In order to have 40 to 60 year old people use Facebook effectively, you would need to describe it to them in terms of aspects of the technology that they would actually use and enjoy. Don't tell them about how it's such a great place to post photos of crazy parties. Instead, focus on the social networking aspect - the ability to easily keep in touch with friends who also use Facebook. People in their 40s and 50s would probably value Facebook for catching up with old high school and college friends, as well as for bonding with colleagues at work. I think a training session on sending and accepting friend requests, communicating with Facebook friends via Wall messages, and setting privacy preferences would be helpful.
Teaching 40-60 year olds about Facebook may be challenging because Orlikowski's technological frames will no doubt play a role in their learning. On average, they have less experience with such interactive and social websites such as Facebook than college-age people do. Therefore, they might try to cast Facebook into the frame of ordinary email. One way to overcome this may be to turn on email alerts so that the users get accustomed to checking their Facebook profiles often. This could encourage them to explore more of the site's features, such as photo sharing and applications.
Many Facebook users end up spending quite a lot of time on the site. The main return on that investment is the ability to easily keep in touch and communicate with friends. People in the 40-60 year age group might also benefit from using Facebook in the workplace (although it might not be the most efficient collaboration technology in that context). Another benefit could be simply knowing that they are participating in a cool new technology. The training topics mentioned above could help people maximize their payoffs without feeling like they are wasting too much time on Facebook.
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In the papers we read for class, it seems like the number one reason people wouldn't adopt a new tool is that they don't see the point of changing; or to them, it makes life harder. It is a good point to bring up that people should actually be told about the aspects they will like and enjoy (it should be easy to adopt too). This rather simple fact seems to be overlooked way too often when creating things, like interfaces, CMC tools and even everyday stuff like printers, VCRs,etc.
ReplyDeleteI like your approach to teaching this age group how to use facebook. It would be much more useful to them if they use it for a social networking tool rather than post pictures of family or joining groups. I feel like if they can get used to just posting on a wall, they will begin checking their facebook more often. And it's like you said this we'll lead to them learning how to use more of the tools facebook offers.
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