Who’s in what generation, what are their peculiar charactistics, is there a difference and why. After hunting for the same information over and over in different guises, I’m putting it here with other stats.  These are from the Pew Research Centre, with some interesting notes on where the names came from. Currently (in 2010):

Millennials are aged 18 to 29
Gen Xers  30 to 45
Baby Boomers  46 to 64 and
Silents  65 and older

Naming the Generations

Generational names are the handiwork of popular culture. Some are drawn from a historic event; others from rapid social or demographic change, others from a big turn in the calender [1].

The Millennial generation are named after the turn in the calender and refers to those born after 1980 – the first generation to come of age in the new Millennium.

Generation X covers people born from 1956 through 1980. The label long ago overtook the first name affixed to this generation: the Baby Bust. Xers are often depicted as savvy, entrepreneurial loners.

The Baby Boomer label is drawn from the great spike in fertility that began in 1946, right after the end of World War II, and ended almost as abruptly in 1964, around the time the birth control pill went on the market.  It’s a classic example of a demography-driven name.

The Silent generation describes adults born from 1928 through 1945. Children of the Great Depression and world War II, their ‘Silent’ label refers to their conformist and civic instincts.  It also makes for a nice contrast with the noisy ways of the anti-establishment Boomers.

The Greatest generation (those born before 1928) ’saved the world’ when it was young – it’s the generation that fought and won World War II. [1]

There are many other interesting statistics in the report, another one that is useful is the uptake of social networking sites.

Notes:

These statistics relate to the American population and we cannot assume that these accurately reflect trends in other countries.

References

[1] http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/751/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y

Privacy, it seems, really isn’t an issue.  A new survey has come out with some surprising results.  While GenX is concerned about privacy on-line, this recent survey suggests this is not the case for the next generation.

the ‘digital natives’ who are known for enthusiastically embracing social networking – will retain their willingness to share personal information online even as they get older and take on more responsibilities…..

the advantages Millennials see in personal disclosure will outweigh their concerns about their privacy.[1,2]

In this case the term digital native or millennial describes those aged 18-28 years old. Here are some revealing quotes from the survey:

Most of those surveyed noted that the disclosure of personal information online carries many social benefits as people open up to others in order to build friendships, form and find communities, seek help, and build their reputations. They said Millennials have already seen the benefits and will not reduce their use of these social tools over the next decade as they take on more responsibilities while growing older.

The majority argued in answers to the survey that new social norms that reward disclosure are already in place among the young The experts also expressed hope that society will be more forgiving of those whose youthful mistakes are on display in social media such as Facebook picture albums or YouTube videos.

Some said new definitions of “private” and “public” information are taking shape in networked society. They argued that this means that Millennials might change the kinds of personal information they share as they age, but the aging process will not fundamentally change the incentives to share.

At the same time, some experts said an awkward trial-and-error period is unfolding and will continue over the next decade, as people adjust to new realities about how social networks perform and as new boundaries are set about the personal information that is appropriate to share.

Differences between generations are interesting, how about this one – do you sleep with your cell phone next to your bed?[2]

I do.  It’s got my alarm on it.

References and Notes

[1] http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Future-of-Millennials.aspx
[2] http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/751/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change

The ‘pinch of salt stuff’:

First off – this is an American Survey, which means it’s only applicable in America and we can only guess if this would be the case in other countries.

And as PEW say, the survey results are based on a non-random online sample of 895 internet experts and other internet users, recruited via email invitation, Twitter or Facebook from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University. Since the data are based on a non-random sample, a margin of error cannot be computed, and the results are not projectable to any population other than the experts in this sample.

Mobile usage in Australia 2010

According to Nielsen, there is a big rise in smartphone ownership and relaxed download caps on mobile phone plans has seen an increase in mobile social networking:

• 43% of online Australians now own a smartphone
• over one quarter of social networkers (26%) participated in mobile social networking in the past year
• 66 % of mobile social networkers are under 35 years of age.

Networking sites accessed by mobile

Facebook is the most popular with 92% of mobile social networkers having visited Facebook, followed by YouTube and Twitter (18%) and MySpace (9%).

Twitter sees the most frequent mobile usage, with half of its mobile users visiting the site daily. In comparison, Facebook saw 36% of its mobile users visit the site daily, while 22% of MySpace users and 16% of YouTube users were making daily visits.

Mobile Usage in America

By way of comparison, Pew Research Centre published statistics on American’s use of the mobile. They don’t have stats on social networking sites but do show a significant increase in internet usage. Compared with a similar point in 2009, mobiles are being used to:

• Take pictures—76% now do this, up from 66% in April 2009
• Send or receive text messages—72% vs. 65%
• Access the internet—38% vs. 25%
• Play games—34% vs. 27%
• Send or receive email—34% vs. 25%
• Record a video—34% vs. 19%
• Play music—33% vs. 21%
• Send or receive instant messages—30% vs. 20%

Source Pew Research Centre – Mobile access 2010

References

Nielsen http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/australia-getting-more-social-online-as-facebook-leads-and-twitter-grows

Pew Research Centre http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010.aspx

Australian LinkedIn Statistics

2010

LinkedIn is the largest networking site for professionals in Australia and New Zealand [1]. LinkedIn Australia’s managing director is Clifford Rosenberg, a former Yahoo! Australia-New Zealand managing director, who joined in November, located in Sydney.

• Worldwide LinkedIn has over 70 million members in over 200 countries [2]
• There are 970,000 professionals on LinkedIn as of January 2010 [3]
• Australian LinkedIn growth was in double digits over 2009 [1]
• Australia is one of LinkedIn’s top performing countries, particularly when viewed as a factor of professionals per capita [3]

More Web Metrics

References

[1] http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/12/03/linkedin-australia
[2] http://press.linkedin.com/about
[3] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/linkedin-pushes-local-growth-social-networking/story-e6frgakx-1225835816746

Australian YouTube Statistics

2010

Did you know that YouTube has an official Australian blog?
• YouTube was launched officially in Australia on October 22, 2007 [1]
• YouTube is ranked the second highest social networking site in Australia [2]




• Facebook is the most popular social networking site accessed via a mobile (92%), followed by YouTube and Twitter (18%) and MySpace (9%) [2]

It is remarkably difficult to find statistics on Australian YouTube usage, not even the official YouTube blog lists any details.  Globally:

• A day’s worth of content updated every minute globally.[3]
• 70% of YouTube’s traffic comes from outside the US [4]
• Over 50% of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues [3]

More Web Metrics

References

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
[2] http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/australia-getting-more-social-online-as-facebook-leads-and-twitter-grows
[3] http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet
[4] http://www.viralblog.com/research/youtube-statistics

Australian online health searches and demographics

Information on Australian’s online health information is scant to say the least.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics [1] tells us that

• Australia has a population of over 22 million
• Australia’s life expectancy at birth remains among the highest in the world—almost 84 years for women and 79 years for men  [2]

but what about their use of the internet and social media in relation to health? There is precious little in the way of information to be found.

There is some data on hospitals using social media in Australia

but that doesn’t tell us anything about the use of social medicine by the general population as a whole.

To give us some idea of online health habits, Pew Internet provided some excellent statistics related to search in America:

• About a third (31%) of online teens ages 12 to 17 use the internet to look for health, dieting or physical fitness information
• Older teens are more likely than younger teens to look online for health information (38% of teens ages 14-17 vs. 13% of teens ages 12-13).
• Teens also use the internet to look for information on health topics that are hard to talk about, like drug use, sexual health or depression.
• One in six (17%) internet-using teens look online for information about sensitive health topics.

  

• Girls are more likely than boys to look online for sensitive health information (23% vs. 11%).
• Younger boys are the least likely group to look for information on a health topic that is hard to talk about—just 4% of online boys ages 12-13 have done so, compared with 13% of older boys ages 14-17.
• Teens from the lowest- income families – those earning less than US$30,000 annually – are the most likely to seek health information online. Just about a quarter (23%) of online low-income teens look for health information compared with 11% of teens from households earning more than $75,000 a year.
• In 2009, there are no racial or ethnic or education level differences in those who look for sensitive health information online compared with those who did not.

If you do have information on Australia’s use of the internet in relation to health I’d be delighted to hear about it and add it to the list of web metrics.

References

• [1] http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults/Part-4/1-Online-health-information.aspx?r=1
• [2] http://www.abs.gov.au/