engleski

No country for old men: five prevalent stereotypes affecting the life of the elderly

When aging became a recognized trend, the overall society, and social sciences, in particular, started to develop negative views of it. Ageism is the most socially “accepted” of all types of prejudice, including sexism, classism, nationalism, and even gender prejudice. Ageism could be defined as language regularly and persistently characterizing older people in negative terms. It is the “stereotype and prejudice leading the discrimination against people based on their age. Ageism marginalizes and excludes older people in their communities and that's the reason why it's a widespread practice that has harmful effects on the health of older adults”. In the wake of the SARS- Cov-2 epidemics, the social media teemed with hostile comments and messages. Especially disturbing has been the use of the term “boomer remover, ” a horrible nickname for COVID-19, most often touted by teenagers self-identified as “Gen-Z” or “Zoomers.” The Google search for “boomer remover” returns 11 400 000 results, most of them referring to the higher mortality rate among Baby Boomers, ie, the people in the 56 to 74 age cohort. Institutional ageism involves the inclusion of age stereotypes and prejudices into formal rules and procedures, affecting the interests of the elderly in the processes of goal establishment and priority setting. WHO published several documents, reports, and guidelines on aging and health, indicating that it is “ready to jettison ageist concepts and champion a more ethical approach” and target ageism as a problematic social and institutional practice. However, WHO itself is not immune to conceptual bias against the elderly.

ageing ; prejudice ; health care ; digitalization

nije evidentirano