Semblance of Life: How different generations use social media

In this Marketing Report:

• Social media generational differences: More baby boomers, longer millennial hours
• User Intent: child’s play & chatty elders
• User Intent in the Pandemic Era
• Post, like, comment, share… repeat: the bright future of digital.
• Generational platform preferences
• Your Screen Time Weekly Report is Available
• Conclusion
• Methodology

The past year has pushed the digital boom even further, not only in the consumption of goods but also in people’s interactions. Our relationship with social tools like social media and other digital platforms has shifted, as well as the different reasons why we use them.

But how exactly have they changed?

Sortlist decided to conduct a survey with almost 1000 respondents across France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands to discover how different generations use social media, and social tools, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. With just over half the surveyed under the age of 35, and the rest over the age of 60, we were able to conclude these main generational differences: 

• 40% of people prefer video content over other digital formats

• 32% of social media users under 35 want to decrease their use of social media

• Science was the highest topic of interest with 29% of posts on social platforms

Social media generational differences: More baby boomers, longer millennial hours

Baby boomer media consumption: 26% are new to social media platforms

26% of over 60-year-olds currently on social tools joined in this past year alone. To make up some form for their isolation, the vast majority of this age group turned to digital social channels to keep in touch with their loved ones.  

However, these numbers should not come as a surprise. Between April 2019 and April 2020, there was an increase of 300 million new social media users. In the same time period the next year, stats revealed an increase of 520 million users…

User Intent: child’s play & chatty elders

Under 35s look for entertainment and visual content

When we asked the younger generations why they use social media, the most common answer in France (33%), Germany (38%), and the Netherlands (30%) was to be entertained. However, in Spain, this was the lowest response (14%).

Spaniards’ main user intent was to keep in touch with friends and family (37%). This explains the incredibly high number of 95% of Spanish people under 35 using WhatsApp…

Video content is everyone’s favourite medium

In terms of entertainment, audiovisual content is by far the leading form of absorbing content for the under 35s with up to 62% of surveyors in the Netherlands regarding this form as their preferred digital content format. 

Surprisingly, although the consumption of audio content is booming with an increase of 76.2% during the pandemic, only 4% regard it as their primary choice of format. 

Baby boomers’ social media usage: Over 60s want to keep in touch and prefer written content 

For the baby boomers and over, all countries responded that they used social media mostly to keep in contact and for their social life, with as high as 41% of them in Spain. Seems like the young and old generations on the Iberian peninsula like to chat it up…

Additionally, just like their younger generations, older Spaniards showed a preference towards video format (36%) compared to others. 

In France (42%), Germany (46%), and the Netherlands (39%), although in digital format, the older age groups showed a preference for written content.

User Intent in the Pandemic Era

Gen Z social media usage: Younger generations value social tools more than older generations

The pandemic has changed our user intent, we asked our surveyors how important social tools were to them to stay in touch with loved ones. 

For the younger generations, 18% of them said that these social tools meant everything to them or that it was important to keep in touch with family. Ironically, for the baby boomers and up, who revealed they mostly use social media or digital tools to keep in contact, only 10% of them thought these social tools mean everything to them or that it was important to keep in touch with loved ones. 

Post, like, comment, share… repeat: the bright future of digital.

Up to 80% of under 35s can’t imagine leaving social media

Not only did we increase our use or become new users, but the majority of younger generations also didn’t even think to give up social media during the pandemic.

72% responded that they had never thought about letting go of their social media usage in 2020 with results ranging as high as 80% in France and Spain. Surprisingly, in the Netherlands, only 61% of survey respondents gave a firm no. They also had the highest number of people ready to give it up (34%). 

With this many millennials not wanting to give up social media, we also found that only 3% have thought about decreasing their use.

67% engagement increase: Spaniards the most and Germans the least 

It wasn’t for no reason that companies put more focus on their digital marketing efforts this past year. Compared to 2019, we saw an increase of 41% of demands for social media experts on Sortlist. 67% of Generation Zers and millennials admitted to engaging more with social media content since last year. This included comments, likes, participating in giveaways..etc. 

With young Spaniards leading the engagement train with 79% of participants revealing that they started interacting more this past year, young Germans were the most reserved with only 58% of them increasing their engagement. Could this be because Spain may have spent more time in lockdown than Germany?  

Lockdown: Keep calm and keep posting

With an increase in engagement comes an increase in posting.  45% of our younger generations revealed they posted more content on social media this past year. 

The Spaniards continue to lead the way with 55% of surveyors agreeing that they posted more, however, the Netherlands actually had their majority of surveyors say they were posting the same amount (34%).

