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."

Comments

This is an interesting comment

[daviddennis]

The take-home message seems to be that as these sites get more entrenched in society, they look more like society at large. Myspace has over 100 million users, on paper at least. I doubt that there are 100 million kids within the site's target demographic, so it was inevitable that it get older.

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 ...

"It will be interesting to monitor the shifts in Facebook's demographic composition that will undoubtedly occur as a result of the company's recent decision to open its doors to users of all ages."

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

Re:This is an interesting comment

[garcia]

On the other hand, I know a myspace who was 18 when I first met her, and I thought she looked 26 then.

You mean a "person" right? Myspace isn't 18 years old. Just wanted to clear that confusion up.

As far as differences in "social networking sites" (I hate that term as they rarely do anything of the sort) go, yes, they are all entirely different. I utilize Dodgeball although not for social networking (I'm fairly certain that no one uses it for that as the notification of friends of friends hasn't worked in at least 6 months). I use it to keep track of which venues I've been to and when. I used to post the RSS feed on my website as the content there generally pertains to restaurants and where I've been going to so it was a nice fit (once the RSS feed died when they switched to Google's backend I never bothered to reuse it once fixed).

Myspace and Facebook are pretty much worthless in the sense of "social networking" unless you are talking about being online "friends". Plenty of people want another number but rarely do you meet anyone new that is interested in actually being your friend IRL (unless we are talking about 40 year old men and 15 year old girls).

While the lines of real life and Internet life are blurring these sites are not doing much to fix that. It might not be the sites fault, obviously, as their users are the ones that decide how to use it "properly".

New Market

[Wiarumas]

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!

Re:teens love teens

[theStorminMormon]

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).