I think something that plays into it a lot is the fact that people romanticize aging. Unfortunately, a lot of people forget that it's just a coping mechanism, because aging really is bad.
You hear it all time, especially in stupid Facebook motivational pictures. "Every wrinkle is for all the times you've smiled" etc. No, every wrinkle is a reminder that you should have worn sunscreen more often because UV rays have been kicking the sh*t out of your skin for decades; it's a sign that your cells, inside and out, are losing bio energy -- it's not a good thing. Of course, it's all just a way of trying to feel like our mortality isn't so bad.
Balding is the same way. "Oh, it's just a part of getting old", "It's manly!", or "It makes you look mature!". Yes, and it makes you look like crap.
The thing is, that is starting to change and as a result, more people will take the red pill. We know so much more about the aging processes and possibly ways to slow (and potentially reverse) them. If you're of the "millennial" generation (like me), we are probably one of the first generations who will be likely to experience "old age" very differently from humans in previous times. This year alone, we've seen major breakthroughs in hairloss treatments, Open Bionics prosthetics are literally straight from sci-fi, a discovery that could cure tinnitus, that Alzheimer's drug is the most promising thing ever, CRISPR is in human trials, and it was discovered that skin basically wrinkles because it loses mitochondrial complex II with time and exposure to sunlight. Despite the obesity rates, we have better knowledge of health and nutrition than ever before. All of these things are actively being put towards technology that will inevitably change what it means to be "old" and what it means to be human -- no, that's not some Ray Kurzweil fanboy bullshit.
Over the next few decades, I think we'll see physical signs of aging romanticized a lot less because there will be an ever increasing amount of things you can do about it. People tell you to keep your chin up, but these same people often don't realize how much they discriminate against things like baldness, and they aren't looking forward to old age either; they're certainly not looking forward to it at a young age.
People will inevitably become more concerned with adding life to their years rather than years to their lives.
lol, I am exaggerating, which will get me in trouble.
