Social networks looking grayer
“As someone who has dabbled in multiple social networking sites, I have to say, Facebook seems to be losing its allure, at least for me … At the moment, Instagram is my choice for social networking.”
This comment comes from Senior English major Tara Donavanik, writing in the student newspaper The Clause,at California’s Azusa Pacific University.
An unidentified University of Missouri student browses her Facebook account while in class. While still immensely popular, Facebook may be losing its allure for many college students as the site's demographics are skewing older. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)
She is uttering what some are wondering about Facebook and Myspace: Are they losing their allure, at least to young people?
Interesting data
Some 2010 data from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Social Network Site Survey indicates the answer is yes. The answer seems clearer that college students have moved away from MySpace (only 12% of undergraduates and 6% of grad students use it), but the data for Facebook shows declines, too.
For a site that was started by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg as a way for college students to connect, fewer students appear to be using Facebook.
According to the Pew results, only 1 in 5 undergrads regularly uses Facebook, while only 15% of grad students use it.
Data for both MySpace and Facebook seem stronger at the high school level, with more than 1 in 3 (35%) of high school students using MySpace, and 26% using Facebook).
A possible reason
Offering up her own take on the data, Donavanik notes, “Maybe as we get older, time becomes of essence and curiosity about an ex or an acquaintance becomes low on our priority list.”
According to the Pew data, age influences the choice of an individual’s social networking site. For example, Linkedin is a popular network site that people use to develop and maintain career connections, although it is also used to exchange social information as well. But because it is more career-oriented (and even career-enhancing), some 37% of undergrad college students and 38% of grad students were using it in 2010. One would assume those numbers are even higher today.
Twitter accounts for 21% of college student use, while other SNS sites like Instagram, account for another 14% of college usage.
Although Facebook logs a smaller percentage of college students than Linkedin, the Pew study does show FB to have the largest share of daily visits by its users, while LinkedIn users visit the site once a month or even less.
35 and older growth
Indeed, the growth among users of social network sites has been in the post-college generation of older adults. The Pew Center study summarizes this as follows:
“Internet users of all ages are more likely to use a SNS today than they were in 2008. However, the increase in SNS use has been most pronounced among those who are over the age of 35. In 2008 only 18% of internet users 36 and older used a SNS, by 2010 48% of internet users over the age of 35 were using a SNS.
“This is about twice the growth experienced by internet users 18-35; 63% of whom used a SNS in 2008 compared with 80% in 2010. Among other things, this means the average age of adult-SNS users has shifted from 33 in 2008 to 38 in 2010. Over half of all adult SNS users are now over the age of 35.”
Many older Facebook users find themselves reuniting with long-lost high school friends, and often these users are over 60 as in the case of these Ohioians who got together recently to talk about the high school days. (AP Photo/News-Messenger, David Distlehorst)
Usage still strong
Overall, the Pew Research Center data shows the following about the demographics of all Internet users, as per its August 2011 survey:
* Percent of all adults who use the Internet: 78%.
* Men outnumber women slightly (80 to 76%).
* White, Non-Hispanics outnumber Black, Non-Hispanics, 80-71%. Some 68% of Hispanics use the Web.
* Ninety-four percent of those 18-29 use the Web; 87 percent of those 30-49; 74% of those 50-64, and 41% of those 65 and older.
* For household incomes over $75K, Internet usage is almost 100%; for household incomes less than $30K, usage is at 62%
* For those with no high school diploma, Internet use is at 43%; for high school grads, it is 71%; for college grads, usage is 94%.
The tone of comments
The Pew Center has also studied the overall “tone” or mood of comments on social networking sites (SNS) and has found the following:
* 85% of SNS-using adults say their experience on the sites is that people are mostly kind.
* 68% say they have had an SNS experience that made them feel good about themselves.
* 61% had experiences that made them feel closer to another person.
* 39% say they frequently see acts of generosity by other SNS users.
Nevertheless, Pew says that “notable proportions of SNS users do witness bad behavior on those sites and nearly a third have experienced some negative outcomes from their experiences.”
For example nearly half of SNS-using adults say they have seen mean or cruel behavior displayed by others at least occasionally.
Teenage usage
When it comes to teenage SNS-users, Pew discovered that 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online, and that 80% of those online teens use social media sites.
Further, the experiences teens have concerning the tone of the comments posted on the site is different from adult experiences. For example, only 69% of teens think their peers are mostly kind to each other on social network sites. Another 20% say peers are mostly unkind. Only 5% of the adult SNS-users reported people to be mostly unkind.
