Aging out and faking it

by John Van Dyke

Young people are faking it, others are aging out, maybe also faking it.

I read an interview with Sarah Cooper, the tiktok star who went viral lip-syncing Trump. She was inspiring, if not interesting as a success story. A person of many talents and jobs, including a stint at Google. What struck me was her brutal honesty about how all the young people who work in tech put on this, wow it is so cool to work here, and I am doing such amazing stuff, and we are rock stars, and I love this place and what I do. The cult of tech, which others try to emulate to survive and be competitive in the job market. She called it out as BS. It is job security. Faking it.

Since I don’t work in tech, and qualify as a Baby Boomer, I cannot attest to the accuracy of her observations. I can however talk about aging.

I can also say that there is a lot of faking it associated with aging. Or maybe denial.

For me, I have always placed a lot of value on experience, and constantly learning new things, doing new things and challenging myself. Staying relevant with oneself is more important than performing for the crowd. But, sooner or later the peer pressure or other outside forces start to accumulate and slowly chip away at you. A medical event, a peer retiring, a friend dying.

I think I have read more click bait news feed headings about “Boomers” in the last year since Covid than ever before. The “Boomer Remover”, boomers less likely to be rehired, boomers, older people more susceptible to the virus, a generation in decline. We are all hanging on to a piece of the American Pie.

Absolutely true. A generational shift taking place. Our great political divide, is a generational divide, a cultural divide, and a class divide. A lot of denial, enabling, and faking it going on.

In our world of self and selfies, avatar images from college, social media smoke screens, and countless friends, there is a vulnerability and a desire for truth.