Baby Boomers’ Love / Hate with Social Media
Who is BB?
BB stands for the Baby Boomers. Wikipedia says” A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. The term “baby boomer” is sometimes used in a cultural context, and sometimes used to describe someone who was born during the post-WWII baby boom”
What this means is that Baby Boomers are generally born between 1946 and 1964 making the youngest boomer in 2010 46 and the oldest 64.
I am a Baby Boomer of the more senior set and I use Social Media,
Many of my friends and colleagues do not use Social Media. They do not like it and they fear the invasion of privacy that seems to happen with social media.
Let’s get clear – what is social media? Social media is the online method of engaging with others. Some statistics
Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook [STATS]
We see that the Baby Boomers are using social media, especially Facebook. When you look at the figures above you see that the biggest users of Facebook are the older generations. Nearly half of the Baby Boomers use social media but why?
My experience says there are 2 reasons:
- Social media allows Baby Boomers to keep in touch with family and friends and reconnect with those they lost touch with over the years.
- Social media provides business opportunities no longer available through the conventional routes. While no statistics confirm this yet, there appears to be a growing number of Baby Boomers who need to keep working to enjoy their life style but who are no longer employed in their previous careers and many are self-employed because they are no longer able to find a job that satisfies their social and financial needs.
Most of my Facebook friends are either baby boomers or business people or both. Less than 10% are friends from the past. The reason – they do not appear to have Facebook profiles. Those that I have found are there because they have family there and that is how they keep in touch with each other. Of my family, most are not using social media. Their reason is they do not trust the security and hate the rubbish people post.
So Baby Boomers are engaging with social media but on their own terms. Many are the flower children and hippies of old. They created much of the technology but they are also wary of Big Brother and they suspect that Social Media is one way that Big Brother does watch us.
In Summary:
- Baby Boomers use social media, differently but as prolifically as younger people
- Baby Boomers adapt to the tools to achieve certain ends. These ends include connection, reconnection and awareness.
Roberta is a keynote speaker, facilitator and mentor. You can find her through http://www.budvietas.com which links to her blogs, articles, ebooks and speaking.
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