The Blog of Lisa Morosky

I’ve been thinking about this idea of authority and age, in terms of business, lately. The thoughts have been spurred by some interesting feedback I’ve gotten recently (and not so recently). I’ve heard a lot of people, in my industry (online business) and back when I worked at a job, tell me directly (or indirectly, as the case may be): Shut up. I’m older and wiser than you are. I can’t listen to what you’re saying or acknowledge what you’re doing because of your age. And because of your age, I’m convinced that you couldn’t possibly add any value to this topic.

Perhaps they’re right, considering my initial response is to want to smack around anyone who hints at such a thing. Which is probably not the most mature way to think. But, just for clarification here, and not because I feel like I need to justify myself to anyone (because I don’t), I’m not your average 23 year old. And that’s all you need to know.

So I’ve been pondering these questions. Do authority and age go hand-in-hand? Do people listen to and take seriously someone younger than they are who has more experience than they do? Are we subconsciously paying attention to this “older = wiser” stereotype, even if we say we aren’t? Do you have to prove yourself twice as much when you’re young? Do wisdom and age go hand-in-hand?

Here’s what I think.

Unfortunately, authority and age, and wisdom and age, both go hand-in-hand.

And I say that’s unfortunate because I feel like a lot of young people in the business world get dismissed as being near worthless because they’re not a little bit older, and thereby a little bit wiser.

A good example is my friend Erica Douglass, who recently did a post on a great blog called Get Rich Slowly. Just read the comments. Erica has done some great things in her life, and has some great wisdom to share because of it. But it seems like some people want to focus on her age and use that as a reason to discredit her. If she were 45, I don’t think her credibility, and authority on the topic in which she wrote, would have been under such attack.

Sometimes if you’re young, and you want to be taken seriously, you’re going to have to put in double the work, have double the success to show for it, and strongly make your presence known.

In the business world, if you’re older, you command a level of respect right off the bat. If you’re young, suddenly you need to try really hard to earn that respect – even if you’re running circles around others. I know that’s the game I had to play at my last job. And I’m not into playing games and wasting time – so I quit. I guess I made my presence known then.

And I don’t even think we’re aware that we’re prejudging people.

I know I’m not aware of it most of the time. But I’m becoming aware of it. I’ve made a conscious decision to judge the authority and merit of people based on their accomplishments – not their age. And I’ve been exposed to a whole host of new authorities in the online business world.

So here’s a situation for you. Let’s say two people have the same amount of experience, in blogging and social media (since we’re all probably familiar with those realms). Are you more likely to know, like, and trust the older person, or the younger person? And why?

Recently, I caught an episode of Dr. Phil which was all about Gen Y (or “Gen Me”, as it was referred to throughout the show).

The show had the absolute worst guests they could possibly find (to prove a point, I’m sure). The guests essentially had lifelong dreams that they just expected to come true without any effort. The show painted just a horrible picture of the members of Gen Y. In fact, it pissed me off enough that I sent a tweet to Dr. Phil about it (and I never tweet to celebrities).

So I’ve decided to pick out the major points from this show and discuss how utterly ridiculous they are.

Now at this point, I know that I’m the exception to the rule. Most 23-year-olds probably aren’t married, and the sole provider for a family, and decided to quit their job randomly to pursue a passion. I get that.

But still – I determine if a stereotype is true by looking at those I know that it involves (i.e., others my age, in this case) and seeing if the trends are true. And these trends are so not true.

Our use of social media has made us so accustomed to having information right now, that we expect that in every aspect of our life, and therefore have zero patience or tolerance.
I guess I don’t understand what social media has to do with anything. Most people I know don’t use social media as an all-encompassing way to get information. If anything, this mindset was ingrained in us way before social media, by the creation of the Internet.

Sure, those of us who have grown up with the Internet don’t like to waste time looking for information when we can just go online and get it now. But I just don’t see how that translates into other aspects of life.

Your lack of general patience and tolerance in life is more of a product of your upbringing, than of social media.

We have plans, but we have no way of accomplishing them. So, we just wait for things to happen because we’re lazy.
Well, obviously this isn’t the case for me. But taking myself out of it, a lot of my friends don’t fit into this generalization either.

Newsflash: laziness isn’t a trait of a generation. It’s a trait of a singular person. And that singular person learned it from (you guessed it) their upbringing.

Our parents have enabled this behavior.
Once again, it depends. For a lot of kids I went to high school with (I went to a more upper-class high school on a military base), I’m sure this is the case. Why work hard when you have everything handed to you?

But for those I chose to surround myself with in high school (and in college and in life in general), hard work is a reality. And where did we gain our work ethic? Our parents. So this largely depends on the type of parents you have.

We all have dreams of being rich and famous and that’s why we’re so narcissistic and use social media.
I do think that my generation has gotten this idea that it’s really easy to be famous because of this phenomenon called reality TV. You no longer need talent to be famous. You just need to know how to milk the system.

But that’s where my agreement ends.

No one I know uses social media because they want to be famous, or because they just love looking at themselves all day. Everyone I know uses social media to keep in touch with family and friends.

The entire show was like a self-help book for those who just “can’t relate” to Gen Y.
The show was a bunch of “old” people saying, “Those darn kids!”. They were trying to figure out how to relate to this generation.

What’s there to relate to? We’re just people. Leave the Gen Y out of it and learn to relate to individual people. People forget that this whole issue isn’t new. My grandparents’ generation thought my parents’ generation was lazy and didn’t want to work. It’s just how it goes.

When you do shows like these you’re just perpetuating a generational stereotype that is neither fair nor true.