Social media tools are too often associated with youth. In fact, you could make the case that they are "over-associated" with youth. But it was seniors (the adults) who have helped shape the use of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other social media tools from novelty to practical. The growth of seniors online has helped mature the use of the Internet overall. In recent years, the numbers of seniors ramping onto the Internet has exploded. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for retired and over-65 persons to take computer classes mainly to learn how to communicate with their grandhcildren two generations removed.
Many seniors have symbolically traded in shuffleboard for digital photography, web design, video creation and e-mail (replacing the phone) along with Facebook and Twitter. What has this translated into for the online world? I make the case that the graying of the Internet has changed the attitude of adults who go online and made it more of a learning experience and less of a fad. As a result, there has been a more thoughtful approach to the Internet and especially in the adoption of social media tools. In many ways, I contend that seniors have made it "cool" to be "serious"and practical about social media and Internet use.
This article says that this "graying" will continue and represent a boom for e-marketers in the coming years. I say it will accelerate discovery of improved approaches to social networking and hasten the development of new social media tools that may be every bit as popular as Twitter,YouTube, Facebook and blogs are today.
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