Cruelties on the sites
Further, Pew says 88% of teens using social networks have seen someone be mean or cruel to another person on an SNS, and 12% reported those incidents to be “frequent.” Only 7% of adults reported seeing this kind of treatment frequently.
When it comes to the sensitive subject of bullying, nearly 1 in 5 teens (19%) said they have been bullied in the past year, often online or via text.
According to Pew, teens who use social networks say, “People most often appear to ignore the situation, with a slightly smaller number of teen saying they see others defending someone and telling others to stop their cruel behavior.”
Revealing conclusions
Other Pew studies have revealed the following effects of SNS-sites on users, which go toward balancing the scales some from last week’s post on this site. That post discussed the isolating effects of the social media, but Pew data show there is also a socializing effect as well.
Some of these conclusions are:
* Facebook users are more trusting than others.
* Facebook users have more close relationships.
* Facebook users get more social support than other people.
* Facebook users are much more politically engaged than most people.
* Facebook revives “dormant” relationships. (22% of those are from high school years, in fact.)
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Comments
I feel that in our society social networking is all around us. If we do not go on facebook then we miss out on viewing pictures of others or connecting with a person that we have not spoken to in a while. For me personally, I go on facebook much less than I did when I was younger. I do not participate in any other social networking sites because I do not want to get hooked on something else. Overall, I do feel that social networking is a great way to reconnect with friends. However, sitting on the computer for long hours is not something that I am intersted in.
This article is interesting in saying that many college students are moving away from the Facebook scene and moving towards other forms of online networking. I feel like on our campus, everyone uses Facebook and that there has been no decline in the use of it. I personally used to use Facebook a lot more when I was in high school and also my first two years of college. Recently I have deactivated it in order to focus on my studies though. And although Facebook may help rekindle friendships for the older generation, I feel that it hurts the younger generation. Instead of spending time together in person, people tend to sit in front of the computer, type to each other and look through pictures to get to know about each other’s life, not talk about it with that person physically.
What’s interesting to me is that Instagram has very little networking ability. It is quite limited in the “social” aspect of social media sites. Instagram is just a portfolio of pictures with the ability to like and comment. Whereas Facebook is much more versatile when it comes to actual interaction.
That being said, I am slightly baffled by the thought that Instagram is pulling users away from Facebook. In my experience, Instagram is merely a complimentary application to the greater media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
I definitely do not use Facebook as much. Nor do I use other social networking sites. I believe they destroy intimacy. It is reducing a persons life into a series of statuses. Additionally, I have noticed that recently the statuses are not even related to that person at all. I see many statuses as a form of venting, lyric sharing, and societal complaints. In short, I believe a person is more than just a profile. It is better to hang out with the ones you care about rather than connecting with them through a digital barrier that filters out all intimacy in a relationship.
I remember in high school when I first made my facebook account. I went crazy adding as many friends as I could, playing games for hours, and checking out people’s profiles and seeing what they are up to. However, now it is just like my email account where I message people and use it as a tool to plan events or meetings with people. I think that by the demographics social networks needs and uses change as people age. From my experience as a high school student, I had more time to give and was a little more mesmerized by the beguiling effects of facebook. Later, I admit I don’t have time to spend hours sifting through information.
Can you foster intimate relationships through social networking? Don’t crucify me for saying this but I somewhat agree with that question. While nothing compares to the physical human reaction between people, I feel that social networking is another form of communication. People were writing letters to each other and including pictures to show each other what they look like and how their life is going which can be compared to the profile of a facebook page account. In our time, it is merely faster and easier to send information to one another like feature of live chatting and posting of pictures between people or groups.
One of my high school friends is in the Navy currently. Obviously we do not see each other for extended periods of time. Facebook allows me to check up on what he is doing, talk to him and even laugh and share a moment together. Facebook has allowed me to continue to foster and stay in contact while he away enabling us to pick up where we left off without any missed time.
I remember in high school when myspace was huge and then facebook came around and changed the game. The stranger thing about it is that more and more people are logging into facebook, mostly people over 35. My grandmother is also a facebook user and I must say personally, it is a little weird to have my grandma on facebook. She likes having a facebook because she can chat with her friends and keep up with them when they are away. You mentioned that 61% of people feel closer to others on SNS. My grandma is no exception. One stat though that I found somewhat misleading was that only 7% of adults have seen online bullying. The reason why I think it might be misleading is because if a teenager has their facebook on lock-down (high security settings) a parent or adult isn’t going to see much of anything even if they are their friends. I feel that online bullying is more apparent than we think it is.
