Social networking comes of (older) age
By Ana Veciana-Suarez
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
"I'm a people person and I wanted to meet people," says Carroll, a retired school guidance counselor. "But I also wanted a site for people 50 on up to connect. So many of the others are for the young people."
Genkvetch.com, which Carroll figures has a few thousand visitors a month, joins the growing ranks of senior sites — seniorpeoplemeet.com, seniorocity.com, seniorenquirer.com, eons.com and tbd.com, to name just a few — that want to capture the baby boomer audience and its older brethren. They're doing it by using good old-fashioned marketing techniques: news, products and connections tailored for people who, as Carroll puts it, "can remember LPs and rotary phones."
While teens use social networking sites to plan parties and check in with friends, older networkers want to do more than set up a profile and leave a comment on a wall. They want to find new friends who share similar interests.
"What makes us different" from the bigger and better-known social networking sites, Greenbaum adds, "is that we have interesting content. We want to be more relevant than just having an instant update."
While some senior networking sites don't offer content, those that do display theirs prominently. SeniorEnquirer.com, launched in May for the 60-plus crowd, works like a digital newspaper. Under the health setting recently, a member could click on "Aging" and find articles on dementia, cognitive functions and other age-related topics.
Those features, he adds, are in addition to the traditional social networking capability to send, receive and post comments and photos.
Social networking also has had a surprising upside for older users who may live alone and not get out as much: an easy way to make friends and connections at a time when old connections are fading — perhaps a spouse has died or neighbors have moved away.
Even on tbd.com, whose members skew younger, Wolaner says the site has "many members who are homebound and have found friendship on tbd. We have also seen the community support members facing health issues, loss of family members" and other midlife milestones.
In the end, social networking may turn out to be the virtual world's answer to dominoes and bridge games. "It's helping them feel more connected," Clarke adds. "And that can only help."