"We live in a culture that reveres youth. To be young is to be alive, sexy, and full of energy. To be old is to be "senile," "worthless," and having "one foot in the grave"" (Online 1). This is the attitude most often seen in modern society. In general there are at least nine known major stereotypes that reflect prejudice towards senior citizens. These include illness, impotency, ugliness, mental decline, mental illness, uselessness, isolation, poverty and depression (Ageism 20). This "discrimination allows the rest of us to separate ourselves from older people and view them as less than fully human" (Online 1). So how old is old? Where do we draw the line? .
Well, around the 1900's in the United States old age began in one's thirties because the life expectancy was about forty-seven. In today's society younger people define old age as somewhere in the sixties. When people get into their sixties, however, they define old as ten years older than me (Discrimination 6). When it comes to employment old age, there is a slight difference, especially when jobs are tight. Ageism may start at age forty-five or even younger. Companies can usually cut costs by replacing top older workers with younger, cheaper employees. Once fired, workers over the age of forty-five often face permanent employment because of today's ever-changing technology (Discrimination 14). This form of ageism has come to be referred to as economic ageism. Research on ageism has come a long way. It is still relatively problematic, however. The use of primarily younger populations to study ageism represents a problem with ageism research. The bulk of ageism research utilizes children, adolescents, or young adults as subjects and examines their perception of older adults. Only a small amount of studies have examined the views of the population whom the construct affects most, older adults. Those studies, which have used an older subject population, have unfortunately used mainly institutionalized individuals as subjects.
