Each and every day, about 360,000 babies are born while about another 150,000 people die. From the moment we are born until the moment of our death, we are aging. This idea may be the reason for our usage of the term “old” when we describe someone’s age, whether it’s one-day old, 100 years old or anywhere in between. To me, the term “old” does not necessarily describe someone as being of old age. Depending on the context though, “old” can be used to describe someone who is above a certain age, someone who is beginning to lose their memory or even someone who has gray hair. In our daily lives, we may only think that we coin the word old by identifying an “old man” or “old woman”, however we even use the word to describe our own age. Old just …show more content…
Our wisdom will eventually be passed on to our children and our children’s children, until one day we are only a memory, but until then, we are only aging. Becoming older isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While it may mean that we will begin to loss our hair, our eyesight or even our youthful good looks, becoming old also means we become better versions of ourselves each day, which is something that I truly value. As my grandmother has said before, “I may be old, but I don’t feel old and that’s all that matters.” One may be of old age, but that doesn’t mean they need to consider themselves old. Aside from this, we each have our own definition of what old is. In reality, however, we all have a different definition and age in mind of what we consider old to be. As we age our idea of old may continue to …show more content…
Some people act older than they actually are and some people act younger than their age. Age is just a number and while there may be standards of how we should look, act and dress at certain ages, we are not all the same person and therefore will not have the same outcomes as each
world tends to let the decrepit fade out of existence. It is also about the stereotypical sense of older means wiser, which is
The older person that I interviewed was my great-grandfather, Kay Wilson. He is eighty-three years old and is currently retired, living at home. Wilson was born on February 27, 1934 and raised in Sylacauga, AL by his mother. His father was not active in his life, but his grandparents were his main caretakers growing up.
are old.” Individuals should have some understanding of the of what the term ageism but maybe
In my opinion I don’t think of 75 as old. In fact, I don’t think any age is “old” In fact I don’t think there should be average age limit in today’s society. So instead of age what do you use to determine if someone is old? I think that people’s health should reflect their “age” or how old they are. For example, to figure out someone’s health, you can ask question such as, are they still active, eating healthy, and are the cognitive skills still on point? Only when people start to stray from those requirements, and start to have deteriorated health, or the call themselves old, do I think that we then can say they are old. If they don’t meet that criteria however, then they are not old.
Aging affects every individual and is inevitable, despite our valiant attempts to prevent it. The aging process beings the moment of conception however some can argue it begins at birth. The process of aging is heavily impacted by health, genetics and environmental factors. As people age we have to become accustom to the changes associated with life. The question becomes what changes happen and how? Although we cannot predict what will happen to us we can work to prevent specific things from happening by living healthier lives.
The term “ageism” is not easily understood by most of the population because of its acceptance as normal behavior due to the ingrained attitudes that most people develop in their youth, but health care workers must fully embrace the term within their profession in order to avoid becoming a contributor to the historical prevalence of prejudices and discrimination. The term ageism is defined by Klein and Liu (2010) as “the discrimination of individuals based solely on age” (p. 334). “Ageism is a social construct that is internalized in the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals” (Klein & Liu, 2010, p. 334). Robert Butler, a well-known gerontologist, coined the term “ageism” citing that the discrimination and prejudice associated with this term is often based on the lack of a person’s experience with older people (Ferrini & Ferrini, 2013, p. 6). Ferrini and Ferrini (2013) refer to the strong influence that cultural beliefs and attitudes as well as a person’s current age influence the perception of aging (p. 6). Everywhere within society there are influences that encourage ageist attitudes such as media conveyances through movies, books, television, greeting cards, magazines and the Internet (Ferrini and Ferrini, 2013, p. 6). These negative connotations related to growing older begin to influence all people at a very young age and therefore impact their attitudes as they make career decisions. This has directly impacted the number of health care providers who specialize in geriatrics as well as the attitudes of those who do provide services for older adults. These false perceptions and negative attitudes are currently impacting the q...
