It seems that seniors are getting younger at a time when we are living longer. If we are to believe the American non-profit AARP and our own Age Concern, we now become seniors at age fifty.

And if we are to believe a recent study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, half of all babies born in the United Kingdom since the year 2000 will live to be one hundred years old.

If seniorhood begins at fifty and we live one hundred years, how do non-profits, businesses and individuals differentiate among our older workers, active older adults and the frail elderly who need assistance with daily living?

On the one hand, we are advised that those aged 50 and older need "taking care of" by non-profits charged with caring for seniors. On the other hand, we are told that we must keep working well beyond the age of sixty-five if we are going to maintain any quality of life for the thirty-plus years of retirement.

As a result, the current ageing of our population is turning a long-held understanding of life's stages on its head. However, this is not the first time that we have had to rethink how we categorise different age cohorts.

For example, during the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century children worked in the mines, factories and fields and definitely did not have a childhood as we understand it today. Children worked long days for a minimum of six days a week and many died before adulthood. Sunday school was just that — the only day that children could attend church and have any hope of learning to read and write.

With the emergence of a middle class, the industrial revolution also forced a change in understanding life stages. Wealth that had previously been the sole domain of the landed gentry transferred to factory and mine owners, and their children were educated to run the business rather than go down the mine.

Then, as education became more available to the masses, a new life stage of teenage years allowed for an extension of childhood in order to accumulate more knowledge prior to engaging in paid work. Adulthood then became the third stage — productive and reproductive years for men and women.

Old age was a rarity and eventually became integrated into a twentieth century world view of retirement that began at sixty-five. By then the average lifespan hovered at around seventy for the elite but was far lower for the working class. Now, if we are to believe the pundits, we are supposed to be "seniors" for half of our lives.

This comes at a period in history when we, the Baby Boomers, are healthier, wealthier, and better educated than any other age cohort that has ever existed in the known history of mankind. This shows that our language has not caught up with our changing society.

It also demonstrates a misunderstanding of how Baby Boomers resist any marketing that is age specific — resistance that is well supported by marketing research. Indeed, even Elderhostel has changed its name to Exploritas as Boomers resist any association with the word 'elder'.

Furthermore, lumping five decades of life into the term 'senior' is not in any way useful in differentiating life stages when medical technology is promising new and better medicines, procedures, and therapies.

No-one who is working should be described as a 'senior'. By working, paying taxes, supporting family members and themselves, and generally contributing to the common good they are active adults, plain and simple.

Furthermore, we need every able-bodied and able-minded adult to continue to live an active lifestyle by eating well, exercising and generally staying involved in our community by giving back their energy and wisdom.

We need to promote the concept of Active Ageing that Baby Boomers themselves are driving by their living and spending patterns. Labelling adults in the prime of their lives as 'senior' is increasingly construed as condescending, discriminatory and/or pejorative.

Non-profits such as the AARP need to find a more creative way of boosting their membership than practicing ageism — the very thing that they should stand against. Private enterprise would be well-served in hiring creative advertising and marketing firms who understand the well-documented consumer backlash that labelling by age can induce.

Finally, we would all be better served by using the term "senior" a bit more judiciously until our language catches up with our social condition.

Marian Sherratt is President of SORCOS, a social research and consulting firm. She writes on issues concerning our ageing population each month in The Royal Gazette. Send email responses to m.sherratt@sorcos.com">m.sherratt@sorcos.com.