If you’re chronically online like me, you probably saw a graphic doing the rounds in the past couple of weeks that really stopped you in your tracks.
The research piece – pulled together by the Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch – suggested that time spent on social media has been falling year-on-year, ever since its peak in 2022.
Young people (aged 16-24) led the way in reducing social media time, cutting their time online before any other age group.
Meanwhile, the only group that was still stubbornly increasing its social media use? 55 to 64 years old.
So what does all this tell us? The learning many have taken is that for young people today, social media use is much different from what it was even a decade ago, less about communicating with their peers and more about entertainment.
Drawing distinct generational lines is always difficult, but if you’ll forgive broad brushstrokes, Gen Alpha has a preference for short-form creativity ‘think TikTok trends and Youtube Shorts) while Boomers are much more likely to focus on community (something that explains the popularity of local Facebook groups and nostalgia pages).
Furthermore, platform habits have become increasingly fragmented. The days when everyone gathered on the same Twitter (now X) “watercooler” to discuss events like Eurovision are long gone. Those shared conversations have now shifted across different platforms; for example, TikTok is now full of discussions around major cultural moments.
For anyone working in marketing, journalism, or communications, this means success is rarely found by trying to speak to everyone at once. Instead, the best wins are found by identifying what makes you different and allowing that to stand out, which holds true whether you’re a media brand, a charity, a politician, or a creator.
In practice, that means a few simple steps: identifying your audience, knowing what they truly care about, and where they spend their time. It also means communicating in languages and formats that resonate with them.
Brands are likely to miss the mark if they put out identical content for these audiences and consider all platforms the same.
This is why PA Media Academy worked with Hydrogen, our sister company and an amazing social media marketing agency, to offer the Social Media Masterclass: Boomers to Gen Alpha.
The course helps to demystify the differences between demographics’ online habits and offers practical steps on how to identify the right platform, the right message, and the right audience to achieve maximum impact.
