MY MAC AND I

My 2016 Mac is 80. Guess what that makes me?

By Bob Djurdjevic

September 16, 2025

I just got a new MacBook Air. My old 2016 Mac barely limped through my 5½-month stay in Serbia. I’m lucky it didn’t give up the ghost entirely. So as soon as I got back, I bought a new one (the story of “how I did it” is yet to come).

Everybody knows technology changes fast, right? But how fast?

You’ve heard the term “internet year.” Ever wondered how many days that is?

There’s no fixed number, of course, but the rapid pace of online change puts an “internet year” at about 40–50 days — roughly 8 times shorter than a calendar year.

You’ve also heard the term “dog years.” Since dogs live about 7 times shorter than humans, a 12-year-old pup is like an 84-year-old man.

So here’s the question: If there are dog years and internet years, what about Mac years?

How old is my 2016 Mac in human years?

I posed that to Google’s AI. Here’s the reply:

“A 9-year-old Apple laptop is roughly equivalent to a 75- to 80-year-old person, retired and no longer able to keep up with the demands of modern life. While it can still perform basic functions, its hardware is several generations out of date and no longer receives the latest software updates.”

So there you have it: my old laptop and I are about the same age! Which begs the question.

Should my wife replace me with a newer model?

Since I’m about to chuck the old Mac and clone everything onto the new one (the process is happening as I write this — see photo), maybe she should consider doing the same?

Of course, not all things younger are better, and not all things older should be scrapped.

Take Donald Trump. Pushing 80, yet he still runs circles around much younger staff when it comes to energy. And is unquestionable the most powerful person on this planet.

Or Clint Eastwood. The Hollywood legend, who never actually lived in Hollywood, is now 95 — and just last year released his latest film, Juror #2.

So maybe this old geezer still has a few redeeming values. After all, didn’t I just build a magnificent house in a strange country under difficult circumstances in record time — and have the scars to show for it? That house will be my “that’ll show them” legacy for decades to come.

Maybe my old Mac and I aren’t so different after all: both a little outdated, a little battered, but still getting the job done. As a top Serbian general used to tell me every time we would meet during the wars of the 1990s, and I asked him the “how are you” question:

“Usable.” (like an old rifle) 😀 

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Can you tell which is which now?

“Usable.” (like an old rifle) 😀