Are the old folks taking over Facebook?
July 8, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Web sites, social networking
What happens when the grown-ups show up to the party? The cool kids find somewhere else to hang out.
A new study by iStrategyLabs reports that Facebook members over the age of 55 increased 513 percent from January to July of 2009. Is it a coincidence the same report shows a 20 percent drop in high school and college users in the same time period?
Well, it’s hard to say. iStrategyLabs didn’t survey Facebook members, it looked at the falling number of affiliations in the age group. So, it’s possible that new graduates are dropping their school affiliations and leaving networks, making it easier to stay on the site incognito.
Experts say younger members are being chased “underground” or off the site completely by parents, school administrators and teachers who can check up on them once they’ve joined the site.
The question is: Can Facebook survive if the kids decide it’s uncool?
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Tags: Facebook, social networking
July 14th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
“What do they like besides texting? Facebook — despite its rising popularity with geezers — has teen approval.”
I find it amusing that in the lead article the above quote was made – now there is an entire piece about the young people leaving Facebook. Which is it?
August 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am
There is no doubt they will be losing interest. My son has “cleaned up” his Facebook considerably now that he is a college graduate and has allowed more “older” folks on his site. He now deletes what he considers inappropriate responses from his wall. I notice that kids who allow their parents on their sites have a lot less messaging going as well. You might as well say the site has become “chaperoned”. It was much cooler when it was just a college networking site. The younger kids couldn’t wait to get on. It had a certain prestige over My Space. Now anyone can get on. Young kids who bother you with every application and old people trying to get tech savvy. My Mom who is 78, friended one of my daughter’s friends who is in the Marines. One of his friends wrote some pretty nasty stuff on his wall with graphic language. My Mom intends to give them both a facebook tongue lashing! Ha…..oh, yes. It is the beginning of the end.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Yawn. What was the quote about Kindle and Segway? A device that fulfills a need I did not know I didn’t have?
Circa 2000…maybe they will have to actually make a profit with a real business model as opposed to selling “private” information.