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Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
C r e a t i n g L e a d e r s i n O T
Resisting Ageism and
Exercising Senior
Citizenship Through
Social Media
Barry Trentham PhD
Sheila Neysmith PhD
CARE WATCH
Acknowledgements
Care Watch Co-researchers
Charlotte Mayer, Mary Ann Chang, Josephine
Grayson, Bea Levis, Barbara Kilburn, Dick Moore,
Fern Teplitsky, Susan Thorning
Dr. Sheila Neysmith-Factor-Inwentash Faculty of
Social Work, U of T
Research Students:
Sandra Sokoloff, Amie Tsang, Stephanie Burdzy,
Anahita Jabbari
Dr. Alex Mihailidis, OS & OT, University of Toronto
Changing social venues for
advocacy
Social media—venues where ideas are shared:
coffee houses
print news media
radio, television
web-sites
One-way communication
public forums
interactive web-based
blogs, Twitter, Facebook (Standage, 2013)
Citizenship
“Canadians define “citizenship” as more than
having a passport, obeying the law and paying
taxes. These are widely seen as key aspects of
citizenship, but just as important are being active
participants in one’s community, helping others
and accepting differences”.
- Institute for Canadian Citizenship (2012)
“When did we take the
‘citizen’ out of senior
citizen? What does it
mean when we do not see
ourselves as citizens?”
Bea Levis (Care Watch Member)
Ontario Gerontology Association
Award acceptance speech 2012
7
What is ageism?
Stereotyping on the basis of age Discrimination
“a socially constructed way of thinking about older
persons based on negative attitudes and stereotypes
about aging”
“a tendency to structure society based on an
assumption that everyone is young, thereby failing to
respond appropriately to the real needs of older
persons.” (Ontario Human Rights Commission)
Ageism is about disadvantage
Stems from deprivation of power, respect
and basic human rights (Townsend, 2006).
Impedes senior citizens’ capacity to engage
in citizenship processes (Neysmith &
Reitsma-Street, 2000).
Learning about resisting ageism
through participatory action research
PAR is an “inquiry with the participation of
those affected by an issue for the purpose of
education and action for effecting change”
(Green et al.’s, 1995, p.4).
Participants as co-researchers
Care Watch PAR process
Ongoing cycles of action, reflection, action
toward change
Documentation of processes, outcomes and
reflective notes
Analyzed collectively based on principles of
constructivism and critical theory
Learnings disseminated widely to seniors
groups, policy makers, academia
Initial PAR questions
How does a group of senior citizen advocates
resist ageism in their attempts to bring about
change and exercise their role as senior citizens?
What strategies and technologies (e.g., web-based
social media tools) are used by a group of seniors to
engage other groups of older persons from diverse
communities in the policy change process?
Overarching PAR reflection
themes
Naming, Exposing and Resisting Ageism
Unpacking ageism
Pervasiveness of ageism
Internalized ageism
Passing
Naming ourselves as senior citizens
Importance of language and learning from other rights movements
Competing demands: Energy and time for advocacy work
senior citizens advocates are busy people!
Social media: exclusionary or a tool for change
Naming, Exposing and Resisting:
Participatory Actions
Political forums, letter writing, networking,
conference presentations
Social media
Social media: A game changer
The advocacy game has changed and so:
How do we use social media, a venue often
viewed by senior citizens as exclusionary, to
resist ageism?
Barriers to social media for senior
citizens
Privacy concerns
Perceived relevance
Cost and access
Language/knowledge barriers
Designed for younger people
Sustainability- practice, practice, practice
Organizational barriers/supports (Trentham, Sokoloff, Tsang & Neysmith, 2015)
Responding to barriers:
collaboration, information, support
Resisting ageism through social
media
Written materials e.g. flyers, brochures
Web-site http://carewatchtoronto.org/
Blog clips http://carewatch.tumblr.com/
Twitter clips https://twitter.com/CareWatchON
You-tube video clips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWSy5MoCx
0
Lessons learned
Know your social media audience CW expanded target audience beyond decision makers and
media to boomers
Make ageing and ageism an issue for everyone
Build Facebook profile
Organizational structures Reinforcements needed in learning new technology
Buddy supports
Organizational goad
Engage younger volunteers
Resources
Need to connect mediums e.g., Twitter-blog-web-site
Broaden collaborations
Ongoing advocacy
Presentation on ageism to Ontario’s Senior
Secretariat
Development of a broader collaborative
network
Anti-Ageism Network-provincial focus
Development of social media training manual
for senior citizens advocates
Creative-arts/media to raise awareness
An occupational perspective
Senior citizenship as a socially valued occupational
role
Power of language for senior citizens naming
themselves accordingly
Advocacy as a component
Ageism blocks occupational potential with respect to
senior citizens exercising their citizenship
Ability to use on-line social media as an occupation
in itself and that may need to be “enabled”
References Carney, G. (2010). Citizenship and structured dependency: the implications
of policy design for senior political power. Ageing & Society 30 (2 ), 229-251.
Green, L., Georges, A., Daniel, M., Frankish, D. et al. (1995). Study of
participatory research in health promotion: Review and recommendation of the development
of participatory research in health promotion in Canada. University of British Columbia:
Institute for Health Promotion Research.
Institute for Canadian Citizenship- see https://www.icc-icc.ca/en/
Neysmith, S. & Reitsma-Street, M. (2000). Valuing unpaid labour in the third sector: The
case of community resource centres. Canadian Public Policy. 26 (3), 331-346.
Ontario Human Rights Commission- see http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en
Townsend, P. (2006). Policies for the Aged in the 21st century: More ‘ structured
dependency' or the realization of human rights? Ageing and Society 26 (2), 161-175.
Trentham, B., Sokoloff, S., Tsang, A., & Neysmith, S. (2015). Social media and senior citizen
advocacy: an inclusive tool to resist ageism? Politics,groups and identities. Available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2015.1050411
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