scholarly journals Computer And Internet Uses Among Elderly Population: Adding Activity And Quality To Life

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Kamal ◽  
Godavari D. Patil
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Font Size ◽  
Aged People ◽  
Computer Literate ◽  
Older Citizens

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Activity theory suggests that except for the inevitable changes in biology and health, older people are the same as middle-aged people with essentially the same psychological and social needs. In this view, decreased social interaction that characterizes old age results from the withdrawal of society from the aging person. Our study suggests that a large percentage of older citizens are computer literate, use Internet on a regular basis and b</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">elieve that lack of basic computer skills is a disadvantage<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. Various activities ranging from email and chat on the Internet to surfing the net for useful information are common. We conclude that computer uses among older population adds value to their life.</span></span></span></p>

scholarly journals Stereotypes of Old Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 69-88
Author(s):  
Christiane Monteiro Machado ◽  
Jorge Pedro Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Older People ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Ageing Process ◽  
The Media ◽  
Advertising Spending ◽  
Negative Stereotyping

Ageing, more than a demographic phenomenon (a consolidated process in Europe, still a recent one in Brazil), is a social construction influenced by the media. Advertising, which simultaneously reflects and contributes to the construction of social values, uses stereotypes as a tool for creating easily identifiable characters. This study aims at identifying aspects explored by advertising messages using stereotypes to portray older people. The sample consists of nineteen pieces selected from more than 4,500 posts on Facebook and Youtube by the ten companies with the largest advertising spending in Brazil from July 2017 to June 2018. Among the 104 pieces that feature elderly people, nineteen did use stereotypes. In twelve of them, positive stereotypes, always related to longlife accumulated experience, while seven included negative traits, such as elderly people losing touch with reality, having difficulties with technology, poor social interaction, physical impairements, or old-fashioned clothing. Negative stereotyping reflects an outdated perspective of the ageing process.

An Age-Based Mobilisation: The Emergence of Old Age in American Politics

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Elman
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Models ◽  
Shape Characteristics ◽  
To Receive

AbstractOlder people became a highly visible force in the American politics of the 1930s. The Townsend organisation mobilised one tenth of the U.S. elderly population prior to their direct representation in the polity as an interest group. This article utilises several theoretical social movement models to analyse how and why mobilisation occurred. It demonstrates that many factors, including phenomena associated with the social dimension of age, influenced the mechanisms of mobilisation and the movement's shape. Characteristics of this cohort of older people, including its size, life expectancy, spatial distribution, shared traditions, and symbolic frameworks were conducive to club formation and mobilisation. The period event of the Depression also triggered collective action, by exacerbating trends of changing old-age institutional supports. But the organisation expanded most where it channelled inducements to participants and evoked the cohorts' symbolic frameworks and ideals. Mobilisation also occurred within a political environment, the national stage of U.S. politics, where non-represented interest groups (such as elderly people) find it difficult to receive benefits.

scholarly journals Agencements of Reanimation: Facilitating an Active Old Age through Danish Co-Creation Initiatives

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aske Juul Lassen
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Active Aging ◽  
Institutional Barriers ◽  
Older Volunteers ◽  
Health Promotion Programs ◽  
Older Citizens ◽  
European Welfare States

Contemporary healthy and active aging policies coincide with new forms of governance in European welfare states promoting active citizenship, which in Denmark has been termed “co-creation.” As active aging and co-creation policies go hand in hand, new forms of health promotion programs and public-private collaborations emerge. This article centers on two initiatives that target older people in two Danish municipalities: a local COPD-choir in Vordingborg and the local department in Ishøj of the (inter)national Cycling without Age association. The municipalities take on the assignment of reanimating old age through such initiatives, by challenging the institutional barriers of the municipality. The article describes how co-creation is a redistribution of agency in the European welfare states and how older volunteers are called upon to participate in the organization of municipal initiatives, while at the same time these initiatives come with pre-fixed definitions of “good” old age. The article explores the co-creation initiatives as indicative of the agencements (Çalışkan and Callon 2010) of reanimation that endeavor to revive old age and subjectivise older people as active citizens. While such agencement involves health promotion, this article argues that the aim of initiatives is instead to engage older citizens, and hence to facilitate an active old age.

A multidimensional scale for the measurement of agreement with age stereotypes and the salience of age in social interaction

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREAS KRUSE ◽  
ERIC SCHMITT
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Age Stereotypes ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Stratified Sample

This paper presents a new scale for the assessment of the salience of age in social interaction and of levels of agreement with four age stereotypical assertions, about the characteristics of people in the ‘third age’ and the ‘fourth age’, about older people's social roles and social participation, and about the problems for society produced by population ageing. The scale was constructed by testing the agreement of a national sample of 804 German respondents aged 41–84 years with over 60 item-statements in two pilot studies. The final scale has 24 items, and was tested using a stratified sample of 1,275 subjects aged 40–75 years. Five postulated subscales were confirmed using principal components analysis: ‘age salience’ in social interaction, old age as a time of ‘developmental gains and potentials of development’, old age as a time of ‘developmental losses and risks of development’, ‘the social downgrading of older people’, and believing that ‘older people are a burden on society’. For age stereotypes and age salience, no significant sex differences were found, but those aged 58–64 years held more optimistic views about old age and population ageing than both the younger and the older age groups (with no differences between the latter). Moreover, age stereotypes and age salience varied by several social-economic variables, particularly occupational status, the rate of unemployment in the region of residence, and being resident in the eastern or western part of Germany. No significant interactions between age group and sex were found for any of the five subscales.

