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The Intern is a movie based around a 70 year old becoming an intern, something that is generally uncommon. Yet the movie and even the trailer screams ageism. Robert Di Nero prefers to only dress in a suit and carry a briefcase reinforcing the idea that seniors are traditional and can't adapt to today's culture. In the trailer it also showcases how elders don't know how to use social media and the internet like Facebook.

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USC conducted a study on how elders are stereotyped in movies. The study shows that not only are elders mischaracterized and underrepresented but they are demonized by ageist language. Quotes include "a frail old woman" and "a senile old man". Yet seniors see themselves as highly aware and physically active.

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Flickr / Salvation Army USA West
Studies from Humana and Professor Stacy L. Smith at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism reveal prevalence of ageism in film and the power of embracing a healthy mindset for healthy aging
New research reveals few characters aged 60 and over are represented in film, and that prominent senior characters face demeaning or ageist references. These negative and stereotypical media portrayals do not reflect how seniors see themselves - or their lifestyles. These findings stem from two studies conducted by health and well-being company Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) and the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg. The studies also reveal that aging Americans who are more optimistic report having better health.

Led by Professor Stacy L. Smith, USC Annenberg's study analyzed the 100 top-grossing films from 2015 to assess the portrayal of characters aged 60 and over. Humana also conducted a quantitative analysis, asking seniors to identify the lifestyle traits that are important when aging, to assess the degree to which these traits describe them and to provide their point of view on senior representation in media. Major findings include:
In film, seniors are underrepresented, mischaracterized and demeaned by ageist language.

The findings show just 11 percent of characters evaluated were aged 60 and over; U.S. Census data shows that 18.5 percent of the population is aged 60 and over.

Out of 57 films that featured a leading or supporting senior character, 30 featured ageist comments - that's more than half of the films. Quotes included characters being referred to as "a relic," "a frail old woman" and "a senile old man." According to Humana's quantitative survey, seniors report they are highly aware (95 percent), resilient (91 percent) and physically active (71 percent).

Only 29.1 percent of on-screen leading or supporting characters aged 60 or older engaged with technology, whereas 84 percent of aging Americans report that they use the internet weekly.

Of the senior characters that died on screen, 79.2 percent of deaths were a result of physical violence - such as being shot, stabbed or crushed. This does not accurately reflect causes of death for the aging population, which are heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

But that's not real life and seniors know it - people aged 60 and over lead active social lives and value internal, psychological strengths.

Aging Americans are using technology: 84 percent of respondents report that they use the internet to read news, social network sites or other info on a weekly basis, despite only 29.1 percent of on-screen characters engaging with technology.

On screen, one third of seniors pursue interests in hobbies and 38.5 percent attend events, while in reality, they are more than two times as likely to engage socially with friends or relatives on a weekly or monthly basis.

The top five traits respondents rated as most important to aging successfully were self-reliance, awareness, honesty, resilience and safety. In film, seniors are rarely depicted as the masters of their own stories or destinies.

As Americans age, one element seems to be key for their physical and mental health: optimism.

Humana's quantitative survey found that seniors who rate themselves as very optimistic about aging tend to be the most active physically, socially and in their communities.

They also report a much lower number of physically unhealthy days on average: just 2.84 for the most optimistic, compared to 12.55 physically unhealthy days for the least optimistic.

The most optimistic also feel on average 12 years younger than their actual age (those who are least optimistic feel on average 7 years older than their actual age).

Those seniors who do feel that media accurately portrays them think about aging more than average and have a higher level of fear around aging than their peers.

"Seniors are rarely seen on screen, and when they are, they are ridiculed," said Professor Smith. "When did we become a society that is comfortable with subtle and stigmatizing stereotypes about a group that have long served as the pillars and stalwarts of our communities?"

Dr. Yolangel Hernandez Suarez, vice president and chief medical officer, care delivery at Humana said: "As a health care company, we're committed to helping aging Americans defy stereotypes and take steps to achieve their best health. That's why it's important to note that, according to our findings, seniors who report being optimistic about the aging process also report better health. As a Boomer myself, I can tell you that being optimistic about my future helps me make healthier choices every day."

Key findings surrounding both studies will be showcased at The Atlantic Live! New Old Age conference today in New York City. The event will feature the foremost experts of aging in America spanning entertainment, media, academia and business to examine the state of aging and its impact in society. Both Humana and USC will lead individual discussions to explore the findings in greater detail, which will be available to watch during The New Old Age's livestream broadcast.

About the Humana Quantitative Analysis
This survey includes 2,035 responses from U.S. adults aged 60 and older. Data weights are based on U.S. Census statistics for age, gender, geographic region, and race/ethnicity. It was conducted between August 4- 21, 2016, and was designed to assess perceptions of the importance of various traits, characteristics or attributes of people as they age, then to have respondents rate themselves against the same attributes. Other data collected include general self-assessment of health, activity levels and perception of aging in popular culture.

