Topic:
Experts say older people were happier and healthier in the past because they did more exercise and spent more time with their family
and friends, whereas now many suffer loneliness and health problems. What are the causes for this and what are some solutions?
Many researchers have observed that senior citizens led joyous, and fitter lives a couple of decades ago because they were more
physically active and social. Today, however, the older people don’t get a chance to do so, hence, they are lonely and have a
myriad of physical ailments. This mainly happens because the elderly don’t live with their families and feel unmotivated. A
probable solution could be to form communities of the elderly.
To start with, people don’t live in joint families anymore as children generally move away from their family homes for further
education or better job prospects. Their parents would generally be in their 50s or 60s when this happens, and they suddenly find
themselves leading empty lives. This leads to depression, wherein the old people don’t feel like exercising or spending time with
friends and other family members. Eventually, their health gets ruined, and they develop issues like hypertension, knee pains and
so on, which demotivates them further from socializing. For example, my neighbour, a 60-year-old lady lives alone because her
husband passed away and children are in the US. Hence, she spends the whole day watching TV instead of going for a walk or
chatting with others in the neighbourhood. She suddenly because overweight and this has affected her knees.
Nevertheless, this issue can be resolved if the neighbours or other older people in the vicinity form a community, a group of
people in their age, wherein they can meet daily, talk, go for a walk in the garden, play card games, watch movies together,
celebrate birthdays and so on. For instance, there is a covered area near my house where the elderly gather in the evening and
socialize. They also organize musical nights for themselves.
To sum up, it is the modern-age nuclear family system that is causing the elderly to get depressed, not exercise or socialize.
However, society can remedy this by taking some time out for them. (324 words)
