Social Networking: A Growing Obsession

Social media sites have been growing exponentially in the past few years. With the development of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster, etc. more and more users are logging on to keep in touch through these social media platforms. But who are those users? Most people think that Generation Y dominates the social media sites; however, that is not fully true. Of those aged 18-29 about 86 percent use a social media site, but the number of users is not growing as fast as other age segments. Users between 35 - 54 are among the highest percentage of users, 34 percent for the age range, on social media sites. But social media users over the age of fifty nearly doubled in the past year and users over the age of 65 grew 100 percent.  Those aged 50 and older are the fastest growing demographic of social media users.

I have found these statistics to be true within my own life. Recently, my grandmother and aunt created their own Facebook accounts. When I first heard this from my cousin, Natalie, I thought surely they wouldn’t add me. But in a matter of days I had the daunting friend request from both.  I let them sit there for a few days contemplating whether or not I wanted to be their Facebook friend. Now this may not sound very nice, but would you want your aunt and grandmother seeing your pictures, statuses, and wall posts at their convenience and be able to keep up with aspects of your life? Well in the end I accepted their friend requests and this is where the article rings true.

My aunt rarely pops up on my news feed which gives me hope that she is not on much but just wanted to see what social media is all about.  However, my grandmother has become obsessed with Facebook.  She has reconnected with old friends and family from who knows when, which is great for her. However, she insists on checking up on my Facebook fairly often.  If I was unaware she was checking then maybe I wouldn’t mind… but I know she checks because I get phone calls from my mother saying that my grandmother  said she saw I was tagged in pictures or saw that I went out or what not.  It becomes comical to see how long it takes for my mother to find out things through my grandmother. 

So you might remember that not too long ago a hurricane was approaching the North Carolina coast (not Forsyth County or anywhere near Wake Forest) and I received a notice that my grandmother had written on my wall.  The post went something like this… “CHRISSY, PREPARE FOR THE HURRICANE. BE SAFE!” As sweet as this is of her to want me to be safe, a phone call could have done the job. Also, I recently had a status update for Breast Cancer month that did not sound so appropriate but was for a good cause.  Needless to say, my grandmother was visiting my parents for the weekend and my mother was told I had an inappropriate status up. It took less than an hour for the news to travel. Maybe I’m just not used to the used to the idea of those over 65 using social media sites but reality has hit me. They do.

P.S. Happy Birthday Grandma! Keep up the social networking J

http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/08/users-over-50-are-fastest-growing-social-media-demographic.html

Chrissy Morerya is a senior BEM major and marketing concentration at Wake Forest University.