Development Of Alternative Hypotheses About Why Young Adults Have Larger Social Networks Than Elderly Adults

Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory is about time and how adults have lesser time to invest in their relationships and this makes them choose the relationships that they have a certain type of familiarity and prior experience, these experiences are generally positive. As people get older they have a high value for emotional satisfaction and hence they will choose quality relationships over quantity relationships. In this assessment I will try to explore the other reasons expect for this theory about the reasons for adults having a narrower social network.

Firstly I think the elderly have a set of lower opportunities in life to make social networks, and are generally lesser motivated to interact with new people as interacting with newer people is often considered risky. As a young adult there multiple opportunities where people get to engage in social activity they have college, tuitions, social groups based on different types of hobbies, social networking sites to establish friendships and find perspective partners in life. if they are working well they have their colleagues, organizational gathering where people tend to socialize, well if then they are married or in a relationship social networks open up from their partners side to they get to socialize with their partners sets of friends and social networks giving them a chance to explore more hence it is seen the “young adult” age is often seen as the age where an individual has the most friends and acquaintances compared to any other age of their life.

Most cultures nowadays are influenced by the western culture and they have come up with this term called “emerging adulthood” which also co relates with the young adults phrase here people are more willing to explore and find themselves in relation with other people and this increases the likelihood that people will explore relations with other people and try find themselves and form their identity. Whereas with elderly adults most them are retried or working part time they have low scale interaction with people as they don’t have many avenues to interact with newer people, they don’t have a constant setting which they can go to everyday to interact with people rather they might be into activities for e. g. going for a walk where they might meet people regularly for some time and it might suddenly stop. The elderly also have also unlike young adults are low on excitement seeking which leads to lesser interaction with people they aren’t familiar with.

The elderly also have more negative life changes that they need to cope with death of people they know, low income and being dependent after years of earning for themselves and being independent this often can make the elderly depressed, and one of symptoms depression is social withdrawal hence affecting the size of social networks in the elderly. Young adults are often drawn together because they have similar attitudes towards particular things that they have in common for e. g. hating their boss or love for a particular sports team. As people age their life goes through different transitions for e. g. getting a job, getting prompted, having children these changes often result in an individual having fewer friends and social networks and also lesser contact with them. Elderly adults might not have the as large as social networks as they previously used to have as with age certain aliments related to health restrict them from doing so physically but is accompanied by a sense of losing control over there life and this is a major factor that affects adult mental health, if the aliment is chronic or a disability it often results in depression. This often turns into a vivacious cycle where once an aliment is development individuals tend to withdraw themselves from society increasing their isolation which makes e their mental health deteriorate and individuals want to give up this also affects the social networks as they are no longer motivated to.

The way different society is structured often leads to alimentation of the elderly population so there is a specific age to retirement even if the individual in question is still fit and functioning adequately, more over if retirement happens there are no plans in place that will help the individual still feel purpose or motivated in life, often their children live separately and our busy in their own lives and the only other options they are left with is their grandchildren who also are generally grown up and have their own lives by this age, this leads to reduced social networks that the elderly are faced with often. In today’s day and age where social media is extremely important to form social networks the elderly are mostly are left out of this endeavor, even though adults using technology is on a rise 4 in 10 seniors own a smartphone.

There is still a difference between adults and elderly on social media which is often used for social networking. Older people also tend to attach a greater value to spirituality and religion and often spend large amounts of their time is dedicated to this. This is an activity which is often done by oneself. According to me a lack of opportunity, deterioration in health, negative life changes, lack of similar attitudes, spirituality, societal alienation and lack of use of social media seem to have an effect on the social networking size of the adults.