About the USC Annenberg Film Study
USC conducted a secondary analysis of the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative's yearly report profiling every speaking or named character on screen across a variety of measures (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT, disability). Using this database, the researchers quantitatively analyzed attributes of each character 60 years of age or older on screen (n=448) across the 100 most popular domestic movies of 2015. To determine age, the evaluators sorted each character into one of five age categories: child (0-5), elementary schooler (6-12), teen (13-20), young adult (21-39), middle aged (40-64), and elderly (65 or older).

About Humana
Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, is a leading health and well-being company focused on making it easy for people to achieve their best health with clinical excellence through coordinated care. The company's strategy integrates care delivery, the member experience, and clinical and consumer insights to encourage engagement, behavior change, proactive clinical outreach and wellness for the millions of people we serve across the country.

More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's web site at www.humana.com, including copies of:

Annual reports to stockholders

Securities and Exchange Commission filings

Most recent investor conference presentations

Quarterly earnings news releases

Calendar of events

Corporate Governance information

About USC Annenberg Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative
The Media Diversity & Social Change Initiative (MDSCI) at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a leading think tank studying diversity in entertainment through original and sponsored research. MDSCI findings create valuable and sought after research based solutions that advance equality in entertainment. Dr. Stacy L. Smith is the Founder and Director of the MDSCI. Dr. Smith and the MDSCI examine gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT, and disability on screen and gender and race/ethnicity behind the camera in cinematic content as well as barriers and opportunities facing women and people of color in the entertainment industry. The MDSCI also conducts economic analyses related to diversity and the financial performance of films. In 2015, Dr. Smith was named the #1 Most Influential Person in Los Angeles by LA Weekly. Dr. Smith has written more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and reports on content patterns and effects of the media. In terms of the popular press, Dr. Smith's research has been written about in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and NPR. She has a co-edited essay in Maria Shriver's book, A Woman's Nation Changes Everything (2009). Dr. Smith and the MDSCI's most recent research reports include an analysis of 800 top-grossing films, the Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment (CARD) and a series of landmark studies with Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles. To learn more, visit http://annenberg.usc.edu/mdsci or follow on Twitter @MDSCInitiative.

About the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals, across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school's comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university in a global urban environment. Based at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in the heart of Los Angeles, the USC Center for Public Relations (CPR) is truly at the center of one of the world's most dynamic professions. Our mission is to connect corporations, agencies, academics and students to define the future of our industry and to develop those who will shape it.
Photo credit: Flickr / Salvation Army USA West

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USC Annenberg Film Study: Pop Culture Stereotypes Aging Americans

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Flickr / Salvation Army USA West Studies from Humana and Professor Stacy L. Smith at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism reveal prevalence of ageism in film and the power of embracing a healthy mindset for healthy aging New research reveals few characters aged 60 and over are represented in film, and that prominent senior characters face demeaning or ageist references.

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The catch phrase "I've fallen and I can't get up!", is famously known from the Life Alert commercial marketing a lifesaving technology to help seniors get medical help when they are stuck on the floorer can't get to a phone. Yet this phrase has been used many times in memes making fun of the seniors in need of help.

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Life Call Commercial "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

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This article links to the lyrics for Rufus Thomas' song "I Ain't Gettin' Older, I'm Gettin' Better". In this song Thomas portrays aging as a joyful thing compared to other songs that show aging as a negative thing. He sings "53, I was still clean. And at 54, still on the scene. 55, funkiest man alive." This song embraces changes and different chapters someone goes through in life.

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[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better

[Verse 1]
Now that I'm here and I'm on my way
I've got something I wanna say
[?] and I plead
Lend me your best ear, hear what I mean

[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better

[Verse 2]
I started out a long time ago
Shy and [?] and a little bit slow
But at 17 I was getting warm
28, I was just like the storm

[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better

[Verse 3]
39, I told you a lot
And at 42, I was still running hot
And at 49, you think I slowed down, uh-uh!
52, still a man of our time

[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better

[Interlude over Instrumental Breakdown]
It's your turn fellas, get in now
That's alright, fellas
Let's try it again
One more time
Oh!

