Final Summary/Reaction

After doing this experiment and receiving all of my data, I have realized that although we may not realize it ageism is very common in this day in age. In our malls, restaurants, and public places people will discriminate others based on their age. Whether you are a teen or an elderly person you may be taken less seriously or seen as incompetent. A majority of people judge others based on age and in turn that affects how they are treated. Many people may not realize this but ageism occurs all around us. I did not even notice it until I stopped and took the time to observe it.

Revised Plan

My plan for my research project is still the same. I have already been two restaurants and observed if any ageism occured, and I still plan to go to more. I also plan to go to a mall to observe different stores and stands and see how they treat various age groups differently. I have recorded some of my observations so far and have noticed that employees tend to treat teenagers a lot differently than adults and seem to not take them seriously or they tend to keep a closer eye on them. This has just been the beginning of my observation and I still need to get more information. When I complete my observations I then plan to put all of my data onto a Powerpoint or possibly a Prezi.

Research Strategy

My method is to do a naturalistic observation. My startegy is to go to public places and observe how different age groups are treated. I plan to go to a mall and enter many different stores to see if teens are treated differently than adults or if elderly are treated differently in different places. I also plan to go to restaurants and see how different age groups are treated there. I will record my observations and see how often ageism occurs. I plan to find out how frequent ageism really occurs in places that many people often go.

Research Method

For my project I will be doing a naturalistic observation. I plan to go to the mall and observe how different age groups are treated in stores, restaurants, etc. I will observe how teenagers are treated in stores and to see if they are targeted as being mischevious. I will also observe in restaurants if younger people are treated differently than adults are. Also many stands in the mall seem to target specific age groups so I will observe that as well.

Ageism in Hollywood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13XkDnTMDVE

I found this video of Gina Gershon on CNN talking about ageism in hollywood. I find ageism in hollywood very interesting and I see it as a big problem. Actresses especially are always pressured to look younger, because being young is associated with beauty. She talks about how someone told her she should begin lying about her age or else she won't be getting parts in movies anymore. I think that is ridiculous and in the video she says that with all the makeup and special effects that they can make a person look any age and I agree with this. Roles in movies should not be based soley on age, they should based on talent.

Teens and Ageism

http://teenink.com/opinion/discrimination/article/174187/Age-Discrimination-Nobody-Likes-It-to-Happen-to-Them/

Here is a website I found and what I found most interesting about it was that every article on the website is written by teenagers. This particular one is about ageism and how teenagers are seen as untrustworthy and how the elderly are seen as incapbable. It gave a great example on how when teens walk into a store and leave without buying anything many people just assume that they stole something. I notice this a lot whenever I am in a store the people working there will always watch teens a little more closely. What was also great about this website is that the article itself counteracts the stereotype that teenagers opinions aren't really important many people don't even bother to listen to what they have to say. This article gives great insight into the topic of ageism and it was written by a teen.

Meryl Streep on Ageism

http://www.examiner.com/article/meryl-streep-on-hollywood-ageism-older-women-are-seen-as-grotesque

I found this article where actress, Meryl Streep, talks about ageism and how when women get to a certain age they are scene as grotesque. After she turned 40 Meryl said that she was asked to play many roles as witches, and I just found it funny how 40 is not even an old age, but apparently it is the age where you should be casted as a witch in film. I also found it very interesting that at age 62, Meryl was the oldest woman to ever be on the cover of vogue, meanwhile the editor-in-chief of the magazine is 62 herself(seems hypocritcal). Ageism is huge in the media and it seems that with celeberties everyone always wants younger and younger and this causes people to think that if they aren't young they are useless. Well you know the saying "age is just a number" and people are just people, and they should not be judged based soley on how old or young they are.

Here is a news video I found interesting about how your age can affect whether or not you get a job. It has become such a problem that people consider changing their ages on their resumes. I believe that you should be hired for a job if you are well qualified and should have nothing to do with age. I think people in our generation have become age obsessed and just assume that younger is better when that is not necessarily true, usually people who are older have more experience and are better qualified for a job.

Age Discrimmination Against Teens

http://www.gazettetimes.com/article_d1e55ffa-6f0b-597b-9078-b5471da88522.html

This article talks about an incidents where teenagers felt they were being discrimminated against because of their age. Both girls had an experience of ageism with the police. One girl was followed for 20 miles and then eventually was pulled over for speeding around a curve. In my opinion, teenagers are always stereotyped as being reckless or irresponsible, so cops will look out for teenage drivers and pull them over more frequently. As teenagers we are normally looked down upon and it seems that adults are always looking for us to get in some sort of trouble and well if you go looking for trouble then you'll find trouble. I think it is completely ridiculous for police officers to discriminate against teenagers based solely on their age and it happens very frequently, yet no one seems to do anything about it. Age discrimmination cannot continue to be unrecognized, or else it will just get worse and worse.

Article on Ageism

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/06/07/is-ageism-widespread-in-workplace/

This article talks about ageism in the workplace and one part that I found the most interesting was that it stated how ageism isn't looked at as being as important as sexism or racism, and also how it is very hard to research and find proof of it. In the article Jacquelyn James said “We need to be thinking of age as another element of diversity, as we do with race and gender", and I agree with this completely. I believe ageism does not recieve as much recognition as it should and it can be just as offensive as racism or sexism, and I think we need to conduct more research on this topic. People should not be judged based soley on their age not only in the workplace, but in every place.

Introduction to Ageism

Ageism is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person's age. I chose ageism because this topic sounded very interesting to me. I believe ageism is very common especially to our age group, as teenagers, and I'd like to learn more about it and share my perspectives on it.