Study: Gen Xers Are More Addicted To Social Media Than Millennials

Have you bought into the Millennial stereotype – lazy, entitled, precious little things that spend all day photographing their lunches for social media and complaining about house prices while on holiday in Chile?

Well, according to a new Nielsen report, when it comes to social media, the Ys’ older sibling, the Xs (those aged 35-50) appear to have a far greater addiction to social media. You can download a copy of the report here.

The 29-page report was based on data from 9,000 smartphone users and 1,300 tablet users across the country from July through September.

Admittedly, the study group were Americans but it found the Xs spent an average of 6 hours 58 minutes a week on social media networks, compared with the Ys 6 hours 19 minutes.

It also found how ubiquitous the smartphone has become. In the US, 97 per cent of people 18 to 34, and 94 per cent of people 35 to 49, had access to smartphones. Seventy-seven per cent of those 50 and older used smartphones.

According to Neilsen, Facebook was the most popular social media on smartphones with about 178.2 million unique users in September. Instagram was next with 91.5 million unique users, followed by Twitter, with 82.2 million unique users; and Pinterest, with 69.6 million users. Snapchat was sixth and LinkedIn seventh.

The report also looked at second-screen activity on social media, measuring how many times Facebook and Twitter users employed those sites to post about TV shows they were watching or to interact with others’ posts.

Again, it was the Xers that was the most addicted. On an average day, 42 per cent of those interacting with television on Facebook were from 35 to 49, while it was only 40 percent for the Millennials.

The report’s author, Nielsen’s social division president, Sean Casey, said the findings came as a surprise because “the going thought is that social is vastly owned by the younger generation.”

Casey said: “It’s kind of synonymous, when you think of Millennials, you think of social.” However, Casey, an Xer himself, added: “At a time when we wanted to be connected, it came out right when we were at the top of our media consumption. It’s become second nature to our generation.”

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