What Type of Media Do Some Older People Prefer?

Do older adults in Sacramento want information or direction from mainstream or niche media? Talk to older adults in Sacramento senior centers asking what kind of news they want to read in the media. "I'm in the age group 70-80+, and at this age the news I want to read has to cheer me up," you hear sometimes. "I want to read positive, good news that makes me laugh, de-stress, and relax."

These are our golden, precious years. We want them spent on reading and seeing news or stories that bring a lightness of joy. When some Sacramento older readers look at the news through the eyes of culture they want to see that hope is everything. But can daily news always be grandmotherly soup for the soul so to speak? Who else watches news, because I want to read good literature that makes me laugh?

You aren't going to see too much mainstream media news in Sacramento that makes you laugh, regardless of your age. But that's what some older people want to read. Just talk to seniors at the various senior centers in Sacramento. Some of those senior centers are in for budget cuts on activities offered. "I'm tired of reality, and at my age request escape," is the attitude from our family when looking at the print media. But escape isn't always news. You can find escape in entertainment media.

Most of the people in my age group are connecting with a stage of life called integrity. It is at this stage that there are no regrets, and that what exists is not the illusion of the self but the realization that the next generation has reached a goal that didn't exist.

It is really difficult to leave small town USA, circa 1950. That's where I identify, a warm, sunny 4th of July afternoon, small town America, 1950, just like mom identified with the same, circa 1920 and granny, same thing small town America, the 4th of July parade, 1904.

And Rosie, her mom before granny identified with small town America, on a warm summer's day down by the creek, 1881, when all these women were young, attending perhaps a women's college, majoring in teaching one subject or another of their interest--music, art appreciation, high-school mathematics, or comparative literature or maybe landscape architecture. And then there was Rosie's mom in the 1860s, and the women from the tiny town of Hudson, Michigan.

What these women wanted in the news was the catologs where someone could order clothing or a new sewing machine, or where to buy the jars to can the best foods grown in the backyard such as pickled fruit or vegetables. Those were the days of private homes, quiet streams, and a slower pace of life. The news came wrapped around what you brought home from the fish market.

So what is it like to be stuck in a summer's day, 1950, no matter how many years pass and constantly reading the news from those times? It's to record the highlights of life stories that were in the best years of their lives in the era 1947-1957 or 1950 - 1960.

In those days, you took a course in the 7th grade or in high school that prepared you for a job, like four years of bookkeeping and four years of shorthand. And those skills let you earn enough to buy a house with a giant-size backyard where you could grow your own organic produce. And there were lots of good news then, too, like the tract houses going up and the price of a movie on Saturday at noon.

Those were the days when your parents never needed to learn how to drive because the bus stop was just in front of the house and it took you anywhere you wanted to shop or work within a few minutes. And that's why some of us enjoy a breath of good news that's full of the joy of green living, peace, and serenity.

Ask an older person what he or she thinks when a younger person writes asking to get to know the person better or be pen pals, and right away a red warning flag goes up. "The young people just want something from me--my money, my house, or my identity to wrack up bills," says one neighbor, age 93.

"They think I'm too old to need my few possessions, and they want to take something away from me such as my independence or my meager savings for my expenses. The people I want to meet are my own age because they don't want to take anything from me. Yet the phishing emails keep pouring in from these young ones who want to get to know me better, sell me something, or steal my money and my name," the individual reports.

So what's the news older people want to give to younger people? "Don't trust anyone under 80," says the Sacramento neighbor. "They're usually not asking for friendship to do you a good deed. They just think you don't need your possessions any more where you're headed. If a lady brings me food, it's because she wants to inherit my house eventually."

And that's why it's so hard for the very old and the young to live together on the same street or meet as strangers in transit. It's as if you see yourself in older age as the upward gush of your own infancy. And that's why regarding the news you watch, you want that news to make you laugh, at least most of the time--for the sake of de-stressing.

The most important chore, for example, one day, was to photograph a rainbow. The picture is saved digitally, even though the rainbow was there for only a few minutes. And that made the whole day like the joy of music. Looking for an escape novel? Browse my paperback thriller, How to Start Engaging Conversations on Women's, Men's, or Family Studies with Wealthy Strangers. A Thriller.