Mashable had a post today about a survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (see the full study here). Turns out that Gen Y is probably going to make social networking, as the study puts it, a "lifelong habit." And, as a Mozilla programmer (and survey respondent) put it, “Unless Generation Y has a collective privacy-related epiphany, they will continue to happily trade it for convenience.”
I'm surprised that anyone would ever consider social networking to be a trend that people would "outgrow" (the same was once said of television, hip hop music and e-mail). Yet almost a third of expert respondents said just that (29% of experts surveyed felt that, by 2020, most of Gen Y would devote their time to other "interests and commitments" as they age.
I think that assessment reveals a misunderstanding by those who aren't all that familiar with social media. Facebook, Twitter, etc., are not just procrastination tools (well, sometimes they are) that rob time from other activities and exist separately from real life. They are part our lives and useful tools that can help maintain real-life connections and create enriching connections with people we've never met.
As we discussed in class on Wednesday, Twitter gives customers a way to be heard by companies--that's a direct, real life application.
I don't think we'll "grow out of" social media, but continue to grow with it. Do you think you'll ever "grow out of" social media? Has your use of social media evolved (or grown up) since you first started using them?
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4 comments:
I agree, Kristin. I think our generation will continue to use social media in the future, though it may not look exactly as it does today. Social media is not a trend, though some social networking sites/tools could be considered trendy. For instance, years ago, I had a Xanga journal and a MySpace page. Today, I use Facebook. I can see Facebook having staying power, especially since it is constantly evolving. However, there may be other currently-popular social networking sites that do not stay on top of what consumers want or need, and thus, don't "survive."
I agree with both of you. I think the people that discount social media are the ones that are not using it or are not adept at using it. True it is always evolving but so are all forms of media - newspapers went from print to online, television embraced cable and with it OnDemand and other features and radio now has satellite and Internet options. It will only evolve - it will not disappear.
I absolutely agree. In my Internet Advocacy class we talked about how when television first became a household item people envisioned it as a great educational equalizer-- You could become cultured by watching opera in your own home! Educational programming would make our whole country smarter! We all know how that turned out, but you can certainly see how technologies evolve and are not always what we expect. I think social media and the way we use them will continue to evolve as well--with more potential for change than television, for that matter.
Hm, interesting post -- and I agree with each of the comments. I remember looking at a Pew Research Study last semester that said that Generation Y is the most "connected" generation yet. However, rather than constant face-to-face time, or even voice-to-voice time, much of this connectivity is replaced by technology. People sleep with cell phones next to them and can connect with dozens of people with a single press of the "send" button.
For me, the hardest part of measuring this connectivity is assessing the strength of these connections. I, like everyone who commented, also predict that this generation will stick with social media for the long haul... I just hope it continues to strengthen and build actual relationships, rather than replace them.
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