People are living longer and societies are getting grayer. You hear about it all the time. You read about it in your newspapers. You hear about it on your television sets. Sometimes, I'm concerned that we hear about it so much that we've come to accept longer lives with a kind of a complacency, even ease. But make no mistake, longer lives can -- and, I believe, will improve quality of life at all ages.
Ljudi žive duže i društva postaju sve više seda. Slušate o tome sve vreme. Čitate o tome u novinama. Slušate o tome na televiziji. Ponekad sam zabrinuta, toliko slušamo o tome da smo počeli prihvatati duže živote s dozom samozadovoljstva, čak spokojstva. Da ne bude zabune, duži životi mogu i ja verujem da hoće poboljšati kvalitet života u svim životnim dobima.
Now to put this in perspective, let me just zoom out for a minute. More years were added to average life expectancy in the 20th century than all years added across all prior millennia of human evolution combined. In the blink of an eye, we nearly doubled the length of time that we're living. So if you ever feel like you don't have this aging thing quite pegged, don't kick yourself. It's brand new.
Da bismo ovo razmotrili, dozvolite mi da prikažem širi kontekst. Za više godina je produženo trajanje prosečnog života u 20. veku, nego tokom svih prethodnih milenijuma ljudske evolucije. U treptaju oka gotovo smo udvostručili trajanje životnog veka. Pa ako vam se čini da niste baš shvatili sve ovo u vezi sa starenjem, nemojte se zabrinjavati. To je sasvim nova stvar.
And because fertility rates fell across that very same period that life expectancy was going up, that pyramid that has always represented the distribution of age in the population, with many young ones at the bottom winnowed to a tiny peak of older people who make it and survive to old age, is being reshaped into a rectangle.
Stope plodnosti su padale istovremeno sa produživanjem prosečnog životnog veka. Ta piramida koja je uvek predstavljala starosnu strukturu populacije, sa mnogo mladih na dnu i malim brojem starijih ljudi na njenom vrhu koji su uspeli i preživeli do starosti, promenila je oblik u pravougaonik.
And now, if you're the kind of person who can get chills from population statistics,
Ako spadate u one koji se ježe od statistika populacije,
(Laughter)
these are the ones that should do it. Because what that means is that for the first time in the history of the species, the majority of babies born in the developed world are having the opportunity to grow old.
ovo su podaci koji bi trebalo da vas naježe. Zato što to znači da po prvi put u istoriji čovečanstva, većina dece rođene u razvijenom svetu, ima priliku da ostari.
How did this happen? Well, we're no genetically hardier than our ancestors were 10,000 years ago. This increase in life expectancy is the remarkable product of culture -- the crucible that holds science and technology and wide-scale changes in behavior that improve health and well-being. Through cultural changes, our ancestors largely eliminated early death so that people can now live out their full lives.
Kako se to dogodilo? Nismo genetički izdržljiviji od naših predaka pre 10.000 godina. Ovo produženje životnog veka je neverovatan proizvod kulture - recept sadrži nauku i tehnologiju, i rasprostranjene promene u ponašanju koje su poboljšale zdravlje i blagostanje. Kroz kulturne promene, naši preci su u velikoj meri eliminisali ranu smrt, te ljudi sada mogu uživati u životu do kraja.
Now there are problems associated with aging -- diseases, poverty, loss of social status. It's hardly time to rest on our laurels. But the more we learn about aging, the clearer it becomes that a sweeping downward course is grossly inaccurate. Aging brings some rather remarkable improvements -- increased knowledge, expertise -- and emotional aspects of life improve. That's right, older people are happy. They're happier than middle-aged people, and younger people, certainly.
Postoje problemi povezani sa starenjem - bolesti, siromaštvo, gubitak društvenog statusa. Nije baš vreme za ležanje na lovorikama. Ipak, što više saznajemo o starenju, postaje sve jasnije da je kretanje nizbrdo vrlo netačan opis. Starenje donosi neka izvanredna poboljšanja - više znanja, stručnost - i emocionalni aspekti života se poboljšavaju. Upravo tako, stariji ljudi su srećni. Srećniji su od sredovečnih ljudi,
(Laughter)
a sigurno i od mladih.
