social networks not just for the young anymore

With the growth of social networks, there has been a change in the demographic who uses social networks to communicate.  There has been an increase in the number of middle age and older adults who have begun to use social networks.  This is not only because they are easy to use and navigate, but also because they want to be connected to old friends just as much as  young people do.  The article that I read mentioned that this is still a phenomenon for young people, but it also is not exclusive to that demographic.  I guess this is true because social networks help people do what they most desire, and that is to be connected to one another.  People feel special when they get to talk to someone who they haven't talked to in months and it is nice to see that someone sent you a message just to say hello.  Yeah it may seem a little weird when you see your grandma on facebook, but why shouldn't she be able to use a social networking site.  I don't think that there is any fear about social networking sites being taken over by an older age bracket, but I think that it is safe to say that there may emerge social networks specifically geared toward an older generation.  The appeal of social networks is that they give people a chance to just show the world the person they want to be, wether it is an accurate depiction of that person or not is a completely different question, but it is the freedom that people crave.  Here is a link to the article I read if you would like to read more about it http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1079/social-networks-grow