Use Of Social Media Through Generations
Connor Constantino
English 101 A03
Holly Pappas
28 September 2023
Social media has quickly become an integral part of nearly every single person living in America’s lives. Whether we like it or not, we use social media nearly every day for all kinds of different tasks, whether that be entertainment, staying connected, or catching up on news. Because of this, social media changes the way we go about our day to day lives for better or worse. Of course, different age groups are affected in different ways, which is why I will be interviewing 3 people from 3 different generations to get a unique take from each age group. The 3 interviewees will be my little brother, age 16, my mother, age 45, and my grandmother, age 75.
Starting with my little brother, he says the platforms he uses the most are Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. He never uses Facebook or Twitter. On Instagram, he occasionally posts photos of himself or his activities. “Although I do like posting, I don’t care about the number of likes I get at all, I just have fun sharing what I like to do even if it was just a small group of friends who saw it.” He also uses Instagram to see what his friends post and the things they are up to, as a way to keep in touch. Snapchat is less commonly used by him, but his main use of the app is to send messages and “snaps” to his friends. “I like messaging on Snapchat because I feel like people respond faster when I text them there. I also like how messages disappear and how it notifies you if a message gets screenshotted, it feels more confidential.” The last app he commonly uses is TikTok. “I never post on TikTok, but I can easily find myself scrolling through it for hours a day.” He uses TikTok for entertainment and laughs. “The best part about TikTok is that you can scroll forever and never run out of content.” He says. “It shows videos that the algorithm thinks you’ll like, so you don’t even have to follow anybody to see content regularly.” He brings this up because on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook, the posts you see are only limited to the people you follow, resulting in both repetitive and limited posts.
Moving on to my mother, she mainly uses Facebook. While she does have accounts on apps like Snapchat and Instagram, she almost never uses them. Everything she does is on Facebook. She posts quite often, usually boat trips and family vacations but even something as simple as a night out for dinner she will gladly post to her Facebook. She then goes on to talk about another reason she uses Facebook. “One of the main reasons I love Facebook so much is memories. I adore getting a notification and seeing baby pictures and events from so long ago that I nearly forgot about, it almost takes me back in time, and its a rush of pleasant memories.” She also uses Facebook as a way to get information about our local schools. She is the owner of a group for our local school district that students’ parents can join and keep each other up to date on important events, schedulings, and even academic results. For example they can discuss whether or not the teachers are teaching fairly and proficiently, or remind other parents about scheduled days off for professional development.
My grandmother rarely uses social media at all, but when she does it’s only ever Facebook. “Social Media and other technology of the sort became popular fairly late into my life, and as a result I have a hard time learning how to use all these different things at once.” She does occasionally post to Facebook, but usually only during family gatherings or holidays. She also enjoys looking at the memories Facebook shows to her, especially since she is sickly and cant leave the house to see her extended family as often as she once used to. “Although I don’t find it the easiest thing to use, I love Facebook for giving me the ability to talk to my extended family as often as I’d like.”
From ages 14-75, some clear takeaways we can make is that younger people use social media on more platforms and more often, while older generations tend to stick to one platform and use them less. It also seems to make social media more essential in younger peoples lives. For example my brother will use social media nearly everyday just to make plans or keep himself entertained, while my mother might look at Facebook every couple of days and forget about it for a while, and my grandmother can go weeks or months at a time never logging into any form of social media at all. Another takeaway is how the different generations actually use the social media. My brother uses everything for fun, even when he posts. My mom will use her platforms to keep up to date with important information. And my grandmother will use it to keep in touch with her family. Through many uses and experiences with social media throughout many different age groups, there were never any inherently negative experiences with social media. It seems that each person had only positive things to say about the platforms that they use.