Gen Y Social Networking Technology Surprise

By Margery Weinstein A report commissioned by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc., surprisingly revealed that Generation X workers—and not those in the younger Y generation—make up the majority of those who use social networking for business, followed closely by Boomers age 55 and older. According to the data, Gen Y’s use of collaborative technology also lagged others. The survey, conducted by Forrester Consulting, reveals a highly dispersed workforce still favoring meetings, but increasingly using tools such as social networking and video chat to communicate and collaborate. The study asked information workers of all ages in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia about their business communication habits. Here are key findings:

• Gen Y is least likely to share information via text message (26 percent compared to 47 percent of those age 55-plus), and least likely to use video conferencing, video chat, and Web conferencing tools.
• Gen Y uses social networking the least frequently (40 percent of Gen Y workers who use social media for business do so daily, compared to 50 percent of those age 55-plus).
• Older Boomers (age 55-plus) have increased their business use of social media 79 percent in the last year.
• Gen Y is least likely to think meetings are efficient. Only 29 percent of Gen Y workers think meetings used to decide on a course of action are very efficient, compared to 45 percent of older Boomers.
• Gen Y is least likely to pay attention in meetings, and barely half (51 percent) believe it’s important to do so in meetings to decide a course of action.

HAVE INPUT OR TIPS on this topic? If so, send them our way in an e-mail to lorri@trainingmag.com with the subject line "Social Network," and we'll try to include your advice in an upcoming issue of our Training Tech Talk e-newsletter.