Social Media, Privacy and Demographic Trends

"Social Media is here to stay, but who dares to question it?".

The question of whether social media is a fad may no longer need to be considered in so much depth. The truth is our younger generation now have the digital world so embedded in their life and culture that it is the very way they communicate. It is not just the young either, a rising population is growing in the over 30's and even greater in the over 50's. But the real question shouldn't be "Is social media here to stay?" but rather "Who allows us to use their information to penetrate a true one to one communication and do they invite it?"

My query here is in reference to the importance placed on privacy. For example, in behavioral targeting certain brands may yield fantastic results with a tailored message bespoke to a customer with suggestions based on their particular journey. But in certain product categories this may well be disastrous and seen as an invasion of privacy; for example, a surfer interested in sexual health is unlikely to want to be reminded where he or she has shopped with a personal message in their inbox or a pop up in their email. Furthermore, aside from product categories, perhaps there is a greater resistance generally in certain genders, age categories or socioeconomic groups. To take privacy one step further we can view the effect of the general mood in society in regards to on-line activity already.

One of the greatest trends of 2011 on Twitter was #Egypt showing the political following of this channel.However, we cannot ignore the massive popularity and influence of celebrities that has also created a major contribution and 'buzz' to social media as for example in the case of Beyonce and her baby news. This may well teach us something of the types of motivation and age groups we may have online but it is also a reminder that the web caters for everyone.

One third of all people open a Facebook account only to not use it again, this suggests some resistance. But the real concerns are more around the lack of trust in politics, the media and anti corporate sentiment in general. For example, the amalgamation of WikiLeaks, the hacking of Amazon and Hotmail along with the intrusion of Murdoch and the newspapers, has created an anti-corporate sentiment and a lack of trust in data sharing. Furthermore, with the power of the voice that has arisen out of the negative version of crowd sourcing seen recently in the 2011 riots, social media is now used to control society and to rebel. This shows how society is starting to be trusting only themselves and listening to their peers over any company, government or corporation, thus revealing how far we are away from anyone fully accepting full control of us or our data.

The truth is it is already happening, our lives are documented on Facebook in a timeline, our shopping is becoming more tracked and our behavior is more visible with a blending of our private and public lives. But the facts remain, social media is a trend, it's addictive for many and it is now our local "meeting house", it's convenient, interactive and fast which is also what are lives require, but perhaps we are missing a fundamental piece of research into how much we can take? Looking into demographic trends into privacy is a key topic that needs to be researched and developed if we are to truly understand the power and longevity of social media platforms for the future and especially for specific groups.

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