Both teenagers and adults describe each other's social media use as inappropriate

Two recent studies carried out by a team of researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and Sapienza and LUMSA, two universities in Rome, Italy, have analysed the way young people perceive the adult (and elderly) population's use of social media and vice versa. Among their principal findings, the studies identified  WhatsApp as the digital platform where the two groups interact and as the source of most conflict in terms of communication, as well as the fact that both groups feel that the other's use of social media prevents them from living in the moment, albeit for different reasons. 

These studies, published in the Aging & Society (Cambridge University Press) and News Media & Society (SAGE Journals) journals, have revealed that both young and elderly people believe the other group is guilty of inappropriate social media usage practices with regard to content and skills. "Each group views their way of using these technologies as the most appropriate," explained one of the studies' authors, Andrea Rosales, a researcher with the  Communication Networks & Social Change (CNSC) group, which is affiliated to the UOC's Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3).

The researchers, who ran a total of eight focus groups in Rome and Barcelona – 4 of which consisted of teenagers aged from 16 to 19 and 4 made up of adults aged between 65 and 85 – identified a propensity for ageist discrimination, not only among young people against adults and the elderly but also vice versa.  

Both groups claimed that "the other" misused their smartphone to the detriment of what they saw as "real life". Older people expressed annoyance about young people using their mobile phones too much in public places  (bars, public transport, etc.),  as well as in private (at home). They believe this prevents them from developing social skills, from socializing and that they only know how to interact through social media. According to the expert, however, "Grandparents usually only see their grandchildren when they are at home, but they do have opportunities to socialize every day at school, with their families and often through personal and after-school activities. Their social interaction with these groups continues when they connect through their mobile phones, but in a virtual environment." Teenagers, on the other hand, complain about their parents' obsession with taking photos and sharing them on social media. Rosales stressed that, "They are not just frustrated about the fact that they don't have the right to post photos of them, but also that they're missing a shared experience." 

WhatsApp is the platform where most intergenerational communication currently takes place and, as such, through which most tensions arise. Everyone has a different concept of the rules of behaviour that should be followed on this platform. Teenagers complain about parents because of their tendency to overuse emojis: frequently including them within their communications and sometimes using many at once or repeating the same symbol. In contrast, teenagers who participated in the study use them little or not at all. Rosales believes that for young people sometimes this is a way of setting themselves apart from their parents, as well as from their own preadolescence, as the inclusion of a lot of emoticons is also common practice among children between the ages of 12 and 14 when they get a mobile phone for the first time. 

Another source of irritation cited by youngsters concerns the meanings attributed to emoticons to which young people assign specific meanings that do not necessarily correspond to those of adults and old people. Teenagers conform to the meanings established by their creators and listed in emoticon dictionaries. In contrast, adults and the elderly sometimes (re)interpret their meaning. "Young people commonly prefer to stick to univocal meanings for emoticons. They only accept an alternative meaning if it has been validated by their social group and reject other possible interpretations, particularly when they come from parents or people from other generations," the researcher explained, adding that, "The idea that emojis have certain univocal meanings has become fashionable, which goes against the nature of images in a diverse and multicultural society."

Both groups are also critical of the other with regard to the type of content they share on digital platforms. Young people view chain messages and videos distributed by adults, Christmas greetings and good morning or good night messages, among others, as unnecessary, as they are not useful for everyday life. Conversely, older people find it perturbing that young people share so much photos and personal experiences on social media. 

What do they use social media for?

The study revealed that digital platforms are used for different purposes according to the life stage of each user. Thus, the majority of the teenagers interviewed said they no longer used Facebook, barely mentioned Twitter and indicated that they used Instagram both for sharing photos and exchanging private messages, in addition to being regular WhatsApp users.

"The mixture of content and functionalities makes them opt for other social media networks in preference to Facebook. It's a socio-technological phenomenon,"  Rosales stressed. 

The older group expressed a preference for the privacy provided by WhatsApp, which they also liked because it is easy to use and promotes social interaction via the groups. The majority said that they were fairly regular users of Facebook and some had Twitter accounts, which they used for keeping up to date with the latest news. In general, they were not interested in Instagram.

The study's findings form part of the Ageism and social media through the lens of the media ideologies: an exploratory research project.

This research supports the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): 3, Health and well-being and 10, Reduce inequality.

Reference articles

Fernández-Ardèvol, M., Belotti, F., Ieracitano, F., Mulargia, S., Rosales, A., y Comunello, F., 2020. "'I do it my way': Idioms of practice and digital media ideologies of adolescents and older adults". News Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444820959298.

Comunello, F., Rosales, A., Mulargia, S., Ieracitano, F., Belotti, F., y Fernández-Ardèvol, M., 2020. "'Youngsplaining' and moralistic judgements: exploring ageism through the lens of digital 'media ideologies'". Ageing & Society. doi: 10.1017/S0144686X20001312.

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