Best Answer
Ageism is the practicing of discrimination against people based on their age. While the term does not specify the age of the people experiencing discrimination, ageism has most often been used to describe discrimination against older people, particularly seniors. There are multiple components to ageism, as age is used in a discriminatory manner for a variety of types of decision-making, from personal choices to policy choices.
There are many topics you could focus on when writing about ageism. Much of the research in the area has been done in the context of the job market, where older individuals find it much more difficult to find a job than younger individuals. This is true, not just of seniors, but of many job seekers who are middle-aged or older. Exploring this topic, you would find a vast background of research and you could look into related issues, for example how older job seekers are faring in terms of finding mid-pandemic employment when compared to younger job seekers.
However, the essay issue that we would probably address, at this time, has to do age, quality of life, medical care, and disposability. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed an extremely stark division in attitudes held by the American public towards the elderly. The elderly are at significantly higher risk of having a severe reaction to COVID-19, from debilitating illness to death. Many of the calls for protective measures, such as masks, social distancing, and even the closing of businesses and institutions during the pandemic, have been to protect more vulnerable population members, including the elderly. Some people have been highly supportive of those protective measures. However, other groups have been very opposed to…
