Be aware of ‘old people’ on Facebook, Twitter
By Peter Elliott | Contributing Editor of Everyday Christian
Posted 10:51 am on July 30, 2009
If you’re middle-aged - or “seasoned” as the terminology occasionally goes, as if we’re pasta - and you are around tweens and teens you may have heard this one before.
“Ugh! You old people are ruining Facebook!”
This is pretty much a verbatim quote I’ve heard from kids at church, in the neighborhood and so on.
But is it really true?
Are us “old people” plundering social networks, the alleged playground of everyone under thirty?
Most of my Facebook friends are middle-aged or close to it, and quite a few of the folks I follow on Twitter who post their pictures - assuming they’re authentic, of course - are not people who look like they’re ready to set up the loft in their dorm room.
A story in the Houston Chronicle confirmed that what the younger people around me, and perhaps you, are saying has some validity.
The story quotes a study by eMarketer.com that in the first three months of 2009 the most common demographic to start a Facebook account were women 45 and older. Additionally, according to data compiled for the story, 22 percent of folks on the Web are women 45 and older. Sixty percent of baby boomers aged 43 to 63 are regularly populating Twitter, Facebook, and the like.
Some kids see this as another invasion of their privacy, of adults encroaching on the coolness of what they feel should be their domain.
From a parental perspective, it’s a necessity to monitor your kids’ social networking, not to mention texting and search engine traffic. Some kids might say it’s intrusive; it’s really more about being a reasonably responsible adult.
From a Web surfing perspective, hey guys, we like hanging out online too even if it diminishes - and here’s what shows my age - how groovy it may be.
Tags: Facebook, social networking, technology, Twitter
Peter Elliott is a veteran news and sports journalist. He enjoys interviewing others about how God works in their lives and sharing that with readers. He is also a lifelong, long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan. He resides in Indianapolis with his wife and three sons.
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Latest Comments (1)
vthompson - July 30, 2009