Kids Say The Most Digital Things: Social Media
Hashtag Jameson is 2 years old. Her Facebook Fan Page is the same age.
In other news: The world is still rotating. Hell is as hot as ever. And pigs remain grounded.
Our point? Social media impacts nearly everyone whether you like it or not.
The minimum age to join LinkedIn — one of the first social networks — is 14. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (among many others) require subscribers to be at least 13 and have their parents' permission.
It doesn’t begin there, however. Children are exposed to social networks as soon as they can hold a smartphone or tablet. YouTube, Webkinz and Club Penguin have entertained toddlers for years.
These facts made Vimarc very curious, so we went straight to the source.
Our agency created a 10-question social media survey and handed it to local third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students — 30 total. We targeted this age group (8-11) because they are old enough to know what traditional social networks are, but are too young to use them.
We admit this test lacks scientific research, but the answers are interesting nonetheless. For example, the first page asked to identify the logos of the following social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram and YouTube. Every child correctly identified Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, while only two kids could pinpoint the LinkedIn logo. Google+ and Instagram varied from survey to survey.
Other trends we noticed were …
Digital lingo is alive and well. Phrases like “selfie” and “IDK” littered almost every survey.
Twitter can be spelled various ways: “tweeter,” “teater” and “tiwwter”.
Trolling is “a bad thing!”
Instagram filters make unflattering photos much better.
“Old people” use Facebook.
Here are some of our favorite unedited answers …
Parents: How do your children use social media and how do you track their activities? Let us know via email or social media!
