Age Differences in Reactions to Ageist Memes

Abstract: Memes on social media can carry ageist messages and can elicit reactions that are both emotional and self-evaluative. The present study investigates age-related differences in nine discrete emotions and in the evaluation of when individuals have been or will be their best selves. Participants (n = 360) representing young (m = 26 years), middle-aged (m = 39 years) and older adults (m = 63 years) were randomly assigned to view either non-ageist (animals) or ageist (e.g., incompetent older people) memes. After viewing memes, we assessed nine emotional reactions (i.e., fear, anger, sadness, happiness, anxiety, discomfort, disgust, surprise, enjoyment) and Best Self evaluations. 

Younger and middle-aged people reported more intense emotional reactions to memes than older people, with the exception that older people reported more discomfort and disgust in response to ageist versus non-ageist memes. Younger adults were less surprised by ageist memes (vs. non-ageist) and for all age groups ageist memes (vs. non-ageist) elicited less happiness and enjoyment and were less likely to be shared. With respect to evaluations of one's Best Self, older individuals were more likely to report being their best selves in the past, while after viewing ageist memes, younger individuals were more likely to report being their best selves in the future. Emotions of disgust and discomfort were related to identifying one's Best Self as further in the past. The current study adds to the literature on the impact of ageism by examining age-related differences in the emotions and self-evaluations experienced when confronted with memes on social media. (Kahlbaugh et al., 2024)

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- Kahlbaugh, P., Ramos-Arvelo, J., Brenning, M. & Huffman, L. (2024).  Age differences in emotional reactions to ageist memes and changes in age of one's Best Self. Journal of Aging Studies, link

- photograph by Garry Winogrand (1928-1984) via

Camp I Am

Years ago, a mother of a gender non-conforming child in a rural area in the United States organised a small summer camp where her child and children of three other families could openly wear the clothes they want and be who they are. Their siblings realised that they were not the only ones whose brothers (almost all campers were assigned male at birth) wanted to be princesses and the parents found support. More families started going to the camp. The organisers insisted on avoiding advertising and kept long interviews with families interested in participating since they did not want to attract anti-queer trolls. The camp closed in 2016. Today, there are dozens of camps in the U.S. and many of the campers are young adults (via and via).

Lindsay Morris was one of the parents. She took her child, Milo, then aged seven, there and spent eight years photographing the summer camp.

These kids didn’t believe that other kids like themselves even existed. It still gives me chills thinking about [these kids] meeting each other for the first time. They were all so similar, all so alike in what they loved — and the parents just cried and cried.
Lindsay Morris

I came to this project not just as a documenter, but as a participant. When my son was three years old, we began to notice his fascination with his reflection, teetering in my heels, the higher the heel the brighter he shone. It was through observing him as he anxiously and joyously layered on and tore off bright fabrics, all the while despairing that he was not born a girl, that I began to seek out other families with like-minded children. This resulted in my deeply personal engagement with this pioneering community.
Lindsay Morris

"It's really just a very safe place for them where they don't have to look over their shoulders and where they're experiencing 100 percent support from their family members and siblings. It's very important to us that the siblings attend camp so that they can see their brother or sister being celebrated.​ (...) 

(Asked about anxieties parents have) I think the biggest concern is bullying at school. Often the children might be excluded from activities—especially sleepovers and birthday parties—because the other parents aren't really open to having a child who is atypical in their midst. That's why the parents of these kids have become the most incredible advocates. They just hope to normalize gender non-conformity.

A lot of these kids experience low-grade bullying. It creates a lot of stress and anxiety about going to school or being in public places because of the fear of being excluded. However, if the school is very progressive and keeps an open dialogue, it can be great. Schools have such power to normalize gender non-conformity; some choose to and some really push against it.

(...) The images don't really convey the wild frenzy of camp. They're more flowing and poetic while the camp is kind of a beautiful chaos. The kids are constantly changing clothes and dolls; they're like immediate kin and friends. It's very moving for the parents, most of all.

The parents spend a lot of time together and they realize it isn't just their child. But not every parent who goes there is fully on board. It's difficult, it's a transition. If you're there you're there because you love your child, they know it's a move in the right direction. I hate to say it but a lot of the fathers—especially the fathers—come in a little bit shell shocked. This is not the little boy they anticipated raising and they're doing the best they can because they want their children to have a healthy life and a healthy mental state that comes from the support of your parents."

