Older adults among newer members on social networking sites

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
Move over kiddos, social networking is attracting new — and older — devotees, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Wednesday. It finds that 35% of adult Internet users now have a profile on at least one social networking site. And among online adults ages 35-44, 30% have a profile.

Although the share of online adults with a profile quadrupled from 8% in 2005, Pew found that the young are still more likely to use these sites. Among 18-24-year-olds, 75% of those who go online have a profile.

The value of these sites grows with the numbers, suggests social pychologist Robert Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

He says his son and daughter-in-law now post pictures and videos of his new grandchild on Facebook. "So my wife and I are looking at Facebook much more because there's actual value."

Pew found that most adults use social networking for personal rather than professional reasons; about half of adult users are on MySpace and just under a quarter use Facebook. Just 6% use LinkedIn, geared for business networking.

"If you choose one site over another, you go to a site where there's already more people," Kraut says.

Adults say they use social networking for various reasons:

•89% to keep up with friends;

•57% to make plans with friends;

•49% to make new friends.

Some use the sites to organize with others for an event, issue or cause; flirt; promote themselves or their work or make new business contacts.

Of social networking site users, 51% have two or more online profiles; 43% have only one. About 60% let only friends view their profiles.

Cate Riegner, vice president of Netpop Research, a San Francisco firm that studies online behavior, says social networking grew 93% in the two years between 2006 and 2008. During that time, Facebook grew 500%. That site began for college students and opened to the public in 2006.

The Pew report is based on two telephone surveys — one completed in December of 1,650 Internet users 18 and over and a survey completed in May of 328 adults who use social networks.