Multi-Generational Interview

I developed a survey about social media usage and sent it to four of my younger Dallas cohort classmates to get their take on social media and get an idea of how their use of social media differs from mine.  I want to identify the reasons behind their social media use to try to understand how it might be used to reach them.  Based on my findings, and my own personal thoughts about social media I also want to ascertain potential challenges in using social media to reach multiple generations.  I’m a late or “young” baby-boomer, being born in 1962.  Those that I interviewed are Generation Y “Millennials”, born between 1977 and 1990.

Until this class I was really not a social media user.  I had a LinkedIn account that was outdated and a Facebook page that I had created providing the minimum required information so that I could view pictures posted by a friend on their fan page.  I grew up in a time where personal information was just that “personal”.  I prefer not to share information with phone solicitors or others I don’t know on a close personal basis.  I do my banking and bill paying online for the convenience and only have to send two payments by “snail mail” because the vendor doesn’t have a system for online payments…yet.  I prefer to use email while at work and correspond in the same fashion with friends when at home unless it’s important and then I call them.  I do “text from my cell phone when a phone call is not possible.  But for quick, direct communication I still prefer a good old phone call.

My younger classmates grew up with cell phones and I know that at least three of the four carry some type of smart phone.  (I have what I guess they would consider a “dumb” phone.)  Their technology allows them quick access to their friends, family and fans through phone, text and email but more importantly via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.  All of my Millennial friends have a Facebook fan page either for work or personal use and for the majority Facebook is the social media that they use most.   The youngest of the four is the only one using Twitter but “tweets” for both work and personal use.  The amount of social media use varies from less than one hour per day to more than three with the younger ones spending more time on social media.   The younger users also tend to spend more time on YouTube with one of them actually having uploaded a few videos.  The reverse is true about email.  Even though they all have email accounts and use them for both personal and work related reasons the older Millennials use it more consistently throughout the day for work and personal activities while the younger ones rarely use it for personal communication.  They may interact at work using up to twenty emails but only correspond on a personal level with five or less.  The same is true with web logs (blogs).  Only one reads blogs on a consistent daily basis even though they all have set up a blog and rarely do they monitor their blogs, post to them or comment on other’s blogs.

Only one of the Millennials reported a single incident where they clicked on an advertiser’s link while using social media.  However, another has purchased items elsewhere that were advertised on a social media site, as well as, purchasing something that was recommended by a friend on a social media site.  They use social media to keep up with technology, as a source of entertainment, to keep up with friends and family, to network and to gain knowledge.  If they are being marketed to, it doesn't show with these four.

                My small sample really isn’t adequate to provide a clear statistically supportable view of social media but based on just the shear variety of usage styles among these few it appears that reaching multiple generations with social media may be very challenging.  From my small sample of people of the same generation the usage styles vary greatly.  When you add in the attitudes and comfort levels of other generations it becomes a nightmare for someone like me and the fodder for the statisticians, analysts and writers of algorithms to tackle.