Our consumption of goods and services, our interactions with others, our relationships with social networks and digital devices have changed over the past year with the pandemic. It has drastically changed our use of digital, especially among Millennials and Boomers. This new study tells us a little more…
Huge change in digital usage
The use of digital has changed drastically since last year. Boomers (generation over 60), Millennials and Generation Z now consume and use content in a variety of ways, with both digital tools and social networks.
The study, titled “Social Networks: How the Pandemic Affects Our Uses? | The 2021 Two-Generation Study” clearly demonstrated this and provided a better understanding of the differences between the two generations.
The real common point that has emerged is the social life that social networks have brought to them. All generations combined have effectively confirmed that they are able to maintain relationships and interactions with others thanks to digital technology, despite the barrier gestures and confinement associated with the pandemic.
Social network use also increased by 78% among the youngest, Millennials and Generation Z.
study details
The study was conducted on 1000 people, 500 people under the age of 35 as well as 500 people over the age of 60, distributed among France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.
Several important points were noted:
- Duration: 1 to 2 hours less each day on social networks for Boomers than for Millennials; 25% of Boomers surveyed have been involved in at least one social network since 2020;
- Preferred Platform: Facebook is No. 1 among the oldest, YouTube among the youngest. 40% of respondents also prefer video content over other content formats;
- Subject of interest: Science. 29% of posts shared by respondents are related to him;
- Even though 32% of people under 35 want to reduce their use of social networks, 72% of Millennials and Generation Z haven’t thought about leaving social networks during the pandemic.
These two types of users are two generations focused exclusively on video. They want organic content while scrolling online. Brands can no longer create an ad designed for TV and upload it to all platforms.
These generations use social media for entertainment, community building and product knowledge. Gen Z is constantly on the lookout for brands that provide entertainment and personal connections and that align with their social responsibilities. The main platform of Gen Z is Instagram, followed by YouTube and TikTok. In contrast, the main platforms for Millennials are Facebook, YouTube, and Facebook Messenger.
The data published by Oberlo also confirms this study, as the use of social networks is increasing in the lives of Internet users. The latest figures show that there are 3.78 billion social media users worldwide in 2021, a 5% increase from the year before.
This is also 920 million more than the number of social users in 2017, which is a huge jump of 32.2% in just five years. The average annual growth rate during this period is 7.2%.
Such figures clearly show a growing trend and consumer dependence on social media, indicating opportunities in social media marketing for businesses around the world.