“There is a real danger that in emphasizing the negative aspects of ageing, and in clinging to stereotypes, we overlook the advantages of having larger numbers than ever before of older people rich in skills and life experience that they can, and do, contribute not only to the economy but also to their families and communities.”
Aging
All over the world, more people are living longer, a triumph of modern medicine. Yet, especially in the U.S., we dread old age because our culture teaches us that aging brings relentless physical and mental decline. It also depicts older people as unhealthy and incompetent—as has-beens, to be pushed out of the workplace, sometimes years before they are ready to retire.The Silver Century Foundation exists to tackle these problems:
- To challenge cultural assumptions about aging and about elders
- To get those assumptions out in the open so that all of us can see them for what they are
- To explore the ways in which our later years can become the most fulfilling time of our life.
Because ageist beliefs about life’s later years are everywhere in our society, we absorb them without thinking. As friends’ birthdays roll around, instead of congratulating them, we sympathize.
Read more...Editor's Choice
The Power of Positive Aging
Your beliefs about aging can affect how long you live. If you assume that the later years of your life will inevitably be a depressing time of physical and mental decline, you’re apt to die about seven years sooner than people who have more positive expectations.
The research that produced this startling finding is the latest in a series of studies led by psychologist Becca R. Levy of Yale University – explorations of the insidious ways in which ageism affects older people. To investigate its impact on longevity, Levy and her colleagues built on data collected in 1975.
In that year, 660 older residents of Oxford, Ohio answered questions about their attitudes toward their own aging. They were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with statements such as, "Things keep getting worse as I get older," Read more...