Study after study is coming to the same conclusion.
Studija za studijom
The CDC recently conducted a survey where they asked respondents simply to tell them whether they experienced significant psychological distress in the previous week. And fewer older people answered affirmatively to that question than middle-aged people, and younger people as well. And a recent Gallup poll asked participants how much stress and worry and anger they had experienced the previous day. And stress, worry, anger all decrease with age.
dolazi do istog zaključka. Centar za kontrolu bolesti je nedavno sproveo anketu u kojoj su pitali ispitanike da li su doživeli značajnu psihološku uznemirenost u protekloj nedelji. Potvrdno je odgovorilo manje starijih ljudi nego sredovečnih ispitanika, i mladih ljudi. Nedavna Galupova anketa je pitala učesnike koliko su stresa, brige i ljutnje doživeli u proteklom danu. Stres, briga i ljutnja, sve to opada sa godinama.
Now social scientists call this the paradox of aging. I mean, after all, aging is not a piece of cake. So we've asked all sorts of questions to see if we could undo this finding. We've asked whether it may be that the current generations of older people are and always have been the greatest generations. That is that younger people today may not typically experience these improvements as they grow older. We've asked, well, maybe older people are just trying to put a positive spin on an otherwise depressing existence.
Društveni naučnici ovo nazivaju paradoksom starenja. Ipak, ostariti nije lako. Postavljali smo razna pitanja da bismo videli možemo li poništiti ovo saznanje. Pitali smo da li je moguće da su trenutne generacije starijih sada i ranije bile najbolje generacije. Odnosno, da mlađi ljudi danas možda neće osetiti takva poboljšanja kad oni budu starili. Pitali smo da li možda stariji ljudi samo pokušavaju pozitivnije predstaviti egzistenciju koja je inače deprimirajuća.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But the more we've tried to disavow this finding, the more evidence we find to support it.
Što smo više pokušavali da poništimo ovo saznanje, nalazili smo sve više dokaza koji ga potvrđuju.
Years ago, my colleagues and I embarked on a study where we followed the same group of people over a 10-year period. Originally, the sample was aged 18 to 94. And we studied whether and how their emotional experiences changed as they grew older. Our participants would carry electronic pagers for a week at a time, and we'd page them throughout the day and evenings at random times. And every time we paged them, we'd ask them to answer several questions -- "On a one to seven scale, how happy are you right now?" "How sad are you right now?" "How frustrated are you right now?" -- so that we could get a sense of the kinds of emotions and feelings they were having in their day-to-day lives.
Pre mnogo godina, sa kolegama sam pokrenula istraživanje u kome smo pratili istu grupu ljudi tokom 10 godina. Originalni uzorak je bio između 18 i 94 godine. Proučavali smo, da li se i kako njihova emotivna iskustva menjanju u periodu starenja. Naši učesnici su nosili elektronske pejdžere nedelju dana. Mi bismo im se nasumice javljali tokom dana i večeri. Svaki put kad bismo im se javili pitali bismo ih nekoliko pitanja - Na skali od jedan do sedam, koliko ste trenutno srećni? Koliko ste trenutno tužni? Koliko ste trenutno frustrirani? - kako bismo mogli dobiti osećaj o vrsti emocija i osećanja koje su imali u njihovoj svakodnevici.
And using this intense study of individuals, we find that it's not one particular generation that's doing better than the others, but the same individuals over time come to report relatively greater positive experience. Now you see this slight downturn at very advanced ages. And there is a slight downturn. But at no point does it return to the levels we see in early adulthood.
