We are all the same age now

Monday March 20th 2017 | Somewhere over the melting Atlantic ice-cap

It’s 4:27 am Monday in Vancouver, the city I call home. At the moment I’m in timeless space, flying over the ocean halfway between Vancouver and London; not in Vancouver’s time zone anymore, but not in London’s yet either. I’m in all time zones and none.

In the airport lounge before boarding the plane, I was explaining to my traveling companion that data from my new research proves that through the flattening forces of technology, in the early 21st century, age has become, in many unexpected ways, meaningless.

Data shows that today, using age to build an audience profile for anything is a sure-fire way to ensure a humbling waste of money and time. After tabulating 40,000 surveys about what motivates people across Canada and the USA, we have the statistics to back up the assertion that age is no longer a guarantee of predictability.

Baby Boomers, for example, people we’re trained to believe think and behave as a hive mind, really only agree 13% of the time on anything.

That’s right. Baby Boomers are only agree on most issues 13% of the time. How much ink (digital and otherwise) has been used telling us about what Baby Boomers want, what they like, who they are and what they believe? It’s all unfounded, according to these new survey results.

But in boardrooms all over the world we are still spending obscene billions of dollars to cater to Baby Boomers, who it turns out, no longer resemble each other at all. Why are they even a group? In weird ways, Baby Boomers no longer exist as a category. They’ve morphed into the rest of the culture. The term Baby Boomer is, in many ways, no longer even a thing.

It gets better.

Millennials.Tweens. Zoomers. Boomers. Generation X. Generation Y. Generation Z. My new data shows the similarities between members of any age group are dismal and petty. The members of these groups don’t resemble each other enough to deserve a special name.

Everyone has turned into everyone else. Everyone is now the same age in their heads.

Today, regardless of birth year, we all have the option and freedom to become whoever we want whenever we want. Old rules that dictated how we were supposed to behave at any given age have been tossed in the wood chipper.

So, while ageism may have once made a certain kind of sense, now we have some pretty irrefutable proof that it’s just bad business.

It just so happens that my aforementioned traveling companion and business partner is also my long-time friend Douglas Coupland, who quite famously wrote a book that spawned a million headlines about Generation X.

He unwittingly reinvented generational branding, and the media-industrial-complex that relies on divisive inter-generational nitpicking to produce profits can be traced directly back to his keyboard.

So when I reached what I thought was big conclusion to my data story, a line I was quite proud of, “Nobody acts their age anymore!” I was feeling rather pleased with myself.

But then I received the Couplandian reality-shift, his signature 180-degree perspective change.

“You know, David, thanks to the internet, we are all the same age now.”

“We are all the same age now.”

I’ve just spent close to a year and quite a few dollars building a survey database to find a better way than age to profile a target audience. And I did. I found ten new audience profiles that work so much better than age-based profiles it’s almost laughable that anyone would use age for anything anymore.

And I’ve been telling anyone who will listen, on conference stages, in the media, in my forthcoming book, on social media, on the phone and in person that I have found a better way. The age of age is over.

But that off-hand comment from Doug? That’s all I really need to say.

“We are all the same age now.”

Bingo. I think I have the title for my new book.

David Allison | Consumer Culture Expert

He’s been called a “force of nature” by CEO’s, and a “born storyteller” by best-selling authors. Famous architects have called him a “@#)%)@ genius”, and senior executives across North America say he’s “the best at what he does, period.” Artist & Author Douglas Coupland noted “David Allison sees and hears the patterns in the noise — and is then able to tell us what the real signal is. He’s a born storyteller and people love him.” Author, advisor, and researcher David Allison helps us decipher what’s going on around us, and prepare for what’s coming next.

Learn more at: https://www.nsb.com/speakers/david-allison

DAVID ALLISON INC Consumer Culture Advisors https://davidallisoninc.com Speaker with @NSB_Speakers and @Global_Speakers Alter Ego https://globaltreefort.com