====== General Public's Impressions on Elderly ======

By [[yiler-huang| Yiler Huang]]

One of the topics of this semeseter is elderly care and elderly people in the society. In order to get more informations about the topic, we interviewed many people and asked them some questions about elderly people. Our first question is: "the first three adjectives that come into your head when thinking about old", so we could get the first impressions about elderly people from our subjects. The second question is: "what do you think elderly people do during free time", I think this one gives us the information of how old man's life are like in general public's eyes. The third question is: "the troubles elderly people might face in their life", I think this one is giving us the information of how dangerous or safe our society is to elderly people. The fourth question is: "what kind of places do elderly people like to go to", I think this could help us know what kind of places need more cares for elderly people. The fifth question is: "what are the hopes or wishes elderly people might have", I think this one gives us the information about of what general public think are the things elderly people want. The last question is: "the concerns elderly people might have", I think this question gives us the information of what makes elderly people nervous and how can we avoid them.

I also have some answers to the question. For the first question, I think elderly people are mean, impatient, and slow. I thought this way because I have seen many old people who are mean on the street. There was once when I rang an old lady on a bike, she turned to me and cursed at me. Regarding to my experience, I think old people's free time activities are playing Chinese chess and doing Taichi in parks. I thought this way because I often see old people playing Chinese chess or doing Taichi in parks. I think the difficulties of being an old person are, it is very easy to get injured, and maybe getting lonely. There are also some places I think old people often go to, and they are traditional markets and parks. This is because I often see old people in these kind of places. Also, old people might have their own concerns in life too. I think old people might worry that they would get sick. I think they also worry about if their children are married yet. I thought this way because I often hear people saying that old people like to make their kids marry as soon as possible. Regard to my observation of old people, I think old people might hope they can get friends or be strong like they used to be.

The first three subjects I asked were three woman from the Gear 8 office beside us. From the way they talk and how they look, I think they were about 25 to 28 years old. The fourth subject was the woman beside the door of CIT, she looked like she was about 24 to 27 years old due to her talking style and facial expression. The their one is a woman worked in CIT, she looked around 30 to 37 years old because she had a few wrinkles on her face.

Yesterday, we collected some datas about people's impression on elderly people. In the table, there are some information that especially stand out. Such as the places old people go, things they do in free time, and what they care about. The first special information is that many people think elderly people like outdoor activities. People also think old people are very socialized. There are also a lot of people think that old people often concern about things in their family.

I think these datas all gave us a lot of information about people's thought on old people. For the first one, old people like outdoor activity, I think it is a reasonable result. This is because I often see old people waling in parks, squares, even the Taipei Expo part beside us. For the second fact, old people are socialized, I think I have a different thought on it. I think the old people I met in my life were not so socialized, some of them are stubborn, some of them are rude, and some of them are impatient. For the third one, old people often concern about things in their family. I think this is true and is actually happening all the time. People still see this kind of information on news.

Comparing my answers to the questions, I think they are quite similar with the answers we got from our subjects. For the first question, I my answer is that old people are slow, mean, and impatient. I think that was very similar to what we have in our data collection. Many people think old people are slow. Some of them think old people are stubborn, which I think is related to mean and impatient. For the second question, my answer is that I think old people like to play Chinese chess and do Taichi in parks. In this questions, my answer is also similar to the data we collected. Some people think old people like to walk around, chat with friends in parks, and exercise. However, some people think that some of the old people like to watch TV during their free time. My answer to the third question is that I think the difficulties of being old are: easy to fall, and being lonely. I think this is also similar to what general public thinks. People think old people are not as strong as young people, but people don't really think old people get lonely. In the fourth question, I think old people like to go to parks and traditional markets. This one is extremely similar to the general public's answer. Almost everyone we interviewed think old people like to go to parks and some other public spaces. My answer to the fifth question is that I think old people might concern that they might get sick, and they might also concern that if their children are married yet. For the first answer, not much people think in this way. However, a lot of people think old people concern about the marriage of their children too. For the first question, my answer is old people might want to get friends, and they might also want to be as strong as they used to be. Yet, in other people's thought, they think old people care more about their family and things about economy. Maybe old people are not as selfish as I thought.     

After collecting this much datas, I think there would be some changes that could improve our society to make it more suitable for old people. Firstly, I think government should host a class for teaching old people how to use a phone. This is because many people think old people worry about their family, and maybe teaching them how to use a phone allows them to spend more time with their family by texting or calling them. Secondly, I think we should host a Taichi area in parks so old people don't do Taichi in the middle of a park. Finally, we should take old people to hospital to check if they have memorizing problems once in a while. This is because a lot of people said that many old people have trouble remembering things. If we could check their health condition more often, maybe we could prevent them from losing memorizing ability.