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Aging in the Media

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Aging in the Media

The issue of aging has been differently displayed in social media platforms, including in

movies, books, TV programs, and comedies among and society has developed varying

stereotypes on ageism. Aging people display distinct emotional and mental behaviors, which

may sometimes be different from that of the youths and the mid-aged people and the children, in

understanding the cognitive concept in older people, including the connection between

intelligence and aging, memory, and learning. Further, older adulthood is built on personality

theories and factors that enhance resilience and positive aging (Hooyman et al., 2015). However,

the older generation is vulnerable to specific forms of mental disorders, risk factors, and a cure

for some of these diseases, such as COPDs, Diabetes, and oral diseases.

Aging portrays a negative relationship with cognitive functions, with research indicating

that older people display lower performance levels compared to younger people. Many

intelligence tests old people administer indicate a "classic aging pattern" of the score. That is

lower effectiveness on performance tests of expertise like perceptual speed but steady scores on

tests to do with verbal scales. With age, the speed and frequency of cognitive processing, such as

calculating simple math, declines. However, high scorers in tests tend to display better results

even at older ages. Other factors apart from age impacting intelligence include occupation,

education, biological factors, and anxiety on test performance.

However, physical health, nutritional deficits, keenness in recalling situations involving

uncertainty and risk, and nearness to death impact the older population's thinking capacity and

performance levels. However, individuals undergo various level personality theories throughout

the life cycle. People in their last stages of life oppose the task of "ego integrity versus despair."

People look back and evaluate their past, and often those who are well with their past do not
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doubt the inevitability of death, hence experiencing ego. Despair results from not accepting the

truth in mortality (Hooyman, 2014). Generativity involves the willingness to mentor and help the

youth and trolling to retain a legacy among the rising generation, helping elderly people to

achieve higher ego integrity. People involved in social welfare programs involving socializing

have longer lives.

Further, life review, a form of cognitive therapy aiming to aid the aging population to

achieve ego integrity, promotes the performance levels and healthy lives of the aging population.

Life review enables people to share their experiences and memories with others, building on life

satisfaction or the feeling or the thinking that life is worth living and enjoying it. Dispositions

like being pessimistic/ optimistic, introverted, or extroverted define and distinguish us (Hooyman

et al., 2015). However, "the socio-emotional selectivity theory, SST" explains the paradox in

older people citing that the emotional well-being of elders is better than that of young adults.

This is because elderly people are always are of their mortality period, noting that they have

limited time. As a result, they tend to seek emotional satisfaction without attaining more

information.

Aging people, in most cases, would show emotional consistency, and they avoid

aggressiveness since they are not in the process of learning as opposed to the youth adults. An

elderly person will just need to share their memories and experiences, and this is why I like

visiting my grandparents so often since they have a lot to share. Encouraging older people to be

engaging in storytelling maintains their emotional positions and therefore portrays a great level

of performance in various tests which involve reading and writing ( Hooyman et al., 2014).

However, positive dispositions such as extroversion and optimism positively impact older people

and may show better performances than introverts and pessimists.

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Question Two

Often, two-thirds of news stories examined portray older people in an unfortunate way,

painting a dark picture of aged people as being victims, having ill-health and existing as a

burden, and too much dependency on society. Even optimistic stories mostly include orientation

to negative insolences and typically aid frame a positive theme on ageism only to reinforce

negative stereotypes (Hooyman, 2014). However, some media channels have portrayed the old

generation's positive and negative assumptions. In many media platforms, old people appear

underrepresented as they are seen as inferiors.

I watched an advertisement program that focused on cosmetics promoting younger skins

and a moisturizer with anti-wrinkle formula and a significantly developed dye to hide the grey

hair. While we tend to have grown habituated to the products, and likely we do not think twice

about their existence, the marketing strategy of such products is explicitly ageist (Sorrell, 2021).

The idea that we all want to hide any signs and showings that we are aging convenes the negative

stereotype that aging is not good since it is normal and natural.

Older adults also have engaged in stereotypical counter activities which promote their

public perception of their limited capabilities, making them a staple of human interest in TV

news and newspaper sections. From a movie called "The Big Chill," we build a positive

perception of ageism as an old woman jumps out of a moving plane. Similarly, other women

engage in marathons, cycling across the Rocky Mountains and climbing Mt. Everest, and getting

shot out of the canons portraying their majesty and potential (Sorrell, 2021). I watched a story of

an old American woman who is now 102 years and who started volunteering for charity work at
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a nearby health center at the age of 94 years and believes that kindness and compassion help her

live longer. The old lady is also shown running 100M at a time limit of 11 seconds and being the

first American woman in history. This gives a positive and great portrayal of older people in the

media. I was so pleased to see old players such as Didier Drogba, Thierry Henry, and

Ronaldinho play a solidarity match that promoted charity among the community.

The textbook teaches that generativity involves interacting with other people and

especially the younger generations, sharing experiences and memories, and therefore achieving

higher ego integrity. The old woman, 102 years, can interact positively and engage in social

work, which she holds that, through her kindness, she can live longer. On the contrary, we

develop the feeling against ageism from advertisements that use new moisturizers to suppress

natural factors of age. Through this, we violate the assertions of an aging community and try to

treat them as if they are not part of our community.

The media gives a great portrayal of what they display through movies, Tv shows, books,

article contents concerning the feature group. It would be essential to see more videos and Tv

programs promoting the participation of old people in the community and showing them as the

pioneers of where we are and in what we are doing. If we could see more media content

featuring old players, old singers, aging politicians, among other forgotten groups performing,

we could be convinced of their importance in building our community (Stevens, 2016). The

advertisement in moisturizer and dyes should be revised, and the right content should be used

instead. Media content should review what our aging population achieved in the days, and

therefore we build a positive image in them.

The media is overtly negative on the aging population and perceives them as of less use

impact to the society and turning everything to more youth like. The media gives a poor timing
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effect on the aged and should not be used as a foundation for displaying the weakness and

inferiority of the group and isolating them down there at the expense of retirees.

References

Hooyman, N. R. (2014). Social and health disparities in aging: Gender inequities in long-term

care. Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, 38(4), 25-32.

Hooyman, N. R., Kawamoto, K. Y., & Kiyak, H. A. (2014). Aging matters: An introduction to

social gerontology. Pearson Higher Ed.

Hooyman, N. R., Kawamoto, K. Y., & Kiyak, H. A. (2015). Aging Matters.

Sorrell, J. M. (2021). Aging Matters Through the Years: A Retrospective. Journal of

psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 59(10), 7-11.

Stevens, R. P. (2016). Aging matters: Finding your calling for the rest of your life. Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing.