Comments on: So is Facebook for old people now or what?

New numbers from iStrategyLabs say that Facebook has seen a drop in listed high-school and college affiliations. This, however, does not mean that young people are leaving the site in droves.

[shahnyboy]

I think the end of facebook will be these "old people" who will drive all the young ones away.

No kid wants to add their parents as "friends" and see what theyre up to. They will lose their (online) privacy and eventually it wont be on facebook they'll be communicating with their friends.

[brent516]

Hey, us old farts are everywhere....like it or not in another 15 years we'll be the majority...we WILL have our way. Go pop some pimples in the meantime.

PS: Maybe you haven't noticed, but one day you'll be old, too.

"Enjoy yourself...it's later than you think!"

Peace, out.

[servermaker]

LOL with brent516 - you are a riot

[J-Hawaii]

Wait 5 or 10 years when you're living 4000 miles away from home, then it's a little more interesting to see what your parents are up to.

Who knows, when you graduate high school, you might actually think of your parents as "friends."

[funkyboot]

I'm with Shahnyboy. I'm in my late 20's and generally couldn't be bothered with social networking to begin with, but then my sister tried to convince me that I should get a Facebook page because even my 60+ year old mom has one. As if that weren't an even bigger turn off. My mom is now on Facebook daily checking out what our relatives are up to (generally just to be nosey and gossipy as she's on the phone with my one other aunt). It's harmless fun for my mom, but definitely not anything I'd want to be a part of.

So yeah, I tend to think the 20-somethings and younger are, if anything, going to want to keep their parents away from their social networking sites. We wouldn't hang out at the same bars our parents would (a physical social networking site) so why would we want to be on Facebook with them. Sometimes separate spaces can be healthy.

As a business strategy however, it's probably great for Facebook. Older people tend to have a greater disposable income, and having seen my mother on her computer, she's far more easily enticed by targeted advertising then I'll ever be at this point (having grown up online). Too bad there are no announced IPO plans...

[odubtaig]

I've got a wacky notion. Don't add your parents. I'm not getting how this is a difficult concept.

[funkyboot]

Odubtaig, I've got an even wackier notion: avoid social networking sites entirely. There's no law saying you have to be on them.

[JoanieMWexler]

The concept of "online privacy" is an oxymoron that many of the "younger set" haven't quite absorbed yet. :-) If you put it online, it's out there. Forever. So be just as careful in your online behavior as in your physical, public behavior.

Note that human beings, old and young alike, are social beings. We all want a way to stay connected to the ones we love, potentially meet new people, and hear different points of view. The best way for you to partition your communications with your similarly aged buddies is to not invite or accept an older relative as a friend on Facebook. Go to Settings>Privacy Settings>Profile and select "Only Friends" for who gets to see your posts. Then do the same for "News Feeds and Wall" and so forth, all under "Privacy Settings." Doing so specifies that you only want your confirmed friends to see what you post. Win-Win!

[blondepianist]

@shahnyboy

Personally, I like having my grandmother on FaceBook. If someone really wanted that kind of privacy, they could create friend lists that contained all the older folks, another for young friends, etc., and change what was visible to whom.

[Renegade Knight]

Bingo. Facebook is a tool. They let you create your own circles. We all balance those kinds of circles in real life. Not so hard to do it on Facebook.

Could it be that in June of 2009, some large percentage of high school and college users removed their affiliation because they graduated?????

[Jester_Paul]

That's exactly what I was thinking.
Everybody that joined up with Facebook back when it first started have graduated. There, mystery solved.

[Orion Blastar]

It used to be:
Get off my lawn you young punks!

Now it is:
Get off my Facebook profile you young punks!

Seriously Lawyers and other business people made a decision to promote themselves and their services via Facebook now. Facebook has calendar apps they can use and other tools that help them manage their business better and get more clients via Facebook.

Facebook used to be limited to just High Schools and Colleges, but now it is open to everyone. Not just young people need it. Facebook is big for business networking now. Facebook is ready to hit the billions once they sign up more advertisers and businesses to partner up with them.

