You know you want to… We are often extolling the virtues of particular social-networking platforms or encouraging specific strategies to reach out to your audience(s) across these platforms. When moving through the ‘tubes’ of our social networks, it is easy to think that each post we prepare is the most important one ever and that […]
#GRANTS: The Lawrence Foundation Can Help Your Environmental Or Health Program
In our ongoing periodic series on sources for grants, we have focused on foundations tied to the great tech companies of our day. In this installment we present a foundation not obviously linked to that sector of the economy, though in fact it is intimately entwined. The Lawrence Foundation was established by Jeff Lawrence and […]
#PROAGING: Technology Improves Exercise of Body And Brain
Last week we introduced an AARP report encouraging the development of ‘Technology for All,’ namely, technology that includes the interests, expectations, and needs of Baby Boomers. Here is an example of how technology makes a common exercise machine that much more interesting and beneficial: a computer screen offering a virtual tour for a stationary biker. […]
#ProAging: Which US Cities Offer The Best Lifestyle To Their Older Citizens?
Dave Letterman offers only a “Top 10” list, but Bankers Life and Casualty has just published its Top 50 “Best US Cities For Seniors 2011” and the list contains a few surprises – though, admittedly, not so many laughs. The list was drawn up with an effort to establish some stable criteria that were, in […]
#ProAging: iPad Technology Can Draw Out Memories And Skills For Elderly
One stereotype of the elderly and long retired is that they fear new technology. Yet many of the GI Generation and Silent Generation were, in fact, the ones who started the phenomenal research and development in the middle of the twentieth century that give us our hybrid cars and smart phones today. A recent report […]
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Heath In Retirement (Part 2 of 2)
Last Thursday we shared a report conducted by National Public Radio (NPR), who has been presenting the findings of their in-depth survey concerning how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The takeaway of the survey shows that those […]
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Retirement (Part 1 of 2)
Over the last few days, National Public Radio (NPR) has been presenting the findings of an in-depth survey and study of how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The findings show a general […]
#ProAging: Small Ailments, Left Unchecked, Can Lead To Big Concerns
Most (post-)industrial western societies tend to see aging as a decline from the creativity and energy of young adulthood. The experiences and wisdom of longer life tend to be downplayed against the physical changes wrought by age. But older people tend to know better: they want the young to appreciate that the teens and early […]
#Aging: We May Have To/Want To Work Longer. Will We Live Longer?
For many, the Stock Market Crash of 2008 wiped out most of their retirement savings. For some, working longer past the traditional retirement age is a key to ongoing engagement, community involvement, and mental health. For most, working beyond 65 (or whatever the retirement age is in your country) is an economic expectation, for better […]
#Aging: GE & Intel Combine Forces To Improve Independent Living For Seniors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVoKYiOCyFI[/youtube]
Thought GE & Intel announced in 2009 a partnership to develop technologies for retiring Baby Boomers to enhance their independence, they announced the finalized plans for the organization this week. According to a GE press release, the final legal steps are being taken to create the joint venture by the end of this year. The […]
#SocialNetworking: Jumo And Good Join To Create Largest Nonprofit Network
We have followed the development of the Jumo website and network over the last year or so, and that organization has recently announced a development ‘merger’ with Good.is that will make it/them arguably the largest nonprofit socially-conscious network around. The union will bring together Jumo’s model of searching for and supporting projects by topics with […]
#Aging: Health-Care Reform Showing Small Advantages For Medicare Recipients
Politics have roughed up most of our attitudes towards health reform. Sometimes it is difficult to sort out what has changed, what seems to be improvement or expansion or cut in service or cost. As the reforms of 2010 move through the courts, we all might need ever greater concentration to keep an eye under […]
#Aging: Caregiving For Parents So Common Most Do Not Report It
Caregiving among younger people as their Boomer parents move toward retirement is so common that they do not even consider it caregiving. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) considers any fairly regular activity, like taking a parent to the doctor or over-the-counter testing for blood sugars, as part of their ‘Caregiver’ category, though the […]
#Aging: Upcoming Movie Documents The Revolution Of Growing Older
http://vimeo.com/22080715
From the people who brought us the Civil Rights Movement and Haight-Ashbury, draft-dodging and fuel-efficient draft airplanes comes a new movement meant to revolutionize the ways we think about aging. The Baby Boomers have never really moved gently from one stage of life to another, so we should not be surprised to discover that they […]
#Aging: Some American Cities Meeting The Challenges Of Boomer Residents
The vitality of many American cities comes from our perceptions of them as hives of industrial, commercial – youthful – activity reinventing those very cities with each generation. Though such regeneration still goes on, the fact of the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ of aging Baby Boomers means many cities are having to reconsider how to service […]
Aging: Study Reveals Being Homebound is Linked to Alzheimer’s
Steve Gurney (ProAging Information Network) reports on a new study that looks at the incidence of Alzheimer’s in “housebound” seniors. The study suggests that being housebound nearly doubles the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The new study, published online April 15 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, looks at something known as “life space.” […]
Aging: Video On Design & Marketing To Baby Boomers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMjLfgixcls[/youtube]
A number of weeks ago we presented a news story about how retiring Baby Boomers are changing the ways we all perceive design and consumerism in older age. Since then NBC news filled out the report with a posted video that includes Today’s Peter Alexander conversation with Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT’s Age Lab. We […]
#Aging: Marketing To Retiring Baby Boomers
This past weekend, Rita Braver gave a report on Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood on how industries from drugstore chains to auto manufacturers are taking the ever-expanding senior population into account when designing their markets and products. The transcript of her report was put online earlier this week. Companies are looking for ways to market […]
Sustainability: Corporate Responsibility = Sustainability?
The MKCREATIVE blog welcomes Maria Lilly, principal of MJLilly Associates LLC, to our blog. She is a communications strategist who develops positioning programs that unite corporate, marketing and financial messages to create and support a company’s brand. As I canvas the business marketplace, I am thrilled to see the ongoing emergence of corporate responsibility and […]
Health: Would You Recognize a Heart Attack?
AARP recently published a great article on how to recognize whether or not you’re having a heart attack (women tend to wait longer to call 911 than men) and what to do if you think you’re having one. Here’s what AARP advise: Don’t waste valuable time questioning the signs of a heart attack if you […]