"According to Hitwise, there has been a big shift in audience demographics over just the past year. While users aged 18 to 24 represented a 42% share of the Facebook audience in January 2008, that segment in 2009 accounted for only 24%. Take a look at how the age distribution has evolved:
So a trend in motion--produced by? Here are some of my thoughts--
1) Generational envy--as the media has talked more and more about Facebook
and we have looked at our children's ease with the social networking thing--we have slowly come on board.
2) We are finding a way to keep current not just with our children but with the new generational force that the new Obama administration represents.
3) Facebook is very easy to use and Facebook has maintained a better control over unwanted ads and nastiness found in sites like MySpace.
My prediction is that Facebook will grow as the preferred choice for social networking among boomers and once the non boomers realize this they will fly off in greater droves to find new hipper forms of networking--at the moment --Twitter serves this function quite well for non boomers. Boomers are not quite as comfortable staying in touch on a 24x7 basis with their chosen peer group and find the notion of instant texting somewhat neurotic--now there is a word us boomers are familiar with..
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