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Over-50s Invade the Social Networking Scene
An anonymous reader writes "The Telegraph newspaper reports that over-50s are invading sites like Facebook and MySpace in massive numbers. A recent study showed that nearly one third of Facebook users are aged between 35 and 54, and that this group also made up 41 percent of MySpace users. "Because the mind of an over-50 is likely superior to that of a drink-addled undergrad, at first there was uncertainty about whether older users would find the Facebook-led social-networking phenomena attractive." Looks like dad just turned up to the party."
To Catch a Predator.
So are they 'over 50's' or are they 'between 35 and 54'? I know that from the perspective of a teenager it all classifies as "really old", but some of us make more subtle distinctions...
Will it take them less than 4 days to find the email addresses of old friends and then realise that the rest of the site is pointless crap, and that they can't remove their profiles?
Headline: Over-50s Invade the Social Networking Scene
Then: one third of Facebook users are aged between 35 and 54
Gives some evidence that you may well feel like 50 if you are 35 (especially if you are looking for a job in Germany). Luckily, this does not apply to me, being well over 50 and having 'retired from reality' (as someone mentioned here).
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
"Because the mind of an over-50 is likely superior to that of a drink-addled undergrad, at first there was uncertainty about whether older users would find the Facebook-led social-networking phenomena attractive."
So the over-50's were never drink-addled undergrads? Does this mean I'm not going to make it to 50?
Apparently, the title was just based off the fact that the age range must have been in hexadecimal. Right? Yeah...
Previously, my desires to flame the dean of students, trick him into clicking a goatse link, and infect his computer with gay porn had all been sadly unfulfilled due to his troglodytic eschewing of modern technology.
But now that the elder generation is seeking parity with the younger, we can at last unveil the full weaponry of the internet.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
Coincidentally my Dad just signed up for Facebook last week (he's 58). So having noted that, I can now definitively say, without having actually read the article (because, really who does that?) and having examined exactly one piece of anecdotal evidence: the over 50 crown is definitely joining social networking sites in droves.
Because the mind of an over-50 is likely superior to that of a drink-addled undergrad, at first there was uncertainty about whether older users would find the Facebook-led social-networking phenomena attractive.
I've passed my [drink]-addled college years and haven't passed 50 yet, but I have to say, FP author, you've managed to write a summary that insults pretty much everybody! Kudos!
That said, clearly the presense of these older folks on the ego-aggregator networks demonstrates that some of them still do have drink-addled minds.
A recent study showed that nearly one third of Facebook users are aged between 35 and 54
Statistics abuse time - That also means that a third of facebook users have ages between 35 and 84! Quick, re-write the FP title, the Octogenarian Invasion has begun!
The first two answers that came to my mind: the computer industry and the Cold War.
I'll give you two contra-answers: Political Correctness and the current Presidency.
Get off my Lawn!
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Welcome to GetOffMyLawnBook.com!
"A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it." - Churchill
How long before we start seeing our parents posting embarrassing messages on our walls though?
"Hey son, those are some rad tunes on your interblog site! What's that? It's got a good beat!"
Thank god they can't dance online. (obligatory Mary Whitehouse experience reference)
In fact my mother just set up a facebook page, the horror.
It's My Tea and I'll Drink it if I Want To!
As a over 50 guy, I guess we will have to re-educate you as to how you received life. Since you are posting here you are probably a product-(as are most of the smart-assed comments here) of a boomer. We stopped the Vietnam War, gave women and minorities the same rights as everyone else, won the space race, gave you the ability to even post your snarky comments due to the fact that we pushed technology forward. These are just a few of the many things we have contributed to the greater good. Now please tell me what your chicken-shit generation have done except sit back on your ass and whine about how shitty every thing is. The difference between us and you is when we seen something that was wrong we DID something about it!
Won't Bow.....Don't Know How
Even IF we are stoned or drunk, WE grew up on what younger people take for granted.
We multitask well. I am currently enjoying retirement, moderating 2 video chat rooms,
Answering email, drinking a brew, posting on Slashdot and instant messageing to 3 people
at this very momment.
Also I am intermittently loading the dishwasher between sentences.
Just because you're older doesn't mean you're a techno-moron. I'm in that demographic, and I even hang out with the Slashdot crowd once in a while and I, ah, what was the question? Why am I downstairs?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
To me, this isn't surprising. .
