Today's article in the NY Times is more proof that Facebook is dying a slow, painful death as more and more baby boomers (aka old people- sorry mom and dad) are joining. According to the article, the fastest-growing user group is women 55 and over, up more than 175 percent since last fall. Men 55 and over are right behind, having increased almost 138 percent during the same time period. Oy Gevalt!How much longer will kids want to hang out in the same virtual space as their parents? Yuck! The article, obviously written by a boomer, attempted to tackle this sticky issue:
"Of course some young Facebookers are annoyed by the older generation’s encroachment on their territory. My colleague joined a while ago, put in friend requests to her teenage daughters and was promptly rejected. Facebook is not for people her age, they informed her."
One of my friend's mothers recently friended her on Facebook. My friend was horrified but wasn't rude enough to "ignore" the request so now her mother has access to her sordid online life and she is now being forced to censor herself.
But some boomers are choosing to create their own online community like the three South Floridians who were tired of the youth-dominated social networking sites and decided to create Genkvetch. In this case a picture is worth a thousand words:
Looks about as fun as play time at Shady Pines. The tag line on the homepage reads:"Out of place at Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster? Then this is your space!"
And while I don't agree with social networking in principle, at least these old foggies had the foresight to realize they don't belong on Facebook.
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Nice find, Anna.
ReplyDeleteNielsen also just released a report which indicates that in terms of pure numbers of new users over Dec 07-Dec 08, the 18-34 and 35-49 year old groups are joining in greater amounts (but they had a larger share of members already than the 55+ category). The report definitely supports the conclusion that the demographics are changing (as any user now sees):
"In terms of sheer audience numbers, for
example, the greatest growth for
Facebook has come from people aged
35-49 years of age (+24.1 million).
Furthermore, Facebook has added
almost twice as many 50-64 year olds
visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added
under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million).
Consequently, people under 18 years old
are making up less of the social network
and blogging audience, whereas the 50+ age
group are accounting for more of the
audience."
While I'm finding it hard to see another player entering the scene in the near-term and becoming a more dominate social network than Facebook, I absolutely expect that there will be more and more niche networks out there.
Thanks for the info Matt! I definitely see more niche networks- especially with handy social networking development tools like Ning.
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