Does being older necessarily mean you're wiser or smarter?

Age and experience may walk hand in hand but wisdom holds its own according to how one applies lessons learnt in life. I know some old person to whom I would never go for advice on anything. Yet there are some even younger than myself on whom I can rely on for good advice. Wisdom does not flutter and sit on our shoulders as we grow older. Some of us just never learn to apply the lessons learnt in life. Some die young and wise and some die old and foolish. Older persons can be a bit rude in their assumptions that they know more than someone else because they are older. That in itself shows lack of wisdom. I learn more and more evryday to listen to my six year old nephew because as he learns the lessons this life has to offer he passes on lessons to me that I just did not learn. Furthermore to bash him and cause him to feel as if he knows nothing is a good way helping him to develop poor self esteem if that is my aim. Let no one dispise your youth it is your heritage.(lol)

Well in my opinion i don't think age matters i am also 19 and i have seen people younger than me who are smarter and wise they know how to deal with the situation they are always around me .So i can say than it is really not necessary that age matters.

Ideally, when people grow older they must be wiser or smarter. However, I have seen people who are older but are less matured when it comes to other areas. I have seen people who are older but are not wiser. Maybe they have not really learned from their experiences. I do agree with you, more and more people experience a lot of things that teach them life's lessons at an earlier age. This contributed to their being more matured despite their young age.

i don't necessarily think that it means that you are smarter than anyone else or that you have more life experience no matter what age you are because if someone that lets say 20 has had a lot to go through in their life and then you have someone who is 40 and hasn't had to deal with hardly anything at all...they would probably have more of a life experence than the older one...but i mean that can work in so many ways... jhl930

Being older does have somewhat of an advantage for being smarter considering you have more time to learn and and condition your brain if you are older. Although if you are older and never picked up any books, then you really aren't any more streetsmart or booksmart than the average person. However I do notice that the older generation is somewhat wiser. The society we live in today is so fast paced that people don't have enough time to learn the things that make a person wise.

Age doesn't matter: you make a booboo one way or the other and learn from it. Elder people who have life experience may give some hints, but the choice is yours. There's only one thing which is difficult: eat your own soup !

i'm not saying that all older people are wiser than younger people but i will say in most cases... there are some cases where a young people can be a lot wiser and smarter than an older people... so for me age does not really matter in relations to being smarter and wiser... but we still have to respect older people as we can't deny that they had lived longer than us and hence have more life experiences...

I think that in some instances it does but you're right, today young people are growing up and experiencing things ways faster than in the past generations. I think it varies with individuals though. I have met young people who are wise beyond their years and then I have met young people who are so immature that you would think they are younger than what they are.

I do believe that as you age you gain experience, that experience makes you less likely to repeat mistakes (or if you do repeat them, to make sure you have more fun doing it this time). I do not believe age necessarily makes you smarter, however at 14 I thought I had all the answers, I was wrong. At 20 I thought I had all the answers, I was wrong, at 27 I thought I had all the answers, I was wrong, at 35 I think I'm just beginning to get that not only do I not know the answer, half the time I'm not sure I understand the question - LOL. In addition, a younger person (not all, but in general) has a tendency to see the world in absolutes, yes or no, all or nothing. I think experience teaches us there is an awful lot of gray out there and precious little black and white. It would be very interesting for you personally to write the way you feel now about your understanding of life, pull it out ten years from now and ask yourself the same question. Very few people I know wouldn't answer that they have learned so much more, experienced so much more and lived so much more and yes, gained in wisdom.

fifty years ago what made people wise was their age. You know the old saying wisdom in years... well now that isn't true, and with you I wholeheartedly agree. People are experiencing more things now then they ever have in the past, and whether the people from 50 years ago want to believe it or not, sometimes the younger ones are smarter. It all depends on how the person is raised on whether or not they will actually use the wisdom they have came across in a good or negative way.

I don't think being older necessarily makes you wiser or smarter, but very often, it does. If you're smart to begin with, and fairly wise and well-balanced, then aging should probably make you more so. You gain more perspective, and you grow more into your own self. So, some people in their twenties are definitely as smart and mature as some people in their 50's and up, but those same people will probably be even smarter and wiser when they hit their middle years. Does that make sense?

