Facebook: The Generational Floodgates Open

“Still think social media is just for young people?”

That’s the line I often use before I show a particular example or two in my recent presentation on new media and generational differences. When I speak to healthcare audiences, typically that statement is followed by a dive into Sermo, the social network for physicians. However, if I’ve done my job, by the time I’ve gotten to that question there isn’t any question in anyone’s mind that social media, like it or not, is not the exclusive domain of young people.

In fact, in services like Twitter, it’s the older demographics that actually dominate, especially from a content creation standpoint.

Facebook has a stigma that many older demographics have trouble shaking. For many in the last few years, they only joined to keep tabs on kids or because younger and/or more savvy friends finally pushed them over the edge to join. In the last six months a pretty significant sea change has occurred behind Facebook walls, even if it hasn’t been terribly public. The interesting element to Facebook’s “walled garden” model is that little contextual worlds grow on their own, often without much overlap or notice. Sure you might occasionally see the Mom of a friend of yours up in the “suggested friends” corner, but even if you add them you can relegate them to the see-no-evil Friends List that makes your association with them as harmless as you aimed for in high school. Contrary to the popular belief of 2008 and prior (in many older demographics’ eyes) Facebook is increasingly becoming about privacy and careful associations, not as much Wild West as it may seem on the surface. Consider how many Gen X’ers now require their parents to have a Facebook account so they can see photos of the grandkids.

So today’s report in some ways is of no surprise on its face, but still makes for a very stark reality that would shock many people who don’t partake of social media. In short: there are more grandparents than grandkids. “There are more Facebook users over 55 years old today than there are high school students using the site.” I don’t take the report’s analysis presented at ReadWriteWeb as seriously. On one hand, clearly Facebook is taking hold among Boomers in a way it never has - this isn’t a trickle, it’s an open water hose to one of the largest generations the world has ever seen - of course their growth will eventually overshadow the uptake of a 4-year slice of another generation, there are simply so many of them. And on the other hand, let’s not lose sight of the plain fact: who is left to join Facebook under 20?  The boon to major industries, Healthcare in particular, that is this surge in Boomer women, is absolutely a major milestone in the life of Facebook, for marketers and social connectors alike.

There had to be a slowdown of those under 20 at some point, and I’d be more interested to know if specifically 13 year olds (the age at which you’re technically supposed to join Facebook at) is declining.  But perhaps what we’re seeing is a bit of social media fatigue with a young generation uncomfortable with the tie to a singular identity (what I've dubbed, "Generation Authentic". If taken at face value, the real story may be less about the Boomers (oh, the story is always about the Boomers, isn’t it?) and more about a decline in Facebook high school numbers at the same time that MySpace is also losing that demographic. Picking on Facebook’s high school numbers is easy prey, it’s the decline in college numbers that would worry me, if it were true; note that in the linked report while it says college numbers are down, that specific age group is not, meaning people just aren’t tying their college affiliation in – as long as the zip code is right, they can be targeted with geography-based ads, so it’s not as much reason for alarm as the article would like to think. A decline in declaration of college affiliation may be a signal of this want to decouple the entirety of someone’s identity to their Facebook profile. A struggle we see play out frequently in the under-20 set who had their social, online identities tied to their real name in a way previous generations did not.

And why not? Now your Mom, your Grandma and all your Aunts are just as likely to be inside the Facebook Garden next to you, and your Friends Lists might not feel like enough of an arms-length away.

-Dean