Analysis of cultural and media consumption in media generations within the social media; research on virtual environment users in Tehran

Every generation has its own special spirits and wants that are rooted in its historical and environmental conditions and are deeply affected by technology. Based on the theoretical approach of "media generations", new media in each historical period determine many of the cognitive dimensions in each generation. On this basis, media and its consumption have different functions such as notification, entertainment, identity building, narration, presenting ideologies, values, and beliefs; they can form generations epistemologically. Therefore, for each generation, media as lived experience is recognized as the agent of sociability, identity building, and knowledge of the world around. With this approach in mind, the present research analyzed the cultural and media consumptions in media generations in Tehran and through conducting a survey, investigated the consumption degree and motivation in media generations based on the existing social media and virtual environments. In this research, a multi-stage sampling method was used and the individual (the social media user) was the analysis unit. The research results showed that there was not a significant relationship between media generations and "watching TV", " watching satellite ", "studying the press" and "studying books". However, as the media generation age decreased, the degree of the use of "online radio and television", "online games", "music and movie websites", "educational websites" and "servicing platforms" increased. Yet, as the media generation age decreased, the use of more traditional media such as radio decreased. Moreover, in general, the longest time spent in a virtual environment was dedicated to the music and movie and educational websites respectively. Also, the results showed that almost all media generations used the virtual environment for receiving articles and studying online books to the same degree and there was no relationship between media generations and receiving articles and studying books.