Well the ‘myth’ you speak of is based on the fact that the opposite of what you describe is also true. Those who lose any interest in learning new things become progressively more rigid and stuck in their mindset and become less and less likely to learn or adapt as they age. I suspect there are more people leaning towards that than lifelong learners, but I may just be a pessimist.
Comment on Can't argue that.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 14 hours agoAs long as you continue to learn new things, then no, it doesn’t become harder with age. In fact, studies show that people who are lifelong learners can actually increase their ability to learn as they age. Learning, for example, a foreign language in later years has been shown to be just as attainable as in childhood, and might even give some protection against dementia. Your brain can actually become more plastic as you age if you continuously push it to do so, and it can actually become easier to learn if you train yourself to do so.
The idea that learning capacity diminishes with age seems to be a widely accepted myth (which may have roots in sociological and cultural biases), and the opposite may actually be true.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 13 hours ago
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
I think the people who are lifelong learners don’t stand out to us as much, because they’re not pig-headed cunts. Thus the societal bias.
And perhaps I’m an optimist because all the elders in my family are the plastic sort (my 89 year old father still works as an avionics engineer and still builds his own computers, for instance).
Anyway, I was talking about potential, not statistics.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 37 minutes ago
I think the people who are lifelong learners don’t stand out to us as much, because they’re not pig-headed cunts
Stupidity and ignorance makes people confident.
DonPiano@feddit.org 2 hours ago
Well, your comment is a better variant of mine, i should have checked. :o) Thanks!