We're all on twitter, where there's access to real content and dialog, not just a bunch of silly apps.
rainwebs
· 6 months ago
For me a cause is the strange user interface design. Older people basically have more problems using software. If they have to use something that has tweaks in the user experience you get such results.
giantnerd®
· 6 months ago
loving disqus!
Nisha
· 6 months ago
I would just presume that Facebook is too complicated to use (what is a poke, app anyway?) for older users. Orkut has a low bandwidth version that is without fringes. Maybe FB could also do a similar low-fringes version for the not so techie older users..
joleta
· 6 months ago
Nisha, what an ageist comment. We "older users" (I'm 60) aren't incapable of figuring out Facebook (or at least, no more so than anyone else). I may not post an update every time I blink, but I know how to do that. I can do wall-to-wall messaging, use applications, turn off annoying quiz status updates, and even use the Chat function. Maybe baby boomers just have richer lives outside of Facebook. :)
Nektarii
· 6 months ago
About this Topic is Marc Forster making a new Movie who called connected. But at the moment is Marc Forster making a commercial very special for SWISS Airlines.
Jeffro
· 6 months ago
"The reasons for using Facebook are different for older users than they are for younger age groups. . . while many older users (in my anecdotal experience) seem to use Facebook as a replacement for email to keep in touch with family and old friends. For that reason, use of the site for people over 55 might be more reactive; that is, those users won’t log in every day, but only when they receive an alert informing them of something new to look at.""
I agree with your assessment for the most part. It is certainly an issue of users needing to "get it" in order to get it. Although I think that it is hilarious that you point out that the desired use is a consolidation of communication replacing email, but that a prerequisite is the reception of email notices alerting the user to the fact that they need to visit their email substitute. There is a comedy bit in there somewhere.
AlissaSheley
· 6 months ago
I wonder if Facebook offered a quick "getting started" video tutorial option upon initially signing up for service, if it would decrease the number of users that signup and never come back? It wouldn't have to be very in-depth, but just something to teach the basics of how to add friends and how filling out employer and education info will help Facebook recommend Friends they may know. I would think that once initial connections are made, users will return to the network, even if it's not on a daily or weekly basis.
@alissasheley
Wolfy
· 6 months ago
I run a computer drop in at a local community centre, the users are all over 60 a couple over 80. Mostly they want to learn "the internet" They have discovered facebook, now with 4 of my ladies all they want todo is play the games available there. ones such as "Yoville" "parking wars" "farm town" I think maybe Alissa is right a short tutorial would be great, somehting they could refer back to instead of information overload, my eldest two ladies like to learn a small amount go over it several times and let it digest in. As to stats on ages, does anyone put their right age in? ;)
@babyboomerstv
· 6 months ago
Hopefully, we will be able to come to their rescue soon!!!
swag
· 6 months ago
Like people over 55 want to exchange hamburgers.
Sara
· 6 months ago
Too much junk clutters Facebook. Unnecessary games and ridiculous things, like sending online "gifts". And pokes are just embarrassing. I'm 54 and want to share text and photos. That is all.
Glenn Friesen
· 6 months ago
Fair enough. Different Systems of communication I guess!
Virtual Miss Friday
· 6 months ago
I don't think Facebook has anything to worry about there...
Peggy Dolane
· 6 months ago
Love the photo of the 80 year old guy on the computer to represent the 55 - 65 age group. God help you if you look like that when you get up in years!
At least Facebook is starting to pay attention to boomer-generation users. As of very recently they were grouping everyone over 45 into one lump category (see visual on this page for ex http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/advertising/?...) There's a vast difference between a 45 year old user and a 70 year old user, for example.
Older users have fewer reasons to be motivated to stay on... they are usually well established in their communities. However, as the children of boomers start having grandchildren, you can bet those users will all be plugged in every day to see what their families are up to!
Susan Hillyer
· 6 months ago
Hey guys. I have a question; what does 55 look like these days? What are their interests? I have no data to support this but my observation is that a 55 year old and older is more active & dialed into the now than those before them. Technology isn't just for kids anymore! I'm hoping so.
