Lesson 14, #3: Describe 3 common stereotypes of old and younger people. Why do they exist?

When I think of stereotypes, the first that comes to mind that both elderly and young share is that they can’t drive. Younger people are known for texting while driving, or having a lead foot, driving recklessly. On the flip side older people are considered slow drives and unaware of their surroundings. All of the descriptions on describing how both young and old drive, leads to car accidents. I do believe that this actually is a fairly accurate stereotype. Younger people have a false assurance that they can drive over the speed limit, text and jam out to really loud music and that nothing can hurt them. When new drivers get this false confidence in driving it leads to car accidents, which is quite common, and what gives teens/younger drivers a bad reputation. Not all young people are bad drivers, but the ones who are give the group as a whole that stereotype. Same goes for elderly drivers. I always say that “old folks don’t know how to drive” I sum up all older drivers as a whole from past experiences with driving behind a really slow driver that was older, and from being a passenger in a car with my own grandma who almost hit ten things in five minutes. When I compare all my grandparents three of them are great drivers, but my having awful experiences with driving with my grandma who hit everything, makes me sum up all older people as a whole and stating they are bad drivers, which is not true. Another stereotype that younger people have acquired is that they are all pot heads. If people were to pull a younger person and an older person aside and had a third party guess as to which one does drugs, guaranteed that the younger person would be picked. There is a stigma and stereotype that all young people do drugs, and that supposedly you can specifically by the way a person dresses if they do drugs. I know that there is a lot of younger people who engage if illegal activities, but there is also a crowd of older people who par take in these activities as well. I myself have been victim of this stereotype. I went to a concert in Chicago, and they had police at the entrance doing searches for weapons/drugs. I noticed that if the person looked older then forty the police didn’t really do much of a “search”. The older woman in front of me walked right through, when it was my turn I was asked to reverse my pockets and have everything in my bad searched. The police officer even said, they were looking for “illegal items” referencing drugs. Because young people have a stereotype for doing drugs, I as well as majority of the younger crowd was searched extra, while the older crown not so much. One last stereotype for older people is that they are cheap, as I’ve herd many times “Cheap old man!” They elderly don’t leave good tips, they re use disposable cups, will not waste a single bit of food. I think this stereotype is good and bad at the same time. I do think that people who experienced the great depression in the 20s are the reason of this stereotype. Which I don’t think is all that bad. They keep a close eye on their money, spend it wisely, which is something I think a lot of people such as myself can learn to do. The negative which I have seen my own grandparents do, they will by low quality things instead of high quality, because of the price. I do think this is a stereotype that has valid reason behind it. I also think that in the future this stereotype will be dropped because in future generations they hopefully wont experience that great depression that caused this generation of elderly to have this stereotype of being cheap.