Aging  (Page 18/10)

Minority studies: a brief text: part iv—aging

In the mid-19 ^th century, British poet Robert Browning wrote

Grow old along with me / The best is yet to be / The last of time for which the first was made.

Old age begins at age 65 years. The young-old are those from 65 to 75 years old; the old-old are between 76 and 84 years old while the oldest-old are 85 years of age or more. The oldest-old are a fast growing segment of the American population. We have more elderly people now, than ever before in our history. In 1900, only 4% of the American population was over 65, in 1990 12% of Americans were over 65. In 2010 38.9 million Ameidoricans were 65 or older: about 13% of the total population. In 2010, 2.0% of Americans are over 85! Each of these major age groups represents a cohort—a group of people born close to the same time period who have similar life experiences and similar remembrances

For example the Depression Kids who are people who were adolescents or young adults in 1929; Baby Boomers, people born between after World War II (between 1946 and 1965); and Gen X who are the children of the Baby Boomers, each have their own distinct memories of memories of war, musical forms, technological change, medical breakthroughs, epidemics, changing social norms and mores, etc. The shared understanding of a particular sociocultural milieu is called the cohort effect. In thirty years, when the majority of you are middle-aged, and you are hanging out with your friends, you will probably be listening to the same music you listen to now, and you will occasionally reminisce about what life was like when you were young, and the changes you have seen. Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology: 2 nd Edition. Thompson, William E. and Joseph V. Hickey. New York: HarperCollins. 1996. Sociology: Sixth Edition. Schaefer, Richard T. and Robert P. Lamm. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998. Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society . Andersen, Margaret L. and Howard F. Taylor. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. 2000.

Cohorts: memories and technology

Depression Kids are people who were adolescents or young adults in 1929. Their shared memories include: Pearl Harbor. WWII. Korean Conflict, the GI Bill, swing music and big bands, (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, etc.), jazz, and flappers. Their technology was: radio, telephones, flivvers and jalopies (specialized cars), and talking pictures (movies).