One of my favorite research groups Pew Internet yesterday released an Info Graphic showcasing data from it’s Generations 2010 report. Generations 2010 describes in detail how different generations are using the Internet for 2010, and the results clearly show that the older generations are catching up with younger Internet users, even surpassing them in some online activities. This is exciting news for L&D professionals trying to make sense of, and think about how to best deploy and measure social learning technologies.
The Millennials, defined here as those ages 18 to 33 – are more likely to engage in what many would know as web 2.0 activities than older generations, namely social networking, classifieds, IM, playing online games like Angry Birds, listening to music, participating in virtual worlds and reading blogs. Users ages 34 to 45, or the Gen X, however, are more likely than Millennials to visit government websites or get their financial information online.
Compared to last year’s report, most of the activities Pew Internet has covered in its report have increased in popularity in all age groups, especially social networking, which is hardly surprising given Facebook’s continued growth to 6oo million user and its founder Mark Zuckerberg being named Time’s person of the year. Interestingly enough, blogging is not one of them, as only half as many online teens blog compared to 2006, while users ages 18 to 33 also blog less than before.This is understandable as blogging is time consuming for non full time blogger. Blogging did see a slight uptake among older generations (ages 33 and up), but still accounts for a relatively small number of total users. With services like Facebook and Twitter increasing in popularity we can clearly see that the future of social networking is in activity streams.
In completing the study, Pew Internet surveyed a sample of 2,252 adults, ages 18 and older between April 29 and May 30, 2010, while the data for teens between 12 and 17 (not included in the graphic below) dates back to a survey of 800 teens, conducted June through September 2009. Check out the graphic from the report below, and read the full report here.
