+ THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014 PAGE 9 + Study: Facebook usage increases as age increases MAC LEANDER entertain@kansan.com Digital consultancy iStrategy Labs recently released a study revealing shocking numbers. More than 11 million high school and college students have abandoned Facebook over the last three years.The twist is that in the same time frame, the amount of Facebook users age 55 years and older has increased by about 80 percent. There is no telling exactly why students are dropping off Facebook, but it's seems like the presence of parents and grandparents on the site is turning them off. Peter Bobkowski, a journalism professor who has done research on social media users, recognizes students' negative feelings toward parents online. "We have heard for years that Facebook is not as cool because parents and grandparents are now on it," Bobkowski said. "It is not as exclusive for younger people, whereas, Snapchat still is." Bobskowski said he thinks that the KU students who do keep their Facebook do so to stay connected with family members and people they went to high school with, not so much to maintain relationships with peers. Students are not only steering away from Facebook because of the constant exposure to parents, but also to future employers. George Brophy, a junior from Leawood, listed his parents "friending him" as a major reason why he deleted his account, but he was even more concerned with how Facebook plays a role in applying for jobs and internships. Brophy was warned early on. An alumnus of his fraternity on campus owns a major company that specifically "I've been told about these companies that do intense social background checks," Brophy said. "Its sole responsibility is to look through all of your social media accounts, even if they're private." If it's not parents or future employers getting students off Facebook, it may be that the site is just too busy and too cluttered with social information that people are not interested in. Hyujin Seo, a journalism professor teaching "Social Media in Strategic Communications" this semester, has seen this trend among her students. hires people to dissect and sift through potential employees' Facebook accounts to determine whether or not they're a suitable candidate. "Some Facebook users are finding that information shared on the site includes too much drama, gossip or negativity," Seo said. "For example, some students in my classes have said that they didn't want to know all the details about their Facebook friends' lives and felt that Facebooking was becoming waste of time." Robert Basow, a journalism professor teaching "Stratcom II," said he believes students are simply steering away from Facebook because there are other ways of communicating. He mentions that next month is Facebook's tenth birthday and believes it's probably just getting a little old. All in all, there are many reasons why students are deleting their Facebook accounts. It's the natural flow of technology and students have found they prefer alternatives like Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. It may be time to say goodbye to Facebook and hello to the future of new social media. Edited by Stella Liang
(AS OF JANUARY 2011)(AS OF JANUARY 2014)
GENDERUSERSPERCENTAGEUSERSPERCENTAGEGROWTH
US MALES63,645,48043.482,000,00045.628.8
US FEMALES80,711,3405596,000,00053.318.9
UNKNOWN2,448,1801.72,000,0001.1-18.3
TOTAL US146,805,000100180,000,00010022.6
+ AGE USERS PERCENTAGE USERS PERCENTAGE GROWTH 13 — 17 13,114,780 8.9 9,800,000 5.4 -25.3 18 — 24 45,406,460 30.9 42,000,000 23.3 -7.5 25 — 34 33,171,080 22.6 44,000,000 24.4 32.6 35 — 54 39,595,900 27 56,000,000 31.1 41.4 55+ 15,516,780 10.6 28,000,000 15.6 80.4 CURRENTE ENROLLMENT USERS PERCENTAGE USERS PERCENTAGE GROWTH HIGH SCHOOL 7,292,080 5 3,000,000 1.7 -58.9 COLLEGE 11,748,840 8 4,800,000 2.7 -59.1 COLLEGE ALUMNI 36,441,600 24.8 60,000,000 33.3 64.6 MUSIC — Source: Facebook Social Ads Platform ("Potential Reach") Folk artist Pete Seeger dies, leaves behind a legacy IASSOCIATED PRESS ALBANY, N.Y. — Unable to carry his beloved banjo, Pete Seeger used a different but equally formidable instrument, his mere presence, to instruct yet another generation of young people how to effect change through song and determination two years ago. Pete Seeger performs on stage during the Farm Aid concert on Sept. 21, 2013, at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The American troubadour, folk singer and activist Seeger died Monday, at age 94. A surging crowd, two canes and seven decades as a history-sifting singer and rabble-rouser buoyed him as he led an Occupy Wall Street protest through Manhattan in 2011. ASSOCIATED PRESS "Be wary of great leaders," he told The Associated Press two days after the march. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders." The banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage died Monday at age 94. Seeger's grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, said his grandfather died peacefully in his sleep around 9:30 p.m. at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he had been for six days. Family members were with him. "He was chopping wood 10 days ago," Cahill-Jackson recalled. With his lanky frame, useworn banjo and full white beard, Seeger was an iconic figure in folk music who outlived his peers. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and wrote or co-wrote "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine." He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his fingers poised over the strings of his banjo. In 2011, he walked nearly 2 miles with hundreds of protesters swirling around him holding signs and guitars, later admitting the attention embarrassed him. But with a simple gesture — extending his friendship - Seeger gave the protesters and even their opponents a moment of brotherhood the short-lived Occupy movement sorely needed. When a policeman approached, Tao Rodriguez-See recognized what we were about. They wanted to help our march. They actually wanted to protect our march because they saw something ger said at the time he feared his grandfather would be hassled. "He reached out and shook my hand and said, 'Thank you, "Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger." ARLO GUTHRIE singer-songwriter thank you, this is beautiful," Rodriguez-Seeger said. "That really did it for me. The cops beautiful. It's very hard to be anti-something beautiful." That was a message Seeger spread his entire life. With The Weavers, a quartet organized in 1948, Seeger helped set the stage for a national folk revival. The group Haes, Ponnin - Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronald Gilbert and Fred Hellerman — churned out hit recordings of "Goodnight Irene," "Tzena, Tzena" and "On Top of Old Smokey." Seeger also was credited with popularizing "We Shall Overcome," which he printed in his publication "People's Song" in 1948. He later said his only contribution to the anthem of the civil rights movement was changing the second word from "will" to "shall," which he said "opens up the mouth better." "Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger," Arlo Guthrie once said. His musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to the cleanup of his beloved Hudson River. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. . +