Greeting Cars and Ageism
With the recent focus on innovations and the rapid-fire nature of cultural changes, the perception of age has shifted significantly. While elderly people are still mostly seen as generally wise and experienced, age-based discrimination has started to permeate global society. The notion of ageism needs to be removed from the modern global community, which implies addressing the instances of age-related dismissive attitudes.
In the case under analysis, greeting cards for the elderly might be seen as cute jokes at first. However, after the scrutiny of these jokes, one will notice that most of them come at the cost of the elderly and are linked to a range of stereotypes such as bad memory. As a result, instead of subverting stereotypes, these greeting cards encourage and reinforce them. If the jokes in question were voiced by their target audience, the humor in them would have been seen as self-deprecating and, thus would have been deemed acceptable. However, when targeted at a vulnerable group by the people that do not belong to the specified age group, these jokes seem as mean-spirited and supporting the idea of ageism.
Unfortunately, the specified example is only a part of the contemporary culture that dismisses the elderly as the people that have ostensibly lost touch with the modern environment. Numerous Ageism is supported by the entertainment industry, where the elderly are rarely featured as protagonists in movies and TV shows (Breheny & Severinsen, 2018). Thus, the current media representation of the elderly leaves much to be desired. As a result, while each generation has its unique characteristics of ageism, the general idea of refusing to accept the elderly as the audience worth noticing remains the same.
Age and Statistics
To meet the needs of the elderly and provide them with decent care, one should focus on the typical health concerns that the specified demographic has, as well as the factors that lead to the development of these health issues. According to recent studies, hypertension remains one of the primary factors reducing the quality of life among the elderly (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). For this reason, the statistics about hypertension among senior citizens were chosen as the subject of the analysis.
The statistics represent the necessity to provide a strategy for addressing the problem of hypertension among the elderly. The report shows that hypertension was reported as the cause of death among the elderly in 110,112,115 cases (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015, p. 5). Causing an array of comorbid issues and contributing to a rapid decrease in the quality of senior citizens’ lives, hypertension needs to be addressed with the help of both improved medications and innovative therapeutic strategies. Specifically, the lifestyle choices made by the elderly have to be reconsidered to include physical activities.
I find the statistics interesting since it sheds some light on the social factors making the health of senior citizens deteriorate. Although the report does not mention these factors, the lack of family support can be seen as one of the driving forces behind the rise in mortality levels. Once the communication between the elderly and their family members ceases to exist, the former tend to dismiss the recommendations of therapists (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Therefore, the statistics are not surprising, yet it makes one question the current image of the elderly and the idea of communication between different generations. Thus, the numbers mentioned in the report could be improved if the dialogue between the elderly and their younger family members were better. Therefore, promoting communication between senior citizens and their family members is essential.
References
Breheny, M., & Severinsen, C. (2018). Is social isolation a public health issue? A media analysis in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Critical Public Health, 28(4), 484-493.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Deaths: Final data for 2014. Web.