Den kollektiva ensamheten - En kvalitativ intervjustudie om äldre individers upplevelser av pandemin covid-19 under året 2020

Abstract

In the year of 2020 the world was hit by a pandemic named covid-19, or coronavirus disease 2019. The virus affected the entire world population, more or less, and not least the elderly and various risk groups. The virus and its consequences are still current in the beginning of 2021. The Swedish government has issued restrictions for older individuals to protect them and minimize the number of deaths. The discussion about age and isolation of certain groups has become highly relevant in the Swedish society. Previous research has shown that ageism, or age discrimination, do exist in the society and that there is a lot of prejudices about the elderly population. The old individual is at the final stage of life and is considered a burden to society. The discussion about elderly during the pandemic is therefore highly topical. For this reason, it is of interest to study older individuals’ experiences of the pandemic. This essay seeks to explore the present life situations of people, 65 years and older, before and during the pandemic. The purpose of this essay is also to study people’s perception of age related to their previous lives and experiences of covid-19. In order to investigate this topic, the theory of phenomenology and narrative has been used. Furthermore, the theory of collective memories and ageism was applied. The result is based on five qualitative interviews with people over 65 years old. The resulting material was analysed with an analysis tool which was designed especially for this study. The study shows that the interviewed older individuals suffers from the pandemic due to isolation, changing lifestyles and loneliness to mention a few. Perception of age, age discrimination and conspiracy theories became visible in the conversation about the pandemic. This study also contains an analysis of the conversation between a young listener and an older narrator which shows that stereotypes and prejudices about both elderly and younger individuals are created during the discussion.