Is Facebook Aging Gracefully?

Rod Buchignani, a 64-year-old retired educator, is one of a growing number of Facebook users over the age of 55.

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Facebook: All Age Segments Are Growing

Aside from the estimates it provides to advertisers, Facebook does not publicize raw data on user demographics. And some have said that because user data fluctuate over time, comparing information from two dates doesn't necessarily present an accurate picture.

"Facebook has more than 200 million users around the world and we continue to see growth in all age segments, including people over age 55, in high school and college," Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker told ABCNews.com in an e-mail.

But other analysts say iStrategyLab's report is consistent with trends they've observed.

"I think that Facebook has pretty much reached a saturation point with young people. There just aren't that many more young Internet users out there who aren't on Facebook," said Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst with New York City-based research firm eMarketer.

She said it makes complete sense that Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers would be growing more substantially than other demographics on Facebook.

"It really represents to me that the way people are communicating -- not just young people -- is changing," she said.

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Keith Loomer, a 56-year-old from North Conway, N.H., has been at the Facebook way of communicating for only three weeks.

After hearing about it from friends, he decided to see for himself what the buzz was all about. For him, Facebook has been a nonstop walk down memory lane.

Social Networking Site as a Mirror

He's accumulated a couple dozen friends (though he said "he's gaining them all the time") and those digital connections have stirred up memories of places he hasn't lived for years.

"It seems like when you get to a certain age, you start looking back at where you came from," he said, adding that he's had the most fun finding old friends -- even old girlfriends -- on Facebook.

"The amazing part is how people change. Everyone gets older, but you don't realize how old you've gotten until you see everyone else and go 'wow.'"

Beverly Meyer, a 61-year-old from San Francisco who joined in February, said it started as a way to share photographs but has ballooned into much more.

"It's kind of like going down the rabbit hole for Alice in Wonderland," she said. The more time you spend on it, the more it reveals its potential."

After about five months on the site, Meyer updates her status when inspiration strikes and uses it to keep in touch with far-flung friends from Greece to the United Kingdom to India.

Like others, she's found old friends and classmates. One childhood friend, with whom she had a falling out about three years ago, used Facebook to extend something of an olive branch and reconnect, she said.