At Sarah's secrets unveiled it is already mentioned that in 2020 half of the Dutch population is older than fifty. However, have you ever stopped to think that a virtual community can grow old too?
That's exactly what's going on with Facebook. The number of elderly who are active on Facebook is increasing and young people are - therefore - searching for new communities. Among teenagers are now Instagram and SnapChat extremely popular.
This is a phenomenon that we have seen before in the Netherlands, with Hyves. Hyves was founded in 2004. It was a social media network which was initially focused on young people. Hyves was extremely popular in the Netherlands. Until 2010 the number of users increased to 10 million. Because more and more older people - parents, grandfathers and grandmothers - became members of Hyves, many teenagers switched to Facebook. It is not cool if your (grand)parents hang out in the same places as you. Not even on virtual hangouts.
Now about 62% of Facebook users is older than 25 years, this has some consequences for Facebook. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg for students. Initially for those of Harvard, but later for all students. Then the users rejuvenated when in 2006 all young people from the age of 13 could register. Meanwhile the average Facebook user has thus become older. The younger crowd has different interests than the older users Teenagers especially exchange the best parties and events with each other, whereas the elderly seem to share the pictures of their (grand)children and news related articles.
Last week Mark Zuckerberg announced that a dislike button becomes available on Facebook. This button is not meant to show that you do not like something, but just to express your sympathy. With certain news items and live events it doesn't feel appropriate to 'like' these.
Zuckerberg has stopped the dislike button for a long time. He wanted Facebook to keep positive and he was afraid that advertisers and users should stay away if they have to deal with the downward thumb. That Facebook now nevertheless is working on a dislike button has according to Felicity Duncan (Assistant Professor of Digital Communication and Social Media, Cabrini College) to do with the fact that Facebook acknowledges that the site has changed. Adults discuss now about adult subjects and they have different means to express themselves. In addition, elderly people may be more responsible with this button than the young.
Even a virtual community must go with reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment