fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2462 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2462 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was one of the anons that posted about old people, and I meant "grew up before the digital age." So 50-55+.

If you're 30-35 and thinking internet people are calling you old, that's your insecurity speaking, not us.

So do you assume that 50-55+ people don't know how to use the internet or are more wary or disbelieving of internet communities and friends than younger people?

The latter. I have two parents fully capable of browsing sites, downloading or watching video, shopping online, searching locations and directions, going to Yelp for restaurant reviews, texting their friends through mobile, et cetera et cetera.

But my parents and a lot of people like my parents who are not computer illiterate, will never fully understand the idea of an internet community or what social media means to the generation after them. It's not impossible, certainly, but it's not usual for someone of their age to have a large online friend network. And if they do, a lot of their friends will usually be much younger than they are. Most of their friends are RL-based and these are the parents that can't understand that friendships can form purely online and continue to exist purely online.

Am I going to say no 55 year old can do this? No. But I am going to be like "oh, you must be one of the people who was in their 20s in the Usenet days." What percept of people that age were, compared to how many people in their 50s there are today? Very, very few. It has been, in my experience, safe to assume that no, they're not going to grasp the concept of an internet community from something other than an outsider's perspective, and that if they do understand, they are an exception, not the norm.

As a side note, there are different meanings of the word "old" besides physical age. People who are mentally old and refuse to keep up with, or turn their noses up at, how communication and socialization has changed over the decades, also count, no matter what their physical age.

Do you mind if I ask your age?

I'm beginning to think I must be in the minority, because I know plenty of people 50+ that fully understand and accept internet communities. Not only understand but participate in, actually. And I thought this wasn't that odd, but from both yours and others replies I'm beginning to re-think that.

And a big +1 to your final paragraph.

Almost 30.

I know plenty of people 50+ that understand and accept internet communities as well, but I met them all online, so I don't and can't use that as anything to measure by. Even then, they are always a tiny fraction of the people in the community as a whole. I have never met a 55+ person IRL either casually or even at the workplace, who truly gets what an internet community is. I live in a large city, so it's not that my location is backwater, either.

ayrt

Sorry, didn't specify but I was talking people I know irl. But I think I just naturally have a more nerdy or techy circle of friends and people I know, so that might explain the odds.

SA

Studies done, if you want some numbers.

Population disparity: 55+ was about 1 in 8, internet-wide (not social media and communities).
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Generations-Online-in-2009/Generational-Differences-in-Online-Activities.aspx Generation disparity.

Activity disparity:

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Generations-Online-in-2009/Generational-Differences-in-Online-Activities/3-Teens-and-Generation-Y-find-entertainment-and-social-networks-online.aspx

Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Generations-Online-in-2009/Generational-Differences-in-Online-Activities/4-Older-generations-use-the-internet-as-a-tool-for-research-shopping-and-banking.aspx

Here's a more updated one with a chart at the bottom.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations-2010/Overview.aspx

I love Pew surveys, they're neat to look at.

ayrt
Thank you!

[ SECRET POST #2462 ]

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