When I was reading the section about adult versus teenage experiences on Facebook, I found the information extremely obvious. I don’t think it’s the fault of social networking sites that kids have more negative experiences online than adults. That’s just life. Whether it’s happening on Facebook or in the school yard, kids are just mean to each other. As people grow older and mature, they become less consumed with putting other people down and more focused on their own lives. Facebook and Myspace offer a forum for the bullying, but it would exist even if the Internet did not. Another thing I was thinking about while reading this post was that it makes sense that Facebook usage is going down. As other people have already brought up in their comments, Myspace used to be the big thing. Before that, there was Xanga. Before Xanga, there was LiveJournal. There is always going to be the next big new thing that draws away from whatever is popular now. I think that for older adults who are accustomed to Facebook and haven’t experienced the ups and downs of various social networking sites, they are probably more likely to stick with Facebook than younger generations who would rather test out the newer options.
After reading this blog on social networking, i actually found it to be quite surprising. I really had no idea that Facebook was declining in popularity. When Myspace phased out and Facebook arose, I kind of always thought that Facebook was going to be the end of all social networking websites. Afterall, it definitely seems sustainable and it continuously is coming out with new features. How could something ever replace it? But then i began to think how that is not a very accurate statement… We live in such a fast pace and always changing society, of course something will eventually come out that replaces Facebook. I think to try and imagine up with the next social network will even look like- I mean Facebook has so many wonderful capabilities: reconnecting with people, playing games, sharing information and pictures… it almost seems endless…
It is crazy to think how much of an impact and influence social networking has in our generation and especially the next generation. I am surprised at the statistics shown above on how there has been a decrease in Facebook usage lately especially for college students. I understand why there is an increase however for highschool students, since technology is booming and more and more youth today have access to internet, whether it is through their phones or at home. Growing up, I remember I couldn’t use the internet for too long because we had dial-up connection, so whenever I’d use the internet, I would block the phone line. Today, wireless internet is prominent and a good amount of places including libraries, homes, and schools have it. This could help explain the explosion or growth of social networks. Highschool students are also more consumed with their identity and its formation, so I think they really place a lot of value on how they display themselves online. On the other hand, I remember when my grandma got Facebook for the first time. She was and is still addicted to it. She, along with my grandpa, found old friends, classmates, and even relatives from the Philippines. They enjoy reminiscing the past together as they look through pictures of their friends on Facebook. They also enjoy rekindling friendships and seeing how each other is doing. Now, at family gatherings, my grandparents always tells us to take a picture of them and to post it on Facebook so their friends can see.
Lastly, I think there are certain ethical rules regarding social networking. Rules include what to post, how often, what not to post, and how to spend your time on it, whether it is for productivity or for pleasure. I think it is safe to say that through experience ( perhaps in high school when you have a Facebook) is when you begin to construct or realize these do’s and dont’s. Nobody wants to know what you ate every hour of the day or what you wear, unless it is in their interest. You learn what is appropriate to disclose as you go, hopefully.
I must agree with this article and say that the more years I have been out of high school the less time I seem to spend on social networks. I can remember in high school spending hours at night now I only go on every couple of days. I think this maybe because Facebook in a lot of ways has become old news. Just like Myspace, Facebook is now being out done by Pinterest or Instagram. Social networks only hold societies attention for so long before we change focus to something new.
The surprising part of this article for me was the low percentage of college students on Facebook. From my perspective at a university, more than 90% of students have an account. Even more surprising than this is that high school students have a higher rate of usage on social networking sites than undergraduate and graduate students. In high school, many of my classmates did not have any kind of social networking account until the summer after graduation. Granted, it was a private institution, but the numbers still shocked me, and it would be interesting to see statistics on up to date data from the same style of testing group.
There are some very interesting trends going on right now in the social media world. I find in surprising that there are fewer grad student Facebook users than under-grad users. However, I seriously wonder about the validity of some of the statistics as I have talked with many people who claim that they don’t spend time on Facebook when they actually do. Facebook is starting to be perceived as cheesy and time wasting. I feel as though the majority of Facebook usage is rather immature, however, Facebook will still remain the best tool for sharing stories and pictures with friends. Therefore, I foresee that Facebook will continue to be used, but the way people use it will continue to change as they age.
