Attitude Towards Different Age Groups Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Attitude Towards Different Age Groups - Essay Example This essay will discuss peoples attitudes when treating those in different ages in different cultures (Baumeister et al 33). In most European Countries, most young people treat the old harshly. Young people assume that older people are more prone to accidents, slow learners, slow thinkers, and have a rapid physical deterioration. This is an unfair assumption since statistics from the world health organization, show that road traffic deaths involving young people under the age of 25 years are more compared to those involving the older people. In fact, one out of three road accidents involve the younger people. It is unfair for the younger people to assume that the older are slow learners and slow thinkers since there is no evidence to show that a person’s intellect decreases, as one grows older. There is also an assumption among the young people in Europe that older people are always sick. They believe the common myth that diseases are synonymous with aging, which is false sinc e there are many older people who have perfect health and do not look frail or old (Diller 47). Outright prejudice and discrimination towards the old are not only in Europe. In many developed Western countries, the majority treats the youth as the backbone of the future. This has created the image that the old no longer hold their place in society. There is brainwashing of the media, to view the old as people who should not serve anymore. This has, in turn, instilled a negative public image towards the old. Most professions exclude the old and leave them out in essential programs that could benefit them. It is a general view among most doctors that older people are too late for preventive care. This has led to late response to medical conditions in older people. Most receive inferior medical care, particularly when facing minor medical problems such as loss of teeth; hearing loss, loss of vision among others.