From selfies to scientific facts

In a collaboration with Meltwater, we found that the highest topic of interest online with 29% in Q1 of 2021 has been science.

With that, the most likely topic to be shared on social media by Generation Zers and millennials is scientific content with almost 44%. It’s obvious that this pandemic has shifted our concerns and gazes. But how long will our scientific interest last? And will 2021 stats mirror those of 2020 or pick up where we left off in 2019?

Generational platform preferences

Facebook? Yeah, my grandma’s on that…

Recent studies have said Facebook’s popularity continues to reign and continues as the world’s most widely used social media platform in the world with 2.797 billion monthly active users…

This may be true, but from what we found in our stats, those almost 3 billion monthly users are probably baby boomers and over…

Facebook the #1 platform for over 65s, 5th for under 35s

From our under 35s group, Facebook was the 5th most used platform with 64% of surveyors revealing they were currently using it. The top three platforms in comparison were YouTube (89%), WhatsApp (83%), and Instagram (82%).

Unlike millennials, our over 60s backs up the recent research. More than three-fourths (77%) of respondents revealed they were active on Facebook making it their number one used social media platform in their age groups. WhatsApp came in second with 71%, and YouTube in third with 67%. 

YouTubeflix

According to the latest Google study on YouTube’s behaviour: “YouTube reaches more adults 18+ during prime time than any cable network does.”

It is no longer an ‘on-the-go video streaming platform. 3/4 of adults reveal that they watch YouTube videos at home on their mobile devices and from both our survey groups, YouTube was more widely used than Netflix…

Your Screen Time Weekly Report is Available

On average, each internet user is registered on 8 different social networks and 43% of them use them in a professional context. In 2021, it’s estimated the average internet user spends 145 minutes a day on social media, up from 142 minutes the previous year.

French & German youths are always-on but not their elders

28% of millennials and Generation Z admitted that they spend between 2-3 hours on social tools every day.

Although this was the most common answer in Spain (36%) and the Netherlands (26%), the French and the Germans had more answers for ‘more than 4 hours a day’ with 30% and 34% respectively. 

36% of over sixties spend between 1 and 2 hours on social media

For the older generations, we can observe almost a mirror image of how different generations use social media in regards to ‘time’. The most common answer, with 36% of votes, was between 1-2 hours spent on different social media platforms.

This was the most selected answer in Spain (46%) and the Netherlands (47%) but in France and Germany, the majority of their baby boomers answered that they spent less than an hour a day online with 51% and 38% respectively. The latter could be explained by the amount of value these countries think social media bring to their daily lives. 

The over 60s in France and Germany had 40% or more of people answering that social media does not add any value to their daily lives…that’s at least 25% more than the Netherlands and Spain.

Just 5 more minutes

The more a person uses entertainment as their primary reason for using social, the more likely they are to spend more time on it.

For the younger generations, France and Germany spent the most time on social tools on a daily basis and are also the ones who revealed they mostly use them for entertainment purposes. 

From the older generations, we can conclude that the more a person dedicates their social tools to use as a conversation channel, the less time they will spend on social media. 

32% of under 35s want to use less social media

We previously saw that Generation Zers and millennials did not want to give up social media in the past year, but what about changing their social media habits…?

We decided to ask them whether or not they would like to decrease their social media use. With almost no surprise, France (35%) and Germany (32%) had the most respondents saying yes. Combined all together with Spain and the Netherlands, this was the most common answer as well.

Conclusion

It’s undeniable that digital tools and social media have become part of our daily lives. Despite the criticism they receive, they took on a protagonist role in 2020, where their true relevance came to light: calling, seeing each other, and staying close, beyond liking, sharing, and swiping away.  If Millenials grew up with it and uses it for everything, Baby Boomers only log in from time to time to keep in touch with their loved ones. This shows that social media marketing and social media strategy can have a lasting impact on more than one age group.

But viral dance videos seem to bring everyone together. TikTok has brought children and grandparents together in some very creative ways. As Granddad Joe would say to the Washington Post about his 4.2M followers: “I don’t do it for the fame. I do it for the tremendous fun with my granddaughter.” and that’s truly all it is, being together.

Methodology

After conducting an internal survey within Sortlist of whether any of 150 employees knew someone over the age of 60 had joined a social media platform and which ones this past year, we surveyed 500 people under the age of 35 (125 in Spain, Germany, and 63 in France, French-speaking Belgium, the Netherlands, and Flemish-speaking Belgium) and 490 over the age of 60 (125 in Spain, Germany, 63 in France, French-speaking Belgium, and 53 in the Netherlands, and Flemish-speaking Belgium).

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