Senior Citizens – Issue of Socialization

 

Senior Citizens – Issue of Socialization

We all know regarding the various challenges that a senior citizen faces of which the most serious challenge is lack of socialization. After the completion of working life, a senior citizen faces the challenges of lack of engagement and socialization. Challenge of engagement can be mitigated by pursuing hobbies, reading books, helping spouse in domestic work, etc., for which one may not need another person’s help. But to mitigate the challenge of socialization one need other persons for interaction. Without interactions with other persons, one cannot mitigate the challenge of socialization. Therefore, there is a necessity to have regular chit chat with a group of senior citizens.

2. With the increase in age, a senior citizen faces a gradual reduction in the number of persons for interaction within home as well as in social circle. After retirement, there is a sudden reduction in number of persons for interactions due to cease of working relationship with colleagues. Most of the senior citizens have adult children busy with their profession and family life and may not be staying with them. Therefore, they hardly get a scope for interacting with people including family members. Therefore, there is a necessity to form a group of senior citizens residing in the same locality to have frequent chit chat with each other. 

3. Every senior citizen is having a stock of experiences and knowledge acquired during the course of journey of their life which they want to share with someone. A group of 10 to 15 persons is an ideal size for having a chit chat. In a large size group, all the senior citizens may not get a scope to share his or her thoughts and opinions. If a group is too small then the participants may not get enriched with the diversified views on the subject matter. It is better to have a group size of 10-15 persons staying in the same or nearby locality having diversified backgrounds i.e. having experiences in various fields and from different professions. It is better to have a group having persons from diversified cultural backgrounds. The purpose is to have divergent views on the subject matter which helps in widening our horizon of thoughts.

4.  The chit chat may be informal or formal. Informal chit chats are more frequently held in common places like club house of housing society, garden, etc. Generally informal chit chats are on daily basis in which everyone shares their problems, day-to-day experiences, important information helpful to all, etc. There may not be any fixed topic for such informal chit chat. Sometimes chit chat starts spontaneously by the persons on certain occasions like marriage ceremony, birthday party, etc.

In a formal chit chat, there is a fixed topic for discussion. Formal chit chats are generally preplanned and topics for discussion are decided well in advance. Date and timing are also decided well in advance and informed to all the participants. Such formal chit chat requires strong initiative by at least one interested person.

5. Organizing meeting for chit chat: The success of any meeting whether formal or informal depends on the way the meeting has been conducted. The meeting should be conducted in such a manner that every participant gets a chance to share his or her viewpoints or opinions on the subject and meeting should end within a reasonable time with important takeaways. If a meeting is informal then everyone should take care to allow others to speak and wait for their turn to speak. Depending on the number of persons and the expected duration of a meeting, one should decide the timing for each participant to speak. Successful meeting ends within a reasonable time with logical conclusion. Successful meeting helps in enriching the participants with important takeaway. 

6. Subject matters during chit chat: Generally informal chit chat does not have any pre decided subject matters for discussion. Subject matters evolved during the course of discussion during chit chat. If the same set up of senior citizens are meeting on daily basis, then care should be taken to have discussion on variety of subjects and not to repeat the same subject on every occasion otherwise persons may lose interest in chit chat. Please take care to avoid discussion on any controversial topic which may heart the sentiment of any other person. The topic should be interesting and of general interest to all. Discussion on serious topics of technical in nature may be discussed in formal meetings of senior citizens. Formal meeting should be organized after informing timing, venue and subject matter to the participants well in advance so that participants interested to deliberate on the subject matter may have sufficient time for preparation. It is better to have discussions on the subject matters related to general health and hygiene, finance, peace of mind, managing relationships, philosophy of life, etc. There are lot of subject matters in addition to these on which one may have discussion.

7. No doubt that the subject matter for discussion is very important but the more important is the way of conducting meeting for making the discussion healthy and enriching. It was observed that despite having interesting subject matter the participants are not getting interest and could not enrich themselves from the meeting. Thumb rule for making the meeting successful is that every person during the chit chat should be allowed to speak and all other should listen to the person speaking. It was observed that all the persons are eager to speak and many times all start speaking simultaneously without listening to anyone. Such meetings end in chaos making everyone unhappy. There should be one person taking leading role in conducting meeting. That person should give brief introduction of the subject matter for discussion and should fix time for each person to speak. The person speaking should focus on the subject matter. No other person should talk or interrupt in between when a person is speaking. The other person should listen to that person attentively and if there is any point of disagreement then it should be raised after that person finishes his talk. While raising point of disagreement care should be taken not to hurt the sentiment of the speaker. It should be raised in a polite manner without hurting anyone. Everyone should try to finish within allotted time so as to give chance to others to speak.  

8. Socialization is very important during every phase of our life but a person faces the challenge of socialization during the second innings of life. During this phase, a person requires someone to interact with. Since every senior citizen is facing this problem, it is therefore essential to form a group of senior citizens for frequent interactions with each which will serve the purpose of socialization. Let us come together to socialize with each other and enrich ourselves with various information and thoughts shared by everyone during chit-chat. Let us together make our journey of life meaningful and joyful. 

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