Old Is the New New as Boomers Lead End of Ageism Movement

How is oldness becoming cool? Do the math. Many of the once-largest generation in history are still very much alive and kicking, not about to go gently into that good night. Baby boomers, who led a countercultural revolution in their youth and then created the most powerful civilization on the planet, are wielding their activist spirit and collective social, economic and political clout to leave what may be their greatest legacy: The end of ageism.

The Retirement of Retirement

The retirement of retirement has much to do with this cultural promotion of people of a certain age. Just as boomers famously rejected their parents' model of consumer capitalism in the 1960s (only to fully embrace it in the 1980s), so are they shunning the Greatest Generation's dream of post-employment leisure, preferably in a warm and sunny place. Boomers are worker bees and, if Big Business no longer wants them, they will create their own opportunities. Most of today's start-up ventures are in fact being led by people who were born during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, proof that entrepreneurialism (versus Corporate America) is an equal opportunity employer.

Advancements in Healthcare and Fitness

Alongside this recasting of work as a lifetime enterprise, advancements in healthcare and fitness over the past couple of decades are enabling older adults to not just live longer but live better. Today's 70-year-old is likely to look and feel a lot different than one who walked into a doctor's office circa 1975. Not just pharmaceuticals and day-surgeries are keeping those on the north side of sixty in the game. Boomers led the jogging craze of the 1970s and felt Jane Fonda's aerobics burn in the 1980s (let's just forget about Buns of Steel and the Thighmaster, thank you very much), and today many of them remain committed to keeping the moving parts of their bodies moving for as long as possible. Likewise, standards of beauty are happily changing, with attractiveness these days judged more on holistic wellness than nubile gorgeousness.

The Digital Revolution

The more prominent and influential role of those in their third act of life is also being enabled through technology. The Digital Revolution of the last quarter-century has changed life as we know it in ways that only historians of the future will fully comprehend. One of its more sanguine features is a leveling of the playing field of our socially constructed divisions, including that of age. The internet has made how long one has happened to live just not that important or even interesting. We're all just people when online, a blurring of demographic lines that is doing much to erode the ageist thinking and practices that have been in place in this country and much of the world over the past century.

Our Increasingly Multicultural Society

Finally, our increasingly multicultural society is helping reintegrate older people back into the general population rather than be treated as a separate (and inferior) segment. Differences based on biology -- gender, skin color, physical ability, etc. -- are finally being seen as reminders of the amazing and wonderful diversity of our species instead of socially-defined buckets by which to sort people. Age is surfing this wave by being considered just one more biological marker of an individual. As well, diversity and inclusion initiatives, buoyed by the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, are exposing ageism as an untenable (and illegal) proposition, this too affording long overdue respect and equity for older people.

Advancing Advocacy to Activism

Are any corporations, organizations or individuals currently addressing ageism by leveraging the proposition of old is the new new? Happily, yes. Truly forward-thinking companies are advancing advocacy to activism by demonstrating all-in commitment to older adults as workers, consumers and citizens. They understand that the tens of millions of American baby boomers are not yesterday's news but in fact tomorrow's, and they are eager to establish deep and meaningful relationships with them in a myriad of ways. Examples include:

• Workplace: Forbes Media fully appreciates the benefits of a multigenerational workforce and is helping spread the word by playing an active role in AARP's amazing "Living, Learning and Earning Longer" initiative. "Automation, artificial intelligence and other groundbreaking technologies might get top billing in conversations about the future of work," forbes.com notes, "but as we live longer and healthier lives an increasingly multigenerational workforce will be just as transformative."
• Healthcare/fitness: What's America's fastest-growing sport? Pickleball, reportedly, a cross among badminton, tennis and table tennis played on a smaller court within a regulation size tennis court. The number of people playing pickleball is rising fast and will continually do so as millions more folks look for a sport that requires considerable moving around, sharp reflexes, and good balance and agility but with a low risk of injury. Smart managers of public parks, rec centers and clubs are capitalizing on the trend by reconfiguring tennis courts.
• Tech: Have you seen Apple's "Behind the Mac-Greatness" commercial? People of all ages, colors and walks of life, famous and otherwise, are shown using their Macs to pursue their particular passion. Apple understands the obvious but often overlooked fact that we're all just people, and that segmenting an audience based on biological traits is both silly and divisive.
• Multiculturalism: Age often gets lost in corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives, taking a back seat to addressing inequalities based on race and gender. One company that clearly gets it is Omaha-based Home Instead Senior Care, which offers "personalized care services for those who choose to age happily at home." Beyond being in a future-proof business (we all eventually get old), Home Instead is fully committed to a truly diverse and inclusive workforce. Some of its caregivers are in their eighties and nineties!

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.