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Did People Used To Look Older?

Vsauce | April 29, 2026



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https://twitter.com/tweetsauce
https://www.instagram.com/electricpants

Carl Sagan High School yearbook: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss85590.041/?sp=2&r=-0.241,0,1.481,1.244,0

2001 Tiger Beat: https://allisontanenhaus.com/tiger-beat

Slade on Fabulous: https://i.pinimg.com/474x/23/b3/49/23b34988cc3958fb59cf66f0a15f9850.jpg

Elizabeth Taylor at 17: https://www.vintag.es/2018/04/elizabeth-taylor-by-philippe-halsman-1948.html

70s high school students: https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675046349_students-and-navy_high-school-students_waste-of-money_interested-to-join

Brandon McCarthy tweet: https://twitter.com/bmccarthy32/status/1210350854571585537?lang=en

80s footballers: https://twitter.com/80sAging

80s high school IG: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CZcKEeJhUSy/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=4589a200-7096-44e8-b5e5-0324e5da78c9

Sunscreen commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krGctNSuSMI

Historical orthodontics: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Historical_orthodontics

Is 60 the new 50? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5897168/

Dua Lipa’s dad: https://twitter.com/lgbtdlipa/status/1377740115020283907

Face changes in magazines:

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Changes-in-esthetic-standards-since-1940.-Berneburg-Dietz/d9f38e081f1dce3bde1dc758cf3e808a03cf7a73
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9714286/#:~:text=The%20results%20showed%20that%20%281,lip%20curl%2C%20and%20vermilion%20display
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10337246/

Norm 34 comparison tweet: https://twitter.com/Y2K_mindset/status/1412131747475509250

Norm edits: https://twitter.com/ziibiing/status/1412762456254992393

Golden Girls with modern style: https://www.tiktok.com/@sugacane22/video/7050305381406575919

Dale Irby: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2013/06/30/richardson-teacher-s-retirement-ends-one-last-echo-of-disco-fashion/

Time traveling hipster:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/time-traveling-hipster/
https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000470&rd=117666#
https://timetravelnexus.com/time-travel-nexus-investigates-the-time-travelling-hipster/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD_b83_RpJ0

Face-name matching effect:

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspa0000076.pdf

Bouba/kiki effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect

Multiracial faces: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19065862/

Social bouba/kiki effect:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28597194/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03194119

Dori Gray image: https://society6.com/product/dorian-gray-revisited_stretched-canvas

How old is old? https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jgs.17379

What age would you like to be?

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00067/full
https://theconversation.com/at-what-age-are-people-usually-happiest-new-research-offers-surprising-clues-156906

Black & white dreams:

http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/DreamB&W.pdf
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.893.2832&rep=rep1&type=pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810008001323

Mind Field episode about mind reading and recording dreams: https://youtu.be/AgbeGFYluEA

Mr. Stevens’ wardrobe: https://designerbrand.co/products/mcdonals-food?_pos=1&_sid=ae2ea94b3&_ss=r

music by Jake Chudnow
https://www.youtube.com/jakechudnow

Written by Vsauce

Comments

This post currently has 33 comments.

  1. @Zsiga_Az_Eredeti

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    I have a really rare name, (there's not even an english variant for it) so dont think people have expectations for my name, and probably my face maches my name cuz mostly im the first one they meet with this name

  2. @poduck2

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    The question has been asked if me many times about whether or not I dream in color. I still don't know, and I'm fifty two. I don't remember dreams as pictures. I remember them as stories of a kind. It's possible if someone woke me while I was dreaming and asked me immediately, I might have a different answer, but I don't feel like I dream in color, but I also don't think I dream in black and white.

  3. @Javamonstr89

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    This is my favorite video ever. I always used to say people looked older back in the day. And this video answers the question perfectly. I always used to ask my parents, why do people look older in the 80s ?.

  4. @HyungnamGu

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    people in the past generally appeared older than people of the same age today due to faster biological aging from poor nutrition, smoking, lack of sun protection, and harsh environments. Improved healthcare, lower rates of smoking, and modern skincare have significantly slowed physical aging, while, historically, outdated fashion and hairstyles contribute to this perception.

    Key Factors Making Past Generations Look Older:

    Sun Exposure: Before the widespread use of sunscreen (SPF), people had significantly more sun damage, causing premature wrinkling, sagging, and aged skin.

    Lifestyle Habits: Higher rates of smoking and limited access to modern dental care or healthier diets contributed to a more "weathered" appearance.

    Fashion and Grooming: Past styles, including conservative clothing, and specific hairstyles (like stiff perms or heavy makeup), make individuals in old photos seem older to modern viewers.

    Environmental Factors: Harder, more labor-intensive lives, along with less temperature-controlled, indoor living, caused faster physical aging.

    Health Improvements: Modern medicine and better living conditions mean people today stay younger longer, with some studies suggesting a biological slowing of the aging process.

  5. @TomPowers1979

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    I was born in 1979 to elderly parents in a village so to me my parents always looked "old". Old clothes, old hairystyles, old way of thinking etc And my grandparents…. We won't even go there.
    I should also say that both my parents smoked themselves to death.

  6. @me3333

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    All I know is that at 18 years old, I knew everything and had it all figured out. Now at over 50 I realize that I not only didn't have it all figured out and didn't know squat, but I also still don't know anything and am pretty sure I will never figure it out…

  7. @freshdeed

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    It makes sense why that is. People had the same hairstyles or just styles before other people. So if your mom was born in the 60s then she will probably keep the 60s styles she had all throughout her life. And then the newer generations look at those styles as “old timey” because their parents who are older use those styles.

  8. @CJ-ft9yo

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    I was watching the Malcolm of the middle reboot and then the pilot in 2000 and I thought all the school kids (actors) looked different to a primary school now, somehow wary, tougher looking, more physical those kids are 40 now.

  9. @marsilt

    April 29, 2026 at 12:59 am

    Human body temperature has dropped 0,6 degrees of Celsius since US civil war mainly because of les inflammation. Body temp used to be 37 deg C. More inflammation means more free radicals which degrade body including skin.

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