The assumptions about older people that *bleep* us off
New NSA research delves into the offensive, contradictory, and sometimes hilarious assumptions our society makes about older people.
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Which is worse? The assumption that you’re bad with digital technology because you’re over 50? Or the assumption that you’re good at it because you’re young at heart?
How about the assumption that you need to sit down on the bus because you’re old, versus the assumption that you’re okay to stand because age doesn’t matter?
The latest report from the NSA Research Team reveals that all these and more are among the ageist assumptions we love to hate.
Our 2024 National Seniors Social Survey asked older Australians if there were assumptions society makes about older people that particularly annoyed them.
Over 2,000 people responded with a comment. During our analysis we were able to sort these into a few thematic groups.
The key to Sandy’s success
National Seniors Australia (NSA) member Sandy Lindeman is living proof that age is no barrier and Experience Matters.
At 78, Sandy has just been offered a job with the National Association for Loss and Grief (NALAG). She has been volunteering with the organisation one day a week, and they decided they wanted her to continue doing that in a paid capacity.
Sandy was uncertain and asked if they were sure they wanted “someone my age who sometimes has trouble hearing and wears a hearing aid”. The response was, “We don’t want someone, we want you.”
“I’m surprised and a bit humbled by it,” says Sandy, who retired 11 years ago after working in counselling roles, with families, homeless youth, and school students.
Her secret to being in touch and in demand?
“Ever since I retired, I have always kept studying,” she says. “I love learning.”
One theme among the comments was assumptions about older people’s bodies and brains.
These ranged from the assumption that we are all frail and incapable, to the assumption that we can still do everything we did when we were younger.
The reality is that older people are extremely diverse. While some of us are sharper and fitter than ever, others among us do need support and consideration.
For example, one person objected to the assumption that “Old people are slow and not as good workers as young people”, while another wrote, “I feel that society is impatient with the slowness of older people”.
The contradictions in the age-based assumptions out there are evidence of how ridiculous it is to assume anything about us, as a group of people.
Another theme involved assumptions about older people’s value, lifestyle, and outlook.
Under this umbrella come the assumptions that when we reach a certain age we are “past our use by date” with no value, that we have no life and don’t do anything fun or interesting, and that we are stuck in the mud and hate change.
Commenters vigorously refuted these assumptions, for example reminding the world that they make an “enormous unpaid contribution [to] society and economy”, “still want to be a punk rocker”, or have “had a lifelong history of protest” and therefore love change.
Conversely, commenters also objected to assumptions that older people should be obliged to do stuff all the time. Many of us enjoy our post-retirement time-out, even if others don’t find our lives interesting, and that should be accepted too.
A third theme switched gears from assumptions about ageing people in general to assumptions made about the current generations of older people. In particular, it was common for these comments to reference assumptions about Baby Boomers.
Predominant in this theme were assumptions that older Australians are stuck in the conservative values of the Menzies era, that we are a drain on the public purse or else hoarding all the wealth, and generally that Boomers suck in all the ways.
To counter these assumptions, many people shared their stories of their progressive values, or of struggling financially throughout their lives through no fault of their own – despite being part of the Baby Boomer generation.
As one wrote, “I’m sick and tired of listening and reading about the RICH and GREEDY Baby Boomers. We also started work when there was NO equal pay for equal work and if women worked in the public service and became pregnant and/or married, they had to resign from their jobs. If women were single they did not accumulate much super. I’m so angry that I worked my arse off for years and all I’ve got is a one-bedroom unit with associated fees [and] less than $50,000 in the bank.”
Some people made the point that Boomers are a huge group who shouldn’t be reduced to stereotypes since their ages span two decades.
Others noted not all older people are part of that generation at all. As one said, “They have no idea that there is the Silent Generation, many of which are still alive” – and, of course, some Generation X members are in the NSA age bracket too.
Older people are people in all our glory and horror, and don’t stop being our diverse selves just because we age a bit.
Think about how large our group is. At the 2021 census, people aged 50+ comprised around 9 million people, or more than a third of the Australian population.
Like any other large group, it is full of very different people. We were different from each other when we were 20 and we’re still different now.
As one commenter put it, the assumption that most annoys them is the idea “that everyone between 60 and 100 have the same interests”. Indeed!
Let’s keep reminding ourselves and everyone else that we cannot be so easily boxed.
