiers came home and started families and there were lots and lots of housing developments being built to accommodate the sudden growth.

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Answer 7

I get confused on this, cause I've heard 50, 55, 60, 62, 65,67,70+ are seniors. Someone please pick a number.lol. At the McDonald's I use to work at it was like 50 or 55 to be consider a senior. Hey my dad can get discounts.lol. Hes 53. Now at Popeyes where I work now, you have to be 62 to be consider a senior. AARP you just have to be 50 to be consider a senior. Some places you have to be 65 to be a senior. 62 to retire fixing to be 67. It gets confusing.lol.
My mom won't be considered a senior for a while even though shes a boomer, but shes only 44.

Answer 8

I guess when you can start drawing social security because of your age. It's 65 or 62 depending on what year you were born.
I just looked at the chart and I can't retire until I'm 66 1/2.
So at 52 I'm a baby boomer.

Answer 9

People are turned off the word "senior" because there's such a negative attitude to age and aging in our society. One younger person on Yahoo Answers even said seniors were "cute." That's so patronizing.

I'm 67 and it took me a couple of years after turning 65 and semi-retiring to accept that yes, now I'm a senior. I avoided going to the senior center until recently - when I discovered the great classes they offered, for free!

There's a tendency to lump all seniors together as a class - but we're as different from each other as "nonseniors." I don't like that lumping together because it allows people to stop seeing us as individuals.

"Boomers" are significant as a demographic because there are so many more of them compared to my age group (born 1940).

Answer 10

To me, the term senior is too broad. To some it means anyone over 65, to others anyone over 50 (AARP age). There can be a huge difference in the experiences and interests between people that are 80 and those that are 55. Of course, like all groups, there are things in common but I think it just paints with to broad of brush strokes.