Lindsay Morris

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photographs by Lindsay Morris via and via and via and via and via

Tyler Mitchell's Sense of His Own Historical Moment

Tyler Mitchell's photographs are "a counterpart to the pernicious stereotypes that have long dominated visual culture" by showing Black people in different ways they might "look, dress and act", for instance, enjoying leisure time. Probably due to their soft light, pastel colours, and settings, Mitchell's photographs do not look politicial at first glance (via).

Mitchell was born in Atlanta in 1995. Skateboarding led him to photography, he then studied film and television at New York University and, in 2015, self-published a book about skaters in Havana. Three years later, aged 23, he was commissioned to photograph Beyonce for a Vogue issue. He became the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue (via).

This idea of my community and my friends, young black men and women, being able to enjoy pleasure, or leisure time — that’s revolutionary. I think about the pleasures and the freedoms we’ve been denied historically — or the way that free time and leisure time, for us, have been framed as something potentially violent.
Tyler Mitchell

Mitchell seems to have "a clear sense of his own historical moment". He believes that being a Black photographer carries a different weight since just a short while ago Black people could not afford cameras (via).

I’m indulging myself in the way that making pictures for me is a form of protection. I’m able to create and live out these little moments or small figments of dreams in which Black people exist within the space of a frame where they are unencumbered. They’re not having to be hypervigilant about social and political dangers, the hypothetical threat of a white gallery space, or any of these things that remind them to get out and stay out.
Tyler Mitchell 

Mitchell's work was partly inspired by Tumblr where he noticed that most of the images of free and sensual young people showed whites. He uses the documentary approach to capture Black identity "in an equally close and vulnerable light" (via).

People like Ryan McGinley and Larry Clark were just two examples of images that seem to proliferate the most on those types of platforms. They seem to get the most re-blogs or people would always repost them. Their most iconic images would usually be white youths, very sensuous and beautiful, enjoying life in groups in Paris or on road trips, you know So I’m thinking about my experiences and trying to make art about my experiences in the South. Being black and middle class, I think about the self-policing that has to happen within our community here. It’s baked into our psyche that we’re maybe not allowed to, or that we’re not supposed to, behave in those ways outwardly in society or perform those sentiments of joy… Obviously, we do enjoy leisure time, that’s a global thing. But my work is about bringing forward these ideas of leisure and play as radical things, because we’ve societally, politically, and within ourselves—in our psyche—been prevented from enjoying those freedoms. Utopia, by definition, isn’t achievable. Photography, by definition, is about constructing an image and framing an image and a point of view on the world. I’m playing with these ideas, the fantasy of things that are not real, or that I would want to be real.
Tyler Mitchell

I think the images suggest [a] core fundamental resilience, radiance and full human agency that Black folks command, even in environments that tell them otherwise.
Tyler Mitchell 

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photographs by Tyler Mitchell via and via and via and via and via and via

The Mortality Impact of Heat Waves on Different Age Groups

Heatwaves in Europe, becoming more and more common, have a disproportionate impact on older people. In 2021, 90% of heat-related deaths in the United Kingdom were among people aged 65 and older. When France had its deadliest heatwave in 2003, most of the 150,000 people who died were older (via). 

Masselot et al. (2023) analysed data of 854 European cities from thirty countries (27 EU, Norway, Switherland, UK) with more than 50,000 inhabitants to study the mortality impact of high temperatures on different age groups.. Average temperature-related mortality relative risks (RR) showed an increasing trend by age. The city with the highest heat-related mortality risks was Paris - across all ages and for the age group 85 and older in particular. Generally, effects were larger for the oldest age group with three to four excess deaths due to heat per 100,000 person-years (38% of the total burden for heat). In contrast, there was less than one per 100,000 person-years in the youngest age group. Overall, i.e., considering heat and cold, those aged older than 85 contributed about 40% of the total mortality burden. 

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- Pierre Masselot, Malcolm Mistry, Jacopo Vanoli, MSc Rochelle Schneider, Tamara Iungman,  David Garcia-Leon,  Juan-Carlos Ciscar,  Luc Feyen,  Hans Orru,  Aleš Urban,  Susanne Breitner Veronika Huber,  Alexandra Schneider,  Evangelia Samoli,  Massimo Stafoggia,  Francesca de’Donato,  Shilpa Rao,  Ben Armstrong,  Mark Nieuwenhuijsen,  Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera,  Antonio Gasparrini (2023). Excess mortality attributed to heat and cold: a health impact assessment study in 854 cities in Europe. The Lancet, 7(4), 271-281, link
- photograph by Martin Parr via

Quoting Shelley Duvall

"I'm not afraid of ageing."
Shelley Duvall

photograph via

Days With My Father. By Phillip Toledano.

