Why Boomers Still Play A Big Part In Creating Culture

TRANSCRIPT:

This is particularly interesting if we think that 40 percent of the American population is over 50. That's a lot of people to just take and make invisible in some medicalized group over here. In two years' time, there will be more people over the age of 65 than under 5 for the first time in human history.

This is also a time when a 50‑year‑old can have a rational belief that they have another 30, 40, 50 years of life ahead of them, essentially a life 2.0This is the greatest demographic disruption our species has ever had. We think this is fantastic because not only we're living longer, we're living healthier, more engaged, more effective, [inaudible] much longer into advanced age than ever before.

Think about the humanitarian, the economic, the cultural contributions that we can make if we are allowed to. Not only are we contributors, we are consumers. The greatest consumer group of Apple products are men over the age of 65.

Who are we? We feel that we are at the peak of our powers. We simultaneously feel that we are being disempowered and made to feel invisible by the culture around us. We are the people that helped to invent the personal computer, the mobile phone, skateboarding, punk rock.

Think of what we could contribute going forward if we are allowed to. These people that I'm showing you here today. Do we think that they are such extreme rarities? No, they are not. They are hidden in plain sight all amongst us.

This culture of aging that we live in is tremendously powerful. It's really all of us have bought into this, myself included, all the people I'm showing you, and probably a lot of you out there today.

We can let this be the moment that we understand that life after 50 can be just as strong, just as powerful, just as satisfying as anything that we've done under 50.

Who are these people that we're talking about? We refer to them as a fifth age cohort.

Filmed at PSFK’s CXI 2018 conference: psfk.com

Agesit: agei.st