Can you give some examples of ageism in modern society?
Birthday parties decorated with black balloons and crepe paper, cards that make fun of getting old.
• Praising seniors by comparing them to younger people, saying, “You look good for your age” or “You’re young at heart.”
• Phrases like “You’re still… [dancing, driving, going to the gym, wearing a special style]” or going negative and saying, “You’re too old to do those things.”
• Describing unimportant forgetfulness as a “senior moment.”
• Doctors, waiters, and others address younger companions or senior children about an older person’s issues and requests.
• Health care and social-service providers patronize older people, undertreating, overtreating, or overmedicating them.
• Assuming older people doing things linked with younger people (mild cursing, having or referring to sex) is adorable or surprising and then using patronizing language describing it.
• Name-calling: geezer, gramps, old fart, dirty old man, little old lady, old bag, biddy, old fogey.
• Lying about your age for concern of negative thoughts or staying “39” year after year.
• Thinking that young people are computer geniuses and seniors are technologically inept.
• Discussions of the “silver tsunami” that accuses older people of economic and social challenges.
Institutional ageism, which occurs when an organization perpetuates ageism through its actions and policies
• Interpersonal ageism, which happens in social relations
• Internalized ageism is when a person incarnates ageist views and applies them to themselves.
Some examples of ageism in the workplace include:
• Rejecting to employ people over or under a specific age
• Requesting for someone’s age at a job interview when it is not pertinent to the work
• Passing policies that unfairly privilege one age group over another
• Regarding older people as out of touch, less productive, or stuck in their ways
• Viewing younger people as unskilled, reckless, or dishonest
• Bullying or harassment
Examples of Ageism in personal relationships include:
• Behaving family members as if they are invisible, thoughtless, or expendable based on their age
• Telling ageist jokes that indicate someone is less valuable or less deserving of respect, based on their age
• Making offensive generalizations about a distinct generation, e.g., that millennials are entitled
• Overlooking someone’s concerns or wishes due to their age
• Exploiting someone’s age for personal benefits, such as to make money
• Using someone’s age as a reason to undermine, trick, or control them
Examples of Ageism in healthcare
• Infantilizing patients
• Untrue perception of ageing
• Less care, attention, and therapy
• Lower levels of health
• Coercion and roughness
As a senior, I’m subjected to ageism every day. Most of them occur in my family. My grandchildren think I know nothing about technology and smartphones. They always tease me and behave aggressively. The family, the neighbours, and the whole society always suppress me; because they consider me useless and senile. Whenever I decide to try something new, I hear, “you’re too old for such things.”, ” it’s funny; you’re still young at heart.” It’s so sad. I wish they were aware of their destructive behaviours.
Nowadays, ageism can be found everywhere and in every culture. It’s a complex combination of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination based on one’s age, affecting everyone’s life quality regardless of their age. As soon as a child becomes old enough to make sense of their emotions, they use their culture’s defined stereotypes to show their feelings and behave in specific and different ways around people of different ages.
One of the most common types of ageism is against older people in which youngsters exclude them from most of their shared activities and won’t be as friendly with them as they are with other youngsters. Of course, the opposite also exists. Most elders don’t think much of a youngster’s opinion, and they are convinced that youngsters can’t comprehend things as well as them before the first contact. Ageism isn’t limited to socializing. We can see its impact on many things such as politics, hiring, problem-solving, etc. There’s a set minimum age for people who want to vote in all countries and another set minimum age for those who wish to become candidates.
Another form of ageism that most people don’t think about is self-ageism which happens when people define specific qualities, actions, and lifestyles for a set range of age and build a list of expectations from each age group in their mind. This way, they go through each age group and limit themselves with the defined list of the age group they’re considered in currently.
And through all the things related to ageism, people’s view of themselves and other generations changes and prevents society from benefiting from what all ages have to contribute in any field.
