PowerSwitch

The basic stereotypes for accepting new ideas tend toward young people being more open to new or radical ideas and older people being reluctant to change.

But conversely older people are seen to have more wisdom when interpreting important events and younger people often too simplistic.

I wonder if everyone who reads this might vote with their age bracket to see if there is any predominent trend?

Voting is anonymous and it's only age-ranges anyway so people need have no worries about giving away personal info.

I think this survey has more to do with use of the Internet and forums. Looking at the attendance at the peak oil conferences I've been too it's a real mix. I don't think there's a strong correlation between age and propensity to accept peak oil.

As clv101 mentioned, it may be about the use of the internet. This is going to be a slightly biased result due to the lack (generally) of older people using the internet.

Not that I'm against this of course. It would be nice to see if anyone else fits into the age category of 10-20, I'm starting to feel lonely

fishertrop wrote:The basic stereotypes for accepting new ideas tend toward young people being more open to new or radical ideas and older people being reluctant to change.

But conversely older people are seen to have more wisdom when interpreting important events and younger people often too simplistic.

Another thing about much older people - they have lived through world wars and depressions and are perhaps less likely to make the assumption of things carrying on "as normal" than folks who on the whole have only known peace and stability (in western countries at least).

I imagine they would be less likely to panic about peak oil though!

I think the younger generation (25-35) bracket are going to be more aware, because they are likely to have access to the internet, and be able to process what they read. Even though a lot of less-than-25 year people also have access to the internet, I think most of them will have problems grasping the situation (Sam172 being an exception amoungst us).

The older generation have a couple of things going against them. First, there is going to be less net access. Out of those who would become aware I think you find a 50/50% on how they would react. Some would indeed adopt a sort of 'Blitz-mentatlity' and make the necessary changes. I think others would follow the 'stubborn-old-git mentality' and not want things to change.

Interesting spread so far, there are more in the 41-50 group than I expected.

Keep voting you that haven't so far!

I don't think I've voted but it is only showing me the results, not the voting buttons so there probably should be at least one more towards the upper end...

It is an interesting spread isn't it. I expected that the majority of people on here voting would be in the 20-30 ish age group, mainly on the basis of internet access and less responsibilities etc to get in the way of the collossal amount of reading up there is to do on the subject. I apologise for my short-sighted ways.
(Maybe I'm biased because my mum still hasn't worked out how to use the net).

I'm 26 by the way. I'm interested in knowing people's ages now, but I wasn't before.

I am 32 and my 69 year old mother has been aware of peak oil for around 18months now. She is totally internet aware and has done abit of research on all the usual sites. When she tries to talk to my 30 year old brother (an IT guy) about peak oil, at first he tried to deign it, stating that the oil companies are always finding new oil fields and that there is always fusion or some other technology to save us. Recently when the conversation has cropped up (normally my mum wanting to talk about the latest in the news on oil? price and the latest newspaper to talk about peak oil) she has stated that even in parliament and the US congress are talking about the coming energy crisis and peak oil. My brother, now no longer able to deign this? just leaves the room or asks her to leave!
My mum feels that things will go back to how they were, when she was young in the second world war, where people were poorer and food and goods were rationed. So on that note, she has had double glazing installed, is starting on some other home improvements to her house and is stocking up on food.
If others can?t be helped then at least you can help yourselves to be aware and prepare?? I think next are the neighbours.

Interesting Clive. My mum is 68 and I am 44. She has bought into PO and is seeing the world in a new light. She also uses the Internet quite a bit. Re your brother - how does it make you feel that he denies PO?

I suppose some people really just don't want to accept that it might be the outcome and would rather not think about it too much.....

I have discussed the whole topic with my 3 boys, but I have to be careful, I really don't want them to lose hope of the future. My middle boy is doing his GCSEs - results tomorrow and I don't want him to lose the will regarding future education as he has great potential as does my youngest boy. The middle boy has the tendency to be quiet and show slight denial when the topic comes up. In some ways I can understand that, as he probably thinks this is the only way he can deal with the topic - if he fully accepts it then he may forget about university and a degree etc - what would be the point.....

The above just shows what a big issue PO is and how one has to be careful how it is dealt with in families and indeed on all social contexts.....

Sometimes I just think, God help us all - and I am not even religious.... it can make you feel pretty down though.... especially for the younger ones.

I don't know if age comes into it much.
I'm 19 and I've managed to convince friends around my age as well; my parents (57) didn't doubt it at all and even read James Kunstler's The Long Emergency. The other week I told a colleague in her 30s about PO with no problems accepting it on her part.

So, what are the other factors? Should we be targeting a specific demographic that will be easier to persuade?

thought I'd bump this back up the list so any new forum members can vote

Thinking purely intuitively, I don't think age has too much to do with being able to grasp peak oil. My gut feeling is that it probably has more to do with other social factors such as education etc - i.e. how much you've been encouraged to question your environment, your ability to assimilate information from various sources, whether you're "the type" to take an interest in political, social and economic issues in society.

My folks ( 62 & 58 ) are an interesting example - my dad (an avid reader & news junkie) gets it, but my mum (more of a creative, artistic type) doesn't - she just seems to be worried about my sanity and keeps trying to reassure me that "the economy has always sorted itself out before". Maybe that suggests a gender difference, but I'm not going to go there...

I'd agree that the results of this poll probably reveal as much about Internet use dempgraphics as Peak-Oil-understanding demographics.

I'm 19, I've tried telling my friends about Peak Oil but apart from one person (who read 'The Party's Over') I don't think they grasp how serious this problem could be. None of them have done internet research on it as far as I've heard, and I don't think they will unless they see it plastered all over TV, or if the fuel prices seriously start taking away from the the beer budget . Maybe us young 'uns aren't as open minded and forward thinking as people assume these days???

My Dad is 44 and did seem interested in the subject when I showed him my article draft about Peak Oil (I'm trying to get it into the University newspaper)), he's getting interested in Hybrid cars and solar panels for us now so thats something good . My mum is 46, she doesn't seem to be that bothered but to be fair I haven't laid it out for her yet .

So statistically I have had equal success explaining Peak Oil to the younger generation as the older .

No vote from me; I don't believe it's age related.

Some people remember the 70s as a warning to "get off nonrenewable resources". Others remember the 70s and "we managed to find a way out".

I think there's an element involved whereby one thinks it's "OK to die". Some have the mentality that "people must not be allowed to die under any circumstances", for them, they cannot accept the possibility that it would probably happen, and thus do anything possible to close their minds to the issue. People who "accept that people are going to die" seem to take Global Peak Oil on board a lot more quickly.

The argument at PeakSpeak between Norman Church and the girl in the audience spring to mind.