#babyboomer

If your grandma takes selfies there’s a high chance that she hasn't been doing this since “back in her day” when she was a hippie. We obviously know that technology has been around for a while, but social networks are fairly recent, which is why some of us little generation X’ers are so used to it and maybe a little addicted to social media. If social media had been invented in the 60’s, things would obviously be very different. I don’t think it would have happened because 1. they didn't have the technology. and 2. I think the “hippies” wouldn't of liked that very much. Hippies in the 60's were all about loving everyone and wanted nothing to do with consumerism. That's basically everything social networks goes against. Sure it includes the word "social", but that's not the kind of social hippies wanted. They wanted human contact, it's natural and that's what they stood for. According to hippies of the 60's, technology is useless and dehumanizing. Social media and hippies definitely would have never been best friends. Maybe hippies of our day and age are into social media now, but values have changed quite a lot since then.

They can social network too.

It doesn't mean that because we grew up with social media that we are the only ones who use it. There are people from all ages who use social media. As a matter of fact, in January 2014, 65% of social media users were 50 to 64 years old. As technology moves forward, more and more people start to take advantage of this and this chart shows that for social media. Personally, I know a lot of my baby boomer family members that use social media, but I also know some who refuse to have anything to do with any kind of social media. For example, my aunt (ex-hippie), thinks that social media is evil and that it has ruined the youth of today. Whereas another one of my aunts(not an ex hippie), is on every social media out there. So I think this usage of social media also kind of has to do with the teen years of these users. I'm not saying that ex-hippies never use social media nowadays, I'm just saying it's more likely for someone who wasn't a hippie in the sixties to be more into social media.

Social media users

In the 60’s, people didn't have social networks. They just had contact with other people. For example, Patti Smith. The way she meets so many people is during the time she is staying at Hotel Chelsea. As she mentions in her book, Just Kids, Patti Smith meets so many people at Hotel Chelsea. Some of these people are very well known and others are artists in the making. In the 60's, people didn't communicate with their cell phones, they had actual face to face conversations with anyone.

Patti Smith at Hotel Chelsea

So, the enxt time your grandma comes over, you might ask her if she'll take a selfie and post it on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. #mygrandmatakesselfies