1.) My social sphere sort of lacks elderly people. All four of my grandparents have passed away already. My mom’s parents both live in Sweden, never learned English, and although we did communicate through some broken English and Swedish, both died before I was 10 and since they lived in Sweden, I only met them four times. My dad’s parents were a much bigger part of my life, we saw them from time to time because they lived in Minnesota, but not as much as I would have liked. Throughout high school I volunteered at the nursing home that was next door to our high school. I have to admit, I did it for my college applications, but I can’t say I didn’t learn valuable lessons throughout my experiences. I also played piano for a nursing town in my home town growing up three times a year for many years.
2.) I think that young people and old people are marginalized because we grew up so differently. They grew up in very different households, in comparison to our internet-television-crazed generation. They think we are disrespectful and we think they are ‘old’ and ‘boring’. It gives middle aged people the privilege because people assume its their generation that we are living in, they are the doctors working in hospitals, the lawyers, construction workers, engineers, businessmen etc… Old people are sort of kicked out of the bigger view as they participate less and less, but that doesn’t mean that they do not deserve their own privilege and place in our society.
3.) I think the only way to promote generation integration is to talk about it. People are often comepletely unaware this form of discrimination even exists, as I knew almost nothing about it before giving it deeper thought. We have to challenge the normative stereotypes people place upon different generations, for our generation, our parents, and the elderly. We should all feel like have a place in OUR world.
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