Over the past two years there’s been a raft of research out showing how 30+ Internet users are steadily getting to grips with social media. Despite that I still hear occasionally comments like “that’s not for us, we’re not cool”, when talking social networks with brand managers - the perception that older consumers still surf the Internet much as they used to five years ago (in a fairly functional way) still holding true.
Leigh Householder (Advergirl), puts these myths to rest once and for all by looking through the latest Nielsen numbers. Certainly in the US, “even when you take out our work lives, adults 25-44 are the heaviest users of the Internet”, browsing 34 hrs per month at home compare to 10 for teens. This age group is also more likely to embrace ‘newer’ things such as watching video online.
The one area where this isn’t the case is on mobile phones, where teens watch six hours of video footage a month on their phones, more than twice as much as the 35-44 year old audience (even here I am surprised the ratio isn’t higher). This ties into the Ofcom research that shows that while computers+Internet is the second most essential media for all age groups 25+, for 16-24 year olds its mobiles.
Leigh also shares this excellent diagram with us about how different age groups use social media. In Leigh’s words, “while we’re boldly networking with everyone from our high school sweethearts to someone we met at a conference the other day, they’re (teens) typing with the same people they sit across the lunch table with.”
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