SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T FOR MILLENIALS ANYMORE

“The allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today’s teens”.

Tim Bahula – CDO Horizon Education Network

Millennials are the children of baby boomers, who are also known as the Me Generation, who then produced the Me Me Me Generation, whose selfishness technology has only exacerbated.

Millennials are interacting all day but almost entirely through a screen. You’ve seen them at cafe, sitting next to one another and texting. They might look calm, but they’re deeply anxious about missing out on something better. Seventy percent of them check their phones every hour, and many experience phantom pocket-vibration syndrome. “They’re doing a behavior to reduce their anxiety,” says Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University at Dominguez Hills and the author of iDisorder.

On January 27, 2017, The New York Times reported on a new Nielsen study. Nielsen’s findings found that in the United States, 97 percent of people 18 to 34, and 94 percent of people 35 to 49, had access to smartphones. Seventy-seven percent of those 50 and older also used smartphones, the report found. Surprisingly, the heavy social media user group isn’t Millennials. In fact, Generation X (ages 35-49) spends the most time on social media: almost 7 hours per week (5.8% of their time awake) versus Millennials, who come in second, spending just over 6 hours per week (5% of time awake).

Moreover, how people use their smartphones when “tuned in” to social media is startling. While the figures show that, across the board, people of all ages use their smartphones more and more to shop, the data also show that Millennials’ use of their smartphones, as with everyone else, is not primarily used for shopping at all. The very same month, January, 2017, Pew Research issued a Data Sheet with equally persuasive data confirming that if there ever was a moment where Millennials reigned supreme in using smartphones for social media use, it’s over now.

Reference:

Nielsen. (2017). Social Media Report: “A Look at the Social Landscape”             http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2017/2016-nielsen-social-media- report.html