I really enjoyed this article and will be thinking about how to stop taking the path of least resistance. But I also wonder if we don't expect more of older people than we ever have. Navigating modern life is a challenge for everyone, and we've thrown older people into a bureaucratic nightmare of health insurance changes, constant property tax repeals and un-repeals, and the impossibility of finding transportation when you can no longer drive. Maybe for older people with financial security, life is too easy, but most people don't have financial security.
Interesting article, thank you. As a physically and intellectually active 79-year-old who relishes learning new things, I'm always taken aback when people who don't know me see my wrinkles and/or size (4'10") and make assumptions about what I'm [not] capable of.
Counterpoint: age has always been a hindrance. Always been a liability. Always been a burden. It wasn't that bad, back when it was rare for somebody to live past 30 or 40, but with modern medicine delaying the onset of old age until the 70s or '80s? We now have increasing populations of irrelevant, ignorant, obsolete burdens on society that contribute nothing of value, and never have, while hoarding and wasting resources that would be better used fixing their mistakes.
This pernicious myth that age brings "wisdom" has always been used by the obsolete to justify their parasitism of their superior replacements.
Hang on..why do older people have to live up to what you think is relevant?should people feel shame about not having the latest phone? How does it help to embarrass people about their poor tech skills? Why do older people or any people need to blindly accept controlling and potentially anti democratic technologies just cos they are there? Booking everything online and living more online has advantages of course but it can exclude neurodiverse people and people living in poverty, creating a world of literally contactless transactions.Yes society tells people to give up and they do and I would say that some millenials and younger love love love putting people in boxes and demanding older people adapt rather than utilising their abilities.Staying engaged is not just about embracing new technologies which could all be wiped out by catastrophic climate emergencies.It is about intergenerational connection in workplaces and in communitird and learning from each other and not blindly accepting what our phone tells us.i find young people often ask me for directions but when I point at a street sign or underground directions they can only trust their phone.
You are right about dementia and I think it is over diagnosed.
Perhaps reconsider the use of words like 'elder' and 'senior'.Many older people find them offensive.
I really enjoyed this article and will be thinking about how to stop taking the path of least resistance. But I also wonder if we don't expect more of older people than we ever have. Navigating modern life is a challenge for everyone, and we've thrown older people into a bureaucratic nightmare of health insurance changes, constant property tax repeals and un-repeals, and the impossibility of finding transportation when you can no longer drive. Maybe for older people with financial security, life is too easy, but most people don't have financial security.
Interesting article, thank you. As a physically and intellectually active 79-year-old who relishes learning new things, I'm always taken aback when people who don't know me see my wrinkles and/or size (4'10") and make assumptions about what I'm [not] capable of.
I turned 80 in December, and decided to write a novel.
Counterpoint: age has always been a hindrance. Always been a liability. Always been a burden. It wasn't that bad, back when it was rare for somebody to live past 30 or 40, but with modern medicine delaying the onset of old age until the 70s or '80s? We now have increasing populations of irrelevant, ignorant, obsolete burdens on society that contribute nothing of value, and never have, while hoarding and wasting resources that would be better used fixing their mistakes.
This pernicious myth that age brings "wisdom" has always been used by the obsolete to justify their parasitism of their superior replacements.
Hang on..why do older people have to live up to what you think is relevant?should people feel shame about not having the latest phone? How does it help to embarrass people about their poor tech skills? Why do older people or any people need to blindly accept controlling and potentially anti democratic technologies just cos they are there? Booking everything online and living more online has advantages of course but it can exclude neurodiverse people and people living in poverty, creating a world of literally contactless transactions.Yes society tells people to give up and they do and I would say that some millenials and younger love love love putting people in boxes and demanding older people adapt rather than utilising their abilities.Staying engaged is not just about embracing new technologies which could all be wiped out by catastrophic climate emergencies.It is about intergenerational connection in workplaces and in communitird and learning from each other and not blindly accepting what our phone tells us.i find young people often ask me for directions but when I point at a street sign or underground directions they can only trust their phone.
You are right about dementia and I think it is over diagnosed.
Perhaps reconsider the use of words like 'elder' and 'senior'.Many older people find them offensive.