AGEISM

from Your Time Magazine Brisbane - November 2021

RETIREMENT LIVING

What happened to my value? Am I now an old mare put out to paddock? ISABELLA DUSI explains how she has fought back against the branding that comes with ageism.

An edgy septuagenarian shocked by age discrimination and intimidation, I reject being branded as an older Australian with nothing to offer.

Refusing to let others diminish my value, I am fighting back.

A few years ago, I returned to Queensland, but never imagined I would be faced with discrimination and subjected to saccharin branding.

Despite my career in business, a financial advisor suggested I slip into oblivion, take the pension and keep my head down. Ignoring my achievements and skills, he relegated me to being of no value to anyone in my elder years.

I am patronisingly called “honeybun”, “dearie”, “sweetie” and “my-love” by strangers who seem to think that since I have reached a certain age when they can safely assume I am brain dead.

Shop assistants and professionals diminish me with thoughtless branding and words. Do they reflect on their own career, as I do, in London, America, Italy and Australia?

To claim my value, I decided to be courageous and step out boldly, using my lifetime of accomplishments and skill to educate and inspire.

Taking a good long look at the skills garnered over a lifetime, more than three score and ten, I realised that I had the opportunity to retool skills.

Everyone has personal skills which can be retooled, and mine provide me with credibility, which I am determined to use in a later-in-life career.

I studied art and history in Italy and with that knowledge I led hundreds of cultural and lifestyle tours across Italy and France, as well as Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, Morocco and Croatia, and turned myself into a recognised storyteller and international speaker.

To do that, I had to learn to speak the language and read Italian history. Having spent 24 years in Europe, I am retooling those skills.

I identified an opportunity for action on two fronts, so I have opened an Italian language conversation group, retooling my language skill, and every second week I provide a venue to practice and speak the Italian language.

With a repertoire of more than 20 art, history and political stories spanning a couple of thousand years and travel stories from my career as a cultural leader, I asked myself, are there not people wanting to keep learning?

I can tell the story of a Sputnik in Paradise and the myth of the Sicilian Mafia. I’ll challenge people to ask where the Longbeards came from, and where the Etruscans went!

How about buying a house in Italy? I bought two and restored both of them.

This is my value – it is how I am retooling my skills and claiming my self-worth.

Visit italydreaming.com.au

BYE-BYE BINGO: SURVEY CRUSHES STEREOTYPES

WE PLAY bingo, listen to Frank Sinatra, have no idea how to use a computer, scoff at video games, have given up on seeking new thrills and consider ourselves old – at least that’s the stereotype confronting anyone over 55.

But in fact, most Baby Boomers and seniors reject the negative connotations of the word and don’t consider themselves “old” at all.

Getting older is not synonymous with negative experiences, and a recent survey by Canadian group Amica Senior Lifestyles, has revealed that the pandemic has changed attitudes to the extent that 61.3 per cent are now more determined than ever to achieve their life goals.

The survey of more than 1200 seniors about the most common heard stereotypes facing older generations also found that more than half of older adults, after the restrictions of the pandemic, now want to try thrill-seeking activities.

Of these thrills, one in three said they were interested in skydiving while one in five wanted to try bungee jumping.

The vast majority of respondents (88 per cent) thought that younger people believed them to be incapable of effectively using technology, and that this assumption was very wrong.

After all, this generation pioneered the use of computers in the workplace and at home at a time when there was no internet to look up a quick video solution.

An overwhelming 96 per cent described themselves as tech-savvy, indicating that seniors are being vastly underestimated – and they proved this with the take-up of Zoom, Facetime and other communication apps during the pandemic.

Social media apps are the most commonly downloaded, with 50.1 per cent of seniors having downloaded one in the last 12 months.

Other popular downloads were music apps (44.8 per cent), gaming (41.4 per cent) and fitness (37.9 per cent), with 13.6 per cent having downloaded a dating app.

The survey also found that three in four seniors had played video games during the past year, mostly influenced by the pandemic.

In Australia, research by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association found that over 75 per cent of Australians who played video games used them to connect with others.

And 42 per cent of respondents aged 65 and older used video games to keep their minds active during the pandemic, saying it increased mental stimulation to potentially help fight dementia.

Retirement age adults played for 61 minutes a day on average.

Gaming among older generations is now so popular that 61.2 per cent of seniors describe themselves as “a gamer”. The most popular games were sports, creative games and online multiplayer games.

They also defied the most common stereotype – that they listen to Frank Sinatra and other music from “back in the day” – with 79.3 per cent saying they thought that young people would be surprised by their music taste.

Genre-wise, pop music (28.7 per cent) was the most popular, followed by classical music (26.3 per cent), hip-hop (23.4 per cent) country (21.9 per cent) and jazz (21.7 per cent). A surprising 17.3 per cent listed heavy metal as a favourite.

The pandemic has made many rethink what they want to do in their life and over half were readyto try an extreme sport or thrill-seeking activity.

When asked specific activities of interest, the top answer was sailing (56.2 per cent), followed by hot air balloon rides (38.9 per cent), driving fast cars (38.5 per cent), and zip lining (36 per cent). In other findings, one in three preferred crime documentaries, and 42 per cent were bored by daytime soapies.