.
Older people, like everyone else, have a need for social interaction. But as they grow older, they are less and less willing to go out and/or meet up in the traditional sense - bars, restaurants, etc. Soc. network are ideal for them - they are easy to use and through them, the older crowd can fulfill their basic human need without having to leave their home.
Anyway, if Facebook make just one mother stop complaining to her grown up children about not visiting - we should all rejoice!
Magazine 13 - We like to think its funny... sort of
It seems to be a general rule in society that parents must sacrifice themselves on an altar for their children. It seems that becoming anything less than a completely devoted man servant to your offspring is a moral wrong. I'm of the opinion that becoming a parent does not oblige you to devote 100% of your (free) time to your children, and that telling your clinging offspring every now and again to push off because you're busy with your own life, will be a benefit to them in the long run.
All that said, if my parents ever do get a social networking account, I will publicly disown them.
May the Maths Be with you!
Oh great!
I thought the whole point of "Social Networking" was to be socialiable??!!
One of the great aspects of the Internet was anyone could take part, no matter your race, religion, colour or *age* everyone is equal behind the keyboard.
After reading some of the negative comments on this thread it saddens me there are people who obviously find people of "a certain age" offensive.
Me? I am 37 years old and have no hang-ups or insecurites about my age at all (I never did)!
As this thread continues I am hoping many more positive posts will outweigh the negative comments I have seen so far otherwise I will have to re-consdider participating in Slashdot.
The funny thing it is *inevitable* *you* will reach this age one day...HaHaHa
Also I am intermittently loading the dishwasher between sentences.
Oh. And here I was, thinking you just fell asleep between sentences. My bad, sorry.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A 35 year old is not a baby boomer Anyone born in the 68-82 is generation X.
;-)
Which includes
Gwen Stefani
Cameron Diaz
Drew Barrymore
This is not your moms generation this is your younger hot stepmoms generation
We stopped the Vietnam War,
No you didn't. You tried for seven years but it was the powers that be that finally pulled the plug (then tried to save face by blaming it on you).
gave women and minorities the same rights as everyone else,
No you didn't. It was Lyndon Baines Johnson and his Supreme Court appointees, such as Thurgood Marshall, who passed and enacted the laws. And they weren't quite baby boomers, now were they?
won the space race,
No you didn't. It was not-quite baby boomer engineers who did the lion's share of the work, mostly you got to see it on the teevee. And even then, the case can be made that the Space Race took the most expensive and disposable shortcut, thereby scuttling future platforms that would have created a more pervasive human presence in space today. All due to irrational fear - then it was the communists, now it's terrorism. You've never been able to erase the nuclear bomb drills in elementary school from your mind, have you?
gave you the ability to even post your snarky comments due to the fact that we pushed technology forward.
I'll lukewarmly grant you the fact that a microscopic minority of baby boomers have been visionaries, albeit some with monopolistic tendencies, giving us mediocre, vulnerable and crash-prone file-oriented software.
Humbly and with awe, I'll grant you Bob Dylan, whose messages (gospel?) you seem to have completely eradicated from your mind. Many baby boomers who get nostalgic when watching Forrest Gump think that the guy ranting and raving in Washington was Dylan, when actually it was Abbie Hoffman.
Now please tell me what your chicken-shit generation have done except sit back on your ass and whine about how shitty every thing is.
We tried in 2000 and 2004 to stop Baby Bush from being elected, but baby boomer mainstream media did a great job at disaffiliating a large percentage of the electorate. Add to that your resting on your laurels and adopting a "screw the community, I want less taxes", and you overwhelmed the common good.
We've protested en masse that the current scenario of globalization is nothing more than "What's good for McDonald's/Wall-Mart is good for the world", even as you are baffled and irritated by our outrage - "What are these spoiled brats complaining about? They're free (to choose from twenty different hamburger chains)! Get off my lawn!!!"
All of this may sound familiar, as it's almost the same as your indignation about the powers that be back in your promise-filled youthful heyday. But there is a striking, hypocritical stance that is new: you have hoarded a large slice of the economic pie, not giving the same opportunities to your youngers that your elders gave to you. You've made us work for peanuts, pontificating that flipping burgers is a great opportunity.
