New Online Users Have A Longer Timeline

Facebook started as a social network for college students. But now that anyone can join, here's a status update: Many of its newest members are senior citizens. "For the first time, half of adults 65 and older are online," says Mary Madden, a researcher at the Pew Center's Internet and American Life Project. That's up from just 14 percent in 2000, when the project started. She says the number of seniors online has really taken off in the past year, and the biggest driver is happening offline, in outreach. And grandkids — and their pictures — are a magnet for seniors, pulling them into a new social space at a time when most of them are socializing less. "People actually narrow down their social networks as they grow older," says Shyam Sundar, professor of communications at Penn State. Sundar thinks websites like Facebook can help seniors fight that isolation. He compares the sites to an ongoing Thanksgiving dinner. However, that only works for people who already have friends and family to fill the seats at the table.