Hiddai
· 6 months ago
My over 55 friends are on FaceBook as a way to reconnect after years and to be able to follow what each other is doing. We are still there. I just think that there was a burst on the scene and now the influx is just slower.
Howard
· 6 months ago
If Facebook cleaned up its interface and allowed users more freedom to ghost or hide certain features that are unappealing. A solid FAQ or training videos can help new users understand the privacy features installed in Facebook and enable users to use them to their advantage. I have to admit the user interface is awful when it comes to user-experience. I can definitely see a growing number of users becoming frustrated and bouncing after a month of use...
Enrim
· 6 months ago
I am 25 and even some of my friends who've been surfing the internet since the beginning have a hard time figuring out how the facebook works. I am not surprised that the people who are a little bit older, and don't have as much experience with the web, don't have enough patience to figure out how to work it. I think a little video start-up tutorial is a great idea... or a little setup wizard or something...
chrisdorr
· 6 months ago
Perhaps they all switched to Twitter!
iko
· 6 months ago
I am 51. I was born at the peak of the baby boom. Not sure what the standard deviation is, but I think that someone who is 45 probably doesn't think of their self as a GenX'er.
My interpretation is that people in the 30 - 55 category are scrambling to keep their mortgage, while people in the 20 - 30 have more discretionary time.
Another interpretation that, at a $10B, that FB has the potential of being the next AOL.
Robin
· 6 months ago
Having helped many clients with the Facebook interface, it is hard for some outside of the 55 demo to differentiate between profiles, pages, groups, walls and yes...all those crazy apps. So I can only imagine if you have little experience with social platforms how hard it would be to figure it out as a social user.
Suzanne Lainson
· 6 months ago
The revised Twitter-like Facebook format doesn't lend itself as well to the casual user. It used to be that Facebook would deliver an interesting set of photos, links, and friend info that generally had something that would grab your attention. Now the real-time status updates dominate and if you aren't specifically monitoring a certain friend, you probably aren't going to know what is happening with that friend.
I've given up trying to stay on top of Facebook in real time. Now I am more likely to go directly to the walls of just a couple of friends to find out the latest about them and I ignore everything else. So rather than feeling like I'm part of a bigger community, now I'm back to staying in touch with a very narrow group of people. Facebook used to be more fun and gave you a sense of discovery. Now it just feels more like a time suck.
So don't assume boomers are leaving because they don't understand Facebook. It just doesn't serve their needs very well anymore.
ttmyt
· 6 months ago
I completely understand and I'm not surprised by this at the very least. Baby Boomers are at 75million these days and all of them had to adapt to and learn a computer after they have been on their careers for quite some time. If you look at all the research you will see that Baby Boomers still like to receive their information via radio, TV, and popular internet portals. Facebook is not that important to them as they are either in the job they have always been in or are retiring. They stay in contact via phone and face to face meetings.
In some ways we should take their daily lives as an example and realize we need more human contact and interaction. The web is very passive aggressive in many aspects and you really never get to know the 100-1000 people you could or do interact with on a daily/weekly basis!
Because of all these reasons we had a group of baby boomers test our site before we launched to simplify things... We are continually trying to simplify everyday!
I also met someone in that same age brackets that was not active in using Facebook. I understand them. Facebook is not for everybody and those who are 55 years old and above are not internet savvy. I think the best solution for this is to help the family members how Facebook works. Using Facebook is fun if you are willing to learn and ready for the challenges in learning the whole system.
Artruen
· 6 months ago
I am 52, have a FB page. Like most people in my age group, I am completely adept at using a computer. How about taking into account facebook pages are (1) BORING (2) dominated by the twenty somethings in your friends list on subjects that are inane and BORING? Thanks for stereotyping us older, dumber peeps....
Chuck
· 6 months ago
Disappointed with Facebook.
