For this week’s meeting, our assignment was to complete a “debunking ageist stereotypes” presentation with a topic of our choice, and I decided to address the misconception of prevailing loneliness among older adults. The reason I chose this topic was due to the stories shared in the book we are reading: Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland. There, anecdotes are given about how older adults foster social interactions, including instances of finding love after their partners had passed away and participating in games with fellow apartment residents. This is in stark contrast with the typically depicted lack of friends or vibrant communities in old age that is shown and propagated by popular media. However, the book also provides examples of older adults who do not have as active of social interactions and portrays their lives as fulfilling regardless. Both of these cases were incorporated into my presentation, as the myths were how older adults were usually lonely and how if older adults were not, they had aged “successfully.” The idea of “successful” aging is one of greater importance, as this stereotype could be applied in many fields, including health and wealth, and it could be easily propagated. It may seem like a good idea to compliment one’s life in old age but doing so may inadvertently put down another’s life in old age. The way one ages is primarily determined by their surroundings and upbringing, and it should not be treated as a measure of success. I created an infographic for this presentation, as that was the format I was most familiar with. Overall, this assignment was interesting, and it helped me to express ideas about aging that I had held for a long time, especially with prior courses.
Throughout the first few weeks of Spring Quarter, the assignments and discussions held in USP141B have drawn my attention. Continuing on from the previous quarter, we are now starting our Healthy Aging Proposal assignment and bringing these proposals into a realized program or event. In my case, I am working with several other students to produce several short videos that consist of interviews of older people. These interviews will consist of perspectives surrounding the past, present, and future, which corresponds to three videos, with shared questions being asked and an overall reflection being provided. Right now, the most difficult aspect of the project has been gathering older adults who are willing to conduct these interviews. Because of the pandemic, I would not feel comfortable visiting various communities for older adults, so they must be conducted through Zoom calls, creating a barrier to access. Right now, I am awaiting responses from these communities via email, but I am excited for when we do bring this project together. In addition, I have also completed the assignment for a current event presentation, in which I discussed a student-organized group at Tuffs University that aims to connect with older adults when they may be struggling with loneliness during the pandemic. I find that their multi-disciplinary approach, such as with contacting other organizations that focus on medical issues or public health, to be a valuable aspect to learn from. Lastly, for the book club this quarter, which is on Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland, I find that the ideas brought up, which include unique perspectives on memory loss, wisdom, and the love lives of older adults, all greatly contribute towards combating the narrative that aging brings harm. The book instead conveys the complexities of not only the process of aging, but also living a day-to-day life in old age, with both positives and negatives. Overall, I am eager to have discussions in the near future of this class.
During this last week of the quarter and our last meeting for the first half of the Life Course Scholars Program, some of my fellow classmates and I presented an article for the Current Events assignment. The article was “From City to Countryside, Study Suggests Wisdom Can Protect Against Loneliness” by the Good News Network, and it discussed a study on how a higher level of “wisdom,” which is measured in various means including empathy, can combat against loneliness, which is a significant issue due to the pandemic (Good News Network 2021). Some of the aspects of the study that I appreciate include how it addresses an issue that is not being focused on as heavily and how two separate populations from different locations and cultures, one in California and one in Italy, were sampled from. This is because it represents the idea that there is no uniform aging experience, with it varying greatly between individuals. One aspect that I feel can be improved is the explanation of how wisdom is measured, as while the article alludes to treatment involving compassion, how wisdom is defined or how it is measured is not mentioned. After the presentation, we worked on our Healthy Aging Project proposal, with our project involving the creation of a video consisting of various interviews of older people that center around a theme. Our proposal included a schedule for the next quarter for the interviews and video editing, and the main concern that we have is interviewing older people who are not comfortable with Zoom. We were also discussing the best way to direct the interview towards the theme, which we decided to have be about life stories, similar to our Oral History projects. Overall, I am glad that I am in this program, as alongside the small class size and community, I am not very experienced with interacting with older people. This class has helped me go out of my comfort zone and as a result, grow as a person.
During this last week in the Life Course Scholars Program, I and some of my classmates worked on and presented a PowerPoint outlining our discussion of the book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite. This book delves into various aspects of ageism, which results from the negative stereotypes of older people as portrayed by popular media and further perpetuated, in regards to her personal experiences, including her own hesitation on aging and how she overcame it (Applewhite). One aspect of the book that stood out to me was how the introduction connects ageism with sexism, as both of these stem from similar societal expectations of misrepresented groups (Applewhite). The commonalities between the two, as well as how ageist discrimination can be compounded by sexism, creates an intersectionality that affects the lives of a large population and should be considered. In addition, I conducted my interview for the oral history project with my mentor, Dr. Jack Fisher, who has given me plenty of advice for medical school over the years. At first, I was hesitant to do this interview, as while we are cordial with each other, we do not have more personal interactions beyond talking about academic activities. This is also in comparison to the well-done oral history projects up until now, which have portrayed a great amount of care between the two people. However, the interview went well, and I learned about Dr. Fisher’s roots in the UCSD medical program, which drew a sense of admiration from me. While I am nervous, I am more excited to talk about him to my fellow LCS members.
