Social Media and Older Adults Study Released

Social media use by older adults has nearly doubled in the last year.

social media use by age group chartPew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project just released a brief report on Older Adults and Social Media. One of the key findings was the huge uptick in the number of those 50 years or more using the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.”

A few questions that come to mind for me:

  • Are our social media sources set up to accommodate the needs and desires of 50+ users?
  • Are the social media needs and desires of older adults different from younger users?
  • How does this compare with older adults use of the Internet in general?
  • Does this further indicate opportunities that were previously considered a waste of time, like with baby boomers?

What comes to mind for you?

The report was authored by Mary Madden of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, was posted online 8/27/2010, and can be found at http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Older-Adults-and-Social-Media.aspx.