I am in the 35 - 44 y.o. group and I gave up on Facebook last month. For me it was more of a disappointment from my expectations. Initially, I joined and made dozens of connections; family, friends and people I had worked with in the past. Then, I started getting grade school and high school classmates finding me and wanting to be "friends". This was intriguing at first, but after about 4 or 5 of those it became clear their only purpose was a sort of cyber spying. One exchange of "what are you up to these days" and that was it. I never heard from them again. It is understandable. Facebook provides you with a quick, easy, uncommitted mechanism to find out who is doing what. Do they still have their hair? Do they have a good job? Did they get married? Do they have kids? Is that what being “friends” is to people today?
In my experience, there was no increased communication with people I am friends with now and there was no enhanced re-connection with people from my past. The bulk of the activity was a handful of people in my "friends" list constantly updating everyone on their every activity. From my perspective this was equally as pointless as it was uninteresting.
I am not sure if my problem with this new culture of cyber connecting (Facebook, Twitter, etc...) is the lack of substance or the apparent counterfeit nature of their purpose. In this age of fast paced lives with too much to do and too little time, I just don't understand where all these millions of people have the time to continuously update the world on their often mundane hour to hour activities. Beyond that, I find it odd that they think anyone else has the time or interest to know about them.
Perhaps I have gotten "old" and if so, that’s ok with me, but my time is better spent with my kids and my wife or out on the front lawn actually talking to my neighbors making real connections.
Pam Barry
· 6 months ago
Shame on you Josh! Why didn't you send your mom an invite to connect instead of waiting for her?
Best use of FB for boomers is staying in touch with their nephews, nieces, grandkids etc. Huge motivation for most but they need help getting started.
James Lovette-Black
· 6 months ago
I rarely visit Facebook since my other social web apps and sites post to it. Bottom line for me is that Facebook has an uninteresting interface, too many ads, and seems oddly limited.
al
· 6 months ago
Oy, such arrogance. There are no more people over 55 who don't know how to use Facebook than there are people under 55 who don't know how to use it either. The over 55's are just smarter about dumping personal information onto a website that has no compunction (oh yeah? look it up stupid) about keeping and reusing or selling all the nice data and pictures you put out there for them. They came, they saw, they bailed.
Jacki
· 6 months ago
I will be 55 in October. I Love Facebook and twitter BUT... I do not check in after work, so the ones that don't work anymore probably have better things to do when the weather is nice. At work they are minimized so I check pretty regular. Not so much when I get home ... to much to do ... I do not use my phone either ... Thats a BIG difference in why the older generation isnt on as much ... My 2 cents ... J
Cesar Abueg
· 6 months ago
HHHmmm....not surprised about this. With the new design and layout, it can be confusing for those older folks, they tend to see things plainly. New design requires interactivity that makes the use of it efficient, that is why I like it, I get so much out of it, at a short amount of time. But visually it can be confusing, if your not the type that is afraid to click on things, which this demographic is, this may be intimidating.
So how do we fix this? Easy....lets spend some time with our Elders and give them the honor they deserve by teaching them how to use Facebook, so they can stay connected to their loved ones.
Norma Fares
· 6 months ago
Hope young and younger people would help older ones i.e. old people in particular to get in to the new world of new media. It's maybe the best opportunity for them ever to connect and or re-connect with their old friends and maybe dispersed families round the planet before they go. It's not easy. But it's not impossible. The way i.e. beautifully simplified we present or speak about it makes all the difference! Hope old peoples will have the chance --with the help of youth-- to make them taste the blessed feeling to re-connect with the people they love and have lost on the planet over years and years... Beautiful article. Thank you so much!
Norma Fares Beirut, Lebanon
Stephen 4D Barnes
· 6 months ago
I'm going on 47 and pretty tech savvy. Face book for me has become too much of a kids playground and I rarely engage in the antics it avails. It has real use for putting all in one place my none business contacts which I hold of value but not much more. Its like Linked-In. A neat place to keep business contacts worth having all in one place but I'd never use it to try to be introduced to others that my contacts might know. This is a key failing of all the social media sites. They try to promote behavior that is not natural except for the truly extroverted personality, the very young (or young at heart) and those who find it hard to communicate face to face.It's not surprising the over 55's are tuning out. Usability might play a part but my sense is it is increasingly becoming irrelevant.
