experience of age

All of us have moved from our hometowns to bigger cities looking for better career and thus seeking a better life and future. With the move, comes a new city, new people, new neighbours, new workplace and new colleagues. In new place we tend to make friends with people with something in common, either they are from the same apartment building or from the workplace...most of the time apart from the obvious commonality, there are some more common traits we share, that is our education background, the family income, the basic materialistic aspirations, the nature of workplace, the age group....because of this something which has struck me really hard is this ...we have stopped growing...i was looking at a gathering of people for lunch in one of the posh neighbourhood and suddenly i felt as if people in the age group of mid 30s to 40s were looking like and acting as if they are in their late 20s. they looked like as if they are living in time wrap and the growth stopped for them.
In a traditional society one stays in a set up where people are both young and old. there is constant interaction among the family members and just by the virtue of being a family, the house hold has grandparetns, parents, children, visiting aunts or neighbours, servants who stay closeby and are a part of any family gatherings, functions and festivals. This leads to a rich experience sharing among people thus all the person of household are growing all the time and this is not conscious learning but something which just happens and is taken for granted and thus not even realised.
But for a longtime i have this feeling that this essential part of growth for all of us have stopped.