There’s a trend on YouTube at the moment for videos in which older people give advice. They speak directly to camera, frankly and without pretension. One can almost sense the care home staff hovering in the background, coaxing their barely extant charges into making one last testament of their time on Earth. The videos have titles such as ‘Things I’d tell my 30-year-old self’, ‘Harsh realities of being an 85-year-old woman’, ‘A girl and a woman talk about life’, ‘Lessons learned’ and ‘How to deal with loneliness.’  

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The commenters below the videos respond, largely, with gratitude and a surprising lack of trollery. ‘I’m terrified of dying,’ one commenter writes. ‘I fear many things, but nothing scares me as much as death does. I’ve been living a very rough life, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll be in Heaven when I die.’ (Note to editor: this may be Donald Trump.) ‘I miss being young… I suffer from depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, and a variety of health problems.’ Others say: ‘This was one of the best videos I ever saw, I am in tears right now’ or ‘Tell someone you love them, today’ or ‘Oh my goodness this is wonderful. I will share........

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