The new old age

In recent years we have witnessed numerous social, economic, technological and demographic changes. It is this last one that we seem to approach with fear, sometimes as a synonym for something negative.

The demographic transition gives rise to a change in the population structure; on the one hand we have fewer births while there is an increase in longevity that affects more people (older people are older for longer). As fewer children are born, wider generations reach old age: grandparents have fewer grandchildren, but grandchildren enjoy more their grandparents and do so for longer. Summarazing: never before have so few grandchildren had so many grandparents.

This demographic change frightens us, and from some perspectives it is posed as a threat to the economic and social system. Let us remember two concrete examples: Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, referred to the increase in life expectancy as an economic risk to which we had to react. Taro Aso, then Minister of Economy in Japan, went a step further (many, actually) when in 2013 he said that "the old should hurry and die" (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/22/elderly-hurry-up-die-japanese) to relieve the pressure on health spending. It should be remembered that Taro Aso was 72 years old at the time, so it is not clear to us which old people he was referring to or who is old at his discretion. Today he has 78 and, in addition to being an active finance minister, he is the deputy prime minister of the Japanese government. The negative view of old age seems to be applied in the abstract, and always outward. As my professor of demography used to say, "We complain about old age, but we want our grandparents to live many years".

The perceptions of Aso or Lagarde are simple examples of the stereotypes that continue to prevail when talking about old age. This is related to the type of studies that are carried out: although it is true that the increase in the proportion of older people has aroused greater interest, most analyses focus on economic issues, posing it as a burden on the public arks that inevitably leads to competition and intergenerational confrontation and not as a stage of opportunities.

These perceptions leave aside not only the great achievement (precisely economic and social) that is the lengthening of life expectancy in health conditions. Without a doubt, the increase in life expectancy is the best social achievement we enjoy today. Let us remember that increased life expectancy does not only mean that older people live longer; it also means that young people die less.

Other stereotypes concerning old age have to do with the idea of heterogeneity. It is assumed not only that all older people have the same conditions (old people are rich/poor). This vital stage is assimilated as a kind of category that absorbs individual characteristics, and also remains unchanged in time, remaining on the margins of social change.

These perspectives overlook how we have seen the experience of old age change, the participation and contribution of older people in society and even the threshold above which we consider someone to be "old". With the passage of time, old age (as an abstract category that needs to be clarified) seems to have been delayed, but it has also been redefined, having a different meaning from that which it had a few years ago.

This social change is most evident if we think of our own grandmothers, for example, and the image we had of them. Do you agree with the vision of old age today? Are the people who were 65 in 1991 the same as those who are 65 in 2019? And, is the way in which one lives old age the same or can we say that it has changed? This change does not only apply to the most visible external characteristics (appearance, way of dressing, hairstyles) but, much more importantly, we can easily detect how social customs have changed and even the expectations and experiences they experience when they pass the threshold of 65.

Synthesizing the above: the way in which old age is experienced has changed. The increase in longevity is accompanied by an increase in the quality of life during old age: there are improvements in health and physical condition, which allows us to be active for more years. We live longer, and although it is true that age-related illnesses increase in the last years of life, this does not mean that old age is synonymous with illness or fragility.

Among these changes, capacity and autonomy up to higher ages stand out, although probably the most characteristic of this new old age is the desire. The desire to participate in society, to remain in it, to be an active part of the environment. Older people want to remain part of their communities for as long as possible, contributing in the same way (sometimes even more actively) as they did during previous ages. In other words, demographic change is accompanied by a social change that affects, above all, how one conceives one's old age. These people are pioneers, because they redefine experimentation and the conception of old age. Old age is no longer a synonym for being cut off from society. These people want to age in society. And they have much to contribute.