Is Facebook Aging Gracefully?

Facebook Provides Companionship, Optimism

Those who have been on Facebook for longer have an even more intimate relationship with it.

"To me, Facebook is like my sidekick," said Melinda, a 57-year-old New Yorker who asked to withhold her last name to protect her privacy. Daily she takes in the wisdom of the crowds, reading friends' updates and queries, and often contributes comments of her own.

For her generation, she believes Facebook provides companionship, optimism and maybe an escape from the foibles and frailties that emerge later in life.

"It's more than a playground. It's like going back to school -- to the community you had in the dorm," she said. And though that regression to a more juvenile time can also ignite more juvenile fears (who hasn't worried at least once that a fellow Facebooker might reject your invitation for friendship?), she said the difference is that online you are only as vulnerable and exposed as you want to be.

"You have a lot within your control, and I think ultimately that's a big thing for people over 55," she said.

But though boomers and those older say Facebook is good for them, some have asked if they are good for Facebook. If marketers want younger users who are still establishing their brand preferences, analysts wonder what happens if older members drive them away.

"Is Facebook going to be the frat party after the last keg has run dry?" asked eMarketer's Williamson, voicing the argument she's heard bandied about.

Segmenting Demographics Is Crucial

But though younger users are known for their fickleness, Williamson said this hasn't happened yet and she doesn't expect it to happen soon.

Rob Enderle, an independent analyst, said it depends on how Facebook manages the different demographics and customizes their experiences.

"If you can segment the demographics and serve both groups, it isn't a problem," he said, pointing out that Facebook has recently started to move in this direction by giving users the ability to assign friends to different groups depending on the nature of their relationship (personal, professional, familial, etc.).

At some point, he and Williamson expect Facebook to equip users with tools to send out (and restrict) communications based on these groups. For example, a picture from a college reunion would go only to college friends while a message about a work event would only go only to professional contacts.

"I'm not seeing people abandon Facebook," Enderle said. "Once you put a lot into it, you don't want to duplicate that someplace else."