No one can replace mom (also on the social media)

Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, the bond with children is sacred. As shown by the data collected by Doxa on behalf of Facebook on the relationship between parents and children at the time of social media. With a peculiarity: mothers outclass fathers in terms of activism.

Facebook uber alles. Also, in the parent-child relationship. This is what emerges from the data collected by Doxa on behalf of the Californian giant on the relationship between parents and children at the time of social media. If WhatsApp is used above all as a tool to communicate quickly (also through family chats) and on Instagram parents are more spectators than protagonists, on Facebook the worlds of parents and children meet and actively interact. Here the two generations interact by sharing interests, relationships and even friends. With a peculiarity: on Facebook the activities of parents and children are very similar and, somewhat surprisingly, do not consist in the simple sharing of moments in one’s life. Many people in both targets use the social media to cultivate their interests through groups and pages, stay up to date on news and comment on them, keep in touch with friends and family. During the interviews conducted by Doxa, curious and amusing aspects also emerged, such as the mother who lives far away and discovers from a photo on Facebook that her daughter has dyed her hair pink or the off-site child who learns from a post that his parents changed their car. Another interesting punch: parents turned out to be much less awkward on social media than might have been expected. And although most have asked for the help of their children to start online business, once they become familiar with the media, they rarely mess up.

Here are the main data that emerged from the survey:

DIFFERENT GENERATIONS, SIMILAR INTERESTS – Follow groups, send greetings and stay in touch with friends are the activities on Facebook that unite parents and children. The function to check if a loved one is well in case of disasters, earthquakes or accidents is widely used both by parents and children:

– 93% of children and 89% of parents follow ad hoc groups. Hobbies, travel, shopping and sales, health and well-being are the themes most followed by both targets. However, children are also very interested in sport, fitness, fashion and style;

– 93% of both children and parents use Facebook to remember friends’ birthdays and wish them well;

– 92% of children and 95% of parents use social media to keep in touch with friends and family;

– 66% of children and 64% of parents used the “Safety Check” function to verify that their loved ones were well or to communicate that they were safe in the event of a natural disaster or other risk situation.

FATHERS VS MOTHERS & NEW VS ENTERTAINMENT – Both fathers and mothers use Facebook to keep up-to-date on current events, but mothers are more interested than fathers in the playful aspect, while they are above all the ones who post about what happens to them in the everyday life and comment on current events. Here, too, parents and children share the same behaviors:

– 88% of parents use Facebook to keep up to date on current events. 89% of children do the same;

– 56% of parents comment on current events. 59% of children do too;

– 91% of mothers watch videos, against 80% of fathers. 89% of children are also interested in videos;

– 59% of fathers and “only” 44% of mothers share posts on everyday life. 64% of children do the same.

CONSENT & CURIOSITY – 40% of parents are surprised if their posts get a high number of likes and the same happens to 49% of children. Among them, however, 40% remain disappointed if this does not happen, while this only matters to 18% of parents. And then:

– 69% of parents control what their children publish, with a 38% mainly interested in seeing what they do and how they are, but there are still very few (only 13%) parents who discover something they did not know about their children through Facebook;

– 58% of parents declare to comment the photos posted by their children;

– 54% of parents share their children’s posts;

– 40% of parents post photos with their children;

– 42% of parents receive friend requests from friends of their children and one child out of 2 received friend requests from friends of his/her parents

– only 14% of parents comment on posts by people who do not know if their children are tagged in and only 5% think of contacting a friend of the children to ask for information;

– one child in three calls the parent after seeing his/her post on Facebook. Very few parents (only 14%) on the other hand.

– 24% of children do not like if a parent publishes a picture without notifying them;

– 26% of children happen to exclude parents from viewing their posts;

– about 22% of children canceled a parent’s comment or refused a tag (21%);

– the relations between parents and children on Facebook are however calm after all: only 17% have decided to remove the friendship from a parent.

THE ROLE OF INSTAGRAM – Very interested in discovering photos and stories published by their children, parents on Instagram are less active in publishing them. What brings parents and children together on this social network is the interest in finding new things:

• 77% of children publish photos vs. 51% of parents
• 54% of children publish stories vs. just 21% of parents
• 68% of parents look at the photos published by their children
• 63% of parents look at children’s stories
• 55% of children comment on posts vs. 43% of parents
• 72% of both children and parents go to Instagram to discover new things.

LANDSLIDE FOR WHATSAPP – 96% of children and 97% of parents use Whatsapp to communicate quickly. Voice messages are used by 73% of children and 76% of parents, and 51% of children and 47% of parents do video calls. Finally, 77% of parents exchange fun content with their children and 92% usually share any kind of photos.