Facebook is for elderly women

I have been back and forth about the whole Facebook conundrum, several times. You may recall this post. Then, almost a year later, I caved under peer pressure and reactivated my account. I have to admit that some aspects of it have been really pleasant. I’m still not 100% keen on it, though. Possibly still because of the bitter taste in my mouth that Myspace left.

Anyway, it seems like it is pretty unavoidable these days. I read about it everywhere. I have read so many articles about how if they could just monetize the thing, it would be unstoppable, etc. It seems like Wired has a new take on Facebook, every month. But my favorite two Facebook factoids, as of late, are:  A. Facebook is for broads, and B. The elderly is the fastest growing demographic of users. I’m not kidding, in either case.

Examiner sends around all kinds of emails with tips on promoting, etc. The latest thing they have going is some sort of contest, involving Facebook. Here is a quote from the email:

If you think you’re too old for Facebook, consider that the fastest growing group of Facebook users is people over the age of 35.  Among that group, grandparents are some of the heaviest users.

What? Hahahaha. Some of the “heaviest users?” Ok, aside from the poor wording of that statement, I can sort of see some rationale behind the claim. The reason that I kind of buy into it, dovetails with my next point. The elderly are often home bound. With limited social options, I can see them resorting to Facebook, for interaction with others. The other demographic that  spends loads and loads of time on Facebook according to something that I read on Animal New York (and according to my personal observation), is the softer sex. I have to say that it seems like women, stay at home moms particularly (not saying this with any sort of negative inference), seem to author the bulk of the “updates” on my feed. The Animal post was actually taken from an NY Observer article, on the subject. The article claims that:

Women are more likely to be chatting it up on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites you’ve probably never heard of, like “Bebo.” According to data taken from Google’s U.S. Ad Planner, a site that tracks popular Web sites’ traffic, 84 percent (or 16 out of 19) of the sites they studied have more female than male users.

The Observer also stated that a study conducted by the WSJ in October yielded similar findings. So what does this mean? Put the Examiner claim with the other studies, and it appears that Facebook is becoming overrun by elderly women. Hahahaha.

In reality though, I have recently read a few useful pieces relating to Facebook. The first one, was in GQ, earlier this year. This article lays out the low down with Mark Zuckerberg, his unrelenting desire to be the head of the organization he created, and the back story on the ever changing Facebook privacy policy, about which rumors still circulate (Facebook owns all of the IP right to photos posted by users, etc.).

The other article I referred to, appeared in Details. The article discusses virtual friend collecting and lays out some guidelines and protocol on how to deal with awkward Facebook moments. I have found it helpful, when trying to decide if I should un-tag myself in certain photos, etc.. It also discusses the idea of transparency and honesty on one’s profile. It probably seems pretty commonsensical, but it was actually kind of interesting.

Maybe it is kind of pathetic I have even felt like I needed any guidance when dealing with Facebook. Maybe I’ll be strong armed out by all of the elderly women who are taking over. I guess I wouldn’t be too bummed about that.  Anyway, I find Idiotbook much more entertaining.