Koristeći ovo intenzivno istraživanje na pojedincima, otkrili smo da nije samo jedna generacija ta kojoj ide bolje od ostalih, već su isti pojedinci tokom vremena postepeno prijavljivali relativno veće pozitivno iskustvo. Vidite ovaj blagi pad u poodmaklim godinama. Postoji blagi pad. Ali ni u jednom momentu se ne vraća na nivo koji vidimo u ranoj zrelosti.
Now it's really too simplistic to say that older people are "happy." In our study, they are more positive. But they're also more likely than younger people to experience mixed emotions -- sadness at the same time you experience happiness; you know, that tear in the eye when you're smiling at a friend. And other research has shown that older people seem to engage with sadness more comfortably. They're more accepting of sadness than younger people are. And we suspect that this may help to explain why older people are better than younger people at solving hotly charged emotional conflicts and debates. Older people can view injustice with compassion, but not despair.
Bilo bi suviše pojednostavljeno reći da su stariji ljudi "srećni." Oni su u našem istraživanju pozitivniji, ali su i skloniji nego mlađe osobe da dožive pomešane emocije - tugu istovremeno kad doživljavate sreću; znate, suza u oku kad se smešite prijatelju. Drugo istraživanje je pokazalo da se stariji ljudi nose sa tugom komotnije. Lakše prihvataju tugu nego mlađi ljudi. Pretpostavljamo da bi ovo moglo pomoći objašnjenju zašto stariji ljudi bolje od mlađih ljudi rešavaju žustre emotivne konflikte i rasprave. Stariji ljudi mogu sagledati nepravdu sa saosećanjem, ali ne i očajanjem.
And all things being equal, older people direct their cognitive resources, like attention and memory, to positive information more than negative. If we show older, middle-aged, younger people images, like the ones you see on the screen, and we later ask them to recall all the images that they can, older people, but not younger people, remember more positive images than negative images. We've asked older and younger people to view faces in laboratory studies, some frowning, some smiling. Older people look toward the smiling faces and away from the frowning, angry faces. In day-to-day life, this translates into greater enjoyment and satisfaction.
Ako je sve ostalo jednako, stariji ljudi usmeravaju svoje kognitivne resurse, poput pažnje i pamćenja, rađe prema pozitivnoj informaciji nego negativnoj. Ako pokažemo starijim, mlađim i sredovečnim ljudima slike, kao ove koje vidite na ekranu i kasnije ih pitamo da se prisete svih slika koje mogu, stariji ljudi, za razliku od mlađih, pamte više pozitivnih slika nego negativnih. Upitali smo starije i mlađe ljude da pogledaju lica u laboratorijskim istraživanjima, neka koja se mršte, a neka koja se smeju. Stariji ljudi gledaju prema nasmešenim licima i sklanjaju pogled sa namrštenih, ljutih lica. U svakodnevnom životu, ovo se odražava kroz više radosti i zadovoljstva.
But as social scientists, we continue to ask about possible alternatives. We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions because they're cognitively impaired.
Kao društveni naučnici, nastavljamo da ispitujemo moguće alternative. Rekli smo, stariji ljudi možda govore o više pozitivnih emocija
(Laughter)
zato što su kognitivno oštećeni. (Smeh)
We've said, could it be that positive emotions are simply easier to process than negative emotions, and so you switch to the positive emotions? Maybe our neural centers in our brain are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore. But that's not the case. The most mentally sharp older adults are the ones who show this positivity effect the most. And under conditions where it really matters, older people do process the negative information just as well as the positive information.
Rekli smo, da nisu moža te pozitivne emocije samo jednostavnije za obradu nego negativne emocije, pa se prebacujete na pozitivne emocije? Možda su nervni centri u našem mozgu oštećeni tako da više ne možemo da obrađujemo negativne emocije. To ipak nije u pitanju. Većina mentalno jakih starijih osoba su oni koji najčešće pokazuju ovaj efekat pozitivnosti. U uslovima gde je to zaista važno, stariji ljudi obrađuju negativnu informaciju podjednako dobro kao i pozitivnu informaciju.
