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27 May
Mothers Driving Social Network Growth?
A new online force emerges.
by
SoftwareGuru
27th May 2009
Just when you thought it was safe to go
back onto the internet...mothers are taking over!
Whether it's due to rising unemployment in the U.K. and U.S.,
the fact that more mothers are working from home, the impact of
tech-savvy
Generation Y, or even the
Oprah
effect - the advent of the 'digital mother' is upon us.
Forget mundane stories of
employees getting sacked because their boss saw their
Facebook updates.
Your mother is probably reading all of your Facebook profile right now
because you forgot to look at your own privacy
settings. Yikes!
While it may not be deemed essential by mothers to know how to
work the latest gadget, the desire to know what one's offspring
is up to is too great to let technology get in the way.
Women are generally better at expressing themselves and
communicating than men, and their natural curiosity about the
activities of their children makes social networking the perfect
tool for mothers - especially busy mothers!
Many have relinquished the daily corporate grind and
work from home in order to spend more quality time with their
children.
It comes as no surprise then that
Female Entrepreneurs Contribute £130 billion to the UK Economy.
It is equally unsurprising that the majority of feedback via
the
Software4Students Facebook profile tends to be mothers
(thanks for getting in touch!).
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Talking About My Generation
Even from behind a computer screen, there is sometimes an awkwardness
about men communicating to friends or even customers online.
The gender issue can best be illustrated by the simple scenario
of two strangers sitting beside each other on a plane.
Two women will probably know each other's life stories by the
time the plane lands, while two men are unlikely to even know
each others names.
A man may have invented the internet but it is women who are
currently shaping its next evolutionary step.
Fuelled by broadband, real-time communication and information
based on right now over authority is what is
currently driving the web forward.
Trending topics such as #mothersday have always
played a part in Google's search engine results but the core use
of them in Twitter has had a dramatic effect on how people find
information.
Suddenly, Google has become a library of what was then
based on authority while Twitter is fast becoming an information
river of what's happening right now.
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Parents and Grandparents
Just as mobile phones allow mothers to keep in touch directly
with their children, Facebook allows them to gain insight into
areas of their life that may not have otherwise come up in conversations.
According to
Wired.com, more parents and grandparents are on Facebook now
than ever before. Take a look at these figures:
- Largest single group on Facebook is aged 35 to 44
- Women over 55 remain the fastest growing group
- 13 to 17 year olds are more likely to use Twitter
For students it may be that once your parents are on your
favourite social networking site, it just isn't cool any more.
Since the "free"
web is driven by online advertising, expect advertisers to do to
social networking what they've done to radio - segment it so as
to keep the demographics separate because it's easier to target
ads that way.
So the days of everyone using the same social networking site
are definitely numbered.
Already the likes of Ning.com are creating niche groups catering
to dedicated fans of a team, activity or place.
If recent trends are anything to go by, the web is going to look
a lot different in a year or two. However, don't expect the
behaviour of mothers to change anytime soon!
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Posted by
admin
at
16:39
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Social networking has given
rise to the 'digital mother'. Read more about parent and technology
issues at Software4Students.