How do the different generations utilize Face-Book?

FACEBOOK
How do the different Generations utilize Facebook?
University of California, Irvine
Anthropology 128C
June 9, 2010

Group Blue:
Joshua Yost
Yuri Choi
Vincent Nyugen
Donovan Tan
Wesley Lin
Patricia Wang
Charles Kope


Introduction
Every aspect and feature in our society has it’s own specific culture. Even something as abstract and intangible as Facebook carries a well-known culture that user’s can become familiar with rather quickly. Facebook started as a small Internet social networking site for college students, however quickly became a worldwide phenomena. Currently, there are more than 400 million users on Facebook all varying in age. As we started thinking about our research question, age was something that was frequently questioned. The interesting question that came to mind was, “How could a single website be able to cater to such a wide range of ages?” Our research was then geared to find out if age determined how Facebook is utilized.
Facebook is interesting to our group because it is more than just an Internet site. It has become an alternative way for establishing one’s identity and also for individuals to interact socially. It acts as a social database to our society. Although some people may not have a Facebook account, it still effects the way in which our society functions. For some, Facebook has drastically changed the way in which relationships are formed and maintained. Our group was able to recognize that Facebook has the potential of diminishing the value of real life relationships, however for most people we found that it acts as a supplement or addition to maintaining relationships and networking. Facebook carries multiple meanings depending on who is interpreting it. Regardless of what perspective it is seen in, Facebook should be a concern to all of society. It creates change within our culture and society, which in turn will affect everyone. Everyday life has been altered because the notion of a stranger or a long lost friend is now gone. Facebook allows distant relationships to rekindle and makes difficult relationships easier to maintain and follow.
Many people think Facebook is a non- influential networking site, however the realm of Facebook goes beyond the computer screen and creates a social phenomenon by changing and affecting our society culturally. This is important because it proves that culture in our society is never static, and is always changing. Facebook is a reflection of the next evolution in how our society is able to interact with one another in which technology develops numerous alternatives to social outlets. Even though there are many facets that can be explored and researched about Face-book, our group chose “age” as the focus of our study. Does age affect user’s utilization of the widely popular Internet social networking application? And if so, does this difference of use reflect upon distinct cultural values between different age groups?
Literature Review
Turner (2005) writes in his article on the WELL about the origins of the online community. Even in the beginning, online communities were utilized in much the same way as Facebook is today. “In the WELL's text-only environment, he conversed with friends and colleagues, met new people, and over time built up relationships of startling intimacy (Turner 2005: 485).” Facebook has benefitted from advancements in technology since then to where the online community is now much more personal with photos, video, etc. The online internet community gives people another way to connect with one another on a more personal level. “Computer networks like the WELL allowed us to recapture the sense of cooperative spirit that so many people seemed to lose when we gained all this technology. (Turner 2005: 486).” Facebook has become the supreme example of this as it has brought literally millions of people together and given them an outlet to connect and converse with one another using the “cooperative spirit” that Turner was talking about. Facebook is a very valuable tool that can be utilized to connect with friends on a personal level that would surely have made the originators of the online community very proud.
In the article by Schiano (1999), she writes about how the internet was becoming and online social community with a growing sense of personal connection. “The growing use of the Internet to provide a sense of personal connection and community is converging with the development of shared virtual spaces. In particular, the strong popularity of Multi-User Domains (MUDs), text-based networked virtual worlds, suggests the high premium many people place on social interactivity in their virtual environments (Schiano 1999; 127).” Her study was on the internet, but it showed how early on, people wanted to use the internet as a way to connect with other people. This is why it is no surprise that today Facebook has over 400 million user accounts. Facebook fills the needs of the people to connect with one another, and gives everyone a place where they can have an online community.
Thompson (2006) spoke in his article about the information overload experienced by being presented with mass loads of personal information about people that the Facebook user may or may not actually see in real life. This ambient awareness is very evident in this research. This research demonstrates how ambient awareness can be created through “friending” people that are not more than acquaintances and learning about them through the Facebook news-feed. This is also demonstrated in the 20-24 year old age group findings with their confessions of profile and photo stalking. People today know more about others of whom they do not interact with in the real world than they have in the past.
Walther, et al (2008) describes the effect one’s appearance on Facebook has on others and the amount of information that people display to become popular with a lot of friends. Our study discovered that participants in the 29 years and older age group were concerned about the security of the information displayed on their Facebook profile in order to prevent the information from being viewed by others. The study by Walther, et al (2008) determined that the image presentation on Facebook profiles does not have an effect of the first impression of other users. Rather, the study found that text content presented on these profiles had more of an effect of the impression of Facebook users.
Ito, et al (2008) studied the effect of new gaming, virtual world, and communications technologies on youths’ psychological development. This relates to this research with all of the age groups, but specifically the 15-19 age group, as they are currently developing with this new technology. The youth today see Facebook as a means to stay in touch with friends outside of school. One participant commented that “Facebook is a demonstration of society’s growing inability to cope with face-to-face interactions.” Facebook is a reflection of the next evolution of how our society is able to interact with one another in which technology develops numerous social outlets.
Method
Setting
The setting of our research is on the internet social network Facebook. (url: www.facebook.com). Originally created for college students, Facebook is now a widely used network for people of all ages from all over the world to stay connected with friends and family. This setting allows room for research about how different age groups utilize Facebook and how it is constantly evolving.
Participants
There were 44 participants in this study, varying in race and gender. All participants were signed up with Facebook and had existing profiles. The participants ranged in age from 15 to 65 with one 85 year old, and currently reside in Southern California.
Procedures
A survey containing 8 questions, 1 closed-ended and 7 open-ended, were distributed to participants via Facebook, in person, and phone calls. Surveys that were sent out through Facebook were distributed using the messaging and Facebook chat applications. This method was used for the majority of participants. Additionally, surveys were conducted through interview either in person or through phone calls. The survey’s closed-ended question asked participants their age. The open-ended questions inquired about their online activities, friends, and overall usage of Facebook. Collectively, these questions aimed at revealing similarities and differences of different age groups in terms of their Facebook usage and how these similarities and differences reflect the core values distinctive to the different age groups. After collecting all the data, responses were grouped according to the participants’ ages. Participants were grouped by age as follows: 15-19, 20-24, 25-28, and 29+. Next, the data was analyzed and coded by key words that appeared in the survey responses. Before analyzing all data, it was anticipated that there would be differences between the age groups concerning Facebook usage primarily for family, friends, and/or business.
Observation
Participant observation was also utilized in this study. All researchers in this study had active Facebook accounts so as to assimilate into the population of interest. By interacting with different Facebook accounts, which included viewing user profiles, newsfeeds, and chatting with other users on Facebook chat, the researchers of this study would able to become immersed in the culture of Facebook. Being apart of the Facebook community was vital for enculturation in this study.
Survey
Please indicate which age group you are in.
15-19 ( ) 20-24 ( ) 25-28 ( ) 29+ ( )
How many hours a week do you spend on Facebook?
What do you friends talk about on Facebook?
What part of Facebook do you enjoy the most?
What applications do you use the most?
What does Facebook mean to you?
What do you mainly use Facebook for?
What influenced to make a Facebook profile?

