An Old Fart’s View on Social Media.

Inspired by @thatswattsup’s recent blog regarding an actual real-life teenager’s view on social media apps, I thought it useful to decant some of my own thoughts on social media from the perspective of someone rather older.

Me. And similarly aged folk of my acquaintance.

Is there a typical, generic teenager? No, of course not, but his musings have certainly resonated and thus spread virally, so he has definitely captured much of the Zeitgeist of many of his peers — or at least the attention of those in the industry who’d love to know what that demographic wants to use — today, and especially tomorrow…

So, similarly, is there a typical, generic middle-aged person? Again, of course not. In fact, I’d tender that there is more diversity in the habits of folk as they get older — life assumes very different priorities, obligations, worries, and joys as time goes by. We often become rather more eclectic in our interests, the older one gets. When one is younger, the core interests are pretty common to all in the same age group. Thus, a common social ground can easily be found.

I should add the caveat that my background is tech and I’ve been involved in social media start-ups, etc, but in recent years I believe I’ve become a mainstream user of such apps rather than simply someone in the echo-chamber of the social media business.

Looking back over my own usage patterns over recent years it is clear my app preferences have shifted dramatically, reflecting changes in my own lifestyle.

The biggest loser in this shift has definitely been FourSquare. I used to travel extensively, often internationally, and found it to be a pretty useful tool in locating suitable places to stay/eat/drink when in unfamiliar territory. The Mayoral gamification stuff was rather puerile, I thought, but the automation of serendipity was pretty useful, at the time. Now? I rarely travel so it is totally irrelevant to me, so I deleted the app some while ago. Recent fragmentation of the app and attempts at its repositioning seems to suggest I’m not alone in this defection. From what I can see, a lot of my age group prefer the traditional style of TripAdvisor.

Facebook is an interesting one. I spent years loathing it — it seemed nothing more than a showcase for my sad middle aged friends to show off their latest acquisitions. It became awfully middle-class and ‘look at me’ for the shallow middle classes. I avoided it, apart from using it to set up a couple of specialist groups. It became clear this is where its strength and relevance lies — a single portal to one’s many special interest groups; I find myself using it often, now, for easy access to news on my varied interests. Thus, Facebook has found its niche, and is why us old farts now use it, much to the chagrin of youngsters. Still, they have their niche apps aplenty to choose from, and I doubt very much many folk my age will frequent ‘their’ SnapChat lives…

I’m a recent convert to WhatsApp, and along with Facebook Messenger, these 2 excellent apps provide me with all the chat-reach I need regards friends, family, colleagues. Messenger seems particularly popular with my more technically conservative peers. I must say, it is very nicely designed.

I find my interest in Instagram waning, and notice a similar apathy setting-in amongst many others, based on a marked decline in the posting frequency of large chunks of the people I follow.

After all, exposure to the umpteenth picture of a sunrise/sunset, a beach, a plate of food, cat, car, motorbike, partner, etc, interest and the novelty factor begins to wane.

Maybe a feature of older age is my preference — and increased usage of — several news-apps; my precious home-screen real estate is minimal in terms of apps, but is dominated by Flipboard, Huffington Post, The Guardian, and Bloomberg. Understandably, many youngsters won’t bother too much with such stuff. I can’t blame them, with much of the news being so depressing. Little wonder they prefer to spend their time sending combustible pictures to one another.

Similarly, combining note-taking/to-do lists with a Calendar app is immensely valued by the folk I know around my age group — not with a social bias, as younger users would desire, but with more emphasis on attending to the mundane tasks of life and scheduling time in a structured way. Reminders are also jolly useful, inevitably: feed the cat, pay the bills, book in with the dentist, etc — no nightclubbing events, usually.

Google’s calendar and the Keep app suffice for me and many I know; I feel there is some way to go yet, though, in this respect. This is an area with much potential.

What I especially appreciate by being mobile is the enablement to be detached from a PC yet still able to achieve many tasks — eg, the ability to Gmail attachments from my Google Drive is a delight. I find using my MacBook Air an almost arcane process, nowadays. The physical keyboard and lifeless screen seem relics to a vision of personal tech from the 1990s. Now, I can send my CV and attachments to anyone in seconds, whilst having a 4am coffee at work — smartphone in one hand, coffee in other, whilst walking between rooms. Social? No, but bloody useful.

Few apps transcend all ages — Spotify being an exception. I love it. From 16–70 years of age, so many folk I know similarly appreciate it, now it is free to use.

Simple apps that give convenience are valued by me and my peers — eg, the Sky app that lets one peruse the TV schedule for the week ahead and remotely set recordings. Being able to do so anywhere, detached from the target device — the TV — is so simple yet useful now that the TV is more a console to chosen programs proactively, rather than passively watching anything. The social aspect is minimal but it warrants citing here as so many people my age love this type of function. This I suspect is a key differentiator in the young/older and their use of mobile devices — much of the time I’m using a device it is not for social purposes, per se. The younger demographic primarily sees their mobile device as a social enabler. Many my age primarily see mobile devices as a news source, for writing, organising schedules, emails, etc.

The more esoteric social apps totally baffle me — eg, Pinterest. It holds no appeal; I don’t know a soul (of any age) who uses it. Tumblr is OK, until Medium — finally/ever?! — enables writing and publishing via mobile devices. Medium appeals to more and more diverse people — and diversity in any social tool is key to maximise its richness and relevance; Tumblr seems like a MySpace teenager’s bedroom wall car-crash. It is apparently growing in size but I am dubious about its general appeal.

The big surprise in this period of social apps evolution/maturing, is how Facebook has improved its relevance. Remarkably, I find myself actually using it quite often and it resides on my home screen. I’d have scoffed at that notion just a few months ago.

Well done, Facebook.

And then we come to my eternal social media/app love, from day one:

Twitter.

Unique, fun, informative, concise, valuable, compelling; why it is not used by everyone puzzles — and saddens — me.

A world with everyone on Twitter would be a better place.