New Facebook draws older users
By Julia Erlandson
April 12, 2009 11:30 p.m.
Graduating seniors may remember when Facebook was the underground, underdog challenger to MySpace, when users couldn’t post photo albums and applications were still just a twinkle in founder Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.
But as Facebook ““ until 2006 a college-only network ““ has gained popularity, a lot has changed.
Employers have long used the Web site to screen job applicants, and increasingly, students must consider the possibility that Mom and Dad are looking over their shoulders as well.
Three years ago, Facebook dropped the requirement that users provide a .edu e-mail address, opening up the site to virtually anyone. Since then, some students say they noticed the presence of a different, older audience on Facebook.
Danielle Ryan, a fourth-year English student, has now been “friended” by her father, a friend’s mother and her thesis adviser.
“My dad was pressured into getting Facebook by one of his friends who wanted to keep in touch,” she said. “I wasn’t thrilled about my parents having access to my Facebook.”
Ryan and her father eventually agreed they would not be friends on Facebook.
“He told me he probably wasn’t going to use it so it was OK if we weren’t friends,” she said.
While options exist such as “Limited Profile,” which allows users to restrict what information some of their friends can view, Ryan said she believes the site lost some of its appeal when it went completely public.
“I think it made more sense when it was just for college students,” she said. “Now there’s pretty much nothing about Facebook that makes it different from Twitter or MySpace. If I didn’t already have my Facebook, there’s no way I would get one now.”
But opening up the site so far appears to have been a good business move on the part of the social-networking giant.
According to The New York Times, the site has expanded from 100 million to 200 million users since August. InsideFacebook.com found that women age 55 and older comprise Facebook’s fastest-growing user group.
Marshall Knight, a fourth-year film, television and digital media studies student, also received friend requests from his parents and said he understands why members of an older generation might want to be on the site.
“I think parents don’t like being left out of the loop in our lives,” he said. “I’m fine with it. Anything I do I’m not ashamed of them knowing.”
But Greg Gausewitz said he believes the presence of older users, especially family members and friends, may change the way some students interact on Facebook.
Gausewitz, who graduated from UCLA in 2008, now works for a firm that studies and assesses media companies such as Facebook. He is also Facebook friends with his parents.
“I want my friends to feel comfortable writing on my wall,” he said. “I don’t want them worrying, “˜Oh, his mom is going to see this.'”
Ryan also said knowing family members and friends are online has prompted her to change her online behavior slightly.
“When (Facebook) was just for college students, you didn’t have to be as careful,” Ryan said. “You “˜de-tagged’ something because it was embarrassing, not because it was compromising,” referring to the action of removing a tag associated with a user’s name in a photo.
Even so, Gausewitz said he believes Facebook will still attract older users since it provides an easy way to stay in touch with friends and family. He added that he does not believe younger users will abandon the site just because the demographic has changed.
Ryan said she is not so sure. Opening the site up to the public was just one of many changes the site has undergone since Ryan created her profile in 2005, and the site no longer has the draw it once did, she said.
“I feel like I’m about to outgrow Facebook,” she said. “I miss the days of the .edu Facebook.”
