Facebook — not just for teens anymore

September 27, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Mark w. SMITH

Detroit Free Press

Awash in jargon — “wall,” “news feed,” “tags,” “defriend” — social media can be intimidating for baby boomers and seniors who have spent most of their lives comfortably in an analog world.

But that isn’t stopping them from signing up for sites such as Facebook in droves.

Social-media users 50 and older are now the fastest-growing demo-graphic among Internet users, a recent Pew study showed.

In the last year, social networking among 50-plus Internet users nearly doubled — from 25 percent to 47 percent, according to the Pew study. That’s compared with an increase of 10 percentage points among Internet users age 18-29, whose membership level is at 86 percent.

Just last week, a group gathered at a computer lab in Troy designed to teach the ins and outs of computing and the Web.

The Troy (Mich.) Senior Computer Learning Center has seen increased demand this year as digital holdouts face pressure from family and friends to make the leap, curriculum director Bob Treharne said.

“If they want to know what’s going on in their grandkids’ lives, they have to text or log on to Facebook,” he said.

The top concern among the Troy group, however, was no different than the chief, well-weathered complaint about Facebook: privacy.

Privacy concerns, paired with Facebook’s affinity for redesigning the site and changing its policies on what information of yours it shares, have created an air of trepidation.

Nancy March, 80, of Troy chose to display an incorrect birthday and not identify two of her sons on her newly created Facebook profile.

“I don’t want my kids being bothered with my busybody friends,” March said.

Privacy controls do allow users to decide which groups of friends see what information.

Kids can choose to have certain updates kept from their parents and vice versa.

Stevens’ son has actually urged her to use Facebook, saying it would free him from relaying so much daily information to her.

An increasingly gray Facebook can be tied closely to seniors’ desire to keep in touch with those who have moved almost all their communications online.

People who are not on sites such as Facebook can feel excluded from the sharing of family news and photos.

“I think I am missing out on a lot of old friends,” Stevens, the holdout, said.

For Katherine Dallas Hammond, 55, of Troy, who co-taught the social-media class, Facebook has been a way to reconnect with her girlfriends from high school.

“Immediately, you go back to that time, and your relationship is immediately rekindled,” Hammond said.

For March, though, learning Facebook is a way to keep her mind sharp.

“It’s important as seniors that we keep our mind busy,” March said. “Some people like to play bridge. I do my crossword puzzles.”

And, now, she has Facebook.