COVID-19 caused the disruption of major economic, educational and political institutes. It also provided the opportunity for the development of existing problems with regards to older adults – ageism. A certain trend emerged among youths that brought the vulgar discourse on social media platforms – hashtag #BoomerRemover (Fraser et al., 2020). It stemmed from the growing mortality rates from COVID-19 among older generations which is considered as the natural outcome by the said youths (Fraser et al., 2020). It also has an implication to boost the morale of healthy younger adults that might consider the pandemic as an insignificant threat to their health (Fraser et al., 2020). Therefore, careful improvement of public messaging with regards to the spread of disease, pandemic, or disaster needs to be done to mitigate the growing exclusion of older adults. Education and reevaluation of ethical practices that create such perceptions of the age-dependent value of life might become the solution for ageism.
Numerous studies addressed ageism in the modern era, but little is known about the effectiveness of ageism mitigation programs. The research by Brunes et al. (2019) addresses the issues and provides a literature meta-analysis to provide a more feasible solution to the problem. The study concluded that ageism effects could be significantly reduced through education, intergenerational contact, and the combination of two practices (Brunes et al., 2019). The effectiveness of such interventions proved to be larger among females and adolescents, and young adult groups (Brunes et al., 2019). As a result, it is evident that careful introduction of ageism among youths and proper educational seminars or curriculum could possibly reduce the scope and prevent further development of the issue.
Ageism is a form of prejudice that can have a significant economic implication. The article by Levy et al. (2018) demonstrated that ageism could be attributed to $63 billion spent on healthcare annually. This sum consists of three negative impacts of ageism with regard to stereotype embodiment theory. These impacts are age discrimination, negative age stereotypes about the elderly, and negative self-perceptions of aging with 11.1, 28.5, 33.7 billion dollars of excess costs, respectfully. Ageism was found to be responsible for 17.04 million cases of declined healthcare conditions. The study builds a strong case for large-scale interventions as it is necessary to address these economic implications. Reduction of ageism-related elderly hospitalization may reduce the costs of elderly medical assistance programs and life quality. Therefore, the study may point to the governmental interest in addressing the life of aged people by building necessary infrastructure and institutes to facilitate the change.
The representation of the elderly within the digital space may partially contribute to the development of visual ageism. The analysis of Ivan et al. (2020) on the presence of ageism in visual digital media demonstrates that there are existing practices that underrepresent and/or misrepresent people of age. The study implies that the establishment of communication policies incorporated by designing for dynamic diversity could resolve the issue on digital platforms (Ivan et al., 2020). The authors suggest that the introduction of visual communication rights for older people might elevate the effects of the current trends (Ivan et al., 2020). In particular, the collaboration between content makers and the elderly to create realistic and unprejudiced materials (Ivan et al., 2020). Furthermore, the authors recommend advocating for the rights of senior people to have a voice in the way they are visually represented and empowering them to have an influence over images representing the elderly (Ivan et al., 2020). This study addresses a specific sector of ageism and involves a feasible introduction of institutions to protect the rights of vulnerable senior age groups.
References
Burnes, D., Sheppard, C., Henderson, C. R., Wassel, M., Cope, R., Barber, C., & Pillemer, K. (2019). Interventions to reduce ageism against older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.American Journal of Public Health, 109(8).
Fraser, S., Lagacé, M., Bongué, B., Ndeye, N., Guyot, J., Bechard, L., Garcia, L., Taler, V., Andrew, M., Bayly, M., Bethell, J., Chasteen, A., Elliot, V., Herron, R., Itzhak, I., Kortzman, A., Maxwell, C., McGilton, K., Middleton, L., … Tougas, F. (2020). Ageism and COVID-19: What does our society’s response say about us?Age and Ageing, 49(5), 692–695.
Ivan, L., Loos, E., & Tudorie, G. (2020). Mitigating visual ageism in digital media: Designing for dynamic diversity to enhance communication rights for senior citizens. Societies, 10(4), 76.
Levy, B. R., Slade, M. D., Chang, E.-S., Kannoth, S., & Wang, S.-Y. (2018). Ageism amplifies cost and prevalence of health conditions. The Gerontologist, 60(1), 174–181.