Learningly

In the competitive world, discrimination has become more prevalent. There is discrimination everywhere and in every possible aspect. Ageism is one kind of discrimination. Classifying a person based on his/her age and meting out treatments accordingly is called age discrimination or more simply, ageism. This is subjective and hence takes a more casual form but there is also some conventional methods of ageism.

Generally, this is of two kinds. (1) One form of ageism is based on prejudice. This involves stereotyping of people that is, failing to analyze the person and grouping them based on their age. This is usually negative. (2) Another form of ageism is discriminating people that is depriving them of opportunities because of their age. While some tend to do this for the safety and the good of the person, some tend to be highly crude.

There are many forms of ageism. People are usually categorized into three kinds: Infants or children, Adults, or Old.

Here are some common examples of ageism one could easily relate to. Jobs are usually denied for aged people. While some eye experience as an asset, others have a prejudice that aged people can’t work effectively. This can more technically be coined as jeunisim in which young and attractive people are given more preference against elderly people irrespective of their potential. Another most common form of ageism is adultism which is biased against adults or youths. One cannot vote unless he/she is eighteen and eligibility of age for appearing for some government examinations are forms of this.

While most of the forms of ageism tend to be negative and harsh, one form of ageism which is soft but unfair is treating older people in a very friendly way but holding them unfit for a purpose. In this, the older people are looked upon with pity and are treated with respect but d opportunities are denied for them. This is called “benevolent prejudice”. The exact opposite of this case is the one in which preferential treatment is meted out to the old given their need for comfort. One common form of this everyone could identify is the concession in railway fares for senior citizens.

Ageism leads to many effects, usually negative. The most affected are people with high potential but lack of age who are denied opportunities. This leads to financial problems for them. Also the stereotyping of older people gives them a mental sick feeling.