This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCF chapter.
If you want to see the difference between the mindset of the millennial generation and the mindset of the baby boomer generation, just take a look at how they use Facebook.
I haven’t conducted any scientific research, but I can definitely see a pattern with the way my friends and I use Facebook. Our Facebook pages are odes to us. We promote ourselves in every way possible. We post pictures to show people we were at events and tag our locations when we go on trips or fancy restaurants. We only update our status to give people information about ourselves. We share articles that we like and carefully curate the content that we put out in the hopes that people think that we are cool and worthy of their time.
Our grandparents aren’t like that on Facebook. For them, Facebook is a tool to connect with others. My nana never uploads anything. Instead of focusing on herself, my nana goes on Facebook to leave kind and loving comments. She likes every single photo of her grandchildren without fail and will write things on people’s walls like “Just thinking about you!” or “Heard you were sick. I hope that you have a speedy and healthy recovery!”
And my nana only shares positive things, like an inspiring story about a dog saving its owner or a video simply titled “cute kittens!” She always tags other people in these videos if she thinks they’ll enjoy it.
Everything my nana does on Facebook is a response to her thinking about other people. Everything that I post on Facebook is because I’m thinking about myself. I want people to read the new article I wrote, or be envious of my experiences. I never think about using Facebook as a tool to reach out to other people.
Maybe its time we start to use Facebook as a way to reach out and connect with others. Maybe its time we all started using Facebook like our grandparents.
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