Covid-19: An Exposé of Ageism in Western Culture

Abstract

This study focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic and how ageism contributed to how inefficiently the pandemic was handled in both America and neighboring countries. I make connections to already existing systemic social issues that implicitly reveal the maltreatment of older people in our society i.e. our hospital infrastructure and the lack of gerontology training. I emphasize how prevalent ageism is today by looking at the relationship between Covid-19 and the ageist rhetoric. My research interrogates ageism's contribution to how efficiently the pandemic was handled in both America and neighboring territories. I use content analysis of social media posts published on TikTok made before and during the pandemic. In order to elucidate the attitudes and beliefs of the 18-25 age cohort, I focus on the comments, captions and the video content itself. My goal was to garner an understanding of Gen Z's reactions and attitudes regarding the pandemic. They clearly are fully aware Covid-19 affects older people disproportionately. These TikTok revealed Gen-Z's inner thoughts and opinions regarding a pandemic, and I got additional insight through the top 10 liked comments in each video which allowed for a visual aid of what Gen-Z agreed with the most. Throughout my TikTok collection I saw how Gen-Z's most popular content and comments changed the further the pandemic progressed revealing the regret and sorrow they were experiencing as a result of not taking the pandemic seriously to begin with.