Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Social media isn’t just for youngsters anymore, new research finds

By

social media isnt just for youngsters anymore new research finds senior citizen internet
Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock
While senior citizens are often perceived as lost and uninterested when it comes to social media, new Pew Research Center data suggests that social media isn’t just for 18 to 29-year-olds. Although young adults do make up the age group most likely to use social media, 35 percent of seniors (65 and older) are not only using social media, but state they are comfortable with it.

When compared to the 90 percent of young adults utilizing social media on a regular basis, 35 percent might seem low. But that is not at all so if you consider that in 2010, only 11 percent of seniors used social media, and 2 percent did in 2005.

Recommended Videos

One explanation for the growth is the increasing use of mobile devices among seniors. Other explanations include workplace requirements, and the ability to connect with friends and loved ones — especially when family members don’t live nearby. Social networking, in general, is also impossible to avoid considering the popularity of Facebook, which now includes nearly 1.5 billion users and still accounts for a large chunk of time spent on digital media.

Related

It isn’t just this demographic that is increasing, either. According to the Pew Research study, overall social media use has increased across nearly all groups between 2005 and 2015. The group showing the most growth includes non-college graduates, increasing from just 4 percent in 2005 to 54 percent in 2015. And, in the past, while men were more likely to use social media than women, the numbers are now nearly even, with 68 percent of women and 62 percent of men reporting.

The survey found, however, that people with lower levels of education and lower incomes are still less likely to use social media. Of those with a high school diploma or less, 54 percent say they partake, versus 76 percent of those with higher-education degrees and 70 percent of those with some college education. When looking at households with incomes of less than $30,000, 56 percent say they use social media, versus 78 percent for those with more than $75,000. Still, even in these groups, the numbers have increased sharply since 2005.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Christina Majaski
Christina Majaski
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Christina has written for print and online publications since 2003. In her spare time, she wastes an exorbitant amount of…
What does it take to make a social media network that doesn’t exploit users?
Jimmy Wales speaking

A few months ago, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales launched a new platform called WikiTribune Social – or WT:Social for short. Unlike Facebook, the Wikipedia social network isn’t designed to generate profit by leveraging user data. Thus far, it has a modest membership, but Wales doesn’t seem interested in jousting with Facebook. Instead, it sounds like he is hoping to offer a refuge from it.

Some critics have highlighted the ways certain social media sites are purposefully designed to be addictive. That can help make them successful, but it can take a toll on users. On the other hand, if a site isn't offering people a benefit, no one will use it. Facebook didn't start out with the goal of becoming the world's largest social media company -- in the beginning it was actually exclusionary. It only opened up to those with non-college and non-university email addresses two years after its founding.

Read more
You’re probably seeing more social media propaganda, but don’t blame the bots
social media propaganda global disinformation study 2019 kayla velasquez 6xjl5 xq4g4 unsplash

Bots commonly shoulder the blame for social media propaganda, but a recent study out of the U.K. suggests not only that organized political misinformation campaigns have more than doubled in the last two years, but that bots take second place to human-run manipulation.

The Global Disinformation Order study, conducted by the University of Oxford, found evidence of social media manipulation by a government agency or political party in 70 countries, an increase from 48 in 2018 and 28 in 2017. The study has been collecting data annually since 2017, but suggests political propaganda has leveraged social media for the last decade.

Read more
Facebook’s crypto isn’t a new Bitcoin, it’s Disney Dollars for a new world order
A broken Bitcoin over a grey background.

Facebook is getting into the cryptocurrency market. It announced a digital wallet called Calibra on Tuesday, which it plans to launch in 2020.

The company wants to be the one to bring the reported 1.7 billion "unbanked" adults into the world of financial services under its umbrella. But the company's solution isn't another Bitcoin -- far from it. Libra, as the currency is known, is designed to allow Facebook users to make purchases on the social network and on other websites online.

Read more