"My Mum died suddenly on September 4th, 2006 After she died, I realized how much she’d been shielding me from my father’s mental state. He doesn’t have alzheimers, but he has no short-term memory, and is often lost. I took him to my mother’s funeral, and to the burial, but when we got home, he’d ask me every 15 minutes where my mother was. I’d explain carefully that she had died, and we’d been to her funeral. This was shocking news to him Why had no-one told him? Why hadn’t I taken him to the funeral? Why hadn’t he visited her in the hospital? He had no memory of these events. After a while, I realized I couldn’t keep telling him that his wife had died. He didn’t remember, and it was killing both of us, to re-live her death constantly. I decided to tell him she’d gone to Paris, to take care of her brother, who was sick. And that’s where she is now.

 (...) I have so many memories of him listening to opera, sketching, painting, sculpting. Although he doesn't paint anymore, he still sees. He still has the artistic impulse. (...) The urge is still there, even if the physical ability is not ...

(...) For just a few minutes, everything almost feels normal again. My mum isn't dead, and we're not pretending she's gone to Paris. She's popped out to the store, and she'll be back shortly. How sweet that would be.

(...) It's amazing. My father is so appreciative of the love he receives. Each visit is an incredible gift, to  him, and to me, as though we're both drinking deeply from the same well, for one last time. He's always talking about how much he loves me. What a genius he thinks I am. How glad he is that Carla is part of our (tiny) family. These are things he's never told me before. I'm so glad we have this time together.

(...) Sometimes when we are talking, my dad will stop and sigh, and close his eyes. It's then that I know that he knows. about my mum. About everything.

My dad died yesterday. I spent the whole night with him, holding his hand (...). Just last week, on his 99th birthday, I asked him how old he thought he was. Grinning, he said: "22 and a half?" Now he's gone to Paris, to meet my mum."

Philipp Toledano

photographs by Philipp Toledano via

"In the midst of a moment of freedom, you’re forced to face yourself.’ A Glint of Possibility, Tyler Mitchell, 2022

"The American south is a verdant place, full of beautiful and seductive environments, but it’s also threatening, when you think about its racial and political history. Atlanta, where I was born and raised, is one of the greenest cities in the US, basically a city in a forest. I am an only child and had a lot of free time to meditate in these lush spaces. Raised in the suburbs, I went to school in a predominantly white area, which forced me to think about my own Blackness and my relationship to the world around me.

I’ve been making photographs since I was a teenager, primarily oriented around young Black life. My shots are theatrical, staged images, often exploring the psychological relationship young, Black, creative people have with outdoor spaces, specifically in the south.

For this shot, which I called A Glint of Possibility, I thought about a boy on a tyre swing and all the connotations that has, like freeform and “hang time”. The artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa talks about this in a very different sense. There’s an image that appears in a lot of his exhibitions: I believe it’s a member of the band Bad Brains jumping into the crowd. He has these theories about how Black people hang and jump through space in style, in a beautiful way. So I thought about a boy hanging off a tyre swing, a symbol of fun, leisure, relaxation, all that good stuff. But he’s almost looking at his reflection in the lake in a potentially scary way. Like when you see yourself in a mirror and you’re startled – in a moment of freedom, you’re forced to face yourself.

I chose the title because a glint refers to a refraction of light, a refraction of oneself, and then there’s possibility – all of the moments before and after this moment. A possibility in a boy’s life, to set oneself free, to fly, or to hang there freely – all of those things come to mind with this picture. (...)"

Tyler Mitchell

Above: Treading, 2022

“I kept coming back to the power of water. As Black folks, we constantly have this relationship to water that can be spiritually beautiful and restorative while also carrying the connotations of struggle in how we passed through the transatlantic slave trade. I was struck by the beauty of swimming through mud. It’s a struggle and eerie, but it also has so much radiance and beauty. I’m interested in these allusions of freedom and transcendence.”
Tyler Mitchell

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photographs by Tyler Mitchell via and via

Borrowed Time. Photographs by Dennis Darling.

