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Birthday: June 19
Location:
DURHAM, New Hampshire
United States
DURHAM, New Hampshire
United States
School:
University of New Hampshire, 1975
University of New Hampshire, 1975
Why health care reform matters for this Baby BoomerWhy Baby Boomers are fleeing Facebook
Baby Boomers are signing up for Facebook, but they aren't sticking around.
The reason?
In my opinion it's just too difficult to navigate for users who don't have much online dexterity; that generally applies to users 55 and older.
The interface is not very intuitive. There's no logical navigation to get from Point A to Point B and back again to Point A. You can find yourself on a friend's page, for example, but not know how to get back to your own page.
New users don't understand what it means to write on someone's wall. How is it that someone I don't know at all comes up as being a potential friend? What's the difference between what's in my Home listings and what comes up when I click on my name? And what's the difference between Write a Comment and Write a Note?
There's nothing that explains the ins and outs of what's what.
The new report from InsideFacebook.com says that overall use of the social network site is growing, but that older users are walking away.
Says the report: "the number of active users over 55 actually decreased by over 650,000 during this period. In other words, users over 55 who joined the site earlier this year haven’t been coming back as much in April and May, even though the number of active users in every other age bracket has gone up. Maybe older users are still getting acclimated to how to use Facebook’s real-time stream to share information with friends and family."
According to InsideFacebook, the site now reaches 60.4 million Americans every month. Users 18-25 still represent 33 percent of that number, but the majority of Americans on Facebook are over 25. In fact, nearly a third are now over 35. And women still represent the majority of users on Facebook, 56 percent to 44 percent over men, and there are more women than men on Facebook in every age bracket.
A good portion of older users probably arrive at Facebook at the invitation of younger family members who see it as a simple way to share updates, photos and the like.
But it's easy to get lost -- and confused -- in the minutiae. What is it with all these quizzes? Do I really want to know what "Wizard of Oz" character I am? And groups you can join? And flowers and cups of coffee and other stuff that you can send?
As one contributor to the comments section of the report pointed out: "I don’t see where there is a 'help' or 'set of rules how to work' area…I probably won’t stay around too long on Facebook."
Personally, I'm there on Facebook, but I don't consider myself a power user by any means. I don't take the silly quizzes or join the odd groups or send virtual flowers. If it's important enough to send flowers I'll send real flowers.
I mostly watch and listen to the posted chatter around me, comment when appropriate, just as the sage Baby Boomer should.
For more of my posts on Baby Boomer issues, click here.
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Added: May 30, 2009
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