[servermaker]

blah blah blah - I work for Facebook - blah blah blah

[Random_Walk]

...err, That's what (ostensibly) LinkedIn is for.

[Renegade Knight]

The las thing I need or want is to be friends with a company.

[corbett3000]

I think you and others that have written about this are dead-on, Caroline. The volume of 'youth' on Facebook hasn't dropped - it's the affiliations that have...the question is why they aren't affiliating with their colleges and high schools as much any more.

When I wrote the research report I was much more interested in the 500%+ growth in the 55+ audience...but there's something more here about the interplay between these two audiences and how they're influencing each others behavior.

Thanks for including us in your post.

Peter Corbett, iStrategyLabs
http://www.twitter.com/corbett3000

[Rillibee]

I'm 53 and joined FB a year or so ago. I found it less juvenile than MySpace, and like the interface better. My whole family is on now, and it is a nice way to keep track of things they are doing, plans, and photos. I've also met a number of people of various ages and connected with old high school friends. FB serves its purpose and does not seem to specifically cater to the younger groups, but has room for all. Personally I like interacting with strangers, and spending time chatting with someone to find out they are 19 years old... and we get along great. How often does that happen in the real world?

[JoSlaight]

My thoughts are that Peter's team at iStrategyLabs are giving this vague numbers sample, because the folks/ company that hired them did not want something measurable. iStrategyLabs didn't research this for general consumer inquirery! No one works for free...
There's enough almost info in this graph for people of all age groups, regardless of sex or municipal networking, to explore what makes Facebook different from other social networking sites.
Facebook is for my-my-my generation...! (Over 55?) or "...hope I die before I get old!" (under 30). I wonder why the UKN age bracket hasn't received the most interest after jumping 10,915.7% in 6 months!
I'm mildly interested in the follow-up Corbett mentions in September, with Fbook's departure from school, and network affiliations; betcha Facebook is fully invested their interest!
(I sent this to Caroline via email after reading (Peter Corbett) reply on BizWkdot Com.)

[corbett3000]

@JoSlaight I would be more than happy to have been paid to write my report on Facebook's demographics, but alas I'm just a dork and like to write about this stuff. I'm not sure if it matters either way if we had a client paying us to do this homework or not as it doesn't effect that data. This wasn't a survey which can be gamed. It comes directly from Facebook - so you can double check that if you like.

Lastly, I have a track record of providing lot and lots of info for 'general consumer inquiry' because a) I like to share b) it tends to engage people if it's interesting which c) drives buzz about iStrategyLabs. I encourage you to check out the other stuff at www.istrategylabs.com which is not 'paid content' but will be interesting none the less.

I'm glad you found this insightful enough to comment and spread the word.

-Peter
http://www.twitter.com/corbett3000

[mjconver]

My 17-year old son recently dropped all family members over 20 as friends, even though my 19-year old daughter didn't.

And y'know, I really don't care. If he wants his private space, that's fine with me. I'm sure there are things he's posting he doesn't want me to know about. But I'm not worried, he's a good kid, and he'll be a regretful old fart soon enough...

[Renegade Knight]

Good kids don't drop everone over 20 just for ***** and giggles.

[foldsomething]

I think it's pretty obvious from the comments that facebook needs better privacy options. i.e. how can I friend my mom so I can keep in touch but not have her freak out when I post pics of my new tattoo?

[ca5ter]

Maybe you should get a tattoo of your mom

[Dan7637]

i been saying this all the time, facebook is for old people

no one i know of asks " whats your facebook" , they ask "do you have a myspace"

[paulej]

I know lot of folks with both. Some use them and some don't. I do get the impression that there is a general trend to move away from Myspace to FB. Why is that? I'm sure there are reasons, but what this suggests to me is that FB is at risk of losing users, too. I think people get bored of the same ol' thing all the time and change for the sake of change. Perhaps a new cool site will come along and pull millions to it, but it too would likely be short-lived. What kind of business is this? There seems to be nothing of substance that keeps people interested. Social networking sites are like a TV series: users do get tired of them after a while.

