Opportunities To Peer Into The Future

During editorial meetings, when I pitched stories impacting senior citizens, producers and managers often dismissed me like the elite might turn away from a commoner who walked into the wrong room. Someone might sarcastically snap back, “We know. Everyone has a grandmother,” a snarky rebuttal to previous arguments that younger viewers actually care about older people.

I inferred sales, and in turn the newsroom, obsessed over stories that might pique the interest of younger viewers, the ones advertisers reach for like a crowd fighting to snatch the last blockbuster sale item on the morning of Black Friday. However, managers, despite their desires for minion disciples, never persuaded me to buy into their positions about seniors. It seemed to me, especially during the Great Recession, that Baby Boomers carried more disposable wealth for the upgraded items younger generations never considered purchasing. During a station meeting, I once asked the general manager if we needed to shift our traditional thinking about demographics. His answer seemed to mostly reflect surprise that one of the minions actually tried to ask a substantive question.

Watching a brief moment of Bernie Sanders endorsing Hillary Clinton reminded me again of those managers and producers mockingly responding to my senior citizen story pitches. How could an old man fascinate whippersnappers? How could grandpa persuade millennials to stray away from their smartphones and pay attention to politics? You don’t need to endorse Sanders’ views to acknowledge he connected with the very demographic which supposedly wouldn’t want to watch a story about those of elder generations.

When I need advice about life, I turn to my parents. When I need advice about business, I turn to our mentor, a man in his 70s. When a realtor and grandfather wearing a hearing aid handed us his business card, I assumed his experience in years would translate into an excellent knowledge of his trade. I did not assume he stood disconnected from a contemporary world.

Those who patronize our elders with sweet, dismissive smiles are missing opportunities to peer into the future and acquire understandings we normally need decades to grasp. There’s no need to always abide by an older generation’s rules and recommendations. However, we should listen and we will more often than not learn something to at least consider.

The fool assumes he can learn nothing from those who made their living before gadgets, software and today’s technology dominated our landscape. However, every generation had gadgets and innovations in its own time. The script changes with each generation but the story of business and people generally stays the same.

Journalists, like many people, try too hard to simplify what others want and believe. If we decide to dismiss anything, then let’s dismiss conventional wisdom.