Did you find any of these statistics
surprising? Why or why not?
I did not find the statistics
that surprising. On certain sites like Pinterest, it is pretty well known that
the majority of users are women. Plus the fact that the most people used social
networking sites in urban areas was not surprising. I could think of a few
reasons why, such as they have a better connection or access to the internet
and they are surrounded by advertisements for numerous websites. The people in
the age range of 18-29 used social networking sites 83% whereas people ages 65
and older only used it 32%. The younger age group was raised with this
technology and older generations have a harder time adjusting to the constant
changes of it.
List what you find to be the three most interesting facts you
learned from these reports
They claimed that Facebook users are more trusting than others. I
felt that was interesting because people often post things that have been embellished
or outright false. People on Facebook tend to post before they think,
personally there have been times when someone posts something and it definitely
makes me doubt their character. Seven in
ten seniors own a cell phone. I was surprised by this; I thought it would be
considerably lower. It seems to have gone up slowly these past few years. Another interesting fact I read was that the
average user of social networking sites is half as likely to be socially
isolated as the average American. This seemed odd to me because using the
computer to me has typically been seen as a solo activity. I suppose that you
may be able to communicate with others more however physically you can’t. I
like the ability that it gives us to communicate but not the lack of actual
contact and the level of laziness it allows.
Describe how you’ve seen differences by age
in your family in how they use social media—for example, your parents’or
grandparents versus you or younger siblings
My parents are technology deficient. But that makes sense
because they were not brought up with it as rampant as I was. My sister and I
are easily able to adapt to new changes throughout social media. My mother
recently got a Facebook however she still believes that we shouldn’t show any
personal details, like having a profile picture of ourselves, because someone
could track us down or even kidnap us. My sister and I think this is ridiculous
because the purpose of sites like Facebook is to show some personal details,
assuming you are safe and smart about who you talk to. Clearly for my mother it
will take some time to adapt to these sites; I still have to explain that you
can get email from any computer, not just our home computer. My father on the other hand, even though he
works on a computer all day, refuses to get a Facebook. He claims that if
anyone wants to get in contact with him, all they have to do is look in the
yellow pages. It is very easy to see the differences in opinions about social
networking sites in my family.
