There has been alot of press this past week regarding the Terms of Service of Facebook. If you haven’t followed the news or the endless comments on MSN you will have missed what all the comotion has been about, so I will fill you in…
Facebook backed down late Tuesday on policy changes that tens of thousands of users complained would grant the social-networking site the ability to control their information forever, even after they cancel their accounts
Now my interest lies not really in the Policy Changes but in the age groups of the people who made such an outcry regarding the information being ‘held’ by Facebook. Naivety has to come into play for anybody to believe that anything you publish on the web would be validated as being your PRIVATE property? Erm..? Hello!!!
Observing the comments however I started to see a trend regarding some of the respondents, based upon writing styles… I was sure that a trend was appearing regarding generations (this is my observation, unfortunately nobody clearly stated their age). Those, it appeared, most affronted were NetGen/Gen Y, who have grown up so ingrained using social media that they didn’t realize the implications of their mass information exchange, whilst us more seasoned GenX and Boomers, are a little more cautious regarding what we share, though still indignant at Facebook!
However in a week where Forester presented a report by Jeremiah K. Owyang entitled “How to Reach Baby Boomers with Social Media” I was encouraged to see that in 2007, the percentage of Boomers consuming social media was 46% for younger Boomers (ages 43 to 52) and 39% for older Boomers (ages 53 to 63). By 2008, those numbers increased to 67% and 62%, respectively.
Facebook is social media on a world scale, as members rise towards the heights of 200 million users worldwide , as Jessi Hempel states in “Is Facebook taking over our lives“, the arrival of an older, less web-centric crowd suggests that Facebook has succeeded in making the site easy to use.
This was underlined to me just yesterday as a close friend changed her Facebook status to read “super proud of her Grandma for figuring out Facebook all by herself.
)” Granny is 88 in September, why did she join? “all 4 of her grandkids are on there and 2 of her 3 kids, so she figured she should get with the times” Way to go Granny! In line with Granny joining Facebook, the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is women 55 and older, up 175% since September 2008.
Foresters’ statistics indicate that with percentages rising within the boomer workforce in the adoption of social media tools, that it is now high enough to target our workforces with a customized version of a social media applications. Social media can provide a collaborative version of Performance Support, and enable us to direct our learners to job specific, role specific, application specific support as required, with the ability to collaborate with peers as needed.
Social Media is now a tool that can interact and collaborate and train across generations. But I don’t believe for one moment Jay or Harold that we need to close down the training department, repurpose maybe, but not close it down.
Oh… if you have any comments, please leave your age