Is India developing into an ageist society?

[J. Maddy]

Does media glorify ageism? And the over-hyped youngistaan campaigns that seem to make the existence of old people worthless.

I was reading a newspaper article on how Indians think that Twitter isn't for meant for old people. And that tweeting quotations isn't a correct way of using Twitter. Many claimed that it was embarrassing for them to follow old celebrities like Lata Mangeshkar at Twitter — their friends would make fun of them.

[qnacopy]

Indian media sucks. I have travelled the length and breadth of the country and believe me, 70% would have not even "HEARD" the term Twitter and Barkha Dutt would be bus hosting "We the People" titled "Is India a twitter nation?"

[Serenity]

Well, I know that across cultures the more youthful group always finds a way to feel embarrassed by their elders. This does not mean they lack respect for their elders because you can respect elders and still feel embarrassed by their behavior, actions, or choices. On the other hand elders also often are embarrassed by the younger generation. I often hear lamentations of how "my" age group would "never" have behaved "like that", symbolizing the generational gap.

Twitter does possess features which appear as a tool for a younger generation. I know, I know, tools do not have age limits! What I mean is the more youthful age groups such as preteen, teen, and young adults are more into text messages than older groups. I hear people my age and older express their puzzlement over the use of text messages. They don't seem to understand the attraction of texting and think it creates a disconnect between people by interfering with "real" communication. Real communication being face to face or over a telephone, cell, or video conferencing. Twitter is a form of texting which has additional features of keeping track of the little "tweets", and the ability to view the "tweets" of those in an individuals "follow" list.

However, I wouldn't use Twitter unless somebody paid me. You see, Twitter seems like something a young self involved person would waste time on for hours every day, sending small snippets of unimportant personal information on what they are doing, viewing, or feeling throughout the day. I am simply not interested hearing how somebody just walked out on their porch to smoke a cigarette, left for work, ate dinner, went shopping, had drinks with friends, etc. The constant stream of inconsequential daily activities seems to place an unwarranted degree of self-importance or even denotes the narcissism within our younger groups.

You see how this issue can go both ways?

What is so odd about our youth making judgments on how older generations can or should use technology is that that many of our older generation are those who created all of this technology in the first place and are experts in programming, networking, website creation, the internet, and all other technology. The older generation made it possible for people to Tweet. To now claim some type of personally exclusive ownership to a type of technology or a feature is ludicrous! lol

Now, Western cultures have degraded the worth of the elderly for many years now. Once they were considered valuable members of society and highly respected for their life and work experiences. Today we are so tuned and warped by media we have lost much of that respect and value. Youth and vitality is glorified and aging is devalued. Many are left alone in "old age" homes. The younger groups fear aging and so don't want to see or interact with those who represent that fear. Eastern cultures still value their elderly and honor them deeply. I am not sure where India fits into the Western/Eastern cultural panorama.

However, I think the Twitter issue is an example of the generation gap; one in which teens and young adults are attempting to claim territory of their own in which older adults are denied access. This is definitely ageist.

I choose to ignore those who would limit my activities based on some oddly defined criteria. Youth also prefer to pretend older people don't have a sexual life, that at some undefined age older people become sexless creatures. That is as silly as thinking Tweeting is exclusively for the young.