life part 2

www.agingsociety.org

Primetime: Baby Boomers at Midlife and

Beyond

Greg O’Neill, PhDDirector

National Academy on an Aging Societywww.agingsociety.org


The “Boomer Consumer”

5/13/09 2


Boom and Bust in the Next 10 Years

35/13/09

5%

-4%

22%

-10% 0% 10% 20% 30%

50 plus

35 to 49

18 to 34


Primetime for Boomers• Boomers – age 45-54 – have the highest pre-tax

household income and highest household spending of any age group.

• Boomers spend $2 trillion per year on consumer goods and services.

• In the 1990s, boomers accounted for 50% of all U.S. consumer spending!

• Boomers’ poverty rate is 7.3%—lowest of all age groups.

Sources: MetLife Mature Market Institute; Consumer Expenditure Survey, McKinsey Global Institute

45/13/09


“24”? More Like 48• NBC’s median viewer is 49, ABC’s 48, and

CBS’s is 50-plus.• Median viewer age for 2007-08 programs:

– ABC: Lost (44); Ugly Betty (50); Dancing with the Stars (54);

– CBS: CSI Miami (52); 60 Minutes (60)– NBC: Deal or No Deal (54); The Office (38)– Fox: American Idol (42); “24” (48)– CW: America’s Next Top Model (28)

55/13/09


Fifty on Facebook?

65/13/09


• 10% of Twitter users are between ages 55 to 64, nearly the same amount as those between 18 and 24 (10.6%)

• 5.2% are 65 or olderSource: comScore, March 2009

75/13/09

?=


The New Shade of Gray

• Tomorrow’s generation of older adults is different from yesterday’s—and even today’s older adults—in ways other than just demographic size…

85/13/09


The New Shade of Gray• Higher levels of formal education• More accumulated wealth• Women in the labor force and two-earner (and dual

pension) families• Higher percentage of “retired” people who continue

to work• Not just living longer, but more healthy, disability-

free longevity• More racial and ethnic diversity

95/13/09


The New “Middle Ages”• The Extension of Midlife (30’s – late

70’s)– Longer Working Lives

– Virtue and necessity

– Healthy and Active Lives– Unlikely to disengage from lifelong interests and activities

– Complex Family Lives– Midlife family roles and relationships will likely extend

beyond the middle years (due to later parenthood; remarriage; boomers’ parents longevity)

105/13/09


The Age Disconnect• Boomers over 50, on average, feel 7

to 12 years younger than they are

• Boomers define “over the hill” as over 80– But young adults (Generation X and

Millennials) say 57 is “over the hill”!

Sources: AARP, Boomer Project

115/13/09


Old Rules No Longer Apply• For the last 50 years, age was a good

marker for life stage

• But boomers have diverged from the linear life stage path

• Their cyclical lives mean age provides few clues as to their life stage

125/13/09


Shades of GrayQuestion: Which of these descriptors would you say relate to your life right now?

• Parent 50%• Empty Nester 73%• Grandparent 41%• Caregiver 28%• Retired 26%• New Job 17%• Child in College 20%• Child at Home 27%

Source: Boomer Project National Study, 2004

135/13/09


Life Stage, Not Age• Adult life stages that we must recognize,

besides work and retirement:– Single (never-married, divorced, widowed)

– One-third of the boomer cohort! (13%, 16%, 3%)

– Caregiving– 34 percent of boomers reported caring for an older parent in

2001, compared to 26 percent in 1998

– Grandparent– Average age of a first-time grandparent is 48. An average 30

years of grandparenting ahead of them! Source: AARP 1999; 2003

145/13/09


The Four Life Stages• Many developmental psychologists believe

that people go through four life stages:– Youth: acquire basic physical, intellectual,

emotional, and social skills– Young adult: focus on social and vocational

needs, i.e. “becoming someone.”– Middle Age: focus shifts towards self-

actualization, i.e., “being someone”– Senior: quest for reconciliation and legacy

155/13/09


The New Consumer Majority• The boomer generation is now in life’s third

quarter—middle age– Less focus on material things and more on

“experiences”– Quest for balance, purpose, and life meaning– Reality begins to moderate idealism– Legacy aspirations emerge– More autonomous, less influenced by peers

Source: Ageless Marketing, 2003

165/13/09


Emotion, Motivation, and Aging

• Research shows that older adults recall emotional narrative in stories better than rational facts.

• In fact, older adults typically recall twice as many of the emotional components of a story than younger adults.

175/13/09


Be Positive!• The brain begins to ignore negative

concepts, images, and words as we age.

• MRI studies show older and younger adults have similar brain activity when viewing positive images.

• Focus on the positive linked to longer lives

185/13/09


The Mature Mind

• “Developmental Intelligence” includes 3 types of thinking that typically improve after age 50:– Relativistic: knowledge is

relative/contextual, not absolute– Dualistic: ability to frame opposing views– Systemic: “big picture” thinking

Source: The Mature Mind, 2005

195/13/09


Boomers: United• Authenticity• Self-improvement, reinvention• New collectives (physical, social,

virtual) to meet individual needs and mitigate individual risks

• Health, wholeness, wellness• Meaning and purpose

205/13/09


“In most other industries, if a business found an audience

segment that huge and underserved, and decided to target them, they’d be lauded as forward-

thinking.”

Source: Network executive quoted in “Nielsen Finds Audiences are Aging: 55-plus Age Bracket is Fastest-Growing Demo.” Variety, 8/29/08.

215/13/09

life part 2

Career

younger adults

life stages

life stage

boomers

age

source

focus

primetime