“What has been the influence of the media as an agent of solicitation on Generation X opposed to Generation Y? ‘ As the generations are evolving over the years, media technology is changing and improving constantly. The term media is accepted as those agents that convey news, entertainment and information. First there were books, newspapers and magazines, and then came sound recordings, radios, films and television, now there is the internet and social media.
As new advances are developing in media technology, both generations are becoming more reliant on these things and may be influenced differently. Satellite communication and the internet reflect the huge impact that technology has had upon media allowing for almost instantaneous access to worldwide information 24/7. Media gives us information and/or knowledge and often has a big impact on adolescents. The media has become a lot more popular and is a lot easier to access.
Additionally, it is evident that media technology has been shaped by the continuous development of various technological devices, programs and ultimately all media based advancements. Media is an agent of solicitation which means that the media has an influence or impact on the solicitation, Roth and development of an individual and their sense of identity over time. Solicitation refers to the ways in which an individual learns to become an accepted member of society and accepting the social norms and behaviors through their family, peers, community groups and the media.
Norms refers to values, beliefs and behaviors that are accepted as ‘normal’ by the majority of society. How each of the agents of solicitation affect an individual is a unique experience. To answer my question ‘what has been the influence of the media as an agent of solicitation on Generation X opposed to Generation Y’, I have seed a questionnaire, which is qualitative research, which allows me to gather an in-depth understanding on the influence of media on both generations.
Both my parents and one of my friend’s parents from generation X, and four of my friends from Generation Y have filled my questionnaire to give me an idea on the influence of media technology on either generation. I have also used secondary research which involves accessing data already produced by other researchers and the researcher makes a subjective judgment about what material is useful and what is not for the purpose of the research process. I chose to do research on the internet to gain information on a broader spectrum in regards to the significant influence of media technology.
With the advancement on media, people have more access to various forms of entertainment, information and communication. With all these changes of media technology, it has changed the way we interact with other people and how we use media, so questions can be raised about how much influence this has on each generation. Throughout the change of media technology, media has had different influences on generations, where today’s generation has more knowledge of ewe technology and an upbringing with media technology in their daily lives.
Generation Y have mastered the use of media technology for many aspects of their lives as most grew up with a computer. Throughout my research, have learnt an amount of influences that media technology has had on each generation’s daily lives. Traditional media includes all the means of communication that existed before the internet, including books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, film and music. New media, on the other hand, includes electronic video games, entertainment, the internet and social media.
Although they are very different forms of media, they have all had an influence on Generation X and Generation Y. Generation X covers 21% of the world, and out of that 21%, 60. 71% own a mobile phone, compared to 75. 61% mobile owners of Generation Y. A mobile device is the most popular medium of accessing the internet for both generations, but Generation Y spends most of their time on the internet socializing. Generation Y is socially more active on the internet than Generation X, with 41. 2% being very active on the internet from Generation Y opposed to 33. 88% being very active on the internet from Generation X. During my research, I discovered that most users of social media are consumers, either observing or lurking, rather than contribute, such as posting to social media. The types of use of social media include, contributing, sharing, consuming, searching, participating and playing. It is clearly evident from my questionnaire that Generation Y uses more types of social media than people from Generation X.
From my questionnaire and secondary research I have revealed that Generation Y, compared to Generation X, prefer to communicate with people through e mail and text messaging rather than face-to-face contact. Generation Y, covering 20% of the world’s population, have been exposed to media technology on a daily basis. During my research, I discovered that most people from Generation Y got their first mobile phone during their young teenager years, whereas people from Generation X didn’t get their first mobile phone until their late 3(Yes-early ass.
With Generation Y having access to basically any kind of information at their fingertips from their early teenager years, it has influenced them to rely on their technological device more than Generation X. Generation Y switch heir attention between media devices like laptops, mobile phones, tablets and television twenty-seven times per hour on average, as compared to seventeen times for previous generations such as Generation X.
Generation Y have the highest social networking penetration of any generation. During my research from my questionnaire, I have found out that both Generation X and Y agree that the media has influenced them in a positive way, as they are exposed to more information quickly, as people were dependent on newspapers and magazines for their knowledge of the outside world before the internet came along, and hey agree that they now have an easier way to communicate with family and friends.
Some also agree that it has somewhat changed for better because of the knowledge you can gain easily and the information is more broad and accessible, but they also come to an agreement that technology has changed for the worse because of bullying and because of anonymous people on the internet, which therefore can become dangerous. I discovered that people from both generations agree that social media has had a significant impact on bullying. Cyber bullying affects many adolescents and teens on a daily basis.
Cyber bullying involves sing technology, like mobile phones and the Internet, to bully or harass another person. Over half of adolescents have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in accessibility. Generation X didn’t have a broad range of media technology growing up, let alone social media, so they were lucky enough to not experience accessibility in their teenage years. Generation Y has been shaped by the technological revolution that occurred throughout their youth.
The information from my questionnaire suggest that either people from Generation X and Y are influenced to buying or doing things that they e being advertised, whereas my secondary research suggests that today’s generation are more influenced by advertising whereas people from Generation X didn’t have the type of advertisements there are today growing up, so they are less likely to be influenced into buying or doing the things they see being advertised.
Advertising can have an impact on a teenage girl’s self-image as the advertisements suggest what healthy, fit women should look like. This influences today’s teenagers into being healthy and exercise to become like what is being advertised. Generation X wasn’t influenced into being healthy and fit as they didn’t grow up with these types of advertisements such as women’s health and healthy food advertising. During my research on the internet, I found that teenagers of today’s generation who read women’s health magazines convinced them they needed to lose weight.
To my original question ‘What has been the influence of the media as an agent of solicitation on Generation X opposed to Generation Y? ” using a questionnaire that I made up and using secondary research on the internet, I found out that both generations have had a huge influence on media technology, and that the advancements of media technology are still influencing both generations today. Generation X and Generation Y have grown up under completely different eras of communication. Generation X grew up without the internet, mobile phones and social media.
Generation Y on the other hand, are all about sharing and networking because most of the people from today’s generation have been raised with this type of media technology around them. Before I started my research, I put together a research process where I decided on a topic question where it would it would clearly identify how media as an agent of solicitation as changed overtime. I then put together a questionnaire that would be appropriate for both generations and where it would allow to me compare media technology on Generation X to Generation Y.
As well as using a questionnaire as a research method, I decided to use secondary research, where I would search the internet to find how media has influenced generations over time. For the duration of my research, I found that the methods of research that I chose worked effectively to answer my question. Using qualitative research it allowed me to get in depth answers, and allowed me to use closed questions as well as pen-ended questions to produce descriptive responses and gather opinions from both generations.
Using a questionnaire to answer my topic question, it allowed me to ask people from both generations their opinions on media technology, and the influence media technology has had on them. For another use of research, using secondary research allowed me to get a broader understanding on media technology on both generations. To make my information clearer on my questionnaire, I could have asked better questions that would have allowed me to get a wider range of information on media genealogy on both generations, and could have incorporated more questions on other types of media technology.
