I saw on the socialnomics website that the most rapidly growing age of women on Facebook was 55-65 year old women. For some reason this made me wonder about my mom (she’s 35…no, seriously…she’s reading this) and whether SHE was about to join Facebook. Sure enough, within a week of reading about it, she called me and announced that she HAD joined Facebook. After proceeding through the Kübler-Ross grief cycle, I started thinking about what this means…not on a personal level, my mom knows me better than anyone really, but more on a societal level. What does it mean that women moms and even grandmothers are now on Facebook?
Obviously it says that the market penetration of Facebook is huge. The early adopters have talked it up enough to make mom and grandma WANT to be on Facebook so they can know what the fuss is all about. My parents still have a housephone for crying out loud, they’re not going to be trying out every new fad that comes along unless they think it could materially add something valuable to their lives.
It says that it’s not just the younger generation but all of us that are starting to live more of our lives online. Sharing and cultural interconnectedness will emerge out of this trend, along with the social norming aspects of social media technology and the wisdom of the crowds that tends to emerge.
Finally, it says that youth culture is still dictating societal culture, whether adults use it or not. Facebook was adopted by youth at breakneck speed and adults have gotten on once they saw it as useful. Probably a smart strategy, but still worth noting.
Some stuff I should have added to this post…
A friend of mine (@jacksonj) was posting on Twitter yesterday that he thought that Facebook will have a dramatic drop off in use by the younger crowd as their parents get more saturated on Facebook.
Someone from England responded and said that it already has started over there!
The links…
Jeff’s article http://bit.ly/RYmv8
Britain article
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/05082009/399/social-sites-losing-popularity-young.html
My dad recently joined Facebook (my mom isn’t quite as interested in that stuff) and we have had a lot of great conversations about Facebook etiquette, the importance of social media, how to use different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) for different purposes, etc. He sees Facebook as his place to “play”: posting pictures and videos of his latest outdoor adventures, catching up with his nieces, nephews, and in-laws, and more. His more professional side of things is done on LinkedIn. I will wholeheartedly admit that my parents are actually pretty cool and open-minded, but I really don’t mind him being on there. I think his being on Facebook has actually helped us strengthen our relationship a bit more because we can see the “virtual” sides of each other that we want to portray.
I say, bring on the parents. Let them have some fun, too!
I’ve seen this attitude among the people I know that are on Facebook as well. Older people see it as a place to play (students do too, they just don’t play the same way as parents do). I can say that one thing for me has been integrating my personal and professional life to be more fluid. However, I think this is not something that fits with traditional baby boomer/gen X values. I don’t see the Millenials trying to keep things separate like that, especially as they’ve grown up with the technology.