EDTECH Module 7 Technology Survey by J.D. Winterhalter

Hypothesis Users between years old are more eager to use the Internet and Social Media than 45+ year olds.

Survey Questions: 1.Are you male or female? (Independent Variable) 2.Age (Independent Variable) 3.I use the Internet on a daily basis. 4.I use Facebook or another social media website to stay in touch with friends and family. 5.I often use the internet to research new products before purchasing. 6.I frequently post personal information on Facebook or other social media websites. 7.I regularly share pictures of recent events on Facebook or other social media websites. 8.I look at other people's information on Facebook or other social media websites. 9.I make many purchases on the Internet. 10.When I have a question I prefer to look up information on the Internet instead of using books at my local library. 11.I worry about identity theft while using the Internet. 12.I use Facebook or other social media websites to stay connected professionally. 13.Sharing personal information online causes me anxiety. I chose these questions to separate out Internet usage from Social Media. The questions were evaluated on a 5 point likert scale ranging from Strongly Agree(5) to Strongly Disagree(1). The survey was distributed via Facebook, Twitter and to a random sample. 37 responses were received. Survey Method

The Results Are In! I grouped the questions into those that reflect Internet Usage and those specific to Social Media. I then averaged the answers for each question by reported age group to look for trends. I only had 37 respondents so the sample size was not very large. With a larger sample size the results may have been different as some age groups were not well represented.(Fig. 1) Fig. 2 Internet Usage by Age Group Observations There was not as much discrepancy between younger and older groups as I was expecting and 55+ age groups make fewer purchases on the Internet as compared to the other groups. 55+ appear to use the Internet less overall and worry about identity theft more than all other groups. Fig. 3 Social Media by Age Group Observations There was more difference between younger and older age groups when looking at social media use. The age group reported using social media to stay connected professionally much more than other groups. The and 55+ age groups reported disagree or strongly disagree with this statement. The age group overall use social media more and expressed a greater agreement with the statement “sharing personal information online causes me anxiety” age group use social media to post pictures and personal information more than the other groups.

Respondent Age Group Counts Fig. 1

Internet Usage by Age Group Fig. 2

Social Media Usage by Age Group Fig. 3

Conclusion Although there was not a huge difference between the age groups the survey results do suggest there is less use of the Internet and Social Media by older age groups than younger ones which supports my hypothesis. With a larger sample size I think the difference between ages groups would be more apparent. I was a little surprised there was not more of a difference between the older and younger age groups. All groups followed the same general trend depending on the question and 55+ groups purchased few things online and had a higher level of worry for identity theft which seem to correlate. Using social media to stay connected professionally was low for the 55+ group possibly because retirement is around the corner and the need for career advancement is less. It could also mean they have not adopted the use of social media in general as their use is much less than all other age groups in all areas. I was surprised at the high usage by the year old group over all.