Friday, May 29, 2009
Baby Boomers Flee Facebook
The most popular social networking site, Facebook, recently passed the 200 million mark. However, over 650,000 baby boomers, those in the 55-to-65 year-old age group, have quit Facebook in the last couple of months, according to news reports coming out this week. While their parents are fleeing the site, though, 18-to-25-year-olds are more than making up for the unexplained flight of the older folks. In the same period, over 2 million of the 18-to-25-year-olds have signed up, and they're spending more time on Facebook. There is speculation that as young people, faced with the current economic downturn, find themselves out of school and unemployed, they are trying to find ways to waste time and distract themselves. Meanwhile, their parents are finding other, more productive ways to live their lives. One reason might be that the over-55 crowd hasn't figured out how to use all the nifty new updates that have recently been added to the site. Young people are more adaptable when it comes to maneuvering around difficult Internet applications. Also, in light of the economic crisis, baby boomers are laying off the extra-curricular Internet use during office hours, just hoping to keep their jobs. It seems that the news of massive layoffs has made the workforce more productive. And as older people put retirement on hold, it's the younger people who have time on their hands. The time-consuming social-networking site lures people in with chain-letter tactics such as the "25 things about me" letter that went around last month. And Facebook remains the gamer's destination of choice, with distractions such as "Texas HoldEm" and "Who Has the Biggest Brain." Games like "Mafia Wars," which started out on Internet sites such as MySpace, have gained massive popularity on Facebook, especially with younger users, who are jumping ship from MySpace to Facebook - and it's not just recent college grads with no job and time on their hands. MySpace has catered to teenagers, and adults never caught on. As teenagers grow up, they are turning to Facebook in record numbers. Their parents, though, are putting more energy into productive things like keeping their jobs, baby-sitting the grand kids, renting movies, visiting friends, and taking walks. And they're actually talking to people in person and using the land-line telephone (remember, they grew up without cell phones). Maybe they're on to something.
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I feel that people are spending way too much time on the internet and specifically Facebook. I'm nearing 55 and I have a Facebook account, but you're right, I have other priorities such as work. It's a shame, though, that kids are spending so much time on these social networking sites as opposed to going back to the old fashioned way of personal contact. I remember when we yused to talk to people on the phone and even write letters and send them in the mail. Now we just e-mail and twitter. I don't know what the future holds, but as technology takes off, we become hidden behind our computers faking our real emotions, and we have tons of "friends", but no enough people we can truly confide in.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Where is this all headed? In twenty years, will we all have wireless Internet transmitters implanted in our brains? If all we have to is think about a Web site to connect to it, then we could be on Facebook 24/7, without having to waste time and energy turning on the computer.
ReplyDeleteI'm still on Facebook, but I work from my home. It does get a little addicting, though. And what about Twitter. That's a real good way to waste time.
ReplyDeleteI don't know who is putting out this information but no one I know has left Facebook. We baby boomer divas are stronger than ever!
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