Social Media Effects On Baby Boomers

The Effects of the Use of Social Media to Baby Boomers

Precious Jem G. Carcillar

University of the Philippines – Open University

Introduction

Born during the post-war era, between the years 1946 to 1964, Baby Boomers make up around 76.4 million people in the world according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2015, Baby Boomers are now in their 50’s to late 60s.

Culturally speaking, this generation is considered to be ‘privileged’. These people lived off with post-war education and housing benefits, enjoyed government grants, and other post-World War II affluence such as skyrocketing incomes and other privileges.

As an ally of the United States, Baby Boomers of America and the Philippines share a lot of similarities. Filipino family

While being criticized generation because of their overspending, advertisers and marketers target their brands to make sure that they are geared towards these people. While many are enjoying their golden years, Baby Boomers’ buying power is unstoppable.

This is even truer when it comes to the use of the Internet. The generation was able to witness the transition between a typewriter to a personal computer, snail mails to e-mails, telephone calls to Facetime, and more. According to Jessica Naziri of USA Today (2015), while the current generation is considered to be more advanced when it comes to the use of technologies, the Baby Boomers are not lagging far behind. Most of them also enjoy shopping online. But most of all, they create and use the social media to connect with their loved ones, family and

A relatively new cultural theory developed by Christopher Earley, Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne in 2002, this theory is used to measure and predict inter-cultural performance. Mostly applied in the field of business, government, education and government research (Wikipedia, 2015) this research will attempt to validate Cultural Intelligence Theory in the social media usage of Baby Boomers. Cultural Intelligence Theory, more commonly called as CQ, instills strategies to improve cultural perception in order to distinguish behaviors driven by culture from those specific to an individual, suggesting that allowing knowledge and appreciation of the difference to guide responses results in better business practice (Earley, 2004).

Furthermore, CQ measures the capability of an individual to function effectively in a various organizational environments. CQ has similarities to IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence quotient). It tries to quantify a set of capabilities believed to be important to both personal and professional success. Cultural intelligence is unique because it focuses on the skills needed for success in unfamiliar cultures (Livermore,