Mele’s Musings

OMG! UM Finds Web 2.0 Breeding Consumers 2.0, Social Media Attains Critical Mass

As if we needed confirmation – I dare you to find one of your colleagues who does not use some form of Web 2.0 technology.

Image: sachendrafiles.wordpress.com

Article excerpt:   Text messaging, blogging and social networking have reached critical mass, with more than half of adults now relying on at least one of these so-called Web 2.0 platforms for communicating with friends, family, or colleagues on a regular basis, finds the latest installment of an ongoing tracking study from Interpublic’s Universal McCann unit. The research, which comes from UM’s ambitious “Media in Mind” study, one of the first to show that things like blogging were becoming a meaningful personal communications platform several years ago, now finds that among digital media’s bleeding edge - adults 18-34 - social media now is the dominant form of personal communication media, with 85% of this influential demographic group relying on one or more Web 2.0 platforms to stay in touch with others.  “Although age is the driving force behind usage patterns of these technologies, it is clear that a fundamental shift has taken place in all of our lives about what it means to communicate in the 21st Century,” the agency says in a new white paper based on the research. And it’s not just newer forms of Web-based communications that people are relying more on. Even “old school” methods such as email and instant messaging are continuing to displace other forms of analog communication. The percentage of U.S. adults who said they now rely on instant messaging, for example, rose to 22% this year from just 9% in 2007. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, IM dependant crowd grew to 21% from 14% a year ago.
The rest: publications.mediapost.com

Musing:  Some really good stats in the article, but nothing terribly startling – just confirmation that we are all using more and more social media all the time.  18-34 year olds certainly use social media more than us “older folk,” but that will change rapidly as these new forms of communication become the norm.  One interesting connection the article makes that is worth noting is that the social network phenomenon and the RSS fees are increasing the reading and writing of blogs.  Who knew?