Slashdot Mirror
Different Social Networks Are... Different
An anonymous reader writes "International Business Times reports that not all online social networks are the same, according to new research released this week. Internet research firm, comScore Networks, said on Thursday that significant age differences exist between the user bases of these websites.
"While the top social networking sites are typically viewed as directly competing with one another, our analysis demonstrates that each site occupies a slightly different niche," commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix."
The original press release
Common sense is not so common
It seems that /. is getting submissions with less and less substance. The submission linked a 204 word blurb that predictably had information content somewhere inbetween zero and nothing (it was a 'business times' site after all). The actual comscore article is here. It has some interesting data.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
In other news of stating the obvious... _Fill in the Blank_
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments. - Nietzche
I know that a lot of people like them but why? It is like the kid who has an online girl friend you just make fun of him because she's not real. Myspace is full of more fake people then anywhere. If you have real friends you can leave them a message but you probably see them everyday so its a waste. It was ok when myspace was for emo kids but its out of hand. This video explains it all for me.
" I think that freedom is Americas biggest export. Atleast untill China can stamp it out for 20 cents a unit."
... different /. news items are dupes. no, wait, that's not right....
You think MySpace is now mostly populated by older men because it used to mostly be populated by teenage girls? (Or teenage boys; ask your local Republican about that.)
Wait, you're telling me that Craigslist, Myspace, and MoveOn.org have different audiences? Say it ain't so!
Thank the gods that Mark Foley has been bridging the gap between the Congressional Record and the A/S/L generation...
Be careful of your thoughts; they could become words at any minute...
I always thought of it as a site of 20somethings, not teens, though. On the other hand, I know a myspace who was 18 when I first met her, and I thought she looked 26 then. Maybe people just grow faster nowadays
Not only that, but Facebook always allowed its visitors to continue using the site after they left college, which would have created an upward age shift no matter what they did. Opening up their population will increase that even more, but it is impossible to tell how much due to the lack of a control.
D
FTA: There is a misconception that social networking is the exclusive domain of teenagers, but this analysis confirms that the appeal of social networking sites is far broader.
Of course it's not just teens. It's also all the creepy older people that need to hang out with teens. And I'm not really talking about the sexual predators, I'm just talking about the 35 year olds with tattoos and piercings clinging desperately to what's left of their diminishing youth.
So in a way, this misconception that social networking is for teens is precisely why you get so many creepy older people there - they want to be with the teens. Ironically, now that we have stories coming out like this, the social respectability of these sites will increase and we might to see some normal adults. So the creepy adults are paving the way for broad general acceptance. Not to mention the kids who get started with social sites early and then just grow up with them.
Does anyone else want to pull their hair out whenever the news media reports on tech with such a "golly gee willickers!" tone?
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
Are you suggesting that most /.ers don't also spend time hanging out at in other technical fora? That's crazy talk.
Meta will eat itself
Next up: Tautologies are tautologies!
I just can't believe that 40% of MySpace visitors are 35 years old or older, as the original article states. I'm not sure how they are measuring this, but there's all kinds of possible errors in these methods.
That must be him swallowing the advertiser's load.
Not to mention the kids who get started with social sites early and then just grow up with them.
Now this will be fascinating to watch. Older adopters of social networking sites will most likely have been embedded in real-world social networks first. Kids who use social networking sites will mature into the world with mates scattered across the globe. This brings a whole new dimension to long-term friendship, one which is both mediated by IT and marketable.
MySpace: Crappy bands and empty-headed teenage girls.
LiveJournal: Trolls, drama queens and emo girls who are into cutting.
Orkut: Brazilians and nobody else.
Yahoo / Yahoo 360: Bored teenagers and creepy swingers.
Friendster: Old people who are so behind the curve they think Windows is a pretty neat OS. The kind of people who call their web browser "the Internet" and use MSN Messenger.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
How else do you think the new ones will compete with the older and more popular ones?
But obvoiusly most of them do not cut it. I think stumbleupon and grupus are two good ideas I have seen in recent times.
sorry for the anonymous posting. in a library right now.
the world is spherical
Hmmm.. I see nobody has tapped the 1-12 market yet. It's a potential gold mine! They are the social networkers of the future afterall!
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
This is like saying that different cafes attract different kinds of people
I've got additional news. Different e-mail services offer different features. Mind blowing I know.
Can I bum a sig?
...fun things are fun.
There are other issues as well. For the most part the concept of friendship is pretty unambiguous in meatspace. But a lot of behavior that would be considered sociopathic (e.g. theft of property) is not necessarily sociopathic on the net.
I suppose this may end up being a non-issue as courts have started to recognize digital property as real property with real wealth, but as the EVE scams demonstrate, there are a plenty of people who engage in behavior online without shame or fear of recrimination who would, at the very least, expect much harsher social consequences in real life.
