I read an arcicle in this week's AdAge titled Is Facebook Getting Uncool for the 18-24 Year Old?
It quoted a statistic that 51% of 18-24 year olds surveyed by Mindshare indicated Facebook and Social Media dilutes the quality of friendships.
So, the 18-24 year old, who was initially a core Facebook user is utilizing the site less. Now their little brothers and sisters are using the site more. Because the tweens and teens are on, mom and dad need to monitor what they are saying and doing. So 35-54 is a growing demographic. And now even Granny is on Facebook playing Farmville and Kidnapped and posting comments about pictures. While it's bad enough that mom might comment, it would be social suicide to have Grandma post a comment of a picture taken at a college party.
Mom and Granny should pay more attention to the 9-17 year olds and their Facebook posts. Just like the 18-24 year olds tweens and teens view the number of friends they have accumulated on Facebook to be a measurement of their popularity. Hopefully, like the 18-24 year olds before them, they will grow to realize that if you don't communicate with your friends, they are just faces in a crowd and not friends. Perhaps this generation will come to realize Facebook doesn't replace human contact. It's more satisfying to actually hang out with friends then IM or text them. Perhaps they will realize Facebook is great for connecting with friends and family who are too far away to connect with in person. They will pare down the friend list and be able to spend time with Granny so she will no longer need to poke them.
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Kathy, that makes so much sense! I know that I have found face book (or is it Face Book?) a good way to 're-connet' with family, and long moved a way friends from previous jobs, college, etc. I joined face book because my children encouraged me to. I try not to "meddle" (too much!)in their postings or some of the stuff I see that doesn't appear totally "O.K". Yet it makes perfect sense as to why the core market is shrinking as 40 -70+ year olds are keeping up on their young via this portal into the personal life of teens, young adults, and pre-teens.
ReplyDeleteThe social skills lost by not having the face2face interaction we all want and need to some degree will hopefully NOT die off as a way for people to interact with one another. Perhaps the "graying" of facebook will have that unintended consequence of getting our younger ones back into person to person communication (just a little!)!