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Regina Nishiyama

Dr. William Nolen

English 1302

8 March 2022

Social Media Across Generations

Social media platforms have taken over our day-to-day lives and become an important

staple of this era. These platforms typically have the same purpose and use, whether it be for

communication, documentation, or entertainment, the main goal is to bring people together.

Social media has woven its way into everyone's lives and affects every generation to this day.

Each generation uses these platforms in a slightly different degree and obtains different effects

from the constant exposure to these outlets. This paper, using multiple peer-reviewed sources,

will explore and discuss how each generation uses social media and how they are impacted by

these platforms.

Generation Alpha is the youngest living generation to date. They make up all the children

of 12 years and under, so they are a highly impressionable group. Since social media has been

around for longer than they have, they have grown up surrounded by these platforms.

Researchers have mixed views about the use of media at such a young age. On one side we have

researchers like Qayyum et. al. who say that elementary students who use social media show a

“significant difference in finding assignments and marks obtained,” (Qayyum, Hussain,

Mahmood, Rasool 2016). Their study concluded that overall, students at the elementary level are

slightly better at group discussions, attention towards their studies, and attitude towards learning

while having a greater edge in grades and homework assignments. (ADD STATISTICL DATA)
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On the other hand, Fardouly et.al. have found that social media usage by preadolescents can have

detrimental effects to their mental health and self-image.

Fardouly et.al. studied the correlation between the time preadolescents spent on social

media and their mental health. Their goal was to determine if stricter guidelines set by parents on

the child's social media usage would positively affect their self-esteem and mental health. They

used a survey 284 preadolescents between the ages of 10-12, to determine their BMI, time spent

on social media, how often they compared their appearance to others, depressive symptoms,

appearance satisfaction, life satisfaction, and their parental control. They found that despite being

under the required age to have a social media account, this generation spent about and hour each

day on these platforms; the more time a participant spent on social media, the more body image

concerns and depressive symptoms they developed. (ADD STATISTICAL DATA).

CONCLUDE PARAGRAPH

To add to the pros and cons of social media services, Ardi et.al wrote an article that

discusses both sides of the field when it comes to Millennials using social media. Ardi and Putri

compiled a list of sources and arranged them into their article to allow readers to gain more

knowledge on the subject and to better analyze just how Generation Y is affected. On the

positive side, they found that teenagers can easily spread information that will help them in their

schoolwork. Ardi explains how “children and adolescents often exchange information related to

school assignments and lessons with their friends using social media such as Whatsapp, LINE,

and BBM” (Ardi, Putri, 2020). So, what they are trying to convey is that because means of

communication are quicker, students do not have to wait until the next school day to get

assistance on any homework assignments they might not understand. Connection is Ardi’s main
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positive note, he goes on to say how “teenagers can be connected easily by family and friends

who are far or near...to keep kinship from breaking” (Ardi, Putri, 2020).

On the negative side, he argues that destructive behaviors are easier to conduct on social

media than in real life. People can insult others easily because it is not a face-to-face interaction.

Ardi explains how “many people who use social media tend to ignore others’ behavior, they like

to throw spicy comments when they do not know each other” (Ardi, Putri, 2020). He goes on to

explain how these negative interactions bring out a change in society where people lose their

morals, values, and character. All in all, Ardi and Putri’s research conveys that the benefits

Millennials gain from social media is centered on quick connections, but if people choose to

interact negatively within these connections, it can affect their character and social behaviors in

the end.

On a more statistical view, Jaclyn Cabral was able to provide an article on how

Generation Y’s usage of social media can be correlated to behavioral addiction. She conducted a

survey of 12 close-ended questions that contained things like demographics, general social media

use, personal perception, and behavioral addiction. The results of the survey were compared to

Griffiths’ research of nonchemical addictions and the six components: salience, mood

modification, tolerance, conflict, withdrawal and relapse. She found that typically, Millennials

spend about two hours of their day using different platforms and out of the six nonchemical

addiction components, this generation only suffers from three and a half: salience, tolerance, the

intrapsychic element of conflict and relapse. Salience, meaning how important social media is to

someone, came out at 46% while tolerance had 27% and conflict had 21% and relapse had a total

of 17%. This data can conclude that Generation Y has an unhealthy attachment to social media.
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Although the aforementioned research concludes that social media within this generation helps

build connections, the amount of time and importance they give to the platforms is unhealthy.

