By TheMatureMarket.com - We frequently see excited news reports proclaiming that older adults, age 45+, are the "fastest growing demographic" group on [Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.]. If you are marketing to older adults, the logic follows, you need to be investing heavily in social networking and social media.
Hold your Benjamins. We don't share in the excitement that Boomers and older adults are truly smitten with social networking sites for three reasons -- one anecdotal, one based on psychology and one based on the math.
Anecdotal: Over the last several years at least a dozen Boomer-focused social networking and social media sites sprang up -- BoomerTowne, BOOMj, TeeBeeDee, Eons, and more -- and all have disappeared due to lack of interest among Boomers (Eons lives on but only after it broadened its user base to include anyone over the age of 13). If Boomers want social media, they apparently don't want it exclusively targeted to them.
Our conclusion: Boomers are not that interested.
Psychological: We have long been a fan of Stanford psychologist Dr. Laura Carstensen, who has developed several widely accepted theories about how people grow older and the changes in how their brains work.
One such theory is the "socioemotional selectivity theory," which basically says that older adults become more selective about their social networks, investing in people and networks that deliver emotional satisfaction. That typically comes from familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships (in the "real" world, we might add). Older adults narrow their social interaction to maximize positive emotional experiences and minimize emotional risks of investing time in relationships that may not deliver positive feedback.
Carstensen's hypothesis is that our motivations change as we grow older. When people are young, they perceive their future as open ended, so they tend to focus on future-oriented/knowledge-related goals. When they grow older, gradually, over time, they feel that time is running out, so their focus tends to shift towards present-oriented/emotion-related goals.
Our conclusion: Older Boomers don't have the same motivation to use social networking sites and aren't willing to invest the time necessary to obtain emotional satisfaction from them.
The Math: No doubt, Facebook's growth among adults ages 45+ seems impressive -- an increase of about 900,000 users in September alone (76% of whom are women). Facebook also added over 1.7 million 18-34 years in same month (62% women).
Yet growth doesn't tell the whole story. Again, we agree that older adults are discovering Facebook and other social media sites, but the overall numbers remain modest. Facebook has 15.7 million users who are 45+ (out of total population of 121 million 45+, or a penetration of about 13%).
Not bad, but tiny compared to Facebook's 18-34 age segment figures, which are three times greater. In September, Facebook reported about 43 million users ages 18 to 34, out of 72 million 18-34 year olds, or a penetration of about 60% -- over five times greater than the penetration among 45+ adults.
Boomer Bottom Line: Let's agree social networking is simply not as widely accepted among Boomers and older adults as it is among today's young adults. And based on Carstensen's theory, maybe it never will be.