TED Talk Analysis- Cassadi Cordea

Jared Diamond believes the elderly population in America has greater value than they are being treated with. He gave his speech on the elderly in March of 2013 at TED2013. Jared Diamond, an aged individual himself, spoke about how we as a society treat our elderly population today and compares and contrasts that to traditional societies and even tribal societies. This is an issue that is very relevant to the Best Friends Day Center because it is a place for the elderly who aren't staying with their families anymore. He begins with asking who in the audience is 65 years or older or is close to someone who is, and this pretty much covers everyone in the room. The audience doesn’t know what to expect from Diamond, but they know it can be considered credible considering his age and experience. This topic was very relevant to the audience and they politely listened to Diamond. Although there were some light moments, this was not meant to be a funny speech. Diamond wanted to point out all of the things we are doing wrong with our older population.

Jared Diamond speaking at TED2013

Diamond decided to deliver his speech in a very simple way. He was very relaxed and kept his tone conversational and persuasive. It was easy to see that he was completely comfortable with his words. Being someone who is also older gave him more credibility. He did not have any visual aids on stage with him other than a podium and a typed copy of his speech, which he occasionally read from. His firsthand experience with this topic and his age made up for the lack of visual aids. Diamond also was able to effectively paint mental images with his words, so no part of his speech seemed lacking or confusing. If he had wanted to use visual aids in his speech, he could’ve provided more statistics or testimonies from people who are experiencing this problem firsthand.

Diamond’s first major point began with a compare and contrast segment. He explained the horrible treatment of the elderly in traditional and tribal societies that we in a modern society would not think to do. He then led into how those societies were good to their elderly. Traditional societies valued their elderly’s wisdom, while our modern society today seems to think that the elderly are not as valuable in that aspect. He also points out that in traditional society the elderly lead much richer social lives because they are not sent off to live alone somewhere with people they don’t know. Nursing homes isolate our elderly and socially inhibit them for the rest of their lives. Another point that promotes the value of the elderly today is that they are able to help the younger people with their lives. Their children grow up to have kids, and since more young women are working now and both parents now are more likely to have jobs, there is a need for babysitters. Grandparents are perfect for this role. Diamond states the obvious: most grandparents love their grandchildren and want to spend time with them, and they can also provide a nurturing environment that the children will learn and grow in.  

The elderly population will continue to grow to the highest it has ever been

To wrap up his speech, Diamond points out that there are more elderly people than ever, so this is a problem that cannot be ignored. He asks the audience to try and understand how we can learn from traditional society and apply it to ours. The elderly have value and to ignore their value is doing a disservice to society.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_how_societies_can_grow_old_better#t-5841