This was so interesting to read. I really do believe that facebook and other social networks have many pros and cons. I am a rather shy person so sometimes I feel like people dont really know me or even know who I am. It is really nice receiving friend requests and realizing that people really do know me. It is also so much easier to contact people when you either dont have their phone number, or dont know them that well. Also, being at college, it is nice to see how people from my high school and church are doing back at home. These are some of the benefits that stand out. However, I do realize that some things are not so great. It is kind of creepy to think that people can just look up you profile and find out information about you or your friends. I also understand that some people are bullied over social networking sites. Overall, there are many pros and cons to social networking. It sure has changed the way society works and how people communicate. It will be interesting to see what happens to it in the future.
I feel that I am also using Facebook less and less because I feel like it makes people fake. Fake comments to friends, photo shopped pictures, fake friendships, etc. Pineterest is a new social type networking that reminds me so much of myspace. you can “repin” or “like” a saying or photo and its just like myspace when people used to put up pictures of sayings to define themselves. I think if Facebook was around when I was in high school it would have been so cool but the new thing was AIM (aol instant messenger), which is why I see how high schoolers are super into it right now. I see it more as a way for high schoolers to express themselves, maybe as a weird form or therapy where they can release tension, stress, as well as things that make them happy.
I agree with this article. I still remember the first time I heard the facebook from my roommate is freshman year. I was crazy about it because I found so many friends on their. I also do the same thing like David that adding as many friends as I could. I also spend most of time playing games on there and talking with friends all the time. However, the time slowly pass and I am not that crazy anymore. Now I am only using facebook for massage people and using it for remain me the events or create the events. I know the social network is big influence on us, but I also discover that it also helps us to communicate with others. It helps me easier to communicate with my Taiwan’s friends. It does helping us to build my relationship with my friends, so I won’t lose connect with them.
This blog was very intrestting. In highschool and middle school I found myself using Social Networking Sites on a regular basis. I think as I have gotten older my school, work and social life had just gotten busier that I don’t always have time to log onto my computer, and into my facebook account. However, something unique is that most smartphones: Iphone, Driod and blackberry have facebook directly on the phone, so I have actually found that now because I have a smartphone I tend to check my facebook a lot because I have push notifications that go directly to my cell phone. I have found facebook to be very impersonal. Often, poeple rely on SNS to talk to their friends. However, what they do not realize is that it is still nice to pick up the phone everyone everyonce in awhile and day hello and have personal conversations.
This post was interesting but not surprising. With technology always changing so does our society’s interests. When I was in high school the new craze was Myspace. My husband was in a Christian rock band at the time and Myspace was the best way to spread their music. Later it became facebook and now that we have twitter, tumbler, instagram, etc., facebook will now be put on the back burner. And, I’m sure, in just a short while something newer than instagram will arise and instagram will lose popularity.
I was also surprised that the use of facebook has really been declining. I guess it makes sense though that we fasion or social networking use more to what suites our needs at whatever phase we are in life. Myspace was very much the less mature social networking site very focused on appearance of what your profile looked like the cool background and pics you could get and what you could tell to others and find out about others through bullitin surveys. Facebook pretty much took out the superfical aspect of the social network and as we grow i think we prioritize a little better and see what’s really important and again this would make sense into the phase into site like linkden which is career focused or instagram which is a quick more convenient form of facebook if you think of it. So as we have more of life to fill our time and less time to fill with the internet and social networking it would make sense to adapt new networks around all these different phases we kind of go through.
Aisha,
I really want to take a closer look at that Pew study myself: I don’t see that much of a backing-off from FB by college students. I know older users are flocking more to FB, but young people are still there, too, in large numbers.
Hi Crystal,
Thanks for checking in. I’m not convinced that young people are using FB less, as the Pew study seems to indicate. The only reason I can think that might be true is that young people are always finding newer sites online to explore and use. But FB doesn’t really have any serious competition for the kind of site it is.
Michah,
I remain unconvinced that FB usage is falling among young 20-somethings. I know the usage is increasing in the over-35 (and even over-55) crowd, but I don’t see college students backing off from this site that doesn’t really have any serious competition in the social networking genre. Thanks for checking in.
Donald,
I agree. It’s surprising to me that FB usage is declining among college students. I’d like to take a closer look at that study to see if it’s really true, because I don’t see it on campus.
Hi Gabbie,
You’re right: it is startling to see how much social networking is affecting so many parts of our daily lives I would like to take a closer look at that Pew study showing declining use of FB among college students, though. I don’t see that trend on campus.
David,
Actually, a lot of people agree with you about fostering relationships via social media. Actually, I met my wife in an online dating site 12 years ago. And the Pew study shows FB users often feel more social support than non-users do.