Adults entering the midlife years (middle adulthood) are experiencing an overabundance of life changes. Hall, Hernandez, Wong, and Justice (2015) stated that, during middle adulthood important changes occur across the physical, cognitive, and social domains of development. There is a mounting amount of research on the changes that middle-aged adults experience. One of the most unexplored factor that middle-aged adults experience is Ageism. Ageism can be defined as the act of being prejudice or discriminative towards a specific age group. Although, Ageism can occur at any given place and in any age group. Research shows that it is more prevalent in older adults,
The elderly vary in their feelings and attitudes about growing older. A member of the older community shared that the worst thing about growing old is that there is not much future in it. However, she looks on the bright side and comments
Personally, I can try to understand what it means to age in our society by learning about social gerontology and looking into the different aging perspectives, but at the end of the day, I am a twenty-two year old female who has much of my life still ahead of me, I am never going to understand being in an age category that is often times
In today’s society, what was once said to be true and taken as fact regarding older people is no longer the whole story. As Laslett states, “At all times before the middle of the twentieth century and all over the globe the greater part of human life potential has been wasted, by people dying before their allotted time was up.” (1989a), and to a great extent a lot
The thought of aging is not void of hesitance given it produces questions deprived of answers in the absence of a crystal ball. Subsequently, aging parallels the unknown; thus, faced with uncertainty adopting a positive perspective remains elusive. Although, it’s preferred to view aging optimistically one cannot escape its negative connotations. Will I be an active agent or isolated burden remains a noteworthy unknown that enervates my optimism. Another consideration leading to my vacillating view on aging is, not knowing to what degree personal competencies and capacities will carry forward, thereby affording autonomy in the elder years. However, as research suggest, the aging process transforms healthy adults into frail ones; thus, dashing one’s hope that such traits will endure (Friis, 2010). Incidentally, at age 48, these lingering questions will soon be answered. In the interim, there is an inherent responsibility to prepare physically, psychologically, and financially for entry into the aging population. Ideally, the goal is to
Older adults are a very knowledgeable population and have had a lot of life experiences. As people age, things start to change physically, mentally, and socially. It’s important to understand the process of aging, so that older adults can be taken care of properly. I interviewed P.R. who is a 71-year-old male that lives alone in his home. P.R. is a retired coal miner, and is currently living off his social security and savings. He lives close to both his daughter and son, who frequently help him out with things that are needed. P.R. was able to give me a lot of insight about specific challenges that he has experienced in his life that is associated with aging. I will be discussing challenges that P.R experienced physically, mentally,
When elderly people move into the last of life’s eight stages of psychosocial development, they enter the ego-integrity-versus-despair stage. This process is defined by looking back over someone’s life, evaluating it, then accepting it. People who become successful in this stage feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Erikson refers to this acceptance as integrity. This differs from generativity because one is accepting the end of their life, instead of accepting where their life will start in a sense of career and self. However, if one is to look back on their life with dissatisfaction, they may feel they have been cheated or missed opportunities. Such individuals will mostly be depressed or angry about the way life turned out and
A term used for elders is aged, which is having reached a specific age (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.273). Another term used by elders is aging, which means getting older. Some elders live in assisted-living facilities, which provide an alternative to long-term care in a nursing home. They also can live in retirement communities, which are areas that have been specifically developed for those in their retirement years (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.288). For elders, health care is a major issue for them.
Age is but a number. A number that classifies, organizes, and can even define someone. It holds opportunities to learn new things and determines when the path into adulthood begins. The linear notion created by steadily increasing numbers is a very narrow outlook on age. It assumes that as someone grows in age, they are changing both mentally and physically. This, however, is far from the truth. Age is beyond the numbers; it is what lies within. When numbers are disregarded and the qualities attributed to each phase of life is examined, a sequence of repetition can be observed. Instead of growing old, it can be seen as regressing to adolescence. The two outliers of life, infancy and elderly, are far more similar than any numerical value could ever project.