The social media network experience for adults

By Namreh McGee

I wanted to find out what users thought about their experiences on social media networks. So I interviewed 10 people ages 25 - 50, four men and six women. I found that majority of the women have been active on social network sites for 2-5 years. All of the men interviewed have been active 1-2 years. All six women are active users of more than one site such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.Only one of the men interviewed used more than one social media network. All of the subjects used Facebook and visited the site most often. I noticed that the younger persons checked in to their sites at least once a day, while the eldest checked in once a week. Usually prompted to visit after checking their email accounts.

 

Majority of the social media users are at home and multitask when visiting their favorite network. Checking emails,browsing, playing Internet games or doing things offline at home. Many of them enjoy connecting with friends and family. Sharing pictures and viewing online photo albums seemed to be what the users enjoyed the most. One of the women said she felt she had to open a facebook account because that seemed to be the choice of communicating for most of her friends. Most of the users found it easier to communicate through the network than actually talking on the phone. Receive messages and reply to them on their own time.

There is one thing I observed in the responses from this age group. Negative view points and some skepticism. Could this be the reason for their least frequent use of social media. Many of  these users have some concerns about privacy and security. They feel there is too much information open for people to look at on these networks. One person age 50 said he has been a facebook member for two weeks and is apprehensive about using the site because he has difficulty configuring his personal settings. Most of the users are most comfortable with keeping their settings private for close friends and relatives. Some have been annoyed by the amount of advertisement on their facebook  pages. Majority of the women were bothered by excessive postings from other network members. A woman age 29 said "we don't need to know you just finished baking blueberry muffins". Another woman didn't like the fact that she could have pictures of her posted and shared online without her permission.

Overall I have learned adults 25-50 are a group still adjusting to new technologies in Social Media networking.They are becoming the fastest growing group of users. They refuse to be disconnected from today's society in spite of their concerns and discomfort.Change is a process comfort comes with time.