Ageing in the Information Society

Chapter two discusses active ageing and e-inclusion policies. It acknowledges that ageing actively and living independently are of great value to elderly persons; it also acknowledges that technologies can play an important role in this. However, this chapter also suggests that social polices such as those on active ageing can bring with them practices that oddly counter their goal, the well being or protection of the aged. The lives of elderly people, we argue, today as well as a hundred years ago, are affected by the attitude or mentality of a given society towards what is 'old'. Modern technological societies woo the idea of decelerating, arresting or postponing ageing. Such an idea finds fertile ground in the prevailing cultural, social and market-led representations of ageing, which involve a great deal of falsification and removal. The removal and falsification of ageing appear rather awkward though. Soon the old will outnumber the young: is such a society of the elderly building an image where being old means little good? We suggest that this apparent paradox be viewed in the context of demographic change and active ageing. Being old is fine on the condition that one is...not old. From an ethical point of view it is questionable whether the ostracism of ageing is 'good' or 'bad' for elderly people and/or for society as a whole. We limit ourselves to conclude that the rescuing of active ageing as the mainstream narrative on old age is problematic for a society which commends pluralism of life-styles.