Consider all the trolls, griefers, and flamers out there. What does this sort of behavior mean for people who grow up seeing this as not something new and different, but as much a part of life as people who flick you off in traffic? And, perhaps more interesting, not what are the cross-generational divides that may result, but the cross-cultural divides? As S. Korea, the US and first-world nations barrel into the digital age, how will citizens of these nations interact with people from countries where internet access is still too sporadic and rare to support this kind of social transformation?
I have to admit that standing on what I consider to be the precipice of people who grew up without PCs (my family's first internet-connected PC didn't arrive until I was 16), I'm a little apprehensive of how I will fit in with younger generations. My father (older generation) is pretty much incapable of learning FPS controls, or manipulating a space ship in 3d (ala Descent). I was able to get a grip on the controls, but it was hard for me. My younger brother (11 years younger) was literally flying spaceships through 3d space about as well as I could when he was 3 years old. The creepy thing is that no matter how adept he is at playing video games and taking them for granted he still (at 14) can't really tell the difference between a computer and a monitor. What's life going to look like when these guys are running the show? Is our generation the only one that will really understand computer internals en masse?
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
It's like this. Currently the Slashdot selection process is random or quasi-random. It's safe to assume that selection is based less on individual submission quality as it is based on the likelihood of that submission being randomly, or quasi-randomly selected for consideration by the editor. The key to getting a submission on the front page is to spam as many submissions as is possible.
Now, it's probable that to combat this, the editors long since had a very basic anti-spam system set up. Nothing too fancy, just a prevention against competely or nearly identical submissions. Because of this, each successive spam submission will require slight modification. Therefore to keep up a high quantity of submissions, quality will have to suffer. Witness the proof that this kind of spamming is indeed occuring.
Meanwhile, submitters of quality summaries become successively demoralised by lack of recognition, and simply don't bother to submit any more. I know I did. This feeds back on itself as the editors, desperate for some meager level of quality, troll through more and more stories. Hence to prevent a quality submission being selected over their own poor ones, the submission spammers must flood the system with ever increasing quantities of low grade material. The end result is that your carefully laid out and checked submissions will be rejected within minutes.
There are a number of possible solution to this situation, none of which have been attempted by the Slashdot editorial team. This situation has arisen from what a Software Quality treastie would call; "A Failure of Process". It's not so much individuals actions that are broken so much as the whole system needing makeover.
May the Maths Be with you!
Every social network trying to solve one known problem - how to waste time effectively and efficiently. Some of them has a complite success.
Visit Tutorials & guides collection
...as you make clear in your post.
May the Maths Be with you!
What's the film? It's on at eleven, right?
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
look! it's a bird, it's a plane, it's....a girl? yes, a girl browsing Slashdot on Linux
Do you habitually just jump on the end of a post and pretend to make a counterpoint to a figment of your imagination, or you are just making an exception in my case? Contrary to the impression you leave with your quotation marks (watch where you sling those things!) I never argued that FPS/space shooters were either necessary or sufficient for being "'good' or 'comfortable' with computers" (note that what I put in quotes can actually be found in your post*)
My point was simply that generations prior to ours have a hard time grasping computer concepts. I picked, purely for fun, two gaming-related examples. There are plenty others. If you've ever done any support work in your life, you've met the older men and women who want you to explain how to burn a CD and take line-by-line notes. The result? They can now burn a CD, as long as it's only the same type (e.g. data vs. music) using the exact same software on the same computer. Swap up Nero for Roxio or move the shortcuts to the burning software - and they are lost.
The generation following ours, as far as I can tell, has taken to computers like a duck to water, as it were. Not *all* kids, of course, but by and large they figure stuff out. They blog, surf, rip, burn, etc. with some degree of competence. However this competence is only superficial. Ask a lot of these kids anything about how the technology works and you'll get a blank stare. It just works.
So, generationally speaking, it seems as though the generations that were exposed to computers late enough in life to not take them for granted, but early enough in life to adapt may be a unique generation.
But don't let my questions get in the way of you sounding clever by any means.
-stormin
* I don't always use quotation marks to quote people, but the only other use I think is valid is as a literary device when describing someone speaking, and when there's little chance of the quote being misunderstood (as in my reference to "golly gee willikers!" in my first post on this topic).
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
... bananas taste different than oranges.
-- pupkick
Yes, unless we start training the kiddies.
Excellent point. I suppose when I have kiddies (first one arrives in about 8 weeks!) I'll take that route. Not right away, of course. First things first, and pooping is more important than gaming (not to mention walking and speaking).
