Presentation from the ACTIVE-seminar

1. Generation Gaps in Social Media
Petter Bae Brandtzæg, SINTEF
ACTIVE seminar, 29th of May 2012
pbb@sintef.no
Twitter: PetterBB
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2. An aging world
In 2008 – 506 million people older than
65, rising to 1.4 billion by 2040
(Source: An Aging World, 2008)
By 2020, 25% of the EU’s population will be
over the age of 65 (European Commission,
2008)
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3. New tech, new opportunities
‘‘New technologies will
increasingly allow older people
to stay active and productive for
longer (….) and to enjoy a
healthier and higher quality of
life for longer.”
Bilde: Aldersfloken.no
(European Commission, 2008)
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4. Can we include everyone?
Social media will be a
key in civic participation
and social interaction in
the future….
(Brandtzæg & Roibas, 2009)
Bilde: Aldersfloken.no
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7. Source: http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/05/tech/infographic.planet.facebook/
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8. Norway - early adaptors of Facebook
- 88
% of the population
have an Facebook profile
Source: Institutt for Samfunnsforskning, 2011
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9. Facebook penetration in the world (and Norway) as at
June 30, 2011, according to the official Facebook number
of subscribers reported for each individual country and/or world region
Source: World Internet Stats (2011).
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10. But what are social media (or social
networking sites)?
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11. ”all-in-one-place-solution”
V id e o
TV
e M a il Gaming
S h o p p in g B l o g g in g
SNSs
New s C h a t /IM
M o b il e Ph o t o a l b u m
SNSs typical examples of media convergence and ”mashup-solutions” that
try to connect all media and services in to one single solution.
Brandtzæg, P. B., & Heim, J. (2008). User loyalty and online communities: why members of online communities are not faithful. In Proceedings of the 2nd
international Conference on intelligent Technologies For interactive Entertainment (Cancun, Mexico, January 08 - 10, 2008). ICST. Brussels, Belgium, 1-10.
ACM digital library Information and Communication Technology 11

12. “all-friends-in-one-place-solution”
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13. The digital divide
“The gap between the haves and the haves not”
Digital exclusion and participation inequality (Norris 2001), a state of
isolation and lack of social interaction.
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14. The majority of European
citizens are lagging behind
60%
- 42% non-users
- 18% sporadic users
Austria, Germany, UK, Norway, Spain
Source: Brandtzæg, P.B., Heim, J., & Karahasanovic, A. (2011).
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15. Digital divide – people that are disconnected
By “disconnected” I refer to not being
able to interact with all kinds of people
and to not having access to various
resources and opportunities, due to lack
of "virtual accessibility"
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16. Digital natives (15-24 years)
The first generation to grow
up with digital media
technology - “native speakers”
of the digital language of
computers, video games, and
the Internet (Prensky, 2001)
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17. Digital immigrants (older people)
Less likely…
 to see the usefulness
of new technology
 to use different
sources of
information
 to try and to adopt
new technologies
(technophobia)
 to have the skills
necessary to use
new tech
 to use it at work etc
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18. Challenge: How to include all users in social media…
 Increased complexity,
more devices, more apps
 Higher demands for
involvement in terms of
co-creation and content
production
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19. How is the social media generation gap?
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21. Daily Facebook usage and age
A representative sample of online users (age 15–75 years) in Norway in three waves: N = 2,000 (2008), N = 1,372 (2009), N = 708
Source Norstat for Brandtzæg (2012)
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22. Number of friends in SNSs in 2010
N = 391 (only SNS-users), Source Norstat for Brandtzæg, 2012
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23. Which family members do you have contact with
in social networking sites?
Source: Norstat for Brandtzæg, 2012
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24. Motivation to continued usage of the
SNS they are using most often
N = 391 (only SNS-users), Source Norstat for Brandtzæg, 2012
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25. What are 60+ doing online (when not
using social media)?
Source: TNS Gallup, 2011. årsrapport for internettbruk 2011.
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26. Startsiden = aggregate that offer fast access, to news
and different search engines
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27. Why people stop using SNSs?
 Bad usability (low ease of
use) was reported by end-
users to be one of the
most important reason for
reduced use of particular
social network sites
(Brandtzæg & Heim,
2008)
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28. Elderly people are motivated to use SNSs if..
2. Help of family and friends
3. Ease of use
4. Relevance
5. Content control/privacy
Source:: Karahasanović, A., Brandtzæg, P.B., Vanattenhoven, J. Lievens, B., Nielsen, T. K. and Pierson, J (2009).
(Citizen media Project. Studies from Belgium and Norway)
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29. Conclusion: Elderly people…
 Use Internet and SNSs less and different from younger
users
 Have less friends than younger users
 Less communication than younger users
 Less motivated than younger users
 Choose different internett services
…..but their usage (and motivation) are increasing and there
are still several good examples of how elderly people are
benefiting from new technologies, remember…
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31. Thanks 
Questions?
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