Moving on to the older side of social media, the Baby Boomers. This generation is

known for being too old for these platforms, but surprisingly data has shown that they are a very

involved generation. Sheldon et.al. conducted a study on Baby Boomers’ use of Facebook and

Instagram because “social media research tends to prioritize how young adults use social

network sites” (Sheldon, Antomy, Ware, 2021). They researched how the gratification from

using these platforms applies to senior users. Using a five-point Liker scale survey on 414

participants between the ages of 50-91, Sheldon et.al. Were able to acquire statistics on how

these people used Facebook and Instagram. They found that the 343 Baby Boomers who use

Facebook primarily use it for diversion and entertainment. Diversion was at 3.18 median,

entertainment was at 3.01, and relationship maintenance was a solid 3. The 152 Baby Boomers

who use Instagram mainly used it for relationship surveillance and documentation. The median

for relationship surveillance was at 2.59 while documentation was at 2.14, coming in third was

inspiration with a median of 2.07. So, the research conducted by Sheldon et.al concludes that

Baby Boomers use these platforms in order to add some activity to their lives; because their

primary uses were for diversion and relationship surveillance, we can conclude that Baby

Boomers have some of the same usage as the younger generations do for social media networks.

Keeping with the usage of social media by Baby Boomers, Casey Croslin conducted a

study to understand how social media affects this generation's online purchasing behaviors.

Using a five-point Likert scale survey on 130 Baby Boomers, Croslin collected data on how they

used social media, how they used it to communicate, likability, social validation, and risk within

these communities influencing their online shopping habits. This article is mainly useful for
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marketers, but the data can also be used to analyze the generations use of social media and

compare it to other generations. The study found that Facebook is the primary platform that has

the most influence on this generation's purchasing behaviors because of the social risks, but

likability and the other factors did not affect their online purchases. (ADD STATISTICAL

DATA).

Overall, readers can conclude that social media plays a big role in anyone's live no matter

how old they are. Although each generation is affected by it differently there are pros and cons

for each generation. It can be concluded that the main purpose of these platforms is for quick

communication and entertainment while the main downfalls are related to mental health and

behavioral issues. As seen from the research, experts have different theories and data as to how

social media is used and how it affects the generations of this era. The data above helps others

better understand just how big social media is in our society, and the different ways it can affect

the population.
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Work Cited

Ardi, Zadrian, and Shania Andrisa Putri. “The Analysis of the Social Media Impact on the

Millennial Generation Behavior and Social Interactions.” Southeast Asian Journal of

Technology and Science, Southeast Asian Journal of Technology and Science, 5 Nov.

2020, https://jurnal.iicet.org/index.php/sajts/article/view/651/571.

Cabral, Jaclyn. “Is Generation Y Addicted to Social Media?Jac.” Elon , Strategic

Communications Elon University, 2011,

https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/

153/2017/06/01Cabral.pdf.

Croslin, Casey A. Baby Boomers on Social Media: Investigating the Effect of Social Influence

Principles and Risk on Purchase Intent, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology,

Ann Arbor, 2017. ProQuest, https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?

url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/baby-boomers-on-social-

media-investigating-effect/docview/1859914716/se-2?accountid=7081.

Fardouly, Jasmine, et al. “Parental Control of the Time Preadolescents Spend on Social Media:

Links with Preadolescents' Social Media Appearance Comparisons and Mental Health -

Journal of Youth and Adolescence.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 5 June 2018,

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-018-0870-1.
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Qayyum, Abdul, et al. A Comparative Study between the Learning Style of User and ... Bulletin

of Education and Research, 2016, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1210301.pdf.

Sheldon, Pavica, et al. “Baby Boomers' Use of Facebook and Instagram: Uses and Gratifications

Theory and Contextual Age Indicators.” Heliyon, Elsevier, 2 Apr. 2021,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844021007738.