Diversity May Increase with Age, Study Suggests
April 11th, 2010
Among the many social stigmas and stereotypes that pervade modern society, false ideas about the elderly are not always investigated and discussed as others. Hoping to address this issue, a study carried out at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has explored the diversity of people as they age, and has found that differences tend to become more numerous between the seventieth and ninetieth birthdays. The research was based on data from a prior study that followed people over the course of their lifetimes, and suggests that ideas about the homogeneity of the aged population are baseless.
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I’m quite surprised to read this because I always thought the old people are all similar in their lifestyle and behavior…this is something that may tell us that a person becomes what he is in his latter years due to what he has been through in his younger years and that is the reason why there is a difference in all the old people.
I like the idea of being one of a kind when I’m in my twilight years. I intend to be as much trouble as I can get away with because I’m old. :)
We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.- Anais Nin
We’re unique. Age has nothing to do with it.
Why wouldn’t you be unique in your seventies and older? You’ve had your whole life to shape yourself into who you want to be. If you’re not by then, here’s a newsflash: you’ve wasted decades.
I have seen such a divide in the elderly population in my experience. Some are so spry and still full of life while there are others who think that they are doomed. I don’t know where this divide in thought comes from and shows up so much more prevalently in this age group. Perhaps this is the wya these certain people have laways lived but it just seems to manifest itself much more visibly when they hit a certain age. Either way this is info that does not need to be dismissed, because if we can discover what causes this train of thought for some people maybe it will save others from having to experience it.
I believe the diversity in people starts as soon as we take birth…the only thing common in all of us is that we are in our mothers’ womb for 9 months and once we do take birth, although everybody grows up similarly, everything is different…from the growth rate to the height to the education to the traits…we are not the same at all!
i just think the difference is largely between two group – the optimists and the pessimists…within each of these groups, whatever the difference are, they are very small…major difference is in the attitude of the old people…they are either optimists or pessimists about everything.
I have observed that the diversity begins in the early years itself and although it may be more in the studied terms in old years it sure is prevalent all throughout or lives. we are constantly diversifying from our siblings and peers.
Oh I don’t know, I’d like to think that by that time of my life I could just melt into the wallpaper and be content with who I am, different or not. Fairly good health would be sufficient.
You can’t find much diversity when you look at younger groups such as teens because they’ve yet to live their lives to the full. Getting older doesn’t mean you can be lumped in with everyone else in your age groups and classed as the same when you’ve all lived very individual lives.
I don’t think you’re any less unique just because you get older. If anything it makes sense that you’re more unique. You’ve a lifetime of experiences and lessons under your belt.
I find older people are so much more interesting because of precisely that. They have tales to tell of times and ways of life we’ve forgotten. I’d sooner spend time with an eighty year old than a thirty year old.
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