Age Groups & Social Media: Open vs. Closed Networks

At the dawn of the public Internet, in those ancient times of the mid-90′s, the bad news stories of the Web were all about the pervs and stalkers, spams and scams. Traditional news media, perhaps fearing what was to come for their industry, feasted on each bad news story. And parents reacted, as they should. Parental software controls came out in browsers and we took care to monitor our kids.

Good news. It largely worked. This result is what we see in our research into Social Media use almost daily. Under 25 and this demographic prefers more “controlled” networks. The average age of Facebook users is in the 40′s because it is parents watching over their kids (in large part) and then re-connecting with friends from days gone by.

The under 25 age group in social media engagement are much more wary of who they connect with. While that may seem odd to those who’ve seen teens with 500+ friends and you know they don’t have that many friends, it’s how those relationships are managed. More often, Facebook or MySpace is used to control those they don’t really want to connect with. A common habit of under 20′s is to easily accept “friends” on MySpace or Facebook, but to also drop large amounts every few months.

The “conversations” that take place in Social Media channels are more often held via txt messaging, Instant Messaging services, chat in Facebook etc. Services that tend to enable tighter control of the group. These reflect the tighter social circles found in daily life by teens and youth.

As we age and are exposed to greater forms of social relationships, workplace socialization etc., we are better able to manage our private and public lives (not to say we adults aren’t goofing that up in these new mediums!) thus engaging in services like Twitter, FourSquare or Yelp are easier for adults.

So basically youth (under 25) prefer more “closed” networks while adults are comfortable in both open and closed social networks. Additionally, it’s key to remember that many Social Network services today are used by people to more effectively manage relationships – to hold at bay those they don’t really want to connect with.

(Author: Giles Crouch)