[Verse 4]
53, I still was clean
And at 54, still on the scene
55, funkiest man alive
And at 56, can't stand no jive
I'm turning gray, gettin' a little bit bald
I look back on life with love for all of y'all

[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
Listen to me

[Verse 5]
Oh, it's alright
Oh, feel alright
I'm like good whiskey, I mellow with age
I like good whiskey, I mellow with age
Like old man river, keep rollin' along
Like old man river, rollin' along
Like old man river, keep rollin' along
Like old man river, rollin' along

[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better now
Like a, I'm gettin' better now
Oh, I'm gettin' better, I'm gettin' better now
I'm gettin' better, I'm gettin' better
Listen for this right here, y'all
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, woo!
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better now
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better

[Verse 6]
Feeling my cheery ode, feeling my cheery ode
Feeling my cheery ode, feeling my cheery ode
My muscles standing, my muscles are standing high
My muscles standing, my muscles are standing high

[Chorus]
Oh, I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better now
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better now, listen
Oh, oh, yeah, hey, hey, hey
Got to a little bit, now listen

[Verse 7]
At 53, I still was clean
And at 54, huh, still on the scene
55, funkiest man alive
56, can't stand no jive

[Chorus]
Oh, I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better now
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better now

[Verse 8]
I'm turning gray, gettin' a little bit bald
Look back on life with love for all of y'all
That means everybody

[Chorus]
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better
I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better

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Rufus Thomas - I Ain't Gettin' Older, I'm Gettin' Better

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I Ain't Gettin' Older, I'm Gettin' Better Lyrics: I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better / I ain't gettin' older, I'm gettin' better / Now that I'm here and I'm on my way / I've got something I wanna say / and I plead / Lend me

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Everyone enjoys making fun of millennials yet in this article by Vox suggest that baby boomers in fact have ruined America for future generations. Boomers are to blame for ignoring climate change, cutting their own taxes creating a 4 trillion dollar debt and screwing up any chance for future generations to prosper. The article is focused around pointing fingers of who is worse that is ultimately stemmed from ageism.

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Everyone likes to bash millennials. We're spoiled, entitled, and hopelessly glued to our smartphones. We demand participation trophies, can't find jobs, and live with our parents until we're 30. You know the punchlines by now.

But is the millennial hate justified? Have we dropped the generational baton, or was it a previous generation, the so-called baby boomers, who actually ruined everything?

That's the argument Bruce Gibney makes in his 2017 book A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America. The boomers, according to Gibney, have committed "generational plunder," pillaging the nation's economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America's manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.

I spoke to Gibney about these claims, and why he thinks the baby boomers have wrecked America.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

Who are the baby boomers?

Bruce Gibney

The baby boomers are conventionally defined as people born between 1946 and 1964. But I focus on the first two-thirds of boomers because their experiences are pretty homogeneous: They were raised after the war and so have no real experience of trauma or the Great Depression or even any deprivation at all. More importantly, they never experienced the social solidarity that unfolded during war time and that helped produce the New Deal.

But it's really the white middle-class boomers who exemplify all the awful characteristics and behaviors that have defined this generation. They became a majority of the electorate in the early '80s, and they fully consolidated their power in Washington by January 1995. And they've basically been in charge ever since.

Sean Illing

So how have they broken the country?

Bruce Gibney

Well, the damage done to the social fabric is pretty self-evident. Just look around and notice what's been done. On the economic front, the damage is equally obvious, and it trickles down to all sorts of other social phenomena. I don't want to get bogged down in an ocean of numbers and data here (that's in the book), but think of it this way: I'm 41, and when I was born, the gross debt-to-GDP ratio was about 35 percent. It's roughly 103 percent now - and it keeps rising.

The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it. They habitually cut their own taxes and borrow money without any concern for future burdens. They've spent virtually all our money and assets on themselves and in the process have left a financial disaster for their children.

We used to have the finest infrastructure in the world. The American Society of Civil Engineers thinks there's something like a $4 trillion deficit in infrastructure in deferred maintenance. It's crumbling, and the boomers have allowed it to crumble. Our public education system has steadily degraded as well, forcing middle-class students to bury themselves in debt in order to get a college education.

Then of course there's the issue of climate change, which they've done almost nothing to solve. But even if we want to be market-oriented about this, we can think of the climate as an asset, which has degraded over time thanks to the inaction and cowardice of the boomer generation. Now they didn't start burning fossil fuels, but by the 1990s the science was undeniable. And what did they do? Nothing.

"Time after time, when facts collided with feelings, the boomers choose feelings."

Sean Illing

Why hasn't this recklessness been checked by the political system? Is it as simple as the boomers took over and used power to enrich themselves without enough resistance from younger voters?

Bruce Gibney

Well, most of our problems have not been addressed because that would require higher taxes and therefore a sense of social obligation to our fellow citizens. But again, the boomers seem to have no appreciation for social solidarity.

But to answer your question more directly, the problem is that dealing with these problems has simply been irrelevant to the largest political class in the country - the boomers. There's nothing conspiratorial about that. Politicians respond to the most important part of the electorate, and that's been the boomers for decades. And it just so happens that the boomers are not socially inclined and have a ton of maladaptive personality characteristics.

Sean Illing

It's interesting that Ronald Reagan is elected right around the time that boomers become a majority of the electorate. Reagan himself wasn't a boomer, but it was boomers who put him into office. And this is when we get this wave of neoliberalism that essentially guts the public sector and attempts to privatize everything.

