Students are told to remember their high school and college years as the best in their life. Supermodels and influencers have become power brands, with tens of millions of followers and the ability to move entire markets. There is always the next ‘hot young’ entrepreneur, actress, athlete to look out for. Media propels the idea of youth as an enviable, and profitable, commodity: the young adorn our magazine covers and tower over us on billboards.
Is it any wonder, then, that we acutely mourn the loss of youth?
This isn’t new, but the intensity with which we idolise youth has increased. In the 1984 song “Forever Young”, by German synth-pop band Alphaville, youth is cast as a diamond. It is dazzling, valuable, prized.
It’s so hard to get old without a cause
I don’t want to
