A little respect

Demographic shifts, industrialisation and Covid have all affected our view of ageing.

- BY MARC WILSON

I hope there are perks to getting older. Youth is wasted on the young, as the saying goes. Mainly said by older people, I suspect.

In the 2021 Office for Seniors' Attitudes Towards Ageing report, four in five New Zealanders reported "great respect" for the elderly. Half said that older people were an asset to society. "Only" 10% saw older people as a burden. I wonder how they'll feel when they're old.

New Zealand is a fairly typical Western culture, which means research orthodoxy would suggest we value youth more than we value age. There's quite a lot of research that would support this claim – not to mention social media images of the young and the beautiful. And older folk railing against ageism. At least, it feels as if more folk are railing against ageism than against prejudice towards young people, but maybe I'm not the target demographic.