Professionals in the field of aging get irritated with terms like “senior” and “senior” that explain individuals simply as most likely to be in a wheelchair as climbing up a mountain.
Now, they have among the world’s significant dictionaries all set to alter one essential age-related recommendation.
Why We Wrote This
Words matter. As life-spans have actually broadened, so have the methods individuals can explain older individuals, moving beyond age and physical condition.
That lexical undercurrent was at play today as more than 4,000 scientists, researchers, and others collected at the yearly Gerontological Society of America (GSA) conference to discuss styles of solitude, dementia, Medicare, and … Donald Trump (as in, what recently’s governmental success bodes for all these problems).
Sessions consisted of a research study on stigma-inducing ageist terms utilized on social networks, a ChatGPT analysis of election news protection, and a take a look at words utilized in kids’s media representations of older characters.
What topped it off was last month’s GSA-led effort asking the world’s most prominent dictionaries to make modifications.
Patricia D’Antonio, executive director of the GSA’s National Center to Reframe Aging, composed letters asking the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Merriam Webster to alter its meaning of “ageism” by dropping the packed word “senior” and utilizing, rather, “older individuals”– a more inclusive meaning.
The OED reacted in a week, concurring.
Specialists in the field of aging get annoyed with terms like “senior” and “senior” frequently utilized to explain a varied cast of characters as most likely to be in a wheelchair as climbing up a mountain.
Now, they have among the world’s significant dictionaries prepared to alter one essential age-related referral.
That lexical undercurrent was at play today as more than 4,000 scientists, social researchers, and others interested in the problems of aging collected here to discuss styles of solitude, dementia, Medicare, and … Donald Trump (as in, what recently’s governmental triumph bodes for all these concerns).
Why We Wrote This
Words matter. As life expectancies have actually broadened, so have the methods individuals can explain older individuals, moving beyond age and physical condition.
Threading throughout the yearly clinical conference of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is attention to the effect of more prosaic usage of words. Sessions took a look at the results of terms, consisting of a research study searching 62 million posts on the social networks platform X for stigma-inducing ageist terms; a ChatGPT analysis of ageist words in 2024 governmental election news protection; and a take a look at words utilized in kids’s books and media representations of older characters (finding they’re either caring or “no enjoyable” and “crabby,” absolutely nothing in between).
What topped it all off was the GSA-led effort last month asking the world’s most prominent dictionaries to make modifications.
“We’re attempting to alter culture,” describes Patricia D’Antonio, executive director of the GSA’s National Center to Reframe Aging. “How we interact about aging,” she states,