Findings
Facebook users in the 15-19 age group spent an average of 8-10 hours on Facebook per week. Friends talked about school events and social gossip. Members of this age group enjoyed the photo capabilities the most, and felt the news-feed was their most used application. Participants in the 15-19 age group saw Facebook as a mode of communication and primarily used their Facebook account to talk and gossip with their friends about various things. The main reason given by the participants in the 15-19 age group for creating their profile was to stay friends with different people, and which interestingly were mostly local friends that they saw on a regular basis. The 15-19 age group was not so concerned with long distance friendships.
Facebook users in the 20-24 year-old age group reported to be on Facebook an average of 10-13 hours per week. Topics that are discussed on Facebook in this age group includes drinking, partying, school, work, and inappropriate topics, such as behaviors and activities under the influence and comments fulfilling sexual agendas. Facebook users in the 20-24 year-old age group mostly enjoy wall posts, and commonly confessed to profile and photo stalking. The 20-24 year-old age group had the widest variety of reported applications, and no conclusions could be drawn from their responses. To participants in the 20-24 year-old age group, Facebook was a way to stay connected to distant friends that have gone off to college and their primary use for the social networking site was to communicate with friends. The main reason for creating a profile was reported to be that “MySpace died” and they were going away to college and wanted to stay in touch with friends.
Facebook users in the 25-28 year old age group spend an average of 10-13 hours per week on the social networking site. People in this age group generally talk about school, work, and their visits with family and friends. The 25-28 year-old age group uses the events applications in order to keep in touch with things that are happening locally. For example, one woman who was 27 years old used Facebook to network with her "party crew" as she called them. This was a clubbing group that would get together first only on their Facebook accounts to talk about which club was hot or not, and then later would meet up at that said club. In a way, some from this age group use Facebook as an initial meeting place. Some users from this age group use Facebook as a way to actually meet people outside of just talking on the computer. A couple of participants from this age group reported meeting up with someone they had first met and connected with on the social networking website. Facebook users in the 25-28 year-old age group also see Facebook as a way to maintain long-distance relationships and primarily use the site to communicate with friends and share photos. Facebook users in this age group most commonly created a profile because “MySpace is still dead,” and they had a strong desire to stay in touch or reconnect with old or distant friends.
Facebook users who are 29 years old and older spend an average of 4-6 hours per week on the social networking site. Participants who were 29 years old and older reported talking about business associates and clients, old memories, and family with their Facebook friends. Participants in this age group most enjoyed seeing pictures of friends and family, and most used the news-feed and chat applications in order to keep in contact with their friends. To participants 29 years old and older, Facebook is a means of business-related networking and family communication and primarily use Facebook as a means to keep in touch with friends and family as well as clients and business associates. For example, one woman that was interviewed specifically said that she advertised her hair stylist business and connected with clients via Facebook, and had actually gained new clients by networking with locals that were close to her location. Participants who were 29 years old and older commonly created profiles due to the recommendation of a friend or a family member, or had someone create their profile entirely. Also, this age group was the most concerned about security and privacy, more so than any other age group. The older generations seemed much more conscious of protecting their identity and being careful about what information they allowed to be posted. Finally, the 29 years old and older age group appeared to be more of a long distance, or global networking group, rather than just connecting with local friends like the younger generations.
Analysis
With these findings, age without a doubt effects how an individual views and utilizes Facebook. In this world there exists multiple cultural "spheres", and these spheres affect and shape how it's inhabitants think and their values. Facebook is such a global phenomenon, and since it caters to such broad and vast populations it is bound to affect many cultural spheres. Through this digital medium, people of differing age, ethnicity, sex, and religions can coexist and clash. Though our study is admittedly somewhat sparse in approach and research, enough data has been gathered to give us a clear view into how one aspect of culture, age, affects how an individual would utilize this online application. With the data collected it is easy to compare and contrast the interests and values of each specific age group.
A key similarity between the age groups is that all take advantage of Facebook's remarkable ability to keep in touch in with friends and family. This is not surprising, seeing as it is a social-networking website. Therein lays the key attraction to this online social networking application. Culture can never be described in individual terms; it is naturally and inherently social in nature. People are social animals, and we are hardwired to connect and identify with likeminded people. This transcends different cultural values and perspectives that people of varying degrees may have. But similarities are less interesting, as the most surprising revelations are found in the differences.
One trend that was very noticeable is that in the surveys the younger age groups (15-19) and (20-24) usually used Facebook as another way to stay in contact with friends. But these younger "friend" groups tend to be more centralized. In fact, these two younger age groups tended to use Facebook to keep tabs on friends that they say in a day to day basis. Just because of their age, it is more difficult for individuals in this age range, especially, 15-19, to expand their social network to a great degree. Those still in high school and can't drive have less incentive to create and maintain relationships outside of their immediate social circle. This notion changes slightly as we progress up to the (20-24) age group. Most of the individuals surveyed in this age group reported that they are either currently in college or recently graduated. As one most likely moves out of their parent's house and is able to have a bit more breathing space, the perspective on how Facebook changes slightly. A period of parties, new-found freedoms, and increasing hormones means that the subject matter this age group is interested in is very different than other age groups. This age group loses much of its inhibitions, and their wall posts and updates stand as testament to the increasing vulgarity and "inappropriate" topics. While at this age one begins the search for a career in earnest, most survey participants believed that the visibility of such "inappropriate" topics were not a severe detriment to finding a job. As for the locality of what friends they keep on Facebook, it begins to spread out. With these new found freedoms, this age group is able to branch out and meet people of different ages. But their network still tends to be clustered in the area they reside in.
As for the two older age groups (25-28) and (29 and above) their range of friends expands greatly. As individuals would enter the work force and transition into adults, they develop a much more varied and far-ranged social network. While some of these newly acquired friends may be due to creating an interesting relationship, it seems realistic that some of these new friends can be attributed to professional and work-place needs. Facebook is an important tool to maintain healthy business contacts. Also as one ages friends tend to spread out and go their separate ways, the concept of keeping in touch with "old friends" gains a new importance to the older generation. Also older generations seem to be fixated on the issue of privacy. Their cultural sphere values a great deal of privacy, and rapidly improving technology rushes us all into an new era of connectedness and integration. This can prove to be worrisome and even aggravating to many, as they are not used to so much information about themselves so flippantly available to the public.

