How much do you know about social aging? Is this your concern or have you seen anybody around worried of his/her aging socially?
Social aging refers to changes in people’s role and relationships in a society as they age. This is the fact that is happening every day and we may not be aware of it. But, soon or late we will reach this notch to reflect more on it. This is also one of topics sociologists pondered. They began to explain how and why the aging process occurs in each society. Social aging can be quite different from one society to another depending on their culture about the elderly, but still it’s worthy to elaborate further as elders are part of each society and more importantly, respectful in my opinion. Sociologists came up with three different theories which are explained in below:
Disengagement theory: This theory argues that all societies must find ways for older peoples to give away their authorities to younger people. In another word, elders should be disengaged from their previous roles and take on new roles which are more appropriate to their physical and mental decline. This helps elders to transit themselves smoothly into a new sedentary lifestyle and also youngers to undertake those roles as they are more capable of. The critical problem with this theory is that it assumes older people are no longer capable of performing adequately. However, older…