Seniors Online: Attitudes Toward the Internet and Coping With Everyday Life

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Seifert ◽  
Hans Rudolf Schelling
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
The Internet ◽  
High Affinity ◽  
And Coping

Many older people do not use the Internet. We investigated the attitudes of older people who do (onliners) or do not (offliners) use the Internet, to assess their views of the Internet and whether they see the Internet as a resource for coping with everyday life situations. Participants aged ≥65 years ( N = 1,037), living in Switzerland, were interviewed in a telephone survey. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted. The data show (a) many of the respondents viewed the Internet as useful, in general, and for coping with everyday life situations; (b) onliners saw more positive aspects of the Internet than did offliners; and (c) among onliners, 53% agreed with the statement, “The Internet allows me to stay independent longer into old age.” However, it appears that especially older onliners with a high affinity for technology will presumably use the Internet to cope with everyday life.

Role of Rasayana in Geriatric Care - A Review

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yagyik Mishra ◽  
Negalur Vijay ◽  
Thakor Krunal ◽  
Bhat Nagaraj ◽  
Shubhasri B.
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Geriatric Care ◽  
The Body ◽  
Psychological Improvement

The growth of any country or society depends on the number of youth dwelling in that country but according to recent statistical data we soon will have older people more than children and more people at extreme old age than ever before. The number of people aged 65 or older is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion in 2050. Geriatrics (Jarachikitsa) is the branch of medicine dealing exclusively with the problems of aging and the diseases of elderly. The term Rasayana (rejuvination) refers to nourishment or nutrition. Rasayana therapy act essentially on nutrition dynamics and rejuvenate the body on both physical and mental levels. The problems of health due to modernization can be solved by increasing resistance against diseases and psychological improvement by implementing Rasayana therapy. Aging (Jara) is one among the Swabhavika Vyadhis. Jara Chikitsa is one among the Astanga of Ayurveda which is specifically dedicated for geriatric care. As per estimation, India currently has around 75 million persons over 65 years. By proper administration of Rasayana therapy as preventive tool one can delay Jara Janita Vyadhis to occur. This paper highlights the role of Rasayana in geriatric care.

Older people’s news dependency and social connectedness

2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110064
Author(s):  
Caroline Fisher ◽  
Sora Park ◽  
Jee Young Lee ◽  
Kate Holland ◽  
Emma John
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
News Media ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Older Citizens

Social isolation has become a growing issue, particularly among older citizens. The ‘digital divide’ has been identified as one of the contributing factors leaving many older citizens behind. While increasing digital literacy among seniors has been identified as one of the remedies, less attention has been paid to the role of news media on the wellbeing and connectedness of older people. Through the lens of the uses and gratifications theory, this article reports on the findings of a survey of 562 news consumers aged 50 years and above who live in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The analysis highlights the important role of news in reducing feelings of social isolation, particularly for those who spend more time alone and older people with cognitive impairment. Older participants who had difficulty concentrating and learning new tasks were also more dependent on news. We suggest this is due to the habitual, predictable and concise nature of news. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of news in the wellbeing of older people and point to the need for policymakers and those in the aged care sector to ensure access to news for older citizens to improve the quality of life.

The ‘loneliness pandemic’: implications for gerontological nursing

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 652-655
Author(s):  
Carlos Laranjeira
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Gerontological Nursing

The COVID-19 pandemic compelled states to limit free movement, in order to protect at-risk and more vulnerable groups, particularly older adults. Due to old age or debilitating chronic diseases, this group is also more vulnerable to loneliness (perceived discrepancy between actual and desired social relationships) and social isolation (feeling that one does not belong to society). This forced isolation has negative consequences for the health of older people, particularly their mental health. This is an especially challenging time for gerontological nursing, but it is also an opportunity for professionals to combat age stereotypes reinforced with COVID-19, to urge the measurement of loneliness and social isolation, and to rethink how to further adjust interventions in times of crisis, such as considering technology-mediated interventions in these uncertain times.

scholarly journals The media image of Chinese older people: From stigmatic stereotype to diverse self-representation

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110125
Author(s):  
Kun Li
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Media Image ◽  
Past Life ◽  
The Media ◽  
Leisure And Recreation ◽  
Chinese Older People

From the perspective of communication and media studies, this article explores a comparison between the image of older adults presented on media and online self-representation facilitated by the use of smartphones. The qualitative textual analysis was conducted with a sample (228 posts, from 1 January to 31 December,2019) selected from a representative WeChat Public Account targeting at older adults in China. The results demonstrate that leisure and recreation is the most frequently mentioned topic (58%) with memories of past life receiving the least references (3%). The striking features of popular posts among older people include a highly emotional tone, bright colours and multimedia. Sentiment analyses shows 68.42%, 13.16% and 18.42% of positive, neutral and negative emotions, respectively. A generally positive attitude of self-representation is in a sharp contrast with the stigmatic media image of older adults. The article concludes that the visibility of Chinese older people may help to reduce the stigma surrounding old age in China.

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