Words Make A Difference
July 30, 2023
One reason I enjoy blogging is that I can write whatever I want. I don’t have an editor, so I only have to please me, and hopefully you.
But I have been thinking about words sending the wrong message. The Reframing Aging Initiative, for example, suggests that one way to help combat ageism is to change our vocabulary. Here are some examples:
Don’t Refer to: Instead, Use
elderly or senior citizens older adults
they and them us and we
a silver tsunami people living longer and healthier lives as contributing citizens
Most importantly, don’t use Elderspeak (as if talking to a child).
Some habits are hard to change.
We should try.
Hello...I enjoy your posts. And use a bit of your style...brevity and humor and direct assault on aging in a blog I have just started...being 82 years old...about moving to Charleston, SC, and being a bit of a local history buff and writer from a much smaller town...had to decide what to research and say about this very historic place. I finally decided to write about the block I live on...what is here now...me...and how it got there down to the founding of the town...layer by layer. It is fun and makes me happy and I hope will be useful. It will not be the glorious history as this area...my new neighborhood...was once just outside the early city limits and was a mixed area and also the "red-light" district. Should be interesting. Thanks for what you do.
Here is the site, if interested: https://wordpress.com/view/findingmycharleston.blog
Cleta
Posted by: Cleta M. Flynn | July 30, 2023 at 07:29 AM
So glad to see your "Words Make A Difference" post. Here is one more -- I tell my friends all the time to stop referring to ourselves as "old". We are "older", not old.
Posted by: Christine Dall | July 30, 2023 at 09:34 AM
Good points, and here's another, especially for nurses and carers: Don't call me dear!'I find that very patronising.
I am now telling people that I'm living in a community of elders (not a retirement village, because so many of us are still 'active citizens', as my friend says.
Words do make a difference.
Posted by: Juliet | July 31, 2023 at 12:33 AM
I really enjoyed your Words Make a Difference post. I hate when I hear people talking to older men and women as if they were children. I especially notice that in some novels.
My sister and I have a blog that we established to enrich our lives in retirement. Older adults thrive when learning new things and keeping busy. Our "ABC Life" helps us accomplish this. Here's the link if you're interested.
https://theabclife.blog/about/
Barbara
Posted by: Barbara Katz | August 04, 2023 at 01:57 PM