Reading this post was interesting, because just today I was thinking how nice it will be when Facebook starts to fizzle out. I find myself becoming bored with it. Bored with people ranting about their opinions, but not truly doing anything about it. Bored with status updates about how many miles a person has ran. It is getting old and it does not make me feel closer to anyone knowing they ate a low fat ham sandwich for lunch today. It is amazing how fast something like Myspace can go in and out of style and how Facebook is on the decline for teenagers, which just means there will be new social media networking coming in and out so fast within the next few years. I find myself hardly filled when I leave a post on someones wall. However when I take the time to meet someone for coffee and really talk to them, that is when I feel filled. Though I am aware we cannot always meet up with people since so many friends live far away, but realizing that social networks should never dictate what a real friendship is suppose to be is truly important to understand.
As a serial social networker, I completely agree that Facebook is losing its shine when it comes to the younger crowd. When I first started using Facebook, I loved it because I could keep in touch with friends who had graduated or moved away. Now, at times, it seems like a chore to go on Facebook and adjust to its ever changing policies and formats. I have also lost a bit of interest in Facebook due to the growing population of parents and their friends. While social networking, I like to say whatever I want, however I want and this is not possible when you are constantly editing yourself for parental view. As for Instragram, it has definitely become to newest, and best, way to express yourself. I find myself on Instagram at least 15 times a day because it is so convenient and never has a change, aside from a very rare addition of a new picture filter which is always welcome.
I think that this transition from Facebook being a social network primarily for college students to being more widely used by high school and older post-college adults is extremely interesting. I have not experienced Facebook being less a part of the lives of college students, however. It seems that there are still large numbers of students constantly using facebook. I know many students who are addicted or at least go on 1 or more times a day. It makes sense that older adults who are still young enough to be internet savvy would love Facebook. Growing up overseas, my friends are all over the world. We can connect and reconnect easily over facebook with more people than we ever could via phone or email or regular mail. I have noticed that college students are connecting their social media accounts (twitter, instagram, etc.). Perhaps, they are logging on to Facebook directly less frequently but their status updates, photos, etc. from other sites are still being updated with the same frequency, if not more.
N’Higel, I haven’t seen that much of a downturn in use of FB among college sdtudents, but the Pew study is interesting. I’d like to look at how they conducted it before buying in to the idea that FB is losing its luster. I know, however, some have backed off of it. For one thing, it’s so hard to keep up with the posts of a couple hundred friends!
This blog about facebook and social network is really interesting and i found it to be really insightful. We see that so many young people which is referring to high schoolers are on facebook and i find that to be interesting when the social network sight was really made for college students. I think that Facebook will probably loose its hype and it will fall onto Twitter, because now everyone is getting or has a Twitter. Then also the hype on is Instagram , but it cna only pertain to people with Iphones. The stats about social network is really just to interesting how percentages have changed from age group to age group.
Thanks for the post Melissa. I have to say that I have not seen a lessening of interest in Facebook among college students, though.
I think Facebook’s novelty has worn off for most college-aged users. FB allows me to stay in touch with friends/relatives whom I don’t see often, but I don’t have time to constantly check it; there’s just too much information and noise to sort through (not to mention the constant site changes and privacy issues). Sites like Instagram and Pinterest are gaining popularity because they offer more visual representations of a person’s life and their personalities. The key to longevity (if there is such a thing in today’s tech world) for these sites is to constantly innovate their products – or face extinction.
From what I have seen and noticed on APU’s campus is that Facebook has not lost any of its popularity. Sitting in class you can look around at all the iPhones and laptops and see that almost every person is on Facebook during class. I don’t think that it is because of how enthralling it is as a social site, rather I think that using Facebook as mindless entertainment has become second nature to us. Mostly you see that people are just scrolling down the News Feed and reading statuses more than really looking too much into different people or carrying on conversations. As a senior in college, I still know so many people that “Facebook stalk” others in order to find information about their lives. That to me suggests that Facebook is not really losing any of its allure in our age group. However, it used to be solely a high school/college fad for the most part and now almost every parent that I know is on Facebook. Thus, I do think that the audience and users are certainly changing as time goes on.
I know for me the interest I have for social networking has become much less than in the past, but I believe this is just because social networking has become such a part of the sort of society we live in today. Almost everything we do or say is put into some sort of form of social networking, whether it be posting a picture of what I am currently doing on instagram, checking in someplace on Facebook, or getting local deals in foursquare, social media has become a part of the type of society we live in today. Therefore, it has become less of a ”go out of the way to post something” kind of thing, and more of just a routine of doing stuff.