The trouble is that I think there probably won't be enough techies out there teaching the kiddies the ancient and revered art of actually knowing what happens inside your computer. That's not how people in my generation learned computers. We learned because we wanted to play games and DOS required at least a little fiddling. And once you started fiddling, you started wanting to know more.
But every since WinXP gamers don't really need to know much at all to game. They just point and click and the game runs (or they buy a new computer if it doesn't). So there's no hook from gaming to learning. The result? A whole generation of WoW addicts who couldn't go 1 day without touching a keyboard, but who haven't the faintest idea what's happening inside those magic boxes.
I'm glad your boyfriend is mentoring his sister. I'm actually trying to teach my little brother what's up (my sisters are actually pretty competent, if not hackers) but it's not that easy when I don't see him that often.
And it's safe to say my kids will pick it up. Their father is a decent math major and their mother is an excellent math/comp sci dual major - but what about all those people out there who aren't hard core, but who know how to do basic trouble shooting and then go into other fields? Tons of people my age learned the basics of computing, then went into non-computing fields. Will they really be interested enough to teach their kids? I doubt it.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
I figure if I have kids, "puzzle time" will really be "helping mommy put in more ram" or something like that. Give them some old hardware that should really just be junked, and let them assemble it and disassemble it. I've always been into the "ooo how's that work...? *take apart, break, fix, put back together*" thing. I think kids like to do that kind of stuff too. Techies will be the only ones having 5-year-olds speaking sentences that are half-acronym and make no sense to other kids.
I couldn't catch my siblings young enough. When I got interested (read: became expected to act as FTS), I didn't know enough to teach them. Now that I do, they're too old to mold.
look! it's a bird, it's a plane, it's....a girl? yes, a girl browsing Slashdot on Linux
Congressman Foley, is that you?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Hahahaha... I like the idea of puzzle time. My wife wants to home school, so I imagine she'll be doing something similar. She really likes math more than computers, however, so I imagine puzzle time is going to be algebra starting when they're about 5. She's still really angry about not being allowed into advanced math classes when she was younger because she was a girl (I guess some teachers are still stupid) so if our kids are anything like her, they really will be doing algebra at that point.
I guess that means that it's my duty to make sure they also know how to install RAM, identify the components of a computer, etc. I'll do my best to make sure the first computer they get to mess with is also the first computer they build.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
Fascinating point.
The change to a totally digital world is on a par with the Gutenberg revolution. Yet, the authoritative history of the effects of the printing press was not written until the 20th century (Marshall McLuhan -- The Gutenberg Galaxy), when print began to recede with the coming of electronic media.
Maybe one of the unique generation spoken about in the parent will write a masterpiece capturing the nature of our current change?
You can always hope.
*Insightful*
God Be Gone
Of course it's not just teens. It's also all the creepy older people that need to hang out with teens. And I'm not really talking about the sexual predators, I'm just talking about the 35 year olds with tattoos and piercings clinging desperately to what's left of their diminishing youth. So in a way, this misconception that social networking is for teens is precisely why you get so many creepy older people there - they want to be with the teens...
Speaking of misconceptions...
My girlfriend of 5 years has a nose ring, and is heavily tattooed, she's also 5'10" and has long, natural, fiery red hair, so people do "notice" her.
She got her nose ring when she was 13, she's now 49, and I can tell you that she isn't clinging desperately to what's left of her diminishing youth.
Like myself, she never lost it, so nothing to "cling to", we are cultural "outsiders" by the mere fact that we live our lives with a passion unknown to most people, and we don't care what you, or anybody else "thinks", because you've put yourself in a tidy little box, or more aptly, a "cage".
Search for "Domestic Primate" sometime, and see yourself in the mirror.
I still think there needs to be a voice component to social networking.
I have a few clients who are using our Mexuar Corraleta technology for voice driven dating (www.mexuar.com or www.Corraleta.com ) but these guys are primarily driven by 1900 'adult' billing so they are using a credit card to 'time charge' their web interface.
I'm looking forward to working with a customer who wants to implement a free for all "click to talk" strategy on a social networking site for voice interaction.
BTW if you want to see a demo and are going to be in Dallas for Astricon we launch our USA sales on the 24th of October.
Cheers,
Dean
www.Mexuar.com
You're not exactly correct about generational differences. I think the thing you are witnessing is the switchover from "how things used to be" (i.e. no computers) to "how all things now are" (i.e. everyone uses computers).
Notice the flip from a no-car society to a 2 cars in every garage society. We take cars for granted, everyone learns to drive, and only some become very knowledgeable and capable mechanics, and only some can really drive well... all the rest pretend to do both, but it's obvious that they're idiots to the knowledgeable and capable drivers and mechanics. (I'd place myself in the "knowledgeable and capable enough" category - i.e. I can troubleshoot some stuff but generally will defer to paying an arm and a leg to someone better than me whenever it gets a little complicated.)
