… Earlier this year, the University of Michigan in conjunction with AARP reported the findings of its National Poll on Healthy Aging, which described how those of us ages 50 to 80 (for the record, I am 60-plus) are bombarded with negative and hostile stereotypes.
These include dismissive quips about older people not properly using a smartphone or social media, jokes about us losing our memory or hearing, and the proliferation of “anti-aging” messages in advertising, to name just a few. The poll examined older adults’ experiences with nine different forms of ageism, which fall into three buckets: exposure to ageist messages (like advertising), ageism in interpersonal relationships (what friends or family say) and internalized ageism (negative beliefs we absorb). CONTINUED
Steven Petrow, Washington Post