In 2012, Dennis Darling started photographing the ageing population of Holocaust survivors of Terezin, once a holiday resort for the nobility, then turned into a ghetto, then concentration camp. Officially, Terezin had not been an extermination camp. However, about 33,000 people died there due to malnutrition, disease and other reasons. From there, about 88,000 were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

Above: Andula Lorencova née Weinsteinova, b. 1927, Prague, 2012

When the war ended, there were only 17,247 survivors. Dennis Darling made more than 150 portraits of survivors in seven countries. Many of the survivors are photographed within personal spaces (via).

In late 1943 an inspection of Terezin was demanded by Christian X, king of Denmark, to determine the condition of 466 Danish Jews sent there in October of that year. The review panel was to include two Swiss delegates from the International Red Cross and two representatives of the government of Denmark. The Nazis permitted these representatives to visit Terezin in order to dispel rumors about the extermination camps.

The Germans immediately engaged in an infamous beautification program – “Operation Embellishment,” a ruse intended to mollify the king’s concerns. Weeks of preparation preceded the visit. The area was cleaned up, and the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz to minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Terezin. Also deported in these actions were most of the Czechoslovak workers assigned to "Operation Embellishment". The Nazis directed the building of fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort.

 

The inspection was held on June 23, 1944 (...).

The Danish Jews whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than three in a room. (...)

As part of the charade the Nazis compelled Schächter to give a performance of the Requiem. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Red Cross issued “a bland report about the visit, indicating that the representatives were taken in by the elaborate fiction.” Eichmann was later quoted as having said, “Those crazy Jews—singing their own requiem.” Rafael Schächter was deported to Auschwitz on October 16, 1944, and died the following day in the gas chamber.

Following the successful use of Terezin as a supposed model internment camp during the Red Cross visit, the Nazis decided to make a propaganda film there. It was directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron, an experienced director and actor. Shooting took eleven days, starting September 1, 1944. After the film was completed, most of the cast and the director were deported to Auschwitz. Gerron was murdered by gas chamber on October 28, 1944. (via)

Above: Otto Greenfield, North Yorkshire, England

Above:Raja Zadnikova, Prague

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photographs by Dennis Darling via and via and via

Santu Mofokeng: Testing How Many Eccentricities a Picture Can Tolerate before it Breaks apart

Santu Mofokeng (1956-2020) was a South African photographer and member of the Afrapix collective. He started working under the sign of David Goldblatt, his teacher, but showed a different approach. While Goldblatt's photographs were rather careful, precise, "pointed and outwardly political", Mofokeng's work was marked by feelings of alienation testing "how many eccentricities a picture can tolerate before it breaks apart". Mofokeng, according to an article, "portrayed the feelings of black South Africans, and in doing so examined their country's collective subconscious" (via).

photograph (16 June Commemoration, Regina Mundi, Soweto, 1986) by Santu Mofokeng via

Abendlied. By Birthe Piontek.

I worked on the series for about seven years – from 2011 until 2018. In the first two years, I wasn’t sure what I was doing; little was I aware that the project might end up in a book. I just had the urge to express what I saw and felt when I visited my family in Germany. It was the time where my mother showed the first signs of Dementia; however, we weren’t sure about that back then, or better: we were in denial. 

But something was shifting; she was slowly slipping away, and so was the house I grew up in. After two years of working on the project, I found that I had started to develop a visual language for what was going on, and I also knew what I wanted to say. However, like with any project, it takes a lot of trial and error and a lot of time to refine ideas and images. It was especially challenging as I wasn’t physically present on an ongoing basis and only had a few weeks each year to work on it. But in many ways, the breaks were also useful to digest what I worked on and let ideas simmer.

(...) For a long time, while working on the series, I was afraid that this might not be the case, that the images would be “too personal” and the viewer wouldn’t be able to access it. I think, as much as this project is a personal one, it is also very universal. In many ways, the materials I’m working with are universal, too, even though they might have a specific meaning for my family. But the viewer knows what these materials are. One knows about the symbolic meaning of collected teeth, hair, or precious porcelain. We all have versions of these mementos in our homes. And, at some point in our lives, we all encounter losses and the accompanying grief. We understand the power and workings of change and we understand when something comes to an end. Maybe, it’s not so much the materials, but the universality of these experiences that make it possible for the viewer to enter the work – and feel it.

Birthe Piontek

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photographs by Birthe Piontek via and via and via and via and via