The High School Girling of Social Media? Nah.
March 25th, 2008 | by Brad King |Rachel Happe posted a blog about high school girls’ use of social media. Her theory: these girls have a more sophisticated understanding of how social media works than adults.
In theory, I don’t disagree. Howard Rheingold wrote about this phenomenon a few years back in Smart Mobs, a book that chronicles the rise of mobile, social networks (and part of my suggested reading list for understanding how this will all play out). Clearly, the younger generations find new ways to use current technologies. It’s the law of accidental happenstance and unintended consequences.
However, her point that these girls are somehow helping us understand how modern networks are being used is undercut just a few sentences later when she points out highly successful businesses that are using social media (and have since before these high school girls began using social media).
In other words, it’s more likely that the high school girls (and I would be loathe to say it’s simply girls) are mimicking the social media trends that have developed in the last few years. Which doesn’t mean that studying how they use social media is worthless. Clearly it’s insightful.
What I don’t know is what we can learn from them. Maybe trending for how technology should — or could — develop in the future. Certainly not for any type of commerce, I wouldn’t think. The ways in which different generations is so wildly different, the information wouldn’t necessarily be transferable.
