I think there must be some component of invisibility involved with growing old. I still go to my neighborhood gym regularly and stay in pretty good shape - but I've noticed that young women pay me absolutely no mind - no smile, no hello, no 'excuse me'. And this is after "seeing" each other on multiple occasions over many months. Not sure if this is just an effect of these interaction-averse time in which we live or what. Still, it's a little degrading to be ignored.
Interesting - and you have my sympathy (and gratitude for expressing youirself on this). I think I have noticed something similar, but haven't quite processed it, even in my own mind.
My accent would fall on your penultimate sentence concerning ` the interaction averse time in which we live`. I would say that a certain insouciance and nonchalance of outward behaviour is very much
de rigeur among young women of this time. It is, however, very much an act. To to be charitable about it, it could well be a self-protective response to the fall out from the Me Too Movement et al, which has ensured that pretty much all male-female interactions have become problematic.(
No, let's not go there again!)
I think you might find that if you yourself are the one who does the greeting - politely and respectfully, ofcourse - you might be able to break through the shield of ice surrounding you. After all, the onus has always been on the man to make the move with these things. Ironically, that's even more the case now in these supposedly equalised times.
I also want to add, in the interests of perspective, that the `invisibility` that an older man sometimes feels is almost certainly nothing like the equivalent that must be experienced by a once much sought after young woman who has lost her `glow`. That I can scarcely imagine.