Blog 5 - Bonus 

Aging

My final blog will explore the ideologies of the aging in Canada. Aging is the accumulation of changes in a person overtime.  Aging in humans refers to a multi-dimensional process of physical, psychological and social change.  Some dimensions of aging grow and expand overtime.  Research shows that late in life, potential exists for physical, mental and social growth and development.  Aging is an important part of all human societies reflecting the biological changes that occur, but also reflecting culture and societal conventions.

Age is measured "chronologically, and a person's birthday is often an important event, however, the term aging is ambigeous.  I was part of the older adult group in class and many different topics were mentioned in the blogs and the final presentations.  Their are so many social issues that I didn't even realize were affecting the elderly such poverty, elder abuse, health - mentally and physically, neglect, poor living conditions etc.  The presentations were an example of the social problems in many different groups of people.

Differences are sometimes made between populations of elderly people.  Divisions are sometimes made between the young old (64-74), the middle old (75-84) and the oldest old (85+).  However problematic this is, chronological age does not correlate perfectly with functional age, i.e. two people may be of the same age, but differ in their mental and physical capacities.  Each nation, government and non-government organizations has different ways of classifying age.  Population aging is on the increase in the number and proportion of older people in society.  Population aging has three possible causes such as, migration, longer life expectancy (decreased death rate) and decreased birth rate. 

Aging has a significant impact on society.  Young people tend to commit most crimes, they are more likely to push for political and social change, to develop and adopt new technologies, and to need education.  Older people have different requirements from society and government as opposed to young people, and frequently differing values as well.  Older people are far more to vote in many countries whereas, the young are forbidden from voting, the aged have comparitively more political influence.

In conclusion, I would just like to say that the blogs in each group were very informative.  The older adult group had especially lot of patience for me while I had faced a family emergency during this past semester.  Thanks to everyone for all the teachings.

Meegwetch,

Arlene

References:  www.enwikipediaorg.wiki

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