Also, you elected Reagan and Poppa Bush, yet nothing compares to Baby Bush (baby boomerism personified) and his dismal corporate policies, as well as stances towards science in general and global warming in particular. BTW, kids shoot each other in Columbine? Blame Marilyn Manson, panic and turn schools into preludes to Airstrip One (that's Mr George Orwell to you, buddy)!
Regarding the paleolithic sixties, we suspected that you had the power to transcend. It seems that you either didn't, or you blew it (to quote Easy Rider). Either way, the majority of the baby boomer generation has become The Great Disappointment. Your fears have made you selfishly irrational. We don't trust you, we don't believe you, we've tried to like you but you've made it soooo fucking difficult it's damn near out of reach.
Signed,
Proudly, cowardly anonymous.
I figure that's where all my customers are hanging out so why not be there. It has nothing to do with my social activity and everything to do with their social activity.
...and then we elected Republicans left and right, rolled back those social an civil gains, and generally made a big stinky mess. We're more technologically advanced, but, frankly, it's the over-fifties that are shitting up the nest and setting a wonderful example for those following. Why should they care? They're inheriting a royally screwed world that has gret bread and circuses.
1. I come from the opposite angle. Mom... well, make no mistake, she loved us sincerely, but... entirely too much, you know? It took some almost violent verbal clashes to get her to just leave me alone and live her own life. That started when I was around 30 years old, and continued for some 5 years, give or take.
As far as I can tell, she's still not over it, but has learned to control herself by now.
Her first conclusion was that someone's obviously manipulating me and my brother against her, when I too started telling her to mind her own business. (My brother had been at it since childhood.) Again, as far as I can tell, she still isn't convinced that that's not the case.
So, trust me, noone really wants 100% of their parents' attention and devotion. And if anyone actually thinks they do, I doubt that they'd be happy with it, if they actually got it. Even the most affectionate lap cat needs some time alone, or it _will_ go neurotic. A human, doubly so.
2. That said, well, humans
A) judge each other all the time, so big freakin' surprise that they judge their parents/children too.
B) are judged by the company they keep, or the company they drag you into, all the time. And parents, well, are a company you can't easily change.
Being annoyed by some of your kids' or parents' habits doesn't necessarily mean you want them as a manservant or anything. When you can look at your kids (and/or co-workers, friends, etc) and say that you truly don't care what they do, it's all their choice how they want to live your life, have your full support in anything whatsoever... well, then you'll have earned the right to ask the same in return. Until then, nope. If you've ever thought you're so embarassed of something your son did in front of the guests, then he too has a right to feel embarassed by something _you_ did in front of _his_ friends.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
We would have drown you all at birth, but we need someone to serve us our food.
I don't care why you're posting AC
IHBT
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
gave women and minorities the same rights as everyone else - You definitely get partial credit for this. However... Rosa Parks was NOT a baby boomer. Martin Luther King? NOT a baby boomer. The suffragettes? NOT baby boomers. Heck, Mary Tyler Moore? NOT a baby boomer! You guys helped, but you were only continuing the momentum started by previous generations.
won the space race - O RLY? Baby boomers born between 1942-1962 (or so, ish) were responsible for the moon landing in 1969? It was a bunch of 7-27 year olds who pulled that off?
I think you may be confusing "Thing that we did" with "thing that I happen to remember that happened before you were born." I'll give you some credit for Vietnam, and sure, you get credit for a lot of great technology in the 80s and 90s. But by the early 90s, Gen Xers were also participating in the tech boom (Gen Xers include: Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Linus Torvalds, Tom Anderson).
Also, if women's lib and civil rights for minorities defined your generation, I would guess that gay rights is the parallel movement that would define Gen X in many of the same ways.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
A quote from the Wikipedia Generation X page:
According to the US Census Bureau, from 1993 to 2006, males grossed less than their fathers (defined as the cohort 30-years prior, about the average age of fatherhood) at the same age, using combined real median income and based on the following criteria:[6]
* At ages 25-34, those born from about 1965-1981
* At ages 30-39, those born from about 1963-1976
* At ages 25-39, those born from about 1964-1981
It's been widely reported that Gen X is the first generation that will not surpass its parents' standard of living.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Nicely done... While not 50 yet, I don't have many years left.
Today's college aged folks are way too distracted by trivial stuff to bother to put together massive protests against Bush & Co. The protests in the 60's had a lot to do with getting out of Vietnam. But where those same protesters failed was in blaming the troops for evils done over seas.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" - JFK