Discussion
Analyzing our data, we found that the age groups started to be logged onto facebook mostly during the two age groups of 20-24 and 25-28, with an average user time of ten and thirteen hours a week. Age groups of 15-19 had the second to the most login hours of eight and ten hours a week, with the age group of 29+ last with an average login time of four to six hours. These findings suggest that facebook is predominantly a college phenomenon. The network was launched in 2004, the age group that was in college at the time were the 25-28 age group, followed by the 20-24 age group who was the next generation to actively use the site due to being in college. These two ages are closely related in terms of types of facebook usage. The site has a number of applications that is ideal to the active college student; event pages, photo share, and group pages. All these applications on the site allow one member of a social network to be able to be in contact and send out invitations without having to physically tell each and every single person they know. There have been event invitations with as much as five thousand people being invited, which would be almost impossible to do so by one person physically inviting one person at a time.
The two age groups, 20-24 and 25-29, also have in common that like to stay connected with friends that have gone off to a different college or those that have moved away. Age groups 15-19 keep in touch primarily with friends that they see often, many of the individuals they see are still in high school with them, which is kind of off because they usually see such individual’s everyday. The age groups 29+ tend to use to site to keep in touch with family and or business purposes. This is due to the fact that when these individuals were in college they did not have the luxury of having the facebook network site that was intended for college students only (which was how facebook was originally).
Reasons for joining facebook among the dominant users 20-24 and 25-28 were due to their friends having one and having an ideal college life would be essential to do so. The younger age groups jumped on the site as well due to the face of the declining user activity on myspace, because everyone they knew were converting to facebook. The oldest age group joined for business and or family reasons. These statistics alone show that even though facebook is no longer restricted to college students anymore, its primary focus group are the those individuals. Many of the applications; games, instant messaging, status updates, and others the older age group does not care for and has no use for.
Processing our data, we had not found the landslide results that we had originally hoped for. We believed that everyone in the age group 29+ created a facebook account to stay in touch with family and or for business purposes. We found that some of the respondents of that particular age group also used it to stay in touch with friends that they no longer interact with often, which we did not think of. Another theme we found throughout some of the older age group was the amount of hours spent was more than anticipated, that could be due to the particular reason why the account holder was using it for (i.e. promotion of a business).
Strengths of the study were that we had a wide variety of age groups ranging from 15 to 29+ with a specific distinction between the ages 20-24 and 25-28 The classification of these two groups, even though had many similar characters of their facebook characteristics, was a smart choice by us because in the real world act completely different from each other due to their age. This can be seen in our findings of the two age groups. Even though both age groups like to keep in touch with friends, one of the sole purposes for the 25-28 was mainly this. The 20-24 usage for the site other than staying connected with friends was to show their local activity through status changes of how their night was and the activity of “cyber stalking”. Another strength of the study was that since facebook has a massive population, gathering participants was easy. Open-ended questions let respondents feel free, when answering so they were not constricted to a set of answers that they might not even fit their answer for whatever question it may be.
Weaknesses of the study were that the age group for the older generation could have been categorized more thoughtfully, than a mere 29+ category. There were respondents to the survey who were around the ages of 30 and others who were around the ages of 50. Such a general age category skewed our data findings, due to the fact that many respondents around the ages of 30 used facebook as a means to stay connected with friends while the older age group’s main purpose was to stay connected with family. However, since they were all in the same age category we had to generalize what their main purpose of the site was used for. Another weakness in the study was that all the questions on the study were open ended, which gave us an exponentially wide variety of answers, which in some ways are a good thing, but was hard to generalize them in our study. The survey should have had a selection style format rather than an open ended style for an easier analysis of the data. More participants would have been helpful, having a sample population of 100+ would have given us a bigger variety of answers that could have either changed our statistics or reinforced.