[Sam Papelbon]

seriously? i haven't heard 'myspace' mentioned in person in years. everyone asks about facebook.

[istill316]

I'm with Sam. Here at Penn State, NOBODY uses MySpace. EVERYBODY (even the ones who swore they wouldn't) uses Facebook. People only talk about MySpace when they are complaining about Facebook becoming less usable, and hence more like MySpace.

[Gromit801]

Only in America, is the generation gap so tenderly nurtured.

The entire concept of "family" is lost forever in this country.

[ca5ter]

America Rules!!!!!

[istill316]

True that, and our country is slowly but surely destroying itself because of it.

[sythara]

I'm sure they said something like that when telephone was invented and widely distributed

[ogman]

Maybe Facebook is for people, you ageist idiot! I certainly hope your drivel does not reflect the views of CNET.

[Renegade Knight]

Agest idiot? You must be an old fart.?

[sciontcya]

I love how these "forever cool young folks" think.
You'll never grow older.
YOU invented the internet and all good that has come from it.
YOU'RE the only ones that are interesting and matter.
You seriously make me ill. I'm so sick of kids like that who shun folks over 30.
I got news for you, I and most folks my age couldn't care less about you or what you're doing.
Take that to the bank.
Oh, I forgot, you likely live in the HOME provided by your old parents and have no job, hence no bank account.

[odubtaig]

Why do I get the feeling that your age is not why people shun you?

[sythara]

lol, but I do agree with sciontcya as well.

[waltnich]

Wow!
Sounds like U went and got old.
:(
sad

[chuchucuhi]

Odd I think I have gotten older just as Facebook has, it so happen I tend to get one year older every year...odd. It's become very pervasive as you an see from all the facebook icons on every site, it makes it easy to share things and stay in touch. I believe that's what gives it that how do you say social networking moniker. It really becomes a big deal when your circle of friends is global and doesn't stay within the same 15 mile radius.

[Voice_Of_Logic]

Here is a brilliant question: who gives a crap about this social networking BS!? The media? F the media. They ARE the problem with this world. Get a life people. Get a life. Go outside and throw a baseball or swim in a lake. My God.

[sythara]

Yeah and then get killed by all those killers and rapists lurking outside?

The media controls everyone (almost). You do what they say, even if you deny it.

[ca5ter]

Dude, I saw may grandma on Facebook, and I was like, ick. I had to, like, Twitter all my friends to say Facebook is so uncool, like, old people are using it. Like, soon it will have that old person smell, double ick.

[sythara]

you have to say it in lolcat, otherwise you're also considered old and uncool.

[cvaldes1831]

Yes.

"I" am on Facebook and I am an old fogey. I have no delusions that being on Facebook makes me cool. It does not. For those of you who care, I'm sorry.

[scaryhobo]

If there is a new facebook i dont yet know what it is. I saw the demise of myspace plain as day and then 6-9 months later the media caught on that it was doomed. But the reason there was the improved usability of the facebook interface in comparison to the absolutely rediculously archaec system on myspace. They tried to change but it was too late, the mob had spoken. There IS are massive peer aspect, you go where your friends go but why do they go? there's usually a good reason and not just 'because its cool'. The people that think that is the reason are the followers.

[LucidN21]

I have noticed that the more teachers, parents and 'bosses' sign up, the more 'in' crowds leave

[sythara]

Good. Have them all leave and end up with facebook thats used for good social purposes instead of same crap you saw on myspace 4 years ago. The "in" crowd can go to hell

[cheerluv09]

Us kids are still coming to facebook were just smart enough that we limit high-school affiliations and we keep our profiles private to certain people and groups.

[dwight_stegall]

Be nice to us old people. :)

[trioxiphan]

It's a good thing for Facebook. Older people have more money to spend and are therefore a much more favorable advertising demographic.