Joe Fortenberry
· 6 months ago
I am 55 and use Facebook everyday, however, there is too much chewing gum for the eyes and it becomes very annoying. I am speaking about apps. It is like the Chinese proverb--To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish. What made Facebook successful was that it wasn't like other social networks that did this mindless stuff but was real and truthful networking among friends and family. Alas, I am afraid you'll have another MySpace in no time appealing only to the unenlightened generations.
Joe Fortenberry
· 6 months ago
To all the newbies. Remember if it were not for the technology that was developed by the Baby-Boomers "who don't seem to know how to use the computers or internet that they invented" You would not have a Facebook.
Suzanne Lainson
· 6 months ago
I'm a baby boomer and I don't like Facebook as much as I did last year because of the redesign. It has nothing to do with not being comfortable with computers. Rather than speculating as to why boomers are losing interest in Facebook, those of you who are members of Gen X and Y might simply ask boomers what they think. I was spending far more time on Facebook than any of my younger family members and friends. But now it is so much like Twitter than I have simply shifted my focus to Twitter.
dr. ellen brandt
· 6 months ago
The stock photo you have chosen to accompany this piece absolutely dreadful!
Baby Boomers turn 46 to 63 in 2009.
We are not 80-plus, like the fellow in your photo.
We are 1/3 of the US population.
We are in our prime productive and earning years - and will be for some time.
And we were the generation that first largely adopted computer technology.
Attempts to push us off center stage in US politics or the US economy are going to fail miserably - especially if they are based on propaganda.
Peter Fletcher
· 6 months ago
Agreeing with @peggydolane who suggests the motivations for being on Facebook are much less intense in the Baby Boomer generation. Unlike GenY's, Boomers have an established network of friends and colleagues and systems of communication that work, without needing Facebook to complete the communication loop. As motivations change - such as the need to stay in touch with traveling children - so too will their behaviors and habits on Facebook.
Kevin Mannion
· 5 months ago
Interesting demographics, but almost certainly a blip. The world population is getting older so it stands to reason that over time the average age of social media users will rise. Oh, and why did you post a pic of someone who is clearly much older than the 'older' demographic to which you're referring? People over 50 really don't like to be portrayed as 90, unless they happen to be 100.
wonkette
· 5 months ago
I think that the young people and some older folks are moving to Twitter. But the problem with Twitter is that I can't search for old friends or classmates. But it could be that older folks don't find computers compelling; my parents are used to TV; they want instant on and things fed to them. They don't want to search for anything nor initiate any apps. TV is passive and that is what my parent's generation likes.
David
· 4 months ago
Dear Josh, You are an editor and yet you don't know when to use fewer rather than less?
"In April and May there were actually 650,000 less users"
It is *fewer* users who spend *less* time with facebook.
All editors should keep Strunk and White on their desk or in ebook form (Kindle or for your laptop). It is also fun to read.
Age 57. I've been an active (addict) on FB for the better part of a year. At least until today when my account was inexplicably disabled. I think this aspect of FB is a type of rudeness older users might not tolerate. I don't believe I broke any of their vague rules but since they won't tell me or even respond to my e-mail asking for clarification I can play the waiting game to see if somebody deems me worthy of re-entry. If not, I think it's time I seek other venues to connect with my friends.
All Comments
I agree with your assessment for the most part. It is certainly an issue of users needing to "get it" in order to get it. Although I think that it is hilarious that you point out that the desired use is a consolidation of communication replacing email, but that a prerequisite is the reception of email notices alerting the user to the fact that they need to visit their email substitute. There is a comedy bit in there somewhere.
@alissasheley
As to stats on ages, does anyone put their right age in? ;)
At least Facebook is starting to pay attention to boomer-generation users. As of very recently they were grouping everyone over 45 into one lump category (see visual on this page for ex http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/advertising/?...) There's a vast difference between a 45 year old user and a 70 year old user, for example.
