Demographics - Unreliable at Best

I was reading about “Demographics” when I suddenly realized how different each of us are – not as a result of our “demographic” category, but as a result of the different experiences each of us has had.

I was surprised to learn that the median age for public access viewers is 36. Prior to reading that, I hadn't stopped to realize that while I've heard of public access, I've never seen it - I don't even know how to access it. Since I'm 62, maybe that's why the median age is nearly half of mine - us "old" people may hear about stuff, but a lot of us don't know how to use it.

I was also surprised to hear people aged 46 described as "baby boomers". When I think of boomers, I think of myself and those close to my age. I never even consider those in their 40s as being in “our” age group – but according to demographics, they are. At 62, I am on the leading edge of the boomer generation - 46 is on the trailing edge. Although we are being lumped together demographically, our life experiences are extremely different.

For the older boomers, in high school, we “girls” were encouraged to take homemaking classes and – if we insisted – office practice classes such as typing, filing, and shorthand. We were discouraged against taking college prep classes and absolutely forbidden to take auto shop or wood shop.

As a young woman, I had to fight for my place in the business world. I was definitely discriminated against, harassed, and told that I was taking food out of the mouths of a man's family by insisting on working at a job other than as a secretary, teacher or nurse. And back then, there was no way to file a discrimination suit. We were told that if we wanted to work, we had to put up with whatever conditions we ran into – and we did.

I have a close friend who is 45. She graduated college with a degree in engineering and immediately was recruited by several top companies. She felt more discrimination due to her age – managing people old enough to be her parents – than she did due to her gender. It would never occur to her that she would ever be subjected to sexual harassment – and she definitely wouldn’t put up with it.

And that is great! That is what we fought for – so that the “girls” who came after us would not have to put up with the things we did.

But my point remains. While both of us are considered “boomers”, we have very different experiences and outlooks. We may be lumped into the same demographic, but we don’t fit into the same hole. Nor do we have the same tastes. We like different music, different movies, and different activities.

I find the same thing when comparing people of the same age, but of different ethnic backgrounds or who grew up in different areas of the country.

I grew up in a small to medium size town about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. I moved to the deep south in the 70s. It was a total culture shock. The gender discrimination was much worse there, but it was nothing compared to the racial discrimination. I became quite a social outcast because I refused to be a bigot.

The biggest shock was learning that some people my age had actually been taught by their parents and grandparents that African-Americans were not human, but instead were monkeys that had lost their tails. This, in their opinion, justified treating them as property instead of people.

Nothing could have been further from what I had been taught. But again, because we all fell into the same demographic age group, we were assumed to be the same.

Demographics are fallible. There is no way to place a number of people into one group and expect them to all be the same. Even people the same age and ethnic group and locality have diverse opinions.

And that is great! It is our individuality and diversity that makes us strong.