Age Will Be the 2020/24 “Ism”

The rise and fall of the “connecteds”

If the 2008 election confronted racism, and 2016 took on sexism, then 2020/24 will be the elections of Age-ism.

As architects for major telecoms since the 80’s, and as far back as 2004 (before the first iPhone) we started seeing a significant and worrisome shift in the way teenagers engaged technology. Long before the outcry of ignored helicopter parents’ and prior to warnings from hand-wringing brain researchers, we started speculating that the “connecteds” wouldn’t just think differently than us, but also faster, more connectedly, and ultimately that they would marginalize us as a crowd of codgers barely to be cared for.

In our early theories that helped us to drive such innovation as network clipboards, internet footprint tracking, pub/sub messaging, and personal directory services, we sardonically and somewhat surreptitiously sought ways to build-in elements that might extend our relevancy once they determined us to be irrelevant. I mean… minds detached from historical social mores, thinking frictionlessly and fully connected to peer groups that could instantly promote or quash any idea as swarms?—we don’t stand a chance.

Or do we?

Andrea Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), the freshman congressperson from New York, is 29. She was 15 when we became “woke” to her generation (yes, we know that word). This year, AOC blasted onto the DC scene, unapologetically camping out with protestors in Pelosi’s waiting room (before even being sworn-in), and then launching out on a multi-week, titular tour toppling titans in her party. Even Whoopi Goldberg wagged her finger, looking over her glasses at the young whipper-snapper, cautioning her to learn her place. Does anyone seriously believe AOC is listening to any of them?

To answer that, have you ever heard AOC even respond to criticism from her party seniors?

While a septuagenarian press breaks out their Hoverounds to breathlessly cover octogenarian politicians that break out their upper plates to demagogue, the AOC’s of the nation have already formed their coalitions, strategy, and networks, and are well on their way to their inevitable mantle assumption.

Think that’s a silly notion? Not in the least. The astute observer has already spied cracks forming in her party.

The elections of 2020 will pit one older person (presumably Trump) against one younger person (and Camila Harris, 54, or Corey Booker, 49, are likely too over-that-hill for the connecteds). To be clear, if the constitution is left unchanged (and that is yet to be seen…I mean—25, 30, and 35 seems so unfair for various tiers when you're 29), there will likely be one candidate as close to 35 as possible. It won’t matter what your economic belief is, or party, or ethnicity…it won’t even matter whether the rhetoric makes any sense or not. It only matters if your thumbs can text 80 to 95 WPM.

And having a MySpace or Facebook account doesn’t cut it. In fact…if you know what MySpace is, it’s over.

So, what should you expect? In the past, elections have been decided by moderates—those comfortable to live (or at least pretend to live) in the middle of left and right, well-positioned to be swayed by the side that offers them the most goodies. But in an interesting twist where groups of older Americans (regardless of party) will hold their collective noses to become a unified resistance to groups of younger, pre-ordained Youtube insurgents following their “likes” like moral compasses, then the 30/40-somethings will become the deciding age-ism arbiters in the middle.

What a perfect time to have a mid-life crisis!

Can anything be done?

Yes. There’s hope beyond “one person—one vote.” As we technical architects continue to design products/services/entertainment that keep the millennials paying out so much they stay in their parents’ basements, we have started to identify a new significant and un-worrisome shift—the new youngsters who seem to be in something like an intragenerational, mini-rebellion against what they see as the “older generation” (more academically curious pre-teens and teens that hold the coffee shop hipsters in disdain, if you can believe that!). STEM, civics, and history have become the new “radicalisms” for them—knowledge (not experiences) is power…and Windows Surface Pro/XBOX makes way more sense than MacBook Pros.

In a world where 20–30-year-old voting will remain historically low, we may see a juxtaposed upswing in 18-year-old “first-time voters.” And they will be more interested in social mores and contemplative friction.

Millennials may find themselves the irrelevant condiment between two slices of reason in an electoral age sandwich.

Won’t it be interesting to see left and right, populist and elite, brought together by a common opposition from the connecteds? For this reason alone, we can be optimistic about 2020/24—in a bizarre bump, the country may become happily centrist and generationally balanced. What wonderous things we might accomplish together!

Thank you, Millennials. Thank you, AOC!