Bruce Gibney

Right. Starting with Reagan, we saw this national ethos which was basically the inverse of JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." This gets flipped on its head in a massive push for privatized gain and socialized risk for big banks and financial institutions. This has really been the dominant boomer economic theory, and it's poisoned what's left of our public institutions.

Sean Illing

So what's your explanation for the awfulness of the boomers? What made them this way?

Bruce Gibney

I think there were a number of unusual influences, some of which won't be repeated, and some of which may have mutated over the years. I think the major factor is that the boomers grew up in a time of uninterrupted prosperity. And so they simply took it for granted. They assumed the economy would just grow three percent a year forever and that wages would go up every year and that there would always be a good job for everyone who wanted it.

This was a fantasy and the result of a spoiled generation assuming things would be easy and that no sacrifices would have to be made in order to preserve prosperity for future generations.

Sean Illing

I've always seen the boomers as a generational trust-fund baby: They inherited a country they had no part in building, failed to appreciate it, and seized on all the benefits while leaving nothing behind.

Bruce Gibney

I think that's exactly right. They were born into great fortune and had a blast while they were on top. But what have they left behind?

"This was a fantasy and the result of a spoiled generation assuming things would be easy and that no sacrifices would have to be made in order to preserve prosperity for future generations."

Sean Illing

Something that doesn't get discussed enough is how hostile so many of these boomers are to science. It's not hard to connect this aversion to facts to some of these disastrous social policies.

Bruce Gibney

This is a generation that is dominated by feelings, not by facts.The irony is that boomers criticize millennials for being snowflakes, for being too driven by feelings. But the boomers are the first big feelings generation. They're highly motivated by feelings and not persuaded by facts. And you can see this in their policies.

Take this whole fantasy about trickle-down economics. Maybe it was worth a shot, but it doesn't work. We know it doesn't work. The evidence is overwhelming. The experiment is over. And yet they're still clinging to this dogma, and indeed the latest tax bill is the latest example of that.

Time after time, when facts collided with feelings, the boomers chose feelings.

Sean Illing

What's the most egregious thing the boomers have done in your opinion?

Bruce Gibney

I'll give you something abstract and something concrete. On an abstract level, I think the worst thing they've done is destroy a sense of social solidarity, a sense of commitment to fellow citizens. That ethos is gone and it's been replaced by a cult of individualism. It's hard to overstate how damaging this is.

On a concrete level, their policies of under-investment and debt accumulation have made it very hard to deal with our most serious challenges going forward. Because we failed to confront things like infrastructure decay and climate change early on, they've only grown into bigger and more expensive problems. When something breaks, it's a lot more expensive to fix than it would have been to just maintain it all along.

Sean Illing

So where does that leave us?

Bruce Gibney

In an impossible place. We're going to have to make difficult choices between, say, saving Social Security and Medicare and saving arctic ice sheets. We'll have fewer and fewer resources to deal with these issues. And I actually think that over the next 100 years, absent some major technological innovation like de-carbonization, which is speculative at this point, these actions will actually just kill people.

Sean Illing

I hear you, man, and I'm with you on almost all of this, but I always return to a simple point: If millennials and Gen Xers actually voted in greater numbers, the boomers could've been booted out of power years ago.

Bruce Gibney

I think that's fair. But given how large the boomer demographic is, it really wasn't possible for millennials to unseat the boomers until a few years ago. And of course there are many issues with voting rights. But that's not a complete excuse.

More than voting, though, millennials have to run for office because people have to be excited about the person they're voting for. We need people in office with a different outlook, who see the world differently. Boomers don't care about how the country will look in 30 or 40 years, but millennials do, and so those are the people we need in power.

"The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it."

Sean Illing

I guess the big question is, can we recover from this? Can we pay the bill the boomers left us?

Bruce Gibney

I think we can, but it's imperative that we start sooner than later. After 2024 or so, it will get really hard to do anything meaningful. In fact, I think the choices might become so difficult that even fairly good people will get wrapped up in short-term self-interest.

So if we unseat the boomers from Congress, from state legislatures, and certainly from the presidency over the next three to seven years, then I think we can undo the damage. But that will require a much higher tax rate and a degree of social solidarity that the country hasn't seen in over 50 years.

That will not be easy, and there's no way around the fact that millennials will have to sacrifice in ways the boomers refused to sacrifice, but that's where we are - and these are the choices we face.
This article was originally published on December 20, 2017.

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How the baby boomers - not millennials - screwed America

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Everyone likes to bash millennials. We're spoiled, entitled, and hopelessly glued to our smartphones. We demand participation trophies, can't find jobs, and live with our parents until we're 30. You know the punchlines by now. But is the millennial hate justified?