No, there are alot of immature people out there..there are people that will act like a lil kid when their way too old to be doin that..then there are that are mature people out there that act much older then they are..

I am sorry that you are slightly annoyed but when I was 20 I probably would have been slightly annoyed also! However, now that I am 50, I have finally figured out that my mom is a pretty smart woman, even though she has not done near the things that I have done. But, as far as life and relationships, she has been there and done that! When I have a problem with my kids, I am on the phone with my mom now, I haven't always, but I do now! She is wiser than I am and my guess is that I am wiser than my kids are! I think it depends on the things that you are referring to as far as who is the wiser. I think if you have gone to school to be a doctor, you would quite possibly know how to treat a serious illness much better than I, because you have had the training that I have not. But, as far as relationships that is something that is learned by experiances. And if they are good they will be burned into your soul and you will never forget them!

It doesn't always hold true that older people are wiser, but from my experience in life, I know that I am more wise than I was when I was in my teenage years. I'm 22 currently and I feel as though I've grown up quite a bit since then.

Sometimes I feel annoyed too when someone would tell me I ate lots of rice than you do It was like telling me, "I'm smarter because I came to this world first. Duh.. So what..? I mean, it's not about being older than I am. We're totally different and we have our own lifestyle so don't come compairing your age or your experiences on mine.

of course age matters...coz admit it or not, older know alot, they experience many things that we younger dont experience yet..but most of the olds are becoming close minded when it comes to this..coz they believe that what they experience is still appropriate with the situation, closing their minds that maybe it wont work this time, or another way around...but we are smart too in our own way...we may or may not experience what they experience coz of our generation, but all the lessons, i think, are the same...what they learned before is what we'll learned after some times... teenagers now a days are more open minded, so we are the one who must understand them...

while the passing of years does not guarantee that someone is wiser or more informed it is certainly not something to pass over quickly. It is wrong to assume that young folk are ignorant just as it is wrong to assume that old folk are passe' Issues have not really changed all that much - though the newer generations are quite different in disposition about the topics, perhaps... the crux of it all has not really ever changed, as human nature is pretty constant - in this way it makes sense that someone who has been around a while does have some worthy experience and advice to share. I think our aging population is a resource too quickly over looked anymore.

i think not always, its just that older people has more experience but it does not mean they really learn great lessons from their experiences, we must always remember that its not the years that we put to life but the life we put to years..:-)

For most part, I think there are certain truth to the saying. But I guess, that cannot be taken absolutely applicable to all persons. We grow in our own paces, and sometimes, there are certain bad things we experience in life that do not serve as our learning but our hurts. And there we get fixated; retarded in human development to say the least. I agree with you. It doesn't necessarily apply for all people. Father time proves very little. It is something we have to undergo and be subjected to. But age, as in the course of time, does not translate to personal growth if there is no decision from the person to learn. Human growth is more of a personal choice to become better after all the many experiences one had in the past. If one decides to learn from his or her mistakes, then he becomes wiser. If one decides to continue dwelling from the exact same mud he or she finds himself or herself dumped in, and won't try to save himself or herself, then there is no growth at all, and there can never be any wisdom all together. Wisdom is more than knowledge of one's experience. It's actually learning from them and doing well in the future. If we see old people unable to pull it together, we kind of are sorry for them for holding on to some bad habits young people would have learned to overcome themselves given their tender age. But yes, there is a certain truth to the saying, but it cannot be taken universally to pertain to everyone, because our human and personal growth varry, and it is up to us to decide whether or not we would carry the wisdom life has to offer us.

No just because you are older doesnt mean your wiser or smarter! I met a mother who was in her mid 30's and she was so rude to her daughter in the store. I dont know her exact age but I knew she was older. I am only 22 with 3 children a stepson who is 5 then 2 daughters 4 and 3 and I ALWAYS get dirty looks and hear people talking about me saying "oh shes so young she cant care for those children" or "she is not responsiable" crap like that. Honestly I am more responsiable then some people out there. So, I believe it's how you put yourself to be.