Conclusion
Facebook not only has become a social networking phenomenon, but it has also developed a unique culture of its own. The online culture of different age groups has created an important study of how it is an important benefactor. It is the individual’s age and purpose for facebook that ultimately develops into the culture it has become today. The idea that facebook is able to maintain long distance relationship and create the sense of intimacy plays a large part to its success. This is a culture that both groups share in common when using facebook and the newsfeed application. As both groups begin to deviate in exercise, older users focus facebook on economic and social needs. While younger groups use facebook to achieve a sense of added community to the social circle they already have physically around them. Groups within the age range of 18-28 used facebook most frequently and mainly for social networking. The culture of cyber-stalking has become a norm in the society of facebook. The idea of privacy no longer applies the same as it did a couple of generations ago. Information of individual preference to movies to the area in which the person resides is now open to the public network. Although adults over the ages of 30 felt that these forms of privacy are more alarming, the younger generations were not. This in part had to do with the amount of hours the younger group would spend on the social networking site. The older group might have felt that because business was a factor it did not want to share too much personal information. Also younger generations were more open to the discussion of topics and activities that they participated in. People of older groups had to establish some form of professionalism or example. This is because the main usage of facebook for the older generation is to keep business contacts and family. Age in a large part determines the culture and social network an individual is part of. But the involvement of parents becoming part of an individual’s social network or culture can create a dilemma. When the distinct cultural values of different cultures collide it becomes complicated and difficult. As each age group has different ways of developing their own online culture, it also changes with time. Eventually the groups from the 15-19 group moves on to the 20-24 age categories and so forth. It develops a cycle as to how with age come more responsibility and maturation. These groups will either continue the online culture or create a whole different society as to how facebook is used. Facebook in anticipation for this changing aspect of age eliminated the exclusivity of college student to the entire world. It is now up to the individual and its groups to shape how facebook will become in the future.

Bibliography

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