Why Facebook and Twitter are aging gratefully
Facebook and Twitter users have wrinkles, torn hamstrings, and many, many fillings. And increasingly, they're beginning to complain about chillblains, varicose veins, and the Social Security system.
In just the last two months, the number of Facebook members over 35 has doubled. And the biggest demographic grouping isn't 12 to 18. It's 35 to 44.
ComScore also reported this week that 10 percent of Twitter users are between 55 and 64. That's the same percentage as are between 18 and 24. In fact, the majority of Twitter users are 35 or older.
And here's Reuters telling us that 18- to 24-year-olds are 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter.
This might mean that young people are groping their way back to some sort of physical bonding experiences while older people, perhaps thinking that they are younger people, are diving into social networking like large Chicagoans on their first trip to a Kaua'i beach.
I have a secret suspicion--which is, I suppose, not so secret now--that the owners of Facebook and Twitter have been waiting for the wrinklies to salt-and-pepper their world.
Advertising to the young, the belligerent, the ornery-for-the-sake-of-it is desperately tiresome.
They whine about their aversion to brand messaging. They're so darned fickle. They protest when you change your page design to be, frankly, more commercial. And what do they give you in return? Well, more whining, more dissatisfaction, more pain in the parts most in contact with your bean bag.
However, older folks have been around. They know that the world's social currency is money.
They accept that money prefers not to listen if it can help it. Money declaims. It pronounces. And, if you behave, it confers favors on you. Like cars. And lovers. And returns on investment.
Money's price is a simple one. It asks you to tolerate ads whenever and wherever you have your eyes open. Because ads make media go round. Media make money go round. And money makes the world go round.
For all Facebook's protestations that it will find new, exciting, dynamic, active ways for advertisers to plug their wares, it needs to find an audience sufficiently compliant to any kind of messaging.
It needs to find a coalition of the willing, commercially speaking. The older you are, the more likely you are to coalesce with greater consistency and in larger numbers.
Of course, Facebook and Twitter will try to find more exciting ways to turn an advertising dollar, because that will make for more interesting presentations to the desperate and gullible vodka gulpers that are media buyers.
But in their backrooms and boardrooms, they'll be whistling tunes from the "Sound of Music," if they can find a way to give advertisers something that they recognize as traditional, monetizable advertising.
Money's tight these days. Just like Botoxed foreheads.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
<a url="http://www.facebook.com/lexicon/index.php?q=wrinkle">http://www.facebook.com/lexicon/index.php?q=wrinkle</a>
what else do old people talk about a lot? might be interesting to find other examples.
My theory is that older users have a harder time adjusting to dramatic interface changes.
Are you trying to make fun of old age people or people with memory problems like Alzheimer ?
I agree with kennethpdavis and ecotopian, that Writer is ageist and haven't done any research before writing this article...My Aunts and Mom joined FB cause after decades of pampering their families, they are now getting some time for themselves and through facebook they are able to find their old buddies and now sharing with them their last few decades and not because the way you write " while older people, perhaps thinking that they are younger people, are diving into social networking like large Chicagoans on their first trip to a Kaua'i beach.." This simply prove that you are a jerk. Are you what 16?
If this writer keeps on posting nonsensical article, I will delete cnet from my bookmark lists:)
But there still remains a question: "forget" because Mr. C.M. forgot forgotten ?
And YOU are no spring chicken yourself. Just sayin'.
- by LLS-NE September 12, 2009 6:22 PM PDT
- Real live 62 y.o. Twitter user here. Why ? because of the sources of music, reviews of movies and books, almost instant news, political discussions and some very fun & funny people. I've dropped several email alerts and RSS feeds because by following the right mix the info is now in my Twitter stream.
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(14 Comments)The idea that we stop learning . . or even living . . as we get older is absurd. I often wonder what those who seem to have issues with older people are going to do when they become one. Perhaps fear of that is what causes the hostility. It's not that bad - really . . and it does beat the alternative.
I find a similar predjudice in the music world from some writers . . however I rarely encounter it among other fans at concerts. What concerts you ask ? Leonard Cohen perhaps ? Well I would if I could since consider him a bit of a songwriting genius. . but my most recent live concerts were Wilco and Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. Have tickets for The Decemberists, Assembly of Dust and Keb'Mo' so far for the fall tour season.
Am I typical of my age ? Maybe not .. but I'm far from atypical.
I've worked with computers for over 20 yrs but many people have had to start from zero in terms of knowledge and equipment. As accessibily to both has become easier and cheaper, more people have decided to get involved.
Afraid those who prefer we quietly retire to our rockers on our porches are just going to have to learn to deal with some gray hair in their midst. Mine's a rather lovely silver btw.