Pet Peeve 47243

AGEISM.

The world loves numbers. The world loves measurements of all kinds. With numbers, you have a corresponding piece of knowledge, will helps people make decisions of who they are, what they're worth, how to speak to them, what their life experiences have likely been.

Age is a wonderful example of people's erroneous tendencies to treat people like shit.

Children are fools.
Teens are uncontrollable.
20-somethings are self-indulgent and unreliable in the workforce.
30s are the new 21s.
40s are just beginning, but still wishing they were in their 20s.
50s should know better.
60s and up are disregarded, especially by the government.

I once was asked to NOT sit in the emergency exit aisle on a place. Why? I asked.

"Well," the flight attendant condescendingly looked me up and down, "you have to be at least fifteen."
That was only five years ago. I was 22.

I'm a full time, salaried with insurance and dental at a university. Can I even tell you how many times my ideas have been tossed aside, only to be echoed at a later meeting with a response, "Brilliant! We should do that!" because it came from someone older than me?

Get to know people. Quit making assumptions.