Does age influence the way people interact with social live streaming services?

Abstract

The interest in social media and in particular the social live streaming services (SLSSs) is increasing, as can be observed by the growing number of users in different age groups. However, the social live streaming services have not been satisfactory investigated yet. Therefore, knowledge gaps in this subject area are still present. This study focuses on the use of SLSSs in terms of content, motivation, and gender depending on the age of the streamer. A research team has been assembled for this purpose. 4,937 streams were analyzed for content, motivation, age and gender on three different platforms in three different countries. Dependencies of content and motivation regarding the streamers age could be determined. The results indicate that older age groups are more likely to share information and therefore broadcast content related to information. It could be observed that younger users are more likely to film their lifestyle on this medium. The genders differ for the age groups significantly. So, it can be assumed that a correlation between age and the content, motivation, and genders on social live streaming services is given.