There’s a curious convergence of sociological research hitting the newsstream on this Monday, all having to do with generational readouts:

- The Pew Research Center reveals that American perceptions on growing older differ from the reality, particularly in just when old age begins (most say 68, but there are various milestones to signify the passage, including sexual/genitalial failure and lack of a Twitter account).

- Extrapolating from this Pew study, the Associated Press declares the return of the Generation Gap on socio-cultural issues — at least, one wider than at any point since the original young adult-middle age Gap from the Vietnam era.

- Finally, independently of the above, the American Academy of Pediatrics has determined that a big chunk of adolescents don’t expect to live to see old age, with this dead-by-35 crowd promptly dubbed “fatalistic teens”.

Taken all together, anyone living in the here-and-now can conclude that they either have no long-term future, or if they do, it’s a mundane one; and to top it off, the current lifestyle is isolated by a great attitudinal divide. It all shakes out as existence as usual…