So how can this be? Well, in our research, we've found that these changes are grounded fundamentally in the uniquely human ability to monitor time -- not just clock time and calendar time, but lifetime. And if there's a paradox of aging, it's that recognizing that we won't live forever changes our perspective on life in positive ways. When time horizons are long and nebulous, as they typically are in youth, people are constantly preparing, trying to soak up all the information they possibly can, taking risks, exploring. We might spend time with people we don't even like because it's somehow interesting. We might learn something unexpected.
Kako je to moguće? U našem istraživanju, otkrili smo da su te promene bitno utemeljene u jedinstvenoj ljudskoj sposobnosti da posmatra vreme - ne samo kao vreme na satu i kalendaru, već kao vreme života. I ako postoji paradoks starenja, to je da saznanje da nećemo živeti zauvek menja naš pogled na svet u pozitivnom smislu. Kad su vremenski okviri dugi i nejasni, kao što obično i jesu u mladosti, ljudi se stalno pripremaju, pokušavaju da upiju sve informacije koje mogu rizikuju, istražuju. Možemo provoditi vreme sa ljudima koji nam se ni ne sviđaju, jer je to na neki način zanimljivo. Možemo naučiti nešto neočekivano.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
We go on blind dates.
Idemo na sastanke na slepo.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
You know, after all, if it doesn't work out, there's always tomorrow. People over 50 don't go on blind dates.
Znate, na kraju krajeva, ako ne uspe, uvek postoji sutra. Ljudi iznad 50.
(Laughter)
ne idu na sastanke ne slepo. (Smeh)
As we age, our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change. When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world, we see our priorities most clearly. We take less notice of trivial matters. We savor life. We're more appreciative, more open to reconciliation. We invest in more emotionally important parts of life, and life gets better, so we're happier day-to-day. But that same shift in perspective leads us to have less tolerance than ever for injustice.
Kako starimo, naši vremenski okviri se smanjuju i naši ciljevi se menjaju. Kad uvidimo da nemamo sve vreme sveta, jasnije vidimo svoje prioritete. Manje marimo za trivijalne stvari. Uživamo u životu. Zahvalniji smo, pomirljiviji. Ulažemo u emotivno važnije delove života, i život postaje bolji, pa smo iz dana u dan srećniji. Ali ta ista promena perspektive čini nas manje tolerantnim nego ikad prema nepravdi.
By 2015, there will be more people in the United States over the age of 60 than under 15. What will happen to societies that are top-heavy with older people? The numbers won't determine the outcome. Culture will. If we invest in science and technology and find solutions for the real problems that older people face and we capitalize on the very real strengths of older people, then added years of life can dramatically improve quality of life at all ages. Societies with millions of talented, emotionally stable citizens who are healthier and better educated than any generations before them, armed with knowledge about the practical matters of life and motivated to solve the big issues can be better societies than we have ever known.
Do 2015. u SAD-u će biti više ljudi koji su stariji od 60 godina, nego onih ispod 15 godina. Šta će se dogoditi sa društvima koja su prepuna starijih ljudi? Brojevi neće odrediti ishod. Kultura hoće. Ako uložimo u nauku i tehnologiju, te pronađemo rešenja za stvarne probleme sa kojima se stariji ljudi suočavaju i usredsredimo se na stvarne snage starijih ljudi, onda dodate godine života mogu dramatično poboljšati kvalitet života za sva životna doba. Društva sa milionima talentovanih, emotivno stabilnih građana koji su zdraviji i školovaniji od bilo koje generacije pre njih, koji su potkovani znanjem o praktičnim stvarima života i motivisani da reše velike stvari, mogu biti bolja društva nego ikada.
My father, who is 92, likes to say, "Let's stop talking only about how to save the old folks and start talking about how to get them to save us all."
Moj otac, koji ima 92 godine voli da kaže: "Prestanimo pričati samo o tome kako spasiti starce i počnimo da pričamo o tome kako da oni spasu sve nas."
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)