Though the growth and use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter has been nothing short of meteoric, recent research conducted by Burst Media shows that content is still king. Content related surfing among 18 to 34 year olds comprises nearly 70% of their time online, leaving social media with the smaller piece of the pie. What’s also interesting is the difference in content. Younger people like seeing wicked harsh wipeouts, people fighting like barbarians and Beyonce videos…oh wait, sorry the survey actually said entertainment, news and gaming sites, while baby boomers are on sites “…providing local/national news, shopping/comparison shopping, and health information.”

Some other interesting stats are that 52% of Baby Boomers did not belong to a Social Media site. And of that percentage 93% felt that “those sites” were targeted at a different demographic, they felt unwelcome. Which says to me that there is a huge profit potential for a content driven but active social media site for the 50+ crowd. Maybe call it Wrinklefacebook.com or something. Actually there is one called GrowingBolder.com but I like Wrinklefacebook more. Which brings me to the kids.

While the parents are checking the weather and reading up on the local news the kids are partying like it’s studio 54. Oh wait that reference is for the Wrinklefacebook crowd. They’re partying like it’s spring break up in here!!! That’s what I meant. Common Sense Media conducted a recent poll of teenagers and their online behavior. The research shows that children were “conducting themselves ­differently on the Internet than how they would in real life” and “their ­parents’ perceptions of their children’s activities were vastly different to what was happening in cyberspace”.

It’s no surprise, when there are no parents around we inevitably find our younger members of society reverting to Lord of the Flies mode. Right now in social media, no one has the conch. And Piggy’s glasses are broken. And the parents are far away somewhere else, checking deals on Best Buy or something. And so naturally kids have begun to use Social Media sites at a rate and frequency that makes up for the lack of their parents involvement. 22% of kids polled checked their social media pages more than 10 times a day, and new research from another company suggests that this might be because the younger generations today are outrageously vain; completely full of themselves. Social media is their calm pond, which like Narcissus they find their own beautiful reflections in and cannot turn away; addicted to their self importance.

We’ll see how vain they are when the giant asteroid comes…

I really have to get off this giant asteroid fixation I’ve developed, sure helps to put things in context though.

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Related posts:

1. How to Scare the Crap Out of Your Kids at Christmas
2. Social media in the classroom, re-learning how to learn
3. Social media saves lives

Tags: baby boomers, Content, growingbolder.com, Social Media, Spring Break

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