The World of Social Media
When we all think about social media, the first things that come to our mind is connecting with our friends and family, posting an update about your life, scrolling through news, or watching your favourite video series. We always think about how we can stay connected through social media and how our lives adapt to its everchanging platform. What we don't think about as often is whether social media is being used properly in the world. There have always been arguments on whether social media is good or bad, especially when it is linked to political elections, fake news and generational divide. It has always brought disputes between strangers, friends, even family. It is something that is not going to go away any time soon. The question is, is it the platforms that cause these arguments or how they are used by people?
In this post, I am going to talk about the pros and cons of social media, how each generation perceives and uses social media, and then leave a little open forum for everyone to share their opinions about social media. The statistics and survey numbers I am reporting in this post are from United States studies and do not represent the global average.
How would you describe social media? Good, bad, or just shows the ugly truth about the world?
Looking back to 2005, social media was new and just starting to make its name in the world. Only 5% of the US population were using social media in 2005. Not a huge figure considering the total population of the country. Although part of this reason is because back in 2005, majority of people who had access to social media came from high income families. A recent survey in 2019, showed that number has grown to ~70%. A huge increase in 15 years! What has changed since 2005 and how have the generations adapted to the world of social media? A research study by the Pew Research Center (an unbias American think tank based in Washington DC) reports that the most popular social media platforms for adults are Facebook and YouTube. For teens and kids, the platforms are SnapChat and Instagram (see chart below). TikTok's numbers are rapidly growing and approaching the same numbers as SnapChat and Instagram. Already we can see a generational difference when it comes to social media usage. All of the generations argue the significance and impact social media has on our lives and how it alters our view of the world.
Arguments about the positive aspect of social media discuss how it has helped connect people across the globe, made it easy to access new feeds and stories, allow small and large businesses to reach out to a new customer market, and give everyone with access to social media an equal voice. Arguments against social media discuss how it is correlated with anxiety, depression and self-image shame, allows fake news and people or parties with insidious agendas to share information that is hateful and/or false, and opens the gates for cyberbullying to progress and become a bigger issue. When you think about social media, do you think it causes more harm or more good in the world?
Modified bar chart of survey results conducted by the Pew Research Center showing the usage of social media by Gen Z teens.
Baby Boomers vs Millennials
Now we have all heard and read the stories of generations clashing, especially when it comes to social media. This is most common between the baby boomer and millennial generations. Baby boomers will say millennials are entitled, lazy and internet-craved beings who still live with their parents. Millennials will say baby boomers are stuck in a world that has passed and refuse to adapt to a more inclusive and technologically advanced new culture. Now, I am not saying every baby boomer and millennial has the same view of each other, but it is commonly argued on social media, especially on Facebook during political elections. Social medias role in this generation clash is the view that millennials are too obsessed with sharing their personal and professional life online and that they do not know how to interact with people in person. This can be true in some cases, but I was not able to find any statistics or surveys proving this. However, I will agree that a couple of people I know who are active on social media struggle to maintain a conversation in person because they are no longer on the other side of a screen, hidden from the world (so to speak). Millennials are the generation that do not keep personal and professional life separate, unlike the older generations. I myself am a millennial, and somewhat agree with this statement. I use Facebook for personal updates and LinkedIn and Twitter for professional updates.
If you are a millennial, do you share your personal and professional lifestyle on social media? Kind of curious to know how many of us actually do this.
Millennials will further argue against baby boomers saying that their use of social media has made them less tolerant of ignorance in society, more aware of global issues, and more adaptable to a new digital era. Baby boomers will say it has made life to easy and that we cannot express ourselves without a screen in front of our faces.
Who do you side with more?
Interesting differences between the Baby Boomer and Millennial Generations. Source: nextopia.com
Generation Z: First Generation to Not Know a World Without Social Media
Baby boomers, Gen X and even millennials will remember a time before social media was a part of their life. Newspapers were the main source of information, landline phone calls were used for across country calls, written letters to connect to family, and listening to the radio for music, entertainment and news. The youngest generation, Gen Z, cannot relate to this at all because they have been exposed to a world where social media runs their life. The Pew Research Center interviewed Gen Z teens to ask what social media platforms they use on a daily basis and for how long they use them on average. Results showed that YouTube, Instagram and SnapChat were the most used platforms. TikTok is not included in this list because the survey was conducted before TikTok became the new trending app. From a CommonSenseMedia survey, on average, 13-18 year old teens spend about ~9 hours on social media each day. For 8-12 year olds, the numbers are lower, closer to 6 hours per day.
That is a lot of time looking at a smartphone and computer! I mean how does anyone get work done! I remember in school if anyone had their phone out it would be confiscated until the end of the day. I did not even have a proper smartphone until I was 18-19 (cannot remember the exact age...).
Sorry, went off topic for a second. Okay, back to the post.
Now I could go on and on throwing facts and statistics around related to the topic, but I knew that you would probably get bored eventually. As I sat in my girlfriends bedroom trying to think how to conclude this post, I thought, why not open the floor to the readers and start a discussion!
Do you think Generation Z have a general advantage or disadvantage being exposed to a world where they only know how to interact using social media?
To participate, please click on the Forum link :)
