Facebook began as a tool for Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin to somehow pick up girls from their nerdy abodes in Harvard dorms.
Now when a student logs on to facebook and sees his parents and grandparents have blanketed his wall with comments, likes and posts, it’s evident facebook has evolved.
According to istrategylabs.com—who has recorded facebook demographics since October 2007—facebook users aged 35-54 have grown from 6.98 million people in 2009 to 29.91 million users in 2010 — a 328 percent increase.
During that same time span, total users age 55 and older grew from 954,000 to 9.76 million people — a 922 percent increase.
And because of this growth, users aged 18-24 — although increasing in totals — decreased in the total percentage of facebook users from 40.8 percent to 25.3 percent.
But does this addition of older users benefit or hurt facebook?
The website Lamebook.com capitalizes on this latest demographics shift.
The website stores embarrassing and lame stories ranging from categories labeled Douchebags/Douchebaguettes, TMI and Parents/Family.
When Adam H. posted a status update saying “MY NEW GF IS HOT AND I LOVE HER BOOBS!” his father, Bill H., responded with a comment saying, “Good to see you aren’t tired of them considering you were breastfed until you were six. –Dad”
Some students worry their parents or grandparents might “stalk” them and find inappropriate pictures or posts on their profiles if they friend them.
Auburn freshman Elizabeth Wieck said, “I was skyping with my dad and he was stalking my Facebook pictures and talking about them and it was really awkward.”
For other students, parents might dig a little further than necessary into their children’s relationships than appropriate.
“My mom used to write on [my boyfriend’s] wall and send him facebook messages telling him to tell me to call him,” said Princeton sophomore Rachel Saunders.
But maybe parents aren’t out to stalk their children.
“I actually joined facebook the day Rachel left for Princeton her freshman year with intent to stay more connected to her… and I have,” said Mark Saunders, father of Rachel Saunders. “But I have equally enjoyed connecting to old friends that I haven’t had contact for years.”
Bob Sterken, father of three and a Political Science professor at the University of Texas at Tyler, said facebook definitely increases communication between him and his children, but it’s also very important to “be where you are,” and not let social networking be separate to your real life.
“I try to keep students off facebook during class,” he said. “But I have seen updates from students that were about my lectures.”
https://www.lsureveille.com/opinion/press-x-to-not-die-facebook-still-has-merit-despite-privacy-concerns-1.2282405
https://www.lsureveille.com/l-il-bits-modern-communication-too-fast-too-impersonal-1.2278903
https://www.lsureveille.com/opinion/age-of-delightenment-unfriending-people-on-facebook-can-be-positive-1.2194682
https://www.lsureveille.com/news/teens-likely-to-use-facebook-1.2151213
http://www.istrategylabs.com/2010/01/facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-2010-145-growth-in-1-year/
http://www.lamebook.com