Baby boomers are finally getting the hang of social networking.
A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 65 percent of adult internet users now say they are on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, up from 61 percent a year ago.
The survey also found that social networking among young adults stayed relatively stagnant year over year: today’s study found that 61 percent use social networking on a daily basis, compared with last year’s survey, which found that 60 percent got on social networks daily.
It appears that social networking is starting to spill over to the Boomer-aged segment of users. This group, ages 50-64, saw a significant 60 percent uptick in daily users (from 20 to 32 percent).
“The graying of social networking sites continues, but the oldest users are still far less likely to be making regular use of these tools,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and co-author of the report. “While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool part of their daily routine.”
In a separate question, the research firm asked respondents to describe social networks using one word. Using the results, PEW compiled the above word cloud, which found that most people used the word “Good” to describe Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Other common words were interesting, convenient, fun, great and okay. Uncommon words were “wasteful,” “cool,” “fantastic,” “intrusive,” and “alright.”