Computer users in this age are much the same. The older generation of people who wouldn't ever "get it" in the first place are the ones who repeatedly infect their computers with spyware and other virus crap, and those few who do get it don't stick out like sore thumbs because their capacity to master their computer puts them entire leagues ahead of the other old people. Meanwhile, you have these kids growing up with computers everywhere who "use" computers everyday, but still couldn't distinguish between a CPU, a video card, and the monitor and the functions of each... to them, those are just parts that go in "the computer."
And what about those kids who are users in almost all aspects of their lives? Well, they grow up to be used car salesmen and Best Buy computer salesmen.
Orkut: Brazilians and nobody else.
That's interesting. To me, LiveJournal is Russians and little else. The share of Russians there is disproportionally large. There is such a pulling effect when just about everyone interesting and speaking the language posts in LiveJournal. My friend list has mag editors, media pundits and prominent public figures. As a result, LJ is the place to come for all the latest buzz in Russian.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
So there's no hook from gaming to learning. The result? A whole generation of WoW addicts who couldn't go 1 day without touching a keyboard, but who haven't the faintest idea what's happening inside those magic boxes.
that's is my wife in a nutshell. she was in the asheron's call beta and was one of the only female monarchs in the game. she was even interviewed by time magazine for an article on female MMORPG'ers. i opened her dell to upgrade the harddrive and she was nervous that i would break something. when i asked her if her 1000hour sims game was backed up (just in case) she was like "i have no idea what you are talking about".
she is not just an avid gamer, but she uses the internet for pretty much everything. she can produce an itinerary and coupons for just about any activity that we can come up with. she can text way faster than i can and we IM all day long while we are at work... yet she has very little knowlege of how computers, phones, websites, or networks operate. she represents this new phylum of geek that is steeped in geek culture, without actually posessing true geek powers.
in the harry potter books these types are known as "squibs"... people who grew up in the wizarding world, yet have no innate wizarding powers.
sarcasm:
-noun
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
I'm not sure where you disagree with me on this. I agree that we're witnessing the switchover from "how things used to be" to "how all things are now", but this switchover was not instantaneous. It has taken about a generation. And thus the generation that watched it happen is, in some ways, very unique.
People born in the 50s and 60s, heck all the way into the 70s were too old for the most part to catch on in the digital age. Meanwhile, anyone born in the 90s was too young. By the time they were old enough to start messing with computers, they were everywhere.
So it's those born from, say, the late 70s to the early 90s that grew up without computers, but then embraced them early enough to really get it. I'm just remarking on how quickly that transformation took place, and how few people were around to really be a part of it.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
OK, that's a fair comment that there is this unique 10-20 yr group of people (GenX'ers and GenY'ers in popular media) that grep's the whole computer thing in a way that anyone else born before or after us doesn't. (I was born in 1976, btw) I guess I wasn't so much arguing that point as much as the thought that those who grow up with computers (post early 90's babies) will somehow have a very different experience than others. I am just viewing that paradigm as similar to previous technological advances in our society like flight or the automobile.
:-P
However, if part of your argument happens to be that our educational system in the U.S. blows chunks and could therefore contribute to a future generation knowing basically nothing about the actual operations of computers, then yes, I can agree with that. Which leads us to either welcome our future Chinese overlords, or to run around acting like idiots in our future oversized jail cell: the U.S.A. as the rest of the world passes us by.
Y'know, being a pudgy white nerd in my mid-40s who actually does think that the Buffyverse was the greatest televised artistic creation in history makes for some weird moments. A while back, I injured a knee and took my physical therapy at a place that does a booming business in injured little girls, mostly teen cheerleaders and soccer players. So here I am, riding the stationary bike, doing my stretches, and constantly surrounded by drama queen, rap-talkin' little whiners. No amount of cute visuals could make up for the throbbing headache I left with every day.
So one day, in conversation with my trainer, I said something. I don't even remember what it was - some quote from Buffy, or was it a Puffy AmiYumi reference? - and three or four girls around me just froze. They stared. They backed up and walked away and whispered. Obviously, some fat old slob that knew that stuff must have hobbies that make the skin crawl. Frankly, I was a little put off by the whole "let's treat this guy like radioactive anthrax" vibe that lasted the rest of the day.
Oh, well. I should find something to take my mind off such things. I'm gonna go check my Tivo and see if there's an episode of Hanna Montana I can watch.
I'm willing to bet that 5% of MySpace users are exactly "99" years old. I know from experience that almost every MySpace user under the age of 16 lies about their age on their myspace profile. I don't think this study can accurately measure a statistic that's guaranteed to be skewed by underage liars.