Goodbye New Age, hello old age
Perhaps the most understudied time of life is middle age - probably for a mixture of practical, theoretical and philosophical reasons. Until relatively recently, anything researchers found out about ageing beyond youth was almost always incidental to some other, more interesting, topic.
The territory beyond middle age was as dull as ditchwater, too. Old people were simply slower, more easily distracted and less imaginative: a familiarly sad story that nobody was interested in telling about people who belonged to a low-status, financially vulnerable minority. Notable exceptions are those few places like Hong Kong, where increased wisdom remains a valued attribute, and work is done on coping with socially costly, debilitating illnesses, dementia and so forth - hardly the sexiest of research areas.
But now we are fully aware of the alarmingly unnatural news that, for the first time ever, old people will soon outnumber young people - worldwide. Starting with the rich western world, where most social scientific work is done, there is a collective need to give ageing a makeover: previously established truths have to be adjusted to fit the new old-young order. The phenomenon is a perfect example of research saying whatever it is that the times require it to say - scientific truth as both cultural litmus and instrument of attitude change.
For example, based on research and common sense, one could once safely state that elderly people were prone to depression. But a recent piece of research which more or less backs up this point of view, ends with the researchers noting that 'our findings and arguments must not be read to imply that the elderly are particularly vulnerable to depression'. Why? Because, they conclude, depression in the elderly is often due to the interconnecting effects of factors such as ill health and subtle forms of social and familial demotion - all of which would have the same effect on people of any age group.
Before ageing became a hot research topic, there would have been little point in separating the personal attributes (relative resilience of old people versus young) from the contextual ones (illness-reduced social role and so on) because nobody envisaged that the social context could be changed. Old age was a package: illness and a degree of social withdrawal were an inevitable part of it, along with the increased bouts of depression they partly caused.
Researchers are now motivated to tease apart the social and the personal, looking for reasons in the detail why older people should not be relegated to the scrap heap - which starts with convincing ourselves that this is not where they belong. It is a sign of society trying to dissect its way out of a looming demographic crunch and its potential problems.
Hence the shiny new 'truth' that old people do not tend to be morose - it is just a question of life circumstances, virtually all of them modifiable. The 'senior' sociological pendulum is sure to sweep right past the point of happy equilibrium. The already avoided word 'old' may soon send shivers down sensitive spines, as 'nigger' and 'queer' once did. Look for awkward euphemisms like 'Decembers', 'PoMoS' (post-modern seniors) or 'second-lifers'.
As the older population grows, it will probably form into demanding little subsets and further assert its rights and tastes. Seniors' tastes may start to dominate popular culture and retailing. Instead of edgy music, sexy action films and must-have clothing fads, the future may be characterised by retro compilations, tame television programming and sensible shoes. I suspect future research will find that the (life-prolonging) medical community has a lot to answer for.
Jean Nicol looks at everyday issues from the point of view of a psychologist
