Question

The perceptions about growing older into older adulthood often do not match the realities of being an older adult. Explain some of the myths regarding older adults and some of the realities they often face. Put special emphasis on the social-economic and the physical factors that you have found in your readings and research on this topic. Based on your experiences how would you interpret these myths and realities of older adults? Make sure to justify your answers by citing relevant sources.

Answer 1

On aspects of everyday life ranging from mental sharpness to financial stability to physical dexterity to sexual activity, a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey on aging among a nationally representative sample of 2,969 adults found a substantial gap between the expectations that young and middle-aged adults have about old age and the actual experiences reported by older Americans themselves.

These disparities come into sharpest focus when survey respondents are questioned about a series of negative benchmarks often linked with aging, such as illness, memory loss, an inability to drive, a stop to sexual activity, a struggle with loneliness and depression, and difficulty paying bills. In every instance, older adults report encountering them at lower levels (often far lower) than younger adults report expecting to experience them when they grow old.

Along with that, however, older adults reveal experiencing fewer of the benefits of aging that younger adults expect to enjoy when they grow old, such as spending more time with their family, traveling more for pleasure, having more time for hobbies, doing volunteer work or starting a second career.

These generation gaps in perception also extrapolate to the most fundamental question of all about old age: When does it begin? Survey respondents ages 18 to 29 believe that the average person becomes old at age 60. Middle-aged respondents put the threshold near 70, and respondents ages 65 and above say that the average person does not become old until turning 74.

Other potential indicators of old age–such as forgetfulness, retirement, becoming sexually inactive, experiencing bladder control problems, getting gray hair, having grandchildren–are the subjects of similar perceptual gaps. For instance, approximately two-thirds of adults ages 18 to 29 believe that when someone “frequently forgets familiar names,” that person is old. Less than half of all adults ages 30 and older concur.

However, a few potential markers–failing health, an inability to live independently, an inability to drive, difficulty with stairs–engender agreement across all generations about the degree to which they serve as a marker of old age.

Resource: Pew Research Center