Older users have fewer reasons to be motivated to stay on... they are usually well established in their communities. However, as the children of boomers start having grandchildren, you can bet those users will all be plugged in every day to see what their families are up to!
My interpretation is that people in the 30 - 55 category are scrambling to keep their mortgage, while people in the 20 - 30 have more discretionary time.
Another interpretation that, at a $10B, that FB has the potential of being the next AOL.
I've given up trying to stay on top of Facebook in real time. Now I am more likely to go directly to the walls of just a couple of friends to find out the latest about them and I ignore everything else. So rather than feeling like I'm part of a bigger community, now I'm back to staying in touch with a very narrow group of people. Facebook used to be more fun and gave you a sense of discovery. Now it just feels more like a time suck.
So don't assume boomers are leaving because they don't understand Facebook. It just doesn't serve their needs very well anymore.
In some ways we should take their daily lives as an example and realize we need more human contact and interaction. The web is very passive aggressive in many aspects and you really never get to know the 100-1000 people you could or do interact with on a daily/weekly basis!
Because of all these reasons we had a group of baby boomers test our site before we launched to simplify things... We are continually trying to simplify everyday!
webmaster; ttmyt.com
I am in the 35 - 44 y.o. group and I gave up on Facebook last month. For me it was more of a disappointment from my expectations. Initially, I joined and made dozens of connections; family, friends and people I had worked with in the past. Then, I started getting grade school and high school classmates finding me and wanting to be "friends". This was intriguing at first, but after about 4 or 5 of those it became clear their only purpose was a sort of cyber spying. One exchange of "what are you up to these days" and that was it. I never heard from them again. It is understandable. Facebook provides you with a quick, easy, uncommitted mechanism to find out who is doing what. Do they still have their hair? Do they have a good job? Did they get married? Do they have kids? Is that what being “friends” is to people today?
In my experience, there was no increased communication with people I am friends with now and there was no enhanced re-connection with people from my past. The bulk of the activity was a handful of people in my "friends" list constantly updating everyone on their every activity. From my perspective this was equally as pointless as it was uninteresting.
I am not sure if my problem with this new culture of cyber connecting (Facebook, Twitter, etc...) is the lack of substance or the apparent counterfeit nature of their purpose. In this age of fast paced lives with too much to do and too little time, I just don't understand where all these millions of people have the time to continuously update the world on their often mundane hour to hour activities. Beyond that, I find it odd that they think anyone else has the time or interest to know about them.
Perhaps I have gotten "old" and if so, that’s ok with me, but my time is better spent with my kids and my wife or out on the front lawn actually talking to my neighbors making real connections.
Best use of FB for boomers is staying in touch with their nephews, nieces, grandkids etc. Huge motivation for most but they need help getting started.
At work they are minimized so I check pretty regular. Not so much when I get home ... to much to do ... I do not use my phone either ... Thats a BIG difference in why the older generation isnt on as much ... My 2 cents ... J
So how do we fix this? Easy....lets spend some time with our Elders and give them the honor they deserve by teaching them how to use Facebook, so they can stay connected to their loved ones.
Beautiful article. Thank you so much!
Norma Fares
Beirut, Lebanon
Baby Boomers turn 46 to 63 in 2009.
We are not 80-plus, like the fellow in your photo.
We are 1/3 of the US population.
We are in our prime productive and earning years - and will be for some time.
And we were the generation that first largely adopted computer technology.
Attempts to push us off center stage in US politics or the US economy are going to fail miserably - especially if they are based on propaganda.
But the problem with Twitter is that I can't search for old friends or classmates.
But it could be that older folks don't find computers compelling; my parents are used to TV; they want instant on and things fed to them. They don't want to search for anything nor initiate any apps. TV is passive and that is what my parent's generation likes.
You are an editor and yet you don't know when to use fewer rather than less?
"In April and May there were actually 650,000 less users"
It is *fewer* users who spend *less* time with facebook.
All editors should keep Strunk and White on their desk or in ebook form (Kindle or for your laptop). It is also fun to read.