Comment by sudojudo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sudojudo | Hacker News Reader

The thing that bothers me about generational stereotypes in this context is that they assume everyone is an exhibitionist and an extrovert. Not everyone is interested in social networking.

Never in my life have I put anything truly personal online; not when I was in school, not when I was single, not even when I was drunk. With a couple of exceptions, most of my friends are the same, regardless of their age.

These types of social networking services attract a certain type of person, just as much as they attract certain age groups. Yes, there are more younger people on them, but there are more young people online in general. Lots of us stick to our little corners of the net, or wherever, and couldn't care less about the "look at me" circus.

Author here!

You're absolutely correct—and raise a good point. I think the important thing to consider is to take the same groups of people into account (e.g. if you look at exhibitionist/extroverted people in the younger, look at them in the older). It becomes tricky, because some behavioural tendencies can become exaggerated with age. Nevertheless, I do have introverted friends, but they still do participate in the charade, just in a more passive role. They still instagram, they still snapchat, they just don't generate much content.

This is still a marked difference from older generations who, as statistics show, avoid that entirely.

it is worth noting that this is looking at trends only—obviously not all young people are on [instagram, snapchat, peach, etc], and obviously all of their behaviour is the same.

One thing to note is the networking effect of these apps. I have a wide breadth of friends who share varying amounts about themselves and others—but the less their network is involved, the less they are involved. In your case, if a circle of friends is inactive on social media, there is probably something to be said about the effect of a weak network. Though, that's not to say that a strong network will compulse people to post selfies, either!

Thanks for the comment!

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