It's only my opinion, but I think that "old" is just something socially constructed and psychologically imagined: in other words, not an objective term, and furthermore, not a useful categorization.  I feel like I should write about this opinion now, having just turned 28 years old, still young enough (I hope) to question derogatory notions of "old" without people dismissing me because of my own age.

If there's one thing hospice volunteering has taught me, is that a person has the potential to lead an interested, engaged, and vibrant life up until the very last moments.  Furthermore, age has little to do with the intensity of that interest, engagement or vibrancy.  I have had patients in their 50s who disconnect with the world, barely able to walk, not making attempts to meet new people or learn new things.  And I've had patients in their 100s who still try new activities they've never tried before, making new friends day after day.  So what's the point, then, of labeling someone as "old," when numbers aren't the best correlate for quality of life?

And no, I'm not bringing this up to defend John McCain, but it does seem to be the case that I'm hearing more and more derogatory jokes about age these days, beyond the presidential race.  I remember seeing a talk by Professor Howie Giles (who has done a lot of work on sociolinguistics and ageism), where he cited research showing that a person who simply joked about getting older was more likely to, after the joke, walk across a room slower, i.e., more like an "old" person, than otherwise.

So, like race, gender, and socioeconomic class, a joke is obviously not "just a joke"!  Might it impact workforce productivity if we spend half of a employee's working life joking about how "old" (and therefore useless) they are?  If it might, then seriously, can't we just joke about something else?

I guess I just have a bone to pick about stupid black balloons and "over the hill" jokes about people who turn 40, or sociologists and journalists who group populations into age groups and label the "50+" group the "old" group.  Medical treatments are improving, people are living longer, and with the economy the way it is, people are also working longer.  I think that "old" is still a useful concept, but not in most of the ways it gets applied to people in today's society.

To anyone in the fields of Anthropology, Business, Communication, Economics, Law, Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology -- in other words, the social sciences and related professional schools -- this blogpost is for you!

As part of a new job I have for the coming academic year (Teaching Fellow for the Center for Teaching and Learning), I'm compiling a list of books and journals related to pedagogy and the social sciences.  If any of you are in any of these fields and know of books or journals dedicated (or at least related to) the teaching of your field, please let me know!  Thanks!

Hmm, what a boring blog post.  What else can I write about?  Umm...  I've finished my dissertation fieldwork interviews for now, and I'm diving head first into the analysis!  Wait, that's not really all that fun, either.  Umm... I'm going blackberry picking on Sunday morning!!!  Whoo hoo!!!