”Fifty is just a number, the Titanic was just a boat, WWII was just a misunderstanding and Chernobyl was just a few leaky pipes.”

For most people, reading the above message on their annual birthday card might prompt a dirty look or two, maybe an elbow to the ribs, but not much else. However, a U of S graduate student says the messages we send to our aging loved ones through greeting cards are more significant, and potentially damaging, than most people suspect.

Currently in her second year of her Masters program in Applied Social Psychology, Shannon Ellis says birthday cards have a habit of betraying society’s attitudes towards growing old. Studying the content of 150 age-related birthday cards, Ellis discovered that 66.7 per cent of the cards “represented aging in a negative manner.” Co-written by the National University of Ireland’s Todd Morrison, the study appeared in last year’s issue of The International Journal of Aging and Human Development.

“The take-home message of our research wasn’t in any way to degrade or try and berate card manufacturers, or tell people not to buy birthday cards. The idea was to consider whether or not the recipient is going to view that card in the same light that you are,” she says.

Read the whole story at: On Campus News