During our most recent class meeting, we had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Casa de Mañana in order to ask them questions or have them ask questions to us in a form of intergenerational exchange. In my group, the conversation naturally led to and primarily focused on the intergenerational rift within immigrant families, as most of the LCS members were of Asian or Pacific Islander descent and the seniors from Casa de Mañana were interested when the topic was brought up. When a question discussing the challenges that we have connecting with seniors was brought up, I responded by talking about how I have difficulty speaking in Vietnamese while my grandparents have difficulty understanding English. In addition, while I try my best to communicate otherwise, it makes any beyond-surface level questions difficult. In my group, other students responded similarly to the question, but the topic of culture was also brought up, with how in our cultures, people are typically expected to live with or look after their parents for longer than in the United States. To me, this creates a sort of internal cultural conflict, as I’ve grown up hearing from media and learning for myself the importance of independence, which is traditionally signified by one’s own home and other factors. However, upon growing up and learning about the senior experience in the US, especially for those with less money, I’ve realized the help that I could provide to my parents could make a large difference in the future. As I continue my education, I hope to resolve this in a way that would best allow me to help my parents. I’m grateful for the engaging conversation I had with those at Casa de Mañana, and I look forward to more interactions with seniors, especially with my mentor for the Oral History Project.
One topic that was discussed within the previous two weeks that stood out to me was the advertising of beauty products as “anti-aging” and the prevalence of negative attitudes towards aging. The discussion surrounding the book presented by some of my fellow students in the LCS class, Selling the Fountain of Youth: How the Anti-aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old – and Made Billions by Arlene Weintraub, demonstrated how various industries, including the entertainment industry, have further pushed social conditions that encourage people to fear getting older, both physically and mentally. This is further supported by regulatory conditions, including a lack of overview by the FDA for various “anti-aging” products, which are supported by dubious results in research. While the social conditions of beauty expectations and desiring youthfulness have existed for a long time, various companies capitalizing on them have recently pushed them into expanding demographics, both for younger and older audiences. In addition, we also discussed various ideas for our Healthy Aging Proposal for the following quarter, where we invest time and resources into a project aimed at benefiting senior citizens. My goal with this project is to focus on perception, as harmful stereotypes exist surrounding senior citizens, such as having unhappy lives or being unable to communicate effectively. In order to combat this, my idea was to produce a video that interviewed several senior citizens, which would center on a theme, such as past experiences. Furthermore, we volunteered in-person to assembly gift bags to be distributed to various programs focusing on the elderly and the homeless. It was nice being able to see other people during these times and to contribute my time into a cause for the sake of others.
In reflecting on this past week for the Life Course Scholars program, with this being an introductory post, I thought about the path that I have taken academically up to this point and how these concepts connect. When starting with the USP minor, I took USP 144, which involves environmental factors in public health, USP 143, which discusses health-care systems, and USP 145, which surrounds aging and related issues. I had also taken USP 133, which centers around poverty and public policy. All of these classes contribute to the connections that can be made in this course, as the conditions that one has grown up in continues to affect individuals into adulthood and as seniors. In addition, social welfare programs such as Medicare and Social Security are significant to the senior population by improving their health outcomes and greatly lifting the demographic out of poverty since the 1940s. These programs being often heavily debated during elections drive higher voter outcomes from older groups. In the past week, the lecture discussed the accommodations that can be made to better serve the elderly population, including Transit-Oriented Development (TODs), which involves the incorporation of public transport into daily living. This would not only benefit seniors, but other underserved populations that may not own cars. I also found the discussion regarding playgrounds for senior citizens to be interesting, as that contradicts how they are depicted in popular media, where they are too “fragile” to move around. Finally, the discussion about how we see ourselves as 80-year-olds was thought-provoking. Due to the rushed nature of life right now, I never thought about life that far in advanced. However, the most appealing idea is being in a stable place, as being rushed right now creates stresses that may be resolved with age.
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Martin NguyenMartin is a Biochemistry/Cell Biology major from Garden Grove, CA. A fun fact about Martin is that he played tennis in high school. Archives
April 2021
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