Anthropology, Social Media and Old People

We social media wonks talk a lot of stats anymore. We talk usage and stats, and stats that indicate usage.

We've all heard by this point that Facebook is growing more popular among older people and professionals. Here it is in a cute article by Lev Grossman in Time Magazine last month: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879169,00.html. Here it is in more traditional reporting style by Sharon Gaudin of ComputerWorld last Friday: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9129652&intsrc=news_ts_head. As one would guess, young people hate it when old people show up at the party because now you have to act like you can hold your liquor. I thought blogging whippersnapper Josh Visser summed up the chagrin pretty well here: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090313/facebook_bore_090315/20090315?hub=TopStories.

There's more. Is Facebook going to kill email? Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52A6E420090311 says that's the trend. Small wonder, given all the functionality and instantaneous feedback Facebook offers and the fact that our love/hate relationship with email has been gaining steam for years.

Now, this isn't happening tomorrow. I recently attended a webinar hosted by Compendium's Chris Baggot wherein he showed compelling statistics that search and email remain, by far, the two largest components of web use. And for what it's worth I don't think email disappears, I just think it changes. How it might change is probably good fodder for a future blog post (note to self...).

Just like Facebook isn't turning into an old folks home tomorrow--but there's no denying the trend. Especially because so many of us old folks are crazy for free networking opportunities and/or out of work right now...and, of course, the first rule of finding a new job is telling everybody that you are looking for a job and reminding them of how wonderful and professional you are...and there's noplace better to do that right now than Facebook.

So a March, 2009, McKinsey Quarterly article http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/When_job_seekers_invade_Facebook_2317 has had me noodling this in a bit of a different way all weekend. I can understand how it made sense to these young folk that we treacherous elders would camp out on LinkedIn, where we type in acronyms about things that fascinate us, like "ROI" and "CRM," and leave them Facebook to exchange concert reviews and post pictures of keggers and cleavage. "An important question," the article states," is whether the values and codes of conduct specific to the virtual world will come into conflict with real-world values and norms."

OK...what's ruining the ride for the Sigma Chi set is the fact that we old folks actually like each other on a personal level, too, and many of us actively seek more than a transactional relationship with our business partners. I want people to know that, for example, I'm a University of Denver alum and a big Pioneer hockey fan. Great icebreaker material, and the fact is that while I'm serious about my business, I'm not always a real serious person. I can talk about stuff other than work, every now and then I probably will, I want people to know that and the dress code at LinkedIn is too stuffy for all that. Facebook provides both the strangeness of balancing and blending personal and professional...For example, within the past 5 days I've stopped allowing one of my old buddies to post on my "wall" because his stuff is often profane (but always funny, so I'll miss him) and joyfully regained contact with about a dozen old friends and neighbors with whom I'd lost track. If you read the linked articles, you'll see three different references to how we can't maintain stable social relationships with more than 150 people. First, I don't think that takes social media into account; Second, define "stable" and "social" in 2009; Third, OK, yeah, I won't maintain close contact with all these folks but I like knowing that NeebruM is playing this weekend in Missouri, that Tim's kid is out of the hospital and that Diane wants to have coffee next week to discuss business.

Now, those are real-world values and norms. It's normal that I love the fact my friend Chris plays in a jam band, that Tim knows he's connected to a bunch of people who care about his kid and that I love coffee almost as much as I love what I do for a living. We cry out when inappropriate pictures get posted on MySpace or sent around on cell phones because they're inappropriate and often dangerous--contrary to our values, not the "norm." Old people interjecting themselves into young people's stuff because things are inappropriate, dangerous or fun? That's been going on for as long as there have been old people.

Social Media as an industry is in its introduction phase, moving into growth. Making your own social network is pretty darned easy to do...so if you're desperate to post your keggers and cleavage on the internet you'll find a way and a place. And the risk? Pshaw. You're already used to your mom saying, "I told you so..." Didn't cost Michael Phelps anything, right?