Numiko, an award winning Leeds based digital creative agency

The Drum published an article today stating that older people have fewer online connections. It’s an interesting fact that the older you are, the fewer online ‘friends’ or connections you’re likely to have – but for me the interesting bit is unanswered in this article – WHY?

It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that it’s about adoption of social media, and older users being less likely to be early adopters. However, I don’t think this is the full story. What about how we feel about our relationships in general as we age? Does this online statistic actually support a wider finding that people seek deeper connections as they get older? (That’s not an actual fact – I just made it up, but it might be true.)

I’d be really interested to talk to early adopters – now in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond (any fellow Habbo Hotel residents from the 90s reading?) and look at how they have changed their attitudes to online connections over the years. I know my own thoughts and feelings on them have changed.

I started working in digital in my late teens, and at that time the aim was to have as many ‘friends’ as physically possible. There weren’t all that many social networks back then, but there were plenty of forums and bulletin boards to join. I’ve actually stayed in touch with some of the people I met online back then. It’s thanks to a random conversation on ICQ that I started working in the Leeds digital scene in the first place!

During my twenties, social media really took off – and I had a profile on everything going. It was pretty easy -  MySpace was for music; LinkedIn for business; Catster to talk about cats; Friends Reunited was for, well, reuniting with friends. Then along came Facebook’s global roll-out, and as far as most of the world were concerned, Social Media had arrived.

Last year (now in my thirties), I stood back and looked at my multiple online profiles – the overlapping lists of connections, the sheer noise it all created – and decided to do some ‘tidying’. I moved all my professional contacts off Facebook and onto LinkedIn. Then I broke connections  (on FB) with anyone I don’t actually know – radical huh? After that it was people that I never liked in the first place – admit it -  everyone’s got someone on their friend list that they maybe went to school with but never got on with. Finally, people who I don’t actually use online media to connect with came off the list as well. This reduced my Facebook friends alone by about 300 people.

I’ve probably still got more connections than ‘average’ if I count up across networks – but so I should, I work in digital and try and advise others on how to use digital media.

I’m not sure now that my list is smaller if those connections are more valuable, or deeper – but there’s certainly a lot less noise.

I’d really love to hear other people’s thoughts on why we might have fewer online connections as we get older – or if it really is just about technology adoption in your opinion.