Friday 7 October 2016

Age Does Not Matter. Or does it?

Apparently it was International Day of Older Persons last Saturday. No-one told me. Maybe I’m not “older” enough.

In the UK, it coincided with a conference/festival thing put on by Age of No Retirement, aimed at challenging the stereotypes around ageing. It sparked off some interesting conversations.


Twitter conversation. Love your life and forget your age. - Easier said than done. - It's easy. Until you have to bend down to pick up something. And then get back up again.

It also sparked off some controversy.  They called the event Age Does Not Matter. So, obviously, a few people picked up on this, pointing out that it’s not actually true. In an ideal world, yes, but we don’t live in one.

Just to prove it, a few random items from the last few days.

1. Ofcom have done a survey of which words you shouldn’t use on TV in case they offend people.  They proudly report that people are now "less tolerant of discriminatory language". But have a look at the actual list.  According to their research, "coffin dodger" and "old bag" are "generally of little concern". So what they’re really saying is: people are less tolerant of discriminatory language, unless it’s about old people.

2. Today, somebody did a hashtag game on Twitter. I quite like hashtag games when they are clever and funny. This one wasn’t. It was #GeriatricBeatles. Cue jokes about stairlifts, falling over and not knowing what day it is. Ho bloody ho.

Twitter post: Celebrating 50 years of the Beatles' Revolver, let's play #GeriatricBeatles.

3. LinkedIn posted proudly on Twitter about their latest list of really important people: a bunch of under-35 who are transforming the world.


Twitter comment by me: Aren't over 35s allowed to transform the world any more?

Funnily enough, their tweet on the subject is no longer there. It’s been replaced by one saying “coming soon”. Which means that someone messed up.  I wonder if it was a young person on work experience?

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