Pretty Sure There's A Technological Correlation Here

The percentage of people who watched the State of the Union who were 55 and older: 73. Who were under 35: 5. https://t.co/xJmV9aFpbR

— Michael Kruse (@michaelkruse) February 9, 2023

The bulk of broadcast (i.e., not cable) TeeVee is Boomer oriented re-run channels (MeTV, Decades, Comet, Antenna TV), if it isn't non-English stations, Christian grifter stations (I calls 'em as I sees 'em), or selling shit for people who don't use Amazon.  This is made possible by technology (stay with me, I have a thesis).

Digital broadcast has made it possible for all TV broadcasters, from PBS stations to the local network affiliates, to host dozens of channels filled with, basically, reruns.  The local PBS here has five channels besides it's PBS feed.  All of the channels I mentioned above are channels freely available in my area.  All you need, as the ads say, is an antenna (which was all we had in my childhood).

Cable-cutters are the new phenomenon, which I understand is largely a thing among younger audiences.  The  Golden Child is now 30-something, but she and her husband use cable because the house they're renting is wired for it, and he gets sports channels he likes to watch.  But they never, so far as I know, watch C-SPAN or CNN or any cable news.  I'm pretty sure they don't watch network TV, period, much less network TV news.  I say this to concede there simply isn't interest in these "news events" among the younger generations, so yes, the "generation gap" is somewhat because of interest, not just access.

Still....

I don't have cable, or satellite, and I didn't go out of my way to watch the SOTU.  Despite Biden's masterclass, I'd happily return to the custom of POTUS just sending a "State of the union" report to Congress once in a blue moon.  If the people regularly watching it are dying off, and we only watch because we grew up watching (I'm in that "over 55" group.  I've never known a non-televised non-"event" SOTU), well, that's not a bad thing.

The "control" of cable news is all on those 55 and older folks.  But the younger people are expressing an interest in governance again; and they aren't interested because they watch Hannity and Tucker, or because they tune into Morning Joe (I only listen to him because I get him on Sirius XM through my phone at the gym).  Technology, in other words, which was supposed to change us all forever via cable and especially cable news (which is still publicly ubiquitous), is losing its audience to old age.  The younger audiences are glued to screens, but its to watch TikTok and Instagram.  Or so they tell me.

I don't want to "pooh-pooh" the idea of the generation gap, and that younger voters aren't as interested in an septaganarian droning on to a roomful of old white guys (with the occasional woman and/or non-white dotted around) as us old people are.  I just want to add another explanation to the story:  they literally have other things to do with their time.

And honestly, good as it was, it wasn't exactly the first man on the moon (yes, I remember that, too. Git offa mah lawn!).  And if televised SOTU's go the way of cable TV and Walter Cronkite being the voice and moral conscious of